#Female Pleasure

by Barbara Miller
Mons Veneris Films GmbH, Das Kollektiv für audiovisuelle Werke GmbH, INDI FILM GmbH
| 97' | Switzerland, Germany| 2017 | DCP |
#FEMALE PLEASURE embarks on a journey to discover the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of female sexuality in the 21st century.

5 BROKEN CAMERAS

Palestinian farm laborer Emad has five video cameras, and each of them tells a different part of the story of his village's resistance to Israeli oppression. Emad lives in Bil'in, just west of the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. Using the first camera, he recorded how the bulldozers came to rip the olive trees out of the ground in 2005. Here, a wall was built directly through his fellow villagers' land to separate the advancing Jewish settlements from the Palestinians.

A MOTHER BRINGS HER SON TO BE SHOT

by Sinead O'Shea
Blinder Films Limited, Spring Films, SOS Productions
| 82’ | Ireland | 2017 | HD |
Filmed over five years, this unflinching darkly humorous documentary examines violence committed by groups opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland, long after the Troubles came to an end. The title is no exaggeration.

A RIVER CHANGES COURSE

by Kalyanee Mam |
Migrant Films, Documentation Center of Cambodia
| 83’ | Cambodia - USA | 2013

Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while the river of life flows in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction. Working in an intimate, verite style, Kalyanee Mam, spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians struggling to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt.

A STRANGER'S SKIN

by Christophe Hermans
Frakas Productions
51’ | Belgium | 2011
Arnaud is a 20 year old young man. Following the death of his mother three years ago, he has dropped out of his studies and taken refuge in food to fill the void. He now weighs 177 kilos and lives with his father, with whom he quarrels constantly. Arnaud has reached the point where he has decided to undergo a stomach reduction operation....

A Syrian Love Story

by Sean McAllister

| 80’ | UK | 2015 | |
Filmed over 5 years, A Syrian Love Story charts an incredible odyssey to political freedom in the West. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

A Tunnel

by Vano Arsenishvili, Nino Orjonikidze
Artefact Production, Ventana Film
| 92' | Georgia, Germany | 2019 | 2K |
People are hard at work extending the railroad in a remote Georgian mountain village. When they’re done, the new Silk Road Express will run through here. In his office at the station, an old-time stationmaster prepares for his role in the future, when a lot more trains will be coming through the station.
There are promises of prosperity and progress, but in the dreamy atmosphere of the fairy-tale village, the coming of the express train feels more like a nightmare.

After the Rain

by Jian Fan
FAN Film Studio, Golden Doc Productions, Black Cat Entertainment Co., Ltd., Tencent News
| 104' | China | 2021 | 2K |
After an earthquake razed a Chinese city to the ground in 2008, more than six thousand parents were encouraged to replace the children they lost and move on with their lives. AFTER THE RAIN follows two of these families for over a decade. Haunted by fear, resentment, and unspeakable grief, the families find hope beyond intergenerational trauma to build towards an uncertain tomorrow.

Agnus Dei: Lamb of God

by Alejandra Sanchez
La Femme Endormie, Imcine & Pepa Films
| 84’ - 52’ | Mexico/France | 2010 | HDV |
Agnus Dei is a courageous, candid documentary on the thorny subject of pedophilia in the Catholic Church. As an 11-year-old altar boy, Jesús, now 26, was abused by a priest. After years of silence, he decides not only to bring criminal charges against his aggressor, but to confront him in the flesh. This is the story of Jesús’s journey, a mandatory hiatus on the road to forgiveness, born of a deep-seated need to come to terms with the past. Jesús is torn between brotherly love and anger toward his sexual predator in this film full of nuances that gives a name and a face to a problem stigmatized by silence.

All-in

by Volkan Üce
Cassette for timescapes, Halal Docs (NL), Little Big Story, Onomatopee Films (BE), Magellan Films (BE),
| 80’&52’ | Belgium, The Netherlands, France | 2021 | 4K |
Two innocent boys, a Turk and a Kurd, start working in a gigantic all-inclusive hotel at the Turkish Riviera. They observe the colourful bikini’s, the un-emptied plates, the different ways of addressing other people, and gradually discover new opportunities to move ahead in life.
ALL-IN explores the coming of age within the European dream, but that comes at a cost. Initial kindness turns into indifference and dishonesty... In ALL-IN, the hotel functions as a microcosm for a more universal story about the loss of innocence, when newcomers try to adapt to our capitalistic first world societies.

AT THE PHILOSOPHER'S SCHOOL

by Fernand Melgar
Climage
| 97’ | Switzerland | 2018 | 4K |
The adventure of a small group of children different from the others, who open themselves to life and to the world.

Belly of the Beast

by Erika Cohn
Belly of the Beast LLC
| 81' | USA | 2020 | HD |
The pastoral farmlands surrounding the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison, help conceal the reproductive and human rights violations transpiring inside its walls. A powerful exposé of human rights abuses of women en the criminal justice system.

Between Revolutions

Bitter Love

by Jerzy Sladkowski
Ginestra Film AB, MADE, Ragusa Film
| 86’ | Sweden, Finland, Poland | 2020 | HD |
A lovesick misfit, a mysterious beauty, a retired civil servant, a randy fortuneteller and a doubtful young couple meet in late summer on a Russian river cruise on Volga. What does fate have in store for them? Everyone boards the ship carrying a hope. A hope of a discovery, a reconciliation, a connection.

BITTERSWEET JOKE

by Yeonah Paik
Production Gongbang
| South Korea | 79' & 52' | 2012 | HD |
In Korea, the term “unwed mother” is associated with irresponsibility and infidelity. Despite social prejudice and financial hardship, nowadays more Korean women are choosing to raise their children in fatherless homes rather than aborting their babies or giving them up for adoption.

Brakeless

by Kyoko Miyake
Bungalow Town Productions, Brakeless Ltd
| 59’ - 80’ | Japan/UK | 2014 | HD |
Documentary exploring one of Japan's biggest train crashes in modern history, caused when a driver tried to catch up with a delay of just 80 seconds. It's a cautionary tale of what happens when punctuality, protocol and efficiency are taken to the extreme. On Monday April 25th 2005, a West Japan Railway commuter train crashed into an apartment building and killed 107 people. Just what pressures made the driver risk so much for such a minimal delay? Piecing together personal accounts of those affected by the train crash, with insights from experts and former train drivers, the film poses a question for a society that equates speed with progress. It offers a fascinating insight into the railway's role in Japan's post-war economic boom and the dangers of corner-cutting in the prolonged economic stagnation that followed. Through the lens of this catastrophic train crash, Brakeless considers the ultimate cost efficiency.

Buddha in Africa

by Nicole Schafer
Thinking Strings Media , Momento films (Sweden)
| 90’ & 60’ | Malawi/South Africa/Sweden | 2019 | HD |
In a Chinese Buddhist orphanage in Africa, the film follows the story of Enock Alu, a Malawian orphan from a rural village growing up between the contrasting worlds of his traditional African culture and the strict discipline of the Confucian, Buddhist value system of the Chinese. Once the star performer with dreams of becoming a martial arts hero like Jet Li, Enock, in his final year at school, has to make some tough decisions about his future and finds himself torn between returning to his relatives in the village or going abroad to study in China.

Burning Out

by Jérôme le Maire
AT Production/AT-DOC, Iota Production (Belgium), Louise Productions (Switzerland), Zadig (France)
| 82’ | Belgium-France | 2016 | HD |
Burning out follows a group of doctors and their team crushed by a profitability injunction of our contemporary world. Could they resist ? If the caregivers are suffering who will treat them ?

CALL ME KUCHU

by Malika Zouhali-Worrall & Katherine Fairfax Wright
| 87’ - 58’ | USA | 2012 | HD

In Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. David Kato - Uganda’s first openly gay man - and his fellow activists work against the clock to defeat the legislation while combatting vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one is prepared for the brutal murder that shakes their movement to its core and sends shockwaves around the world.

CALVET

by Dominic Allan
Firewalk Films
| 86’ - 52’ | UK | 2011 | HD
Never believe you've played your last hand..

French painter Jean Marc Calvet recounts his incredible life story as a former Cannes bodyguard who abandoned his family, robbed a Miami mobster, hid out in Central America and at the age of 38 overcame addictions through an extraordinary metamorphosis in which he began to paint.

Children of the Mist

by Diem Ha Le
Varan Vietnam Co., Ltd
| 90’ | Vietnam | 2021 | HD |
Di is a 12-year-old girl living in a village lost in the mist of Northwest Vietnamese mountains. She belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority where women get married very young, enduring the controversial tradition of ‘bride-kidnapping’. When Di enters puberty, her personality changes drastically. The carefree little girl has turns into an impetuous, hypersensitive teenager constantly arguing with her mother who is trying to keep her away from reckless relationships that she is not mature enough to handle. On the Lunar New Year’s Eve, when Di’s parents come back home after celebrating, the house is silent: Di has disappeared.

China Heavyweight

by Yung Chang
EyeSteelFilm
| 89' | Canada, China | 2012 | HD |
Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) returns to China for another riveting documentary on that country’s ever-changing economic landscape—this time through the lens of sports. In China Heavyweight, Chang follows the charismatic Qi Moxiang, a former boxing star and state coach who recruits young fighting talent from the impoverished farms and villages across Sichuan province. A select few boys (and girls) are sent to national training centers, with the hope of discovering China’s next Olympic heroes. But will these potential boxing champions leave it all behind to be the next Mike Tyson? Their rigorous training, teenage trials and family tribulations are expertly intertwined with Coach Qi’s own desire to get back in the ring for one more shot at victory. Cinematically rich and intimately observed, China Heavyweight is all at once thrilling sports drama, astute social commentary and a beautifully crafted portrait of an athlete.

China's van Goghs

by Haibo YU, Kiki Tiangi YU
Century Image Media Ltd, TrueWorks
| 84' - 52' | China | 2015 | HD |
Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime, but Zhao Xiaoyong has sold over 90,000 copies of van Gogh’s paintings in the past 20 years. Living in China, the world’s fastest developing country, Zhao has been through great transitions. First from a peasant to a rural migrant worker. Then he learnt how to copy iconic Western paintings. Now Zhao is in the midst of a new transition – from copy maker to original artist. China’s van Gogh not only presents how this painter pursues his dream, but also tells the human story of challenge and struggle during his journey.

Cody - the dog days are over

by Martin Skalsky
Buzzinho Codestar GmbH , Playground Media Productions AG
| 85’&52’ | Switzerland | 2019 | 4K |

Are we capable to give animals rights? What would it mean if we’d decided to do so? Would it have an effect on the most crucial topics of our time: environmental responsibility, climate change, etc.? /td>

Oscar contender Communion / Komunia - a film by Anna Zamecka now playing in U.S theaters

SHORTLISTED for the 91st Academy Awards in the Documentary Feature Category
BEST FILM -Polish Independent Cinema Award 2018
BEST DOCUMENTARY - European Film Awards 2017

COMMUNION

by Anna Zamecka
Otter Films - Wajda Studio | 72’ | Poland | 2016 | HD
When adults are ineffectual, children have to grow up quickly. Ola is 14 and she takes care of her dysfunctional father, autistic brother and a mother who lives separately; but most of all she tries to reunite the family.

NOMINATED FOR AN EMMY AWARD 2016

Darwin. no services ahead

by Nick Brandestini
Nick Brandestini
| 88’ - 59' | Switzerland | 2011 | 16:9 HD |
With a population of 35, Darwin exists without a government, church or children. Its only neighbor is a military base, and for its water supply the town depends on an aging gravity-fed waterline that descends from the mountains where top-secret weapons testing takes place. Darwin has a makeshift look and feel, yet a number of its residents have comfortable homes amid vast desert vistas. A droll and dusty portrait of a place where privacy is prized and boundaries respected.

Don Juan

by Jerzy Sladkowski
Ginestra Film AB, MADE Oy
| 92’ | Sweden/Finland | 2015 | HD |
A four-sided love triangle, spiced with autism, neuroses and life crises in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. The 22-year-old autistic young man Oleg is seeking approval and love. He is surrounded by many who wants to help him, but no-one succeeds. Suddenly help comes from an unexpected direction.

Fly so Far

by Celina Escher
Pramfilm AB, Sugar Rush Productions, Chimbolo Films
| 88' | Sweden | 2020 | 2K & 4K |
‘Fly So Far’ follows Teodora Vásquez, the spokesperson of the women accused of aggravated homicide and imprisoned in El Salvador for having had a miscarriage. Teodora’s case has become a symbol of the extremism in the criminalization of abortion and the cruelty against women within the Salvadoran system. But also, of empowerment, resilience and solidarity.

Geri’s Wish

by Tonislav Hristov
Making Movies Oy, Soul Fool
| 81’ | Finland, Bulgaria | 2024 | |
Geri, 18, is a Bulgarian girl living in an orphanage in the city of Vratza. She’s a senior at a local high school. She’s dreaming of entering university. The final exams are approaching, and this has even bigger meaning for her than to many others, because after the graduation she is obliged to move out from the orphanage.

Golden Land

by Inka Achté
napafilms
| 70’ & 52’ | Finland | 2021 | |
When Finnish-Somali Mustafe discovers that his family's land is full of copper and gold, he decides to leave his secure family life in the north and move to Somaliland. But starting up a mining company in the Horn of Africa turns out to be more difficult than Mustafe imagined and while he gets lost in clan feuds and bureaucracy to get his riches out of the ground, his children struggle to find their place in their new home, where everything is so different from what they grew up with in Finland.

Hawar, Our Banished Children

by Pascale Bourgaux
IOTA Production, Louise Productions
| 73’ - 58’ | Belgium, Switzerland | 2023 | |
In 2014, the Islamic State took control of Northern Iraq. On the way to Mosul, the jihadist troops crossed the Sinjar, home to the Yazidi community. They separated families, killing the men and kidnapping the women and girls, with the intention of “offering” them to jihad fighters on the slave market.

I AM A WOMAN NOW

by Monique Busman
| De Familie | 86’ - 52' | The Netherlands | 2011 | HD
Starting in 1956, people who wanted to have a sex change operation could go to gynecologist Georges Burou in Casablanca - without having to undergo any psychological assessment. Filmmaker Michiel van Erp asks some of these pioneers, all old women now, if the choice that they made back then has changed their lives as they had hoped. How did the outside world react to this first generation of transsexuals?

I Am Kuba

by Ase Svenheim Drivenes
Sant & Usant, AMP Polska, Poland
| 58’ | Norway / Poland / Germany | 2014 | HD |
When the familybusiness goes bankrupt Kuba (12) and Mikołaj's (8) parents are forced to leave Poland to find work abroad. "I am Kuba" is a coming-of-age film about Kuba who must take care of his little brother while his parents are away. As times goes by, Kuba becomes a teenager and rejects the big responsibilty on his young shoulders. His family is forced to make a life changing decision. Kuba's story is also the story about modern Europe. It is estimated that only in Poland more than 100,000 children are left by their parents who are forced to work abroad. «I am Kuba» is an intimate film about children growing up as 'euro-orphans'.

Immortals

by Maja Tschumi
Filmgerberei GmbH, Rola Productions
| 94’ | Switzerland, Iraq | 2024 | 2K |
IMMORTALS is an insight into the hopes and broken dreams of a new generation that has known nothing but war since the US-led occupation.

IN BED WITH THE ARAB SPRING

by Paul Moreira
Premières Lignes
| 54’ | France | 2012 | HD
The Arab revolutions swept away the old regimes and were led by young modern people, invested with a global culture, internet, huge frustration, and a need for freedom and emancipation. Women played a major role in the revolutions. Some even became icons.

In God We Trust

by Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek
BMES LLC
| 82’ | USA | 2013 | HD |
Eleanor Squillari went to work every day believing she was working for a great company, a great man. For twenty-five years she sat 15 feet from Bernard L. Madoff as his personal secretary. She never imagined that he was perpetrating the largest financial crime in history. On December 11th, 2008, her life as she knew it was destroyed…until she decided to do something about it. She became obsessed with unearthing the truth. Through this film we experience this journey with Eleanor, as she examines how she unwittingly participated in the massive Ponzi scheme, which operated right under her nose. Years of Eleanor's files and personal memories begin to unwind the crimes as she aids the FBI investigation, and struggles to determine which of her formerly trusted co-workers were involved. As she probes deeper into the deceit, Eleanor finds that Bernie's Ponzi scheme was only the beginning, a small fraction of the criminal activity that took place everyday for decades, right under her nose.

In the Name of the Animals

by Sabine Kueckelmann
Sabine Kueckelmann
| 104’ - 52’ | Germany | 2015 | HD |
“The film powerfully explores how people say they “love” animals (cats and dogs) but see others just as a food source or byproduct. This film explores the deplorable and inhumane treatment this creates as a result. It makes us take a hard look at ourselves and how we so easily close our eyes to their suffering, unwilling to confront the endless pain and cruelty at our own hands.” (Jury Accolade Award)

ININNAWA:AN ISLAND CALLING

by Arfan Sabran
Two Islands Digital (PT Dua Pulau Digital)
| 73’- 52’ | Indonesia | 2022 | 2K |
"Ininnawa: An Island Calling" explores the difficulties the world’s largest archipelago faces in providing health care. An out of sight, out of mind approach has failed her people. It is a story of obligation and sacrifice, told through a family dedicating their lives to this pursuit in the remote islands of the Flores Sea.

IRON CROWS

by Bong-Nam Park
Frontline News Service
| South Korea | 90' - 59' | 2009 | HD |
PHP is the best conditioned ship breaking site in Chittagong, a home to the world renowned ship breaking industry. However, the workers risk their lives while wrestling with thousands tons of iron pieces at the yards full of asbestos and toxic gases. There is always a chance for explosion while burning the waste oils trapped in stacks of iron. The workers could easily get crushed and killed while cutting or moving iron plates.

Johatsu – Into Thin Air

by Andreas Hartmann, Arata Mori
Ossa Film Andreas Hartmann, Mori Film
| 85’ - 52’ | Germany, Japan | 2024 | |
In Japan, people vanish without a trace with the support of so-called 'night moving' companies, which help people to disappear from their current life, leaving behind everything to start a new life somewhere else.

European Film Awards Shortlist

La Chana

by Lucija Stojevic
Noon Films S.L., Bless Bless Productions
| 82’ & 55’ | Spain | 2016 | HD |
An intimate portrait of Gypsy flamenco dancer La Chana as she returns to the stage after a 23-year break and uncovers the secret why she disappeared at the peak of her career.

Last Harvest

by Hui Wang
Redbean Productions
| 78’ - 52' | Canada | 2015 | |
Last Harvest follows the remarkable journey of Mr. and Mrs. Xu, an elderly Chinese farming couple, on a forced relocation by the government’s mammoth South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Lyrical and intimate, the film brings us into the life of two compelling peasants facing major disruption late in life. It continues the story where other documentaries left off – after the people have been relocated and have to re-build their lives, and offers a direct experience of the collision between traditional culture and modernization, through which we see the imminent extinction of Old China as New China emerge.

LAST TRAIN HOME

by Lixin Fan
EyeSteelfilm
| Canada | 87’ - 52’ | 35mm | 2009 | HD |

Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important holiday in the lunar calendar. It remains the last stronghold of Chinese traditions that are withering rapidly with the invasion of new values. Each year, hundreds of millions of migrant workers return to their homes from the city to the rural countryside, throwing the transportation system into utter chaos. For many migrants, the cheapest and fastest route home is by train. People camp at railway station for tickets, climb through windows, stand for days and nights, wear diapers to avoid using the lavatory, and struggle to stay in sanity to survive the ride. They are determined to return home at any cost for the solemn purpose of getting back to see their families.

Life of Ivanna

by Renato Borrayo Serrano
Ethnofund Film Company LLC, Ten Thousand Images AS, Illume OY Company
| 77’ | Russia, Norway, Finland, Estonia | 2021 | Full HD |
Ivanna is a young Nenets woman and mother of five children who lives in the Russian Arctic. She decides to take her life in her own hands, emancipating from an abusive relationship and abandoning the traditional nomadic way of life in the tundra.

Little People Big Dreams

by Mak CK
MCN International Pte. Ltd, Wonderland Pictures
| 89’ | Singapore | 2014 | HD |
Travel to the most unlikely kingdom on earth. This is china’s dwarves empire, where little people stand tall. Or do they? This feature documentary chronicles their journey in the pursuit of of happiness and explores the shades of modern-day morality.

Lone Twin

by Anna Van der Wee
Wild Heart Productions
| 71' - 57' | Belgium/Canada | | HD 16:9 |
Twins fascinate us. Romulus and Remus. Castor and Pollux. We cannot get enough of them. But what happens when one of them dies? Based on the filmmakers’ personal story, Lone Twin takes us on a journey to four continents, meeting twins between 18 and 80, deep into their intriguing world.

LoveMEATender

by Manu Coeman
AT Production/AT-DOC, Planète Vie
| 52' - 63' | Belgium | 2011 | HD |
This documentary is a fierce indictment of the industrialized meat industry. The objective is to demonstrate the consequences of our excessive meat consumption: for the animals, for the earth, but also for our own bodies.

Manufacturing Romance

by Chai Hongfang, Fan Jian
Cloud Thinker
| 93’ - 52’ | China | 2015 | HD |
Manufacturing Romance tells the love and marriage stories about two couples of young Chinese migrant workers, gives an intimate look at the emotional and marital dilemma faced by them. By tracking them through all the efforts they have made to get out of the dilemma, the film shows how different the new generation of migrant workers are from their parents in understanding the concept of marriage. When the global trend of urbanization forces them to choose between loves they have been pursuing and parents who live in their hometown and wait for them going back to take care of, what should they do?

My Barefoot Friend

by Seong-Gyou Lee
Sigong Tech Co., Ltd, SigongTech
| 52’ - 81’ | South Korea | 2010 | HD |
In Calcutta, 20 thousand feet are running tangled up, all barefoot. They are rickshaw pullers. Among them is Shallim, an ordinary man whose old and tired rickshaw has been the only means of hope. He’s run endless miles with it to save up money to buy an auto rickshaw, that will realize his dream: a house for his family. However, despair comes to the weakest first. Shallim’s wife is found to be seriously ill. His son catches a swine flu. Hospital charges are mounting and Shalim’s dream is on the verge of collapsing.

My Thai Bride

by David Tucker
Showreal Films Pty Ltd
| 55’ | Australia | 2011 | |
In Wales, Ted doesn't exist. This 46-year-old single man feels lonely in a society where only young people count. In Thailand he marries Tip. His new wife starts running the finances before long he leaves penniless.

Nice Ladies

by Marija Ponomarova
Labyrint Film, Tabor Production
| 90’&52’ | The Netherlands, Ukraine | 2024 | 2K |
A team of aging Ukrainian cheerleaders hold on to their friendship as each navigates the trauma of war in her own way.

No Visible Trauma

by Marc Serpa Francoeur, Robinder Uppal
Lost Time Media, Big Cedar Films
| 44'&52'&97’ | Canada | 2020 | 4K |

The lives of three men and their families in Calgary, Canada are torn apart by the violent actions of police officers and a justice system that refuses to hold them accountable.

Nowhere to Call Home: A Tibetan in Beijing

by Jocelyn Ford
Stories that Matter LTD
| 52’&76’ | China / USA | 2014 | HD & HDV |
A Tibetan farmer is torn between her traditional way of life and her desire for her son to have a better future in the city. Shot in the slums of Beijing and a remote village near the epicenter of Tibetan self-immolations, this epic family story puts a human face on the political strife that fractures China and Tibet.

Numb

by Phil Lawrence
Little Dog Big Bite Films Inc., Frozen Feet Films & Channel Z Films
| 78’ | USA | 2010 | BDIG 16:9 |
What happens when you stop taking antidepressants? A successful suburban dad who is tired of feeling “numb” decides to quit taking antidepressants and documents the drastic effects on his physical and psychological well-being. His wife and kids wonder what happened to man they once knew. “Numb” also reveals startling new information the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want you to know.

A STRANGER'S SKIN

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