The film explores a young man's intimate relationship with the Internet. While the absence of a father figure has left him searching for answers, he finds an unexpected mentor in Google. From learning everyday tasks like shaving to discovering deeper knowledge, the algorithm becomes much more than a simple search engine, blurring the boundaries between real and virtual.
The film takes place against the backdrop of elderly care homes, kindergartens, the 219 Park, and various cityscapes. It portrays the urban ruins and inner turmoil caused by economic decline, and depicts the social contradictions arising from recession and the lingering effects of post-socialism, capturing the impact on the lives and values of people in the Northeast region of China.
In 1952, Marie-Louise Chapelle was the first French woman to reach an unclimbed peak in the Himalayas. Years later, filmmaker Ellen Vermeulen follows in her footsteps. An intimate journey through snow landscapes in which personal ambitions, social constraints, and the complexity of being a woman take center stage.
Rooted in wetlands, páramos and centennial forests at the verge of disappearing, memories and a speculated future collide. 500 years of exploitation, exile and resilience are nourished by a collective pain and a desire to crack through it all.
For many communities, video rental shops hold a dear significance: a place where anyone and everyone could rent a film. As they become a dying species, Rotterdam artist Gyz La Rivière shares the stories of the remaining few in The Netherlands and the Benelux.
This documentary highlights the triumphs and challenges of individuals who have found strength, purpose, and camaraderie within their running community. The heartfelt message resonates far beyond the world of running, making it a must-see for audiences of all kinds.
Images from 2000s music videos are transferred onto the film strip, torn and abstracted until the visuals convulse and shift—a tactile, poetic exploration of materiality, memory, and medium.
Temo is an unemployed actor who drives around 100km a day on a scooter, performing the duty of a delivery man. Based on the novel Courier’s Tales by Temo Rekhviashvili, who plays himself in the film, Anka Gujabidze crafts a poignant but humorous black and white photo adventure, in which a daily ride through the opulently dilapidated Georgian capital Tbilisi morphs into a nightmarish vision of poverty, corruption and estrangement.
Eva Giolo’s latest work takes us to Val Gardena, where people still speak Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance language. Giolo subverts the usual representation of mountain communities to deliver a portrait of a precious cultural heritage in constant evolution. Here, the inhabitants preserve and nurture their culture for future generations with awareness of the world and creativity. Shot on 16mm film sensitive to the grandeur and fragility of nature, Memory Is an Animal, It Barks with Many Mouths is an exquisite essay on the vital importance of linguistic diversity. Made in Ladin language.
The debut documentary by Bulgarian-born German resident and renowned photographer Pepa Hristova is set in the Strandzha mountains, the natural border between Bulgaria and Turkey. In that sparsely populated land and in one of the last primeval European forests is a crossroads between ancient rituals, nationalism, migration and anarchy, as the bleak past blends with modern-day threats in a terra incognita for the West.
Unexpectedly, Marion Guillard captures the perfect shot: A flock of birds pirouette in the evening sky, the camera follows their graceful movements as if hypnotized, symbiotically. The road to this moment was long. Guillard shares her journey to the USA with us, which is not only marked by feelings of alienation from her family – the postcard motifs spread before her eyes also leave her cold. In a voiceover, she talks about her relationship to herself and her body, about an ideal of femininity she does not conform to, and disturbing encounters with men.
The largest casino in Europe but is it just a big mess? Daniel Hoesl presents Un gran casino as an angry musing on a building, an Italian village and all that is done in the name of the unfettered creation of wealth.
In Switzerland, the Scout Movement is not a nostalgic fantasy but a vibrant social reality. This bubbly documentary captures the communal cycle of activities during a 14-day camp for youth. No reality TV-style contrived scenes here, this is a moving, joyful glimpse into life-changing experiences.
In 1921, an untitled text reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's writings was discovered in Boston. It was made by unknown creators, perhaps a techno-spiritualist cult of enthusiasts, for an automaton, that would attempt to model Poe's mind.
For this woman, it's never too late to start again. Hanna Pálsdóttir is an 83 year old Icelandic woman who turned her life around after retiring from her life as a banker and enrolling in art school to become a painter. This documentary follows Hanna throughout the creative process of preparing for her latest exhibition as she recalls her life as an activist and branch manager before painting appeared in her life.