Each June, lucky Washingtonians get to see some of the world's best documentaries at the Silver Docs festival in Silver Spring, Md. Here's a roundup of some of this year's films that touch on themes near to the heart of Natty Geo. If you're not a DC-area resident, we're including links to other showings or additional information on these documentaries.

In a nutshell: For rich Westerners, $20 million is a small price to pay for the chance to spend eight days on the International Space Station—after rigorous physical training in a remote and aging facility in the former Soviet nation of Kazakhstan. This documentary from Swiss director Christian Frei looks at how the rich cope with such indignities as space food — perch in jelly and beef goulash, served in cans like Fancy Feast – and also at the impact space travel has on the Kazakhs, who harvest and sell scrap metal from used rocket parts.

? Scene you can't sleep through: ??The first female space tourist demonstrates how to brush your teeth, wash your hair, and use the bathroom while spinning like a top in zero-G. The space toilet has something resembling a vacuum cleaner attachment.

Food for thought: "The scrap metal dealers sell the rocket pieces to China, where they make aluminum foil out of it. So in a globalized world, you might be wrapping your sandwich in an old spaceship." —Victoria Jaggard

On Coal River

In a nutshell: In West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, a coal waste dumping ground looms behind Marsh Fork elementary school. Facing a surge in health problems and contaminated drinking water, locals wage undertake an unrelenting quest to protect their children and country.

Scene you can't sleep through: Opening the film with a home video of residents choking on a coal filled sky while the scoured hillsides tumble with debris dramatically reinforces a movie focused on the local response to coal’s health and environmental impacts.

Food for thought: As oil billows nonstop into the Gulf of Mexico unleashing havoc on Gulf ecosystems, coal creeps at geologic speed down our river systems polluting them with arsenic and heavy metals. —William Shubert

Corner Plot

In a nutshell: A small farmer in the big city, 89-year-old Charlie Koiner and his daughter grow a bounty in urban Washington D.C.

Scene you can't sleep through: Charlie tenderly works the soil, high-rise apartments looming over him. (Note: since this is a ten minute short, if you close your eyes at any point you might wake up in the next movie.)

Food for thought: Are individual farmers like Charlie Koiner fading into memory? —William Shubert

Arsy-Versy (Slovak for “Upside Down”)

In a nutshell: Happy-go-lucky Lubomir Remo is in his 50s, lives with his mother, and spends his spare time devoted to the study and photography of bats in his native Slovakia. His mother, meanwhile, worries what will become of her carefree son once she is gone.

Scene you can’t sleep through: Remo fastens himself upside down to a tree in his yard and proclaims he is “the biggest bat in the world.”

Food for thought: While staring at a colony of ants, Remo tries to put ants and humans in perspective: “Ants remind me of people who collect possessions, go to work, collect all sorts of things for their lives: cars, weekend houses. But ants aren’t paid, they are just doing their jobs so they can build some sort of home, survive the cruel winter.” —Zachary Michel

Born Sweet

In a nutshell: Teenager Vinh of rural Cambodia says people are born salty (meaning they are strong) or sweet (meaning they are sickly). He is “sweet”—one of two million South East Asians who live with the consequences of debilitating and deadly arsenic poisoning. In Vinh’s case, the culprit was well water contaminated by volcanic runoff.

Scene you can’t sleep through: Watching Vinh indulge in his passion for karaoke is an absolute delight.

Food for thought: Vinh calls himself “arsenic boy” but does not let his condition define his life. He studies, he sings, he plays, and he observes, “Maybe we never know our destiny.” —Marc Silver