In the middle of the national carnival parade, a devil walks along the Malecón of Santo Domingo, asking participants and spectators what they feel during the carnival. For what purpose?
Queen Elizabeth I commissions a magnificent mechanical organ for Sultan Mehmed III, crafted by the famed Thomas Dallam. The organ, adorned with singing birds and celestial mechanisms, is shipped over six months of treacherous seas. Upon arrival, Dallam assembles it and personally plays the organ as the Sultan eagerly awaits. Yet, despite its grandeur, the organ’s story ends in tragedy. Postbellek's short documentary was produced with the guidance and narration of Emre Aracı, and it leverages artificial intelligence by Atıl Altaş.
A legendary flamenco dynasty channels raw emotion and family bonds into electrifying performances, creating a powerful legacy of Spanish dance artistry across generations.
In the mid-1920s, Cevat Şakir, also known as Halikarnas Balıkçısı, was sentenced to death for an article he wrote in a magazine and was exiled to Bodrum. Instead of rotting in prison, he took a step towards a new life with the helping hand extended by the district governor. He left his past behind and made his name forgotten.
Nawras, a Jordanian-Palestinian queer artist, has been living in Bratislava, Slovakia, for the past four years. Existing within two communities and clashing cultures, she is pushed towards a third goal; to find peace and a place she can call home. Can she reclaim the culture she was born into, this time, as she chooses to define it, and in doing so, create a community which will become her family?
Among the ruins of a magical place in the middle of the Tuscan countryside, as if arriving from another planet, two giant amplifiers, sixteen musicians, and their instruments touch down. Despite the Abbey’s lack of a roof, which would allow the sound an easy escape into the sky, Lucio Corsi and his companions manage to trap the music in an original and evocative film.
Filmed over seven years, the documentary follows Valter Hugo Mãe as he writes his novel “A Desumanização”, across journeys through Iceland, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia, and Macau. A visual meditation on solitude, loss, and belonging, featuring appearances by cartoonist Laerte Coutinho and Icelandic composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, mentor of bands such as Sigur Rós and Björk. The film is part of the project “The Meaning of Life”, which director Miguel Gonçalves Mendes has been developing for more than a decade: a series of nine features built as a kaleidoscope of contemporary figures, in which the filmmaker invites us to reflect on what makes us, as humans, unique beings.
Weaving intimate conversations with hundreds of hours of never-before-seen archive and home video, this documentary draws a compelling portrait of an artist who spent his life battling his own ego and a career torn between art and commerce all in pursuit of fulfilling his dream.
LAB MAN is a docu-portrait about Arturo Arnold, a master of emulsion who processes all the 8mm and 16mm motion picture film for a busy film lab in North Hollywood.
In the mid-2000s, Rick Canty lost his mother and their home in Barry, Wales. Evicted, he climbed onto his roof in protest, remaining there for years. Rick on the Roof uses candid interviews and archive to reveal how his quiet neighbourhood transformed into a thriving community. Neighbours threw street parties and rallied around Rick through storms, until he was injured under mysterious circumstances. Amidst the backdrop of today’s cost of living crisis, the town reflects on Rick’s extraordinary defiance. This bittersweet documentary tells the peculiar story of one man on a roof who inspired and united a working-class Welsh community.
Hendrik Waringa, singer and founder of the country band Early Bird, is followed together with his musical grandson Maurits van Nijen in the run-up to the reunion concert to be performed in celebration of the band's 60th anniversary.
A woman places a chair on the sidewalk in Rio and watches as the neighbourhood "unfolds" before her eyes – like a movie scene. Workers, tourists, dogs and street life combine to form a Copacabana portrait, through clever editing and montage.
Filmed inside the many worlds of virtual reality, this documentary dives into VR's history, usage, and future. Told through the many users and communities inside this digital space.