Screening from August 12th through September 1st at New York’s IFC Center and August 19th through September 8th at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles, the 2011 edition of IDA’s DocuWeeks will present seventeen feature films and seven shorts from sixteen different countries in theatrical runs designed to qualify the films for consideration for The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ annual Oscar Awards.

Documentary fans on both coasts will have a full week to see each of the films presented in the program. Among those being showcased are The Carrier, which focuses on a family set against the backdrop of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Zambia, To Be Heard, which explores the role of radical poetry in the lives of three Bronx teens, and The Barber of Birmingham (pictured), which centers on a barbershop proprietor’s 50-year legacy in the context of a changing civil rights landscape.

Since its premiere in 1997, DocuWeeks has qualified over 161 short and feature length films for Oscar consideration and yielded 17 nominations and 7 winners.

For details and tickets, visit the DocuWeeks website.