Quidditch coming to life at US documentary festival

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Muggles, take note: A documentary about Harry Potter fans playing real-life quidditch is about to get its world premiere at a top US film festival.

Mudbloods follows a California university team's journey to the Quidditch World Cup, bringing the fictional schoolboy wizard's favourite contact team sport to life - complete with straw brooms between their legs.

Directed by Farzad Sangari, it is among four feature-length documentaries getting their world premiere at the five-day AFI Docs festival in Washington that starts June 18, organisers announced on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.

Others include the festival opener, Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey by Scott Teems, a salute to actor Hal Holbrook's long-running one-man show celebrating iconic American humorist Mark Twain.

How I Got Over, which tells the stories of formerly homeless women in the US capital, and Back On Board, about the openly gay and HIV-positive US Olympic swimming champion Greg Louganis, round out the list.

Overall, the 12th edition of AFI Docs, hosted by the American Film Institute, will bring together 84 feature-length and short documentaries from 28 countries, selected from nearly 2,000 submissions.

Global politics inform many of the films, such as Point And Shoot, about a young American joining the Libyan revolution in 2011, and E-Team, about human rights investigators on the front lines of conflict.

Lighter fare includes 112 Weddings, in which director Doug Block goes back to see how the many couples whose nuptials he recorded as a videographer are surviving marriage.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.