Agent of Happiness

Looby

Looby is the story of what happens when an artist chooses to speak out. For Australian painter Keith Looby, it cost him almost everything. Winner of prestigious art prizes and collected by major galleries at home and abroad, Keith's addiction to speaking his mind has left a string of failed business relationships, marriages and friendships. Bludgeoned into coherence by the film-makers, assessed by dealers, curators, critics and fellow artists, Looby is a chance to look at a brilliant artist who had his moment in the sun, and to ask whether he should have another.

LFG

Three months before the 2019 World Cup, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation. At the center of this no-holds-barred account are the players themselves–Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O'Hara and others–who share their stories of courage and resiliency as they take on the biggest fight for women's rights since Title IX.

Nous les ouvriers

Kampai! Sake Sisters

Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage from Japan and is otherwise known as rice wine. Women were prohibited from entering the many large and small sake breweries dotting Japan for centuries. However, times have changed and women are present on the sake scene today. In several cases, they are integral to the Japanese brewery business. The documentary depicts women who are not only enthusiasts, but also leaving their marks on the evolution of this Japanese mainstay.

Inside Red China

October 1st, 1957. Dusk descends on Tiananmen Square, Peking. Fireworks crackle light across the night sky, above a city alive with National Day festivities and celebrations. Two intrepid New Zealand film-makers - Rudall and Ramai Te Miha Hayward - are there, documenting the life and times of communist China. The distinction of being the first English speaking foreigners to film unfettered in communist China was significant. The invitation to visit China was facilitated through the New Zealand China Friendship Society. They filmed in Canton, Shanghai, Peking (Beijing) and Wuhan. It was a small window of opportunity for Westerners to gaze on a country that was largely a mystery to the outside world since 1949. The unfortunate irony was that two of the documentaries; “Wonders of China”, and “Inside Red China”, were considered to be communist propaganda, and were not distributed outside of New Zealand.

A Calling to Care

A Calling to Care is the inspiring story of 55 year-old Grace Stanley, a Canadian nurse who left her home and prestigious career behind to answer a calling halfway around the world in Karachi, Pakistan. Teaching nursing to local women in a strict Muslim culture that forbids them to even to touch men is a formidable task. However, Grace challenges her own values and belief systems to find common ground with her students, helping them to excel and feel respect for themselves in a culture that doesn't respect them. Whether it is getting her hands painted with henna, swimming fully-clothed in the ocean, or marching bravely with them on International Women's Day, Grace bonds with her students in a very special way, and ultimately discovers how the West can learn a lot more from the Third World than she ever thought.

Megalopolis

The Power of Activism

This film takes us on an emotional journey from sacred ground above Byron Bay to Antarctica, Indonesia to Pakistan, and is sure to light a fire under the strongest climate change denier. THE POWER OF ACTIVISM focuses on six highly spirited female activists as they are put under the microscope to ascertain the financial impact of their environmental solutions… and the results are astonishing. From shark conservation to indigenous practices, intensive farming to plastic pollution; all their ‘causes' fall under the umbrella of "climate change", but they should also fall under the umbrella of "saving tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars!”

As Though Nothing Happened

Seven Damascenes, eight years apart, one collective trauma. This is the story of a city and the psychological scars its people bear from years of war.

A Space of Our Own - The Lanka Comic Con Documentary

A Documentary about the Lanka Comic Con, history of how it started, and its community.

Männer und Depression: Das stumme Leiden

Why are men two or even three times less likely than women to be diagnosed with depression? Why are the figures reversed between the sexes in suicide statistics—some 47,000 people in Europe each year, more than three-quarters of whom are men? In men, the signs may differ from those generally identified with depression: anger rather than sadness, hyperactivity (at work or in sports) rather than asthenia, antisocial or addictive behavior, greater difficulty in asking for help due to modesty or shame, etc. But whatever form it takes, mental suffering is still often overlooked by those affected, misdiagnosed by many practitioners, and therefore generally underestimated.

Parallel Lives

Born June 8, 1964, Frank Matter films four "twins", born the same day as him, but in other latitudes. Interweaving their life stories with rich archival material, the filmmaker links these Parallel Lives with elements from his own biography, to compose a fascinating fresco where intimate trajectories are part of the advent of the global village.

Second Line

The Broken Brothers Brass Band visits the Andrés Muñoz Garde public special education school in Pamplona. And through their interaction with the workers, the volunteers and even the beneficiaries, the work that is done there is revealed, the universe that is hidden there.

A House In Fog

Mokhtar Namdar’s documentary ‘A House in Fog’ recounts the story of Soraya, who lives a life of solitude in a mansion in a hilly landscape. The house is the only reason she tolerates all the hardships of living alone in the wilderness.

Et glas vand til Johnie

AN OCEAN

The trembling starts in his neck when Markus gets closer to the images that have chased him for 49 years. Now he steers his motor home south, as far away from his past as possible.

CLT Punk

A documentary about the Charlotte, North Carolina Punk scene

Kekaiulu Hula Studio

Kekaiulu Hula Studio follows the Proclaimed Hula Halau of the same name, showcasing their twist on what the real reason for hula is and what life as a dancer in the halau is really like. Something previously unseen in the public eye.

Care Home Undercover

Journalist Catriona MacPhee goes undercover as a cleaner at Castlehill Care Home in the Scottish Highlands, spending around seven weeks in the role. The documentary reveals deeply troubling conditions: neglect of basic care tasks, inattention to residents, inadequately followed care plans, staff shortages, unsanitary conditions, emotional distress among residents, and instances of intimidation or mistreatment. The film aims not only to expose failings at Castlehill but to raise broader questions about care home regulation, staffing, dignity, and accountability in the care sector.

Taylor Swift, la première puissance américaine