Aus westlichen Richtungen

A film essay investigating the question of what “the West” means beyond the cardinal direction: a model of society inscribed itself in the Federal Republic of Germany’s postwar history and architecture. The narrator shifts among reflections on modern architecture and property relations, detailed scenes from childhood, and a passed-down memory of a “hemmed-in West Germany,” recalling the years of her parents’ membership in a 1970s communist splinter group.

Ostatni rycerze prawej strony

Although they look almost identical in black balaclavas, they have arrived at extremely right-wing views along very different paths. For six months Michał Edelman documented the activity of the National-Radical Camp brigade from Łódź ranging from propaganda events including an obligatory barbecue through attempts to disrupt the Gay Parade in Radomsko to the culmination on the Independence Day in 2019 when they marched along the streets of Warsaw. Are the nationalists really a group of friends with clear-cut views only?

Esas voces que curan

Herlinda Augustin is a Shipibo healer who lives with her family in Peruvian Amazonia. Will she and other healers be able to maintain their ancient tradition despite Western encroachment?

The Street Performers

This documentary-style short follows two impoverished teens performing on the streets of London in the days leading up to the London Blitz of 1940.

Tante Iki

Sigrid Koetse, award-winning actor and grande dame of Dutch theater, lived most of her life in the public eye and was always surrounded by a crowd of admirers. With this short documentary, filmmaker Wytse Koetse shows how his aunt spends her days nowadays, lonely in her Amsterdam home.

Return: Native American Women Reclaim Foodways for Health & Spirit

Concerned about the declining health of people all around them, Native American women are sparking physical and spiritual rejuvenation through reclaiming traditional foodways.

เพลงของข้าว

In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.

A Taste of Sky

Danish culinary entrepreneur and Noma co-founder Claus Meyer has kickstarted a gastronomic revolution in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz with the opening of Gustu, a fine-dining restaurant and cooking school for the country’s impoverished youth. Kenzo, a hunter raised in the Bolivian Amazon, and Maria Claudia, a native of the Andean altiplano, have resettled in La Paz in order to pursue a career in the culinary arts. Under the tutelage of Meyer, these young Bolivians are working towards a better future as they attempt to establish their country as the world’s next great culinary destination.

Varga

Хан ю

In a quiet and snowy Chechen village, mother tells her daughter about the return of Zara – their relative, who left this place 20 years ago. Outside, the whole world is hidden in a thick white fog. For both women, the upcoming meeting is a bright event in their dull daily life that they are very much looking forward to.

Manifest

An intimate statement about the filmmaker’s need for self-expression through her own nudity and simultaneously an effort to reject the taboo of patriarchal society. Using diary entries, anger-filled personal reflections, and discussions with a mother painting her nude daughter, the film opens the topic of overcoming shame for one’s own physicality and female sexuality.

Munca noastră cea de toate zilele

A group of men share a small space in a prison metal workshop in Botosani, Romania. When they’re not working, they animatedly discuss religion and hypocrisy, lament during tea that they don’t have onions for sausage, or joke and sing.

အခြားတစ်ဖက်

In 2012, violent conflicts broke out between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist majority in Rakhine State on the west coast of Myanmar. The government subsequently deported Muslims and imprisoned them in a camp on the outskirts of the city. The documentary looks at the lives of neighbours on both sides.

First Birthday After the Apocalypse

In her autobiographical documentary, the young director uses cartoon impressions, photographic memories, and the various stages of baking a cake to draw the viewer into her own stream of consciousness, and using images full of kindness, tenderness, and playfulness, she deals with the sadness that began during a children's birthday party many years ago.

Bloodroot

Douglas Tirola’s latest documentary traces the evolution of feminism through the lives of two exceptional women, Noel and Selma, who came of age in the ’50s when women were relegated to the roles of wives and mothers. During the height of the women’s movement, Noel, a former teen model and Playboy bunny, meets and falls in love with Selma, a tough, outspoken radical feminist. Both women choose to leave their comfortable, yet unsatisfying marriages and children to come out as lesbians. The two share a love of cooking and gardening and, in the ’70s, open Bloodroot, the first vegetarian collective restaurant and bookstore in Bridgeport, Connecticut. By interspersing archival footage and clips from The Stepford Wives, Tirola affectionately chronicles the cultural shifts of the last 40 years as Noel and Selma attempt to keep Bloodroot open as an indispensable gathering spot for progressive women.

Im Rücken der Geschichte - Die verlorenen Dörfer von Masuren

In September of 2017 German writer and director Daniel Raboldt accompanied a group of German and Polish scientists and students into the woods of Masuria, Poland. The expedition aimed to find traces of the so-called "lost villages", left by the Masurians around 1945 by the end of the Second World War. Today only some of the old graveyards can be found deep in the woods of the beautiful Masurian landscape. The documentary "In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria" shows the students at their work in the historic archives and in the woods. How conclusive can this kind of historic research be? How much can we really learn by looking through old files or other sources? And what can we learn from the vanishing of the Masurians? Do we face similar problems today? The film dives deep into themes like the rise of nationalism and identity and uncovers the tragic end of a population that was asked one simple question in the early 20th century: Stay or Leave?

Elevado 3.5

A documentary about the crowd of people that commingle throughout the 3.5km of the Minhocão, an overpass in the central region of São Paulo, built during Brazil's military dictatorship.

Mr Surgeoner's Higher History Revision

Mr Surgeoner takes the viewer on an enthralling journey through the SQA Higher History course.

Offline

Four teenagers, everyday life, school, work and a week-long offline challenge. What do the lives of today's teenagers look like when they find themselves without an internet connection? In addition to disconnecting, they were to record their feelings and experiences in a video diary. Without the Internet, without music, without movies and series, and without any communication with the world around them, life can turn upside down.

Gazprom - Die perfekte Waffe

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.