The term “Afrofuturism” was coined decades ago to describe an artistic and cultural tradition that pre-dates the transatlantic slave trade. From the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, to Martin R. Delany’s alt-history novel Blake, to Sun Ra’s avant-garde music to Marvel’s Black Panther (the special’s premiere coincides with the release of that blockbuster film’s sequel, Wakanda Forever), the African American experience has been explored and reimagined through a speculative, even cosmically scaled lens for centuries, in a variety of artistic mediums. The special seeks to explore the concept through conversation and performance, as some of today’s most influential Black musicians, writers, dancers and theorists come together to share their ideas and artistry as they celebrate the historical and cultural impact of Afrofuturism.
Following reports of fraudulent car clamping in Auckland, journalist and filmmaker David Farrier opens an investigation that pushes him to the limits of his sanity in this incredible true story of psychological warfare.
Was Roy Lichtenstein a great artist, a thief, or both? This is the question addressed by the feature documentary WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation. Along with Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein created the Pop Art movement of the 1960s. His comic-based paintings reside in the greatest art galleries and can fetch more than $150 million. But some view this renowned artist as a plagiarist. WHAAM! BLAM! focuses upon the last living comic artists whose work was “appropriated” by Lichtenstein, and they are not happy.
Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.
Koekie, Fluksie, Sanna and Jo-Marie live together in a safehouse in Bredasdorp, a small town in South Africa. This community of around 15,000 has been shaken by a series of rapes and murders of women. Community worker Lana O’Neill felt compelled to create a safe place for the most vulnerable women, so that what happened to Anene, Kayde, Sulnita and Jodene doesn’t happen to them too.
This portrait of a Chinese family centers on the paterfamilias, who at the age of 85 still works his land by hand every day, his wife, who feeds and slaughters the chickens, and one of their sons, who lives in an apartment in the city and spends his days keeping company with his television and a steady flow of alcohol.
In an unexplored vault in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia, lies a collection of films known as “the Labudović Reels.” On them are images of African and Asian liberation movements and revolutionary leaders that defined the era of the 1960s. How is it that the archive of these revolutions lies on another continent, forgotten in a film archive? The answer to this question takes us into the story behind the images, on an intimate voyage with the man who filmed them. As the cameraman of Yugoslav president Tito, Stevan Labudović captured an era of politics, personality and promise, filming the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement. Sent on missions by the President to film liberation wars, he would play a key role in the information battles that defined the era of decolonization. Together with Ciné-Guerillas, this film diptych examines the legacy of these extraordinary archives, seeking to project their political vision forward.
This debut film by Alain Kassanda starts off as a process of self-examination: How well does he really know his grandparents? How true are his ideas about his birth country DR Congo, whose national identity was partly molded by the Belgian colonizers? And, by extension, how much does he know about himself? In Colette et Justin, Kassanda travels through time and his own past, in the process bringing postcolonial Congo to evocative life.
Described as "Houdini with a sunnier disposition," illusionist Lamont Ream extends his magic beyond cards and coins to his work as a live-in caregiver.
For 15 years, a photojournalist bears witness to migrant journeys across the dark crossings of European borders. His camera delves into inaccessible places, documenting the stories of people who push human boundaries, to reveal how the Other Half lives.
Esther van Neerbos searches for missing people with her dogs. Her dogs are specially trained to recognize the smell of death. Thanks to Esther's efforts, many bodies are recovered and she puts an end to the uncertainty in which those left behind live.
The Queen And The Crown a tribute: A feature length tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest reigning monarch, from her birth in London on April 21st 1926 to the nationwide outpouring of gratitude and thanks to Her Majesty in June 2022 marking the Platinum Jubilee, and then the sorrow just weeks later and her historic and epic funeral. Following the course of her life as the shock of the abdication in 1936 catapulted her father unexpectedly onto the throne, suddenly making the young princess heir to the crown, we see the way she pledged to give herself entirely to serving the nation.
An immersive journey into the world of wild horses, Wild Beauty illuminates both the profound beauty, and desperate plight faced by the wild horses in the Western United States. Filmmaker Ashley Avis and crew go on a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth in hopes to protect them, before wild horses disappear forever.
Goes behind the scenes of the first professional women’s hockey league. As the league’s founder struggles to keep the business afloat, the players must come together in the wake of an on-ice accident that leaves their teammate paralyzed.
In pursuit of a life above the poverty line, three women find themselves in the depths of human trafficking networks. EXIT examines what it takes to regain one's dignity in the face of unthinkable trauma.
Granada, Spain, 1922. The composer Manuel de Falla, who dreams every night of the ancestral songs sung to him by his nanny, fears that flamenco art will disappear, so with the help of his friend Miguel Cerón Rubio and the poet Federico García Lorca, he organizes a contest to revitalize and promote it.
Azadeh is a social worker in Ilam city. Ilam has the highest suicide rate in Iran after the Iran and Iraq war. She wants to prevent women’s suicide by exposing it to society. Only Tahereh, who has experienced self-immolation, accompanies Azadeh.
Ten years after Razorlight’s fast rise and infamous implosion, for the first time since he quit and the celebrated line-up split, drummer Andy Burrows has a major heart-to-heart with the band’s frontman and former best friend Johnny Borrell. What happened next, captured authentically as the contemporary narrative unfolds, surprises everyone…
Cross Dreamers is the life story of 4 men who practice cross-dressing in Argentina. From an early age they had the need to transit the feminine. With the clothes, the makeup, the heels and the construction of a feminine identity, "Cross" seek to feel like women for a short time of their lives. However these 50 to 60 year old men had to repress this desire throughout their lives because they felt like monsters and hid it from their wives and children.