When Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Denize Galiao starts feeling that sorrow of loss again, her father sighs and says, “Forget about saudade and carry on.” An old Brazilian legend says that the African gods created the feeling of saudade to remind people where they come from and where they are. And that’s just what she’s suffering from. Twenty years ago Galiao emigrated to Germany, where her dream of becoming a filmmaker came true. But the papayas there never taste as good as in Brazil. Galiao’s parents live in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, and thanks to Skype her birth country is never far away. Now that her parents need more support, the sense of dislocation is really making its presence felt. “You are physically present, while your mind is somewhere else.” This short film explores and defines the feeling in various ways, both positive and negative.
Apatity, a far-north industrial town in Russia, first came into being as a USSR concentration camp. Although its environment is at the brink of ecological disaster, the people here still believe in the state’s promise of immortality that can be gained through sacrificial service to the fatherland. This is how the elite in a totalitarian state buy a person’s will, strength, talent and, indeed, life, turning the human being into another resource that is as faceless as a grey lump of ore. ‘I cannot fight big corporations or state structures with a film. But I hope that there is someone in the darkness of the cinema whose heart will get a bit warmer after seeing it,’ says the director. The larger part of the film was shot during the polar night.
This rare insight into the intensity of female relationships introduces 17-year-olds Margot and Amaryllis. The pair encounter jealousy, first love, heartbreak and the sense of their evolving identities and friendship.
Driven by a desire to understand why her best friend killed herself at 16, Jacqueline Monetta, 18 gets teens suffering to share their struggles with mental illness and suicide attempts. Through her intimate one-to-one interviews, Jacqueline, and the audience learn about depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide attempts, getting help and treating mental illness. As their stories unfold, they assure the audience that mental illnesses, like physical illnesses, can and should be treated.
After the Kyrgyzstan Independence in 1991, the ancient practice of Ala-Kachuu ("grab and run") returned. Some women escape the men that kidnap them, but many remain married because of tradition and the fear of scandal.
The moving story of a lonely, isolated woman with a heart condition whose life is transformed by a service dog, and what happens when she has to let go of the loyal companion who changed her life.
In northern Morocco lies the Spanish enclave of Melilla: Europe on African Land. On the mountain above live over a thousand hopeful African migrants, watching the land border, a fence system separating Morocco and Spain. Abou from Mali is one of them – the protagonist in front of the camera, as well as the person behind it. For over a year, he has ceaselessly persisted in attempting to jump the fence.
Get rare views of Ireland in this unique video tour of the Emerald Isle featuring expert cinematography from an accomplished aerial production team and an original musical score. See the Cliffs of Moher, Dubline, Kilkenny Castle, Trinity College and more!
Investigative documentary following three families involved in the Sandy Hook shooting, as they try to make sense of the tragedy and find a way to move on and rebuild their lives.
Before acclaimed author Piri Thomas could write his famous novel "Down These Mean Streets", he had to live on them. This biopic shows how his childhood in Spanish Harlem, a six-year prison stint and other key events shaped his artistic development. The film combines rarely seen footage, still photos and mixed-media images to illustrate Thomas's life and an influential career that focused on revealing the injustices of poverty and racism.
More than any other historical documents, It is the personal private letters written by a people to "their" dictator that provide the most intimate glimpses of the history of the Third Reich. A treasure of more than 100,000 such letters were recently found, hidden in a secret Russian archive. The uncensored letters reveal the true feelings of the German people - their hopes, longings and fears; also love letters, declarations of loyalty, birthday wishes and the occasional word of protest. Like a seismograph, it mirrors the change in mood in Nazi Germany, providing a reflection of the German spirit in the years from 1932 to 1945. A.K.A. Dear Uncle Adolf.
Baratometrajes 2.0 is a feature length documentary on low-budget films made in Spain and dives deep and directly in the guts of most independent films, their characteristics and their reasons for being. More than forty interviews with directors, producers, journalists, cultural managers and distributors are shaping a broad mosaic of opinions and adventures of different creators to get their films and turn them into a reality, allowing the cameras to talk through their methodology work and the secrets that lie behind the making of these productions. Movies like "El mundo es nuestro," "Mi Loco Erasmus" or "The Cosmonaut" are part of the object of study of this essential documentary that brings us to the reality of New Spanish Cinema Lowcost.
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary The People of the Kattawapiskak River exposes the housing crisis faced by 1,700 Cree in Northern Ontario, a situation that led Attawapiskat’s band chief, Theresa Spence, to ask the Canadian Red Cross for help. With the Idle No More movement making front page headlines, this film provides background and context for one aspect of the growing crisis.
O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, remained unpublished during his lifetime, as he feared they would be deemed pornographic. In this celebration of his poetry and sensual vision, elderly residents of Rio read his poems and comment on their graphic, voluptuous imagery with tremendous candor and enthusiasm.
The story of Australia’s worst peacetime disaster On 7th February 2009, Australia suffered its worst peacetime disaster ‘Black Saturday’ claimed 173 lives, left more than 7,000 homeless and destroyed close to half a million hectares of Victorian bushland
Casey, the new flatmate, was everything Alessandro was not. He was energetic, adventurous and charismatic. Alessandro started to document this strange creature with his video camera, so different from himself. They were in their early twenties and living in Rome...every experience together felt new and exciting. But when Casey moved to the Middle East to work as a TV journalist, Alessandro's world was opened up even more. Drawn from 15 years of footage, The Things We Keep is an intimate look at friendship, a celebration of people's common humanity and an invitation to break out of one’s comfort zone.
Follows the people behind California's historic No-on-8 campaign to defend same-sex marriage through exclusive behind the scenes footage, interwoven with the national history of marriage equality since the 1950s.