Kuychi Pucha

Fordlandia Malaise

Fordlandia Malaise is a film about the memory and the present of Fordlandia, the company town founded by Henry Ford in the Amazon rain forest in 1928. His aim was to break the British rubber monopoly and produce this material in Brazil for his car production in the United States. Today, the remains of construction testify to the scale of the failure of this neocolonialist endeavor that lasted less than a decade. Nowadays, Fordlandia is a space suspended between times, between the 20th and 21st centuries, between utopia and dystopia, between visibility and invisibility: architectural buildings of steel, glass, and masonry still remain in use while traces of indigenous life left no marks on the ground.

Kongomüller

After numerous military operations, Major Müller can't find a way back into civilian life. Following his urge to communicate, the Major is looking for listeners and encouragement. He doesn't find either. Instead, the repeated monological memory of his own heroic deeds determines his present – with all the consequences. This 30-minute short film is based on the statements made by the mercenary Siegfried Müller in the documentary “The Laughing Man” (Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann, DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries, 1966), as well as records from the German colonial period in Africa. An intensive contribution to the necessary public debate about the consequences of military operations.

Flensburg Sweetbitter

A multiscreen installation, a colorful beach bar, the statue of Saint Christopher - a postcolonial look at the edge of the harbor in Flensburg and the question of what is made visible and what is not.

Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther

The portrait of Eldridge Cleaver, the "Minister of Information" for the Black Panthers movement, in exile in Algiers.

A Day Apart on the Seventeenth

Dawn breaks on the 17th of August, and Laksmi prepares for a celebration of the Indonesian independence day. As she embarks on her preparations, she experiences visitations by familiar faces from her past, reminding her of the folly of nostalgia in a post-colonial world.

The Tree of Authenticity

Photographer and visual artist Sammy Baloji’s fascinating film essay explores the Democratic Republic of Congo’s colonial history and its ecological significance. Drawing on research from the 1930s, the film highlights the Congo Basin’s vital role in consuming carbon dioxide and shaping global environmental balance over a century.

Those Who Come, Will Hear

The documentary proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.

Our Constitution

An overview of the principles and directives of India's post-independence constitution.

Monikondee

Along the Maroni River between Suriname and French Guiana, Boogie, a boatman, transports fuel and supplies to remote Maroon and Indigenous communities by motorized canoe. As gold mining, floods, and corporate exploitation reshape life along the river, each stop becomes a place of exchange — of goods, stories, and songs. Moving against the current, he must navigate obligations to his clan, the river, and an unforgiving economy.

Toute l'Algérie du monde

The largest country in the Arab world and a producer of hydrocarbons, Algeria has everything it needs to weigh on the international scene. But Africa's second military power seems undermined by its internal problems. While the Bouteflika regime has fallen and the popular “hirak” movement has shown that the people are ready to enter a more democratic era, the country appears as a colossus with feet of clay, which has failed enhance their independence. How did this isolation come about? From the “dark decade” of terrorism to the fall of Bouteflika, via 9/11 or the Arab revolutions, this documentary sheds light on Algerian foreign policy in recent decades, while deciphering the strategy of Western powers towards it.

Carving Thy Faith

A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconographies, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes production processes before becoming a spiritual object of devotion. - A sculpture believed to have been imported in town during Spanish colonial conquest, locally known as Mahal na Señor Sepulcro, is celebrating its 500 years. Meanwhile, composed of non-actors, Senakulo re-enacts the sufferings and death of Jesus. As the local community yearly unites to commemorate the Passion of Christ, a laborious journey unfolds following local craftsmen in transforming blocks of wood into a larger than life Jesus crucified on a 12-ft cross.

Notre ami l'empereur Bokassa Ier

Agassizhorn: Mountain of Shame

In the Bernese Alps, the Agassizhorn peak memorialises Louis Agassiz – a controversial 19th-century scientist, who not only named the mountain after himself, but who claimed he had discovered the Ice Age and went on to become one of the century's most virulent, most influential racists.

Jabal

Three friends drive through the mountains looking for a community of Palestinians they've only ever heard about.

Voodoo in My Heart

Emily’s boyfriend has turned into a zombie overnight. She has successfully tied him to the bed frame with a phone charger, but not before he was able to bite her. With nothing to aid her other than a phone and a musical keyboard, a weak and tired Emily must figure out how to prevent herself becoming a zombie before it’s too late.

Names Live Nowhere

A Senegalese storyteller travels to Belgium and observes the lives of African expatriates in Europe. Dreams and struggles great and small are explored.

Homage to Lal Bhahadur Shashtri

A reflection on the life and death of India's second Prime Minister, Lal Bhahadur Shashtri.

The Wind

Two Malian teenagers, Bah and Batrou, from different backgrounds, meet at secondary school. Bah is the descendent of a great tribal chieftain. Batrous father, a provincial military governor, represents the new ruling power. The two teenagers are part of a generation that rejects the established order and challenges the society in which they live.

Prospecting for Prosperity

Introduction to the oil industry of India in the post-colonial period.

The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua

Writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar explores Algerian history, the psychological impact of war, and post-colonial female identity in this 1979 classic of film literature. Named for (and taking its structure from) a traditional song with five distinct movements, the film combines documentary-style observation with loose narrative form to tell the story of Lila, an Algerian expatriate returning to her country 15 years after independence has been won. In comparing her life with the lives and experiences of rural Algeriennes, Lila is able to put her childhood demons to rest and discover a new history -- one written in the ongoing strength of generations of women. Like much of Djebar's writing, the film has a strong subtext dealing with resistance to patriarchy and women's desire to appropriate the means of power and expression -- one of which, of course, is the filmmaker's camera.