Comitiva Esperança

I grevens tid

At the forests of Östergötland, where land meets sea, rests the old castle Herrborum. Here lives count Magnus Stenbock, 92, according to his own ideas about what is appropriate and what is not. Film-maker Helena Nygren is fascinated by the count and the castle, and is allowed to film on the condition that she takes the role of companion lady. Over one year, Helena returns several times to take part of count Magnus Stenbock and his servants life on castle Herrborum in Östergötland. Time stands still on the castle, and in the movie Helena wants to preserve the fairy tale feeling she gets when she steps into these ancient surroundings. The count is a strong personality with strong opinions and a great interest in history. All kinds of people come to his castle to savor the special atmosphere and follow the old fashioned rules of etiquette. Helena transforms from an observer to a lady who participates in the social games on the estate, where everything moves around its own time axis.

Santa Fiesta

SINOPSIS / SYNOPSIS Every year in Spain, some 16,000 Fiestas are organized, during which animals are used. Honoring the Holy Virgin and the Patron Saints, and with the blessing of religious and political authorities, entire towns -including children- are involved in celebrations of unbelievable cruelty. 60,000 animals are hence abused each year during these “Fiestas of Blood”.

Nuovomondo

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.

Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

Woven Songs of the Amazon

The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.

Muxes

Highlighting the unique culture of the Zapotec people of Oaxaca, Mexico, this groundbreaking documentary chronicles the lives of those who identify as muxes, a widely recognized third gender.

HAND. LINE. COD.

In the coldest waters surrounding Newfoundland's rugged Fogo Island, "people of the fish"—traditional fishers—catch cod live by hand, one at a time, by hook and line. After a 20-year moratorium on North Atlantic cod, the stocks are returning. These fishers are leading a revolution in sustainability, taking their premium product directly to the commercial market for the first time. Travel with them from the early morning hours, spend time on the ocean, and witness the intricacies of a 500-year-old tradition that's making a comeback.

Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages

The horses in Denys Colomb Daunant’s dream poem are the white beasts of the marshlands of the Camargue in South West France. Daunant was haunted by these creatures. His obsession was first visualized when he wrote the autobiographical script for Albert Lamorisse’s award-winning 1953 film White Mane. In this short the beauty of the horses is captured with a variety of film techniques and by Jacques Lasry’s beautiful electronic score.

Golden Era

A look into the history and tradition of Queen's Football in it's golden era, featuring never before seen footage of the university in the 1960s.

Dríades

Heartbeat of a Nation

A short documentary that celebrates Dene cultural reclamation and revitalization, in which a father passes on traditional knowledge to his child through the teachings of a caribou drum.

O milagre de Santo Antonio

In the middle of June the village of Santo Antonio de Mixoes da Serra in the Valdreu region of Northern Portugal honours its Patron Saint with a very special festival. On this day the local farmers bring their animals to the church – cows, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits – to be blessed. This ancient tradition is passed from generation to generation, and today, just as hundreds of years ago, animals and people flock up the mountain roads to the church square to become a part of the religious festival. The film is about this miracle.

Lascia stare i santi

A journey through Italy across a century of popular religious devotion. Ancient and more recent saints, white and black Madonnas, devotional processions... are the expression of a need for the sacred that seems very distant from our way of being, but perhaps is not that distant at all. Today, especially in the South, but with some “isolated” locations in the North, popular faith is still a very real thing, which finds its finest expression in song and in music.

Horämäner

The horn sledges were used throughout the Alps in forestry and agriculture for material transports on steep terrain. In the Muota valley, in the heart of Switzerland, a group of idealists is continuing to preserve the old tradition of «Mänere».

Ang Larawan

A musical tale about two impoverished sisters' anguish over whether or not to sell the final masterpiece of their recluse father days before the second world war, in Manila.

Laulu

Song is a story of the last Finnish rune singer and his pupil, and the comforting power of singing.

Khaïma

Das Lied von den zwei Pferden

An old, broken morin khurr (horse head fiddle) compels renowned Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi to take a road journey to Ulan Bator and the steppes of Mongolia.

Sachem

Through the memories of former scouts, the short film explores the mystical traditions that shaped their experiences, from the magic that captivated them in childhood to the tensions and questions that arose over time. A reflective look at the relationship between customs, identity, and generational change.