When filmmaker Yehui Zhao begins to film her grandmother, she embarks on an excavation of her family’s past and their long-lost ancestral village in the vast mountain range of Loess Plateau. She sets out to search for the story of her great-grandfather and, in the process, discovers the land that generations before her cultivated alongside the cave dwellings that they called home. Here she pays tribute to her family’s heritage, bearing witness to its relationship with the land, labor, and resilience. A shapeshifting and playful feature debut, the film is infused with performance, poetry, and animation as Zhao constructs a living archive of oral history and community theater. Summoning the past into the present, May the Soil Be Everywhere chronicles China’s history of war, famine, and rapid urbanization through the lens of four generations in one family.
In Sarajevo, three teenage boys train with their coach on a luge track left over from the 1984 Winter Games, now bullet-riddled, covered in graffiti, and swarmed by tourists. Three decades after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza are the next generation of athletes in a country facing an uncertain future. The tensions of the past still loom large in these young Muslims’ lives, and their Olympic dreams are stunted by a lack of state support despite the efforts of their dedicated coach. Director Ryan Sidhoo takes a longitudinal approach in his directorial debut, intimately capturing the boys’ journey as they reckon with growing up under the shadow of the past. A deeply affecting coming-of-age underdog story, The Track is an ode to the power of hope, friendship, and chasing your dreams against all odds.
In 1970, the writer María Luisa Elío returned to Spain after three decades in exile in Mexico. Ever since she was forced by the Spanish Civil War to abandon her home at the age of nine, she has dreamed of reuniting herself with a past that perhaps no longer existed. In this documentary, the director explores the various separate parts of the life of this woman who belonged to circles of the most important cutting-edge artists of the mid-20th century and who wrote, acted in and made a film about her own ordeal.
An immersive archival documentary that reanimates the clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the more than 40,000 people who took to the streets of Seattle to protest the WTO's impacts on human rights, labor, and the environment.
Four years after the breakthrough success of his debut album, Beginner's Guide to Bravery, Dundalk songwriter, musician, and composer David Keenan is at a crossroads. After touring extensively and building a reputation as one of Ireland's leading live performers, he returns to the studio to record new music. "Anger is easy to portray, it's the hurt that's hard", he says as we explore his wordsmithing over the course of 500 days.
Over Patrick Lydon's final year, he reflects on a life that took him from rock journalism in the US to driving the radically inclusive Camphill Movement in Ireland, sharing life with people of diverse needs and abilities. Patrick's lens on the world raises searching questions about ideas of disability and inclusion and shines a special light on the otherness in our society.
In 2016, Taiwan's film and television industry was in a recession. This made life even more difficult for the lowest-level performers, the extras. The story begins with Kehan Zhang, a man who loves acting and works as a full-time extra. He had been working as an extra for three years and paid NTD 500 in cash every time. His daily routine includes searching for various audition opportunities, submitting resumes, and only receiving audition notices every now and then. To fulfill the dream of becoming a leading actor, he decided to venture into the film and television industry in China and started his Don Quixote journey with pals. The documentary also films other actors and actresses - the girl from the south and Brother Long, and how they experienced gender and age limitations in the industry. Besides the stereotypes in the industry, they also faced challenges balancing work and family.
The deep sea is the last unknown territory on Earth. Here, biologists struggle to study the enigmatic wildlife that looks like something from another planet. But time is running out as deepsea mining threatens the fragile ecosystems.
The film is an observation of the migrant experience; from crossing the Mediterranean Sea out of Libya to settling in Paris-based squats. In a view free from prejudice, we quickly see how the experiences of migrants vary in extremes during the different stages in their journey to a better life.
A time capsule of New York City between August 13-15, 1965, framed by the Beatles’ arrival in the city and their first concert at Shea Stadium. The film consists exclusively of archive material from the period (ABC, CBS, NBC), 8mm home movies and images of the concert, which was recorded with fourteen 35mm cameras. Four teenagers are sent on a trip through time and inserted in the archive material by means of animation.
For the first time, one of the deadliest moments in World War II is recreated in stunning detail: the surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor. But this time, through the eyes of the aggressors: the commanders and pilots of Imperial Japan.
Inclusive grassroots skateboarding communities connecting marginalised and LGBTQI+ individuals in the North of England; driven to bridge the gap in the historical documentation of skateboarding. From mountains in Lake District to Blackpool promenade these skate collectives have created safe spaces welcoming environments, where skating is a tool for empowerment, unlocking freedom and where failure is accepted and celebrated as a rite of passage.
In Second Wind's first premium documentary project, we sat down with Billy Basso to tell the story of the development of his critically acclaimed game, Animal Well.