The Peoples' Palace

Will.i.am: The Blackprint

The Blackprint explores what it means to be Black and British. will.i.am traveled the UK to meet civil rights heroes, schoolchildren and technology trailblazers while also exploring issues they face because of their race. A basic look at racial discrimination experienced by young Black men and women but also, where it began with the slave trade in the 1800s.

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.

The Echo of Pain of the Many

A Guatemalan woman, Ana Lucía Cuevas, returns home from exile to face the brutal history of Guatemala's armed conflict. In 1984, her brother Carlos was kidnapped by the state as one of thousands who were abducted and disappeared. Recounting the stories of brutal genocide, terror, state repression and violence, this film documents the memories of those victimised by the Guatemalan state.

Cannibal Island

A disturbing chapter in Russian history is explored in this documentary. In 1933, Joseph Stalin sent 6000 "unwanted" citizens of Moscow and Leningrad to a desolate Siberian island - with no food or clothes to speak of. Decades later this documentary returns to the island.

Sheher-E-Lucknow

A docu-film about the city Lucknow where the creators ask their family members important questions they have always wanted answers to, while indulging in tomfoolery around town. The film showcases the differences in the way three different generations perceive Lucknow. An ode to the city, and an attempt to provide solace to the social misfits of the creators' hometown.

The War on Disco

The War on Disco explores the culture war that erupted over the spectacular rise of disco music. Originating in underground Black and gay clubs, disco had unseated rock as America’s most popular music by the late 1970s. But many diehard rock fans viewed disco, with its repetitive beat and culture that emphasized pleasure, as shallow and superficial. A story that’s about much more than music, The War on Disco explores how the powerful anti-disco backlash revealed a cultural divide that to some seemed to be driven by racism and homophobia. The hostility came to a head on July 12, 1979, when a riot broke out at “Disco Demolition Night” during a baseball game in Chicago.

Los Rastros del Corregidor

Karoline Augusta Antonsen

Born into a family of farmers in the mid-19th century, Karoline Augusta Antonsen moves to a nearby industrial city in her late teens, driven by the dream of building a large family and owning a big house. This short film follows her journey of hope, and her struggle to survive in a tough economy. Will she achieve her lifelong ambition or will her story end in tragedy?

Cinema da nossa gente

Hollywood Ghost Stories

A chronicle of alleged ghosts, haunted landmarks and the otherworldly doings of Tinseltown, including a cursed script and haunted homes of the stars. A range of celebrities and parapsychologists provide interviews related to the history of Hollywood hauntings and their own experiences hosted by William Shatner.

Personal Che

A documentary that explores the myth behind the truth. Different people around the globe reinterpret the legend of Che Guevara at will: from the rebel living in Hong Kong fighting Chinese domination, to the German neonazi preaching revolution and the Castro-hating Cuban. Their testimonies prove that the Argentinian revolutionary's historical impact reverberates still. But like with all legends, each sees what he will, in often contradictory perspectives.

Assassins

This darkly satirical musical reframes American history through the eyes of those who attempted – successfully or not – to kill US presidents. Structured as a surreal carnival sideshow, the piece weaponises American musical traditions – vaudeville, folk ballads, barbershop quartets, patriotic Sousa-style marches and Bacharach pop – to undercut the myth of the “American Dream,” exposing how frustration, alienation and entitlement can curdle into violence.

Kanaval: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters

Haitian history is presented through an explosion of colour, dance and music, as the country prepares for its legendary carnival.

Opium Wars 97

The Opium Wars, a 19th-century armed conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire, is narrated by a history professor who has a hypnotic effect on his students.

13 novembre, nos vies en éclats

On November 13, 2015, the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, carried out by three Islamist commandos and claimed by ISIS, were the deadliest in France since the end of World War II. In the months that followed, the November 13 Program was launched by the CNRS and Inserm to study the construction of individual and collective memory around an event that profoundly marked French society. Today, the testimonies of 27 volunteers—among some 1,000 people—who participated in the study form a mosaic of experiences that shows how trauma extends beyond the immediate circle to permeate the national collective memory.

Jaws, a Monstrous Success

In the summer of 1975, the young director Steven Spielberg set new standards for cinema worldwide with an oversized shark bite, a plastic shark fin and an unmistakable two-note main theme composed by John Williams. With the horror from the deep, a man-eating, gigantic great white shark, the film of the same name became a similarly traumatic reference as Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho": it triggered lasting primal fears across generations. On the beaches of the world, there was clearly a "before" and an "after". Steven Spielberg, who was only 28 at the time, not only set new standards for the thriller genre, but also hid his biting criticism of US capitalism in the 1970s behind it.

Z vôle ľudu zrodené

Haruki Murakami: From Underground to 1Q84

Revealing the flaws of Japanese society, the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway prompted Murakami to return to his homeland, whose conformism he rejected, to examine it closely. This led to the creation of two works: Underground and 1Q84.

Murder in West Cork

Over three nights in April 1922, 13 men were murdered in west Cork, because, according the late Canadian historian Peter Hart, they were Protestants. This documentary goes to the root of the bitter dispute his controversial views have created.

I Love You and I Am Going to Fix You

Based on true events in 1990s Denver, a young couple uncovers a disturbing anomaly inside a sushi restaurant.