Zhenye and Anatoliy Pilipenko’s dream of a quiet place in the country is shattered overnight when Russia invades Ukraine. As rockets fall and fires rage, they face an impossible choice: flee the violence or stay and protect their home. When a soldier on his way to the frontline asks the couple if they can care for his goats – all 37 of them – while he fights in the trenches; their home transforms into the largest animal sanctuary in Eastern Ukraine. From rescued chickens, displaced donkeys, wandering horses and even emus, Anatoliy and Zhenye risk their lives and livelihoods to rescue any part of Ukraine they can. Told primarily through verité, amidst constant danger, heartbreaking loss and improbably an inextinguishable reservoir of hope, Zhenye and Anatoliy’s sanctuary stands as a defiant testament to the unbreakable bond between a nation, its people, and the land they refuse to surrender.
The history and myth of a ghost island off the SW African coast are told through a dystopian parable, in which a character undergoes brainwashing to escape the burden of memory in a world he no longer relates to.
Every morning, five elderly women gather to weave camouflage nets. As they work, they discuss the news, share their worries, and make up unusual names for the nets.
For half a century, elderly scholar Professor Igor Vladimirovich Vishev has championed a radically new vision of humanity’s boldest dream: the attainment of de facto immortality. Blind since youth, he is cared for with quiet devotion by Vera, a frail old woman who is not his wife, but a loyal companion of many years. Professor Vishev believes that the physical death of the body is not the end, and he looks with hope toward a brighter future beyond his own passing.
Through massive wooden crates inscribed with strange hieroglyphs, the filmmakers lead the viewer into ΚΟΙΝΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ: a fluid space where history, mythology, and play converge. Here, boundaries dissolve into permeable membranes, allowing fact and fiction, the inner and the outer, the past and the future, the living and the inanimate to exchange forms, meanings, and roles.
Created by UNICEF, the film portrays the immense challenges of carrying out a polio vaccination campaign in the midst of war, while highlighting the extraordinary determination and dedication of people like Dr. Younis Awadallah.
The day after I graduated from the University of Iowa in 1992, my wife Eliza checked out a VHS camera from public access and we interviewed a handful of friends as a sort of time capsule, thinking it would be interesting to see how their lives turned out sometime downstream. It was a random sampling of Iowa college kids - people we knew, people still there in January 1992, people willing to participate, and people who actually showed up for the 3 days we had the camera. The tapes were chucked into a box and survived many moves; from Iowa City to Philadelphia, to Seattle, then Los Angeles in 2019 where I got them digitized.
A tender portrait of two transgender souls, navigating the harsh tides of family violence and societal rejection. Through the language of music and dance, they discover the rhythm of the struggle and the grace in freedom. And in so doing, seize the chance to be seen and heard.
The film unfolds through the POV of the Palila called Anuenue who stood as the client in 1979 court trials. The legal battle leveraged the Endangered Species Act to protect mÄmane forests where 2,500 Palila competed with introduced sheep & goats. He explains how they won in court, but are still in jeopardy; in 2024, only 300 Palila remain. Today, a Native Hawaiian conservationist struggles to save them amidst escalating threats of climate change, wildfires, introduced predators, diseases, and governmental neglect.
YOSHIKAWA Hayao (1890-1959), pioneer of amateur cinema in Asia, authored over 160 books to share his passion during the 1930s. Years later, he rediscovered a forgotten dream from his youth: to create a sci-fi film set on the Moon.
A circus family’s hidden legacy unfolds as descendants reunite across continents, uncovering their Aboriginal ancestry, global stardom, and the extraordinary secrets they kept in order to survive. Through the Colleano family's remarkable home movies, never-before-seen footage, family interviews and archival recordings, their extraordinary story is brought to life.
An uninhibited Austrian countess,—a.k.a. ‘Granny’—holds court poolside in the South of France. Over ten summers, she offers up unsolicited advice on monogamy, mortality and motherhood while attended by her nubile grandchildren as they bloom into adulthood.