Positivas

Lessons for Zafirah

A metaphor of the Flood in our times, The Flood is the rain of violence that washes over us. Noah´s Ark is the train that runs through Mexico toward the United States and migrants are the species attempting to save their lives. For the directors, cinema moves people not just by condemnation, but by confronting and fostering emotions which lead to new, constructive ideas. This documentary became a cinematographic diary for their first viewer, their three-year-old daughter, Zafirah.

The Water Map

The Water Map is an essayistic journey through the ethnography and landscapes of the Region of Murcia. These places are in the process of disappearing due to the increasing and abundant agricultural exploitation. Water has marked the territory and the culture of the area, and with its disappearance, the memories of four characters fade away.

Chceme ještě žít!

The House On Gulmohar Avenue

A film about home and belonging, tracing the filmmaker's personal journey to understand what it means to be a Muslim in India today.

After the Apology

Suellyn thought the Department of Community Services (DOCS) would only remove children in extreme cases, until her own grandchildren were taken in the middle of the night. Hazel decided to take on the DOCS system after her fourth grandchild was taken into state care. Jen Swan expected to continue to care for her grandchildren but DOCS deemed her unsuitable, a shock not just to her but to her sister, Deb, who was, at the time, a DOCS worker. The rate of Indigenous child removal has actually increased since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology to the ‘stolen generations’ in 2008. These four grandmothers find each other and start a national movement to place extended families as a key solution to the rising number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. They are not only taking on the system; they are changing it…

Kingdom of Us

How does a traumatic event shape a family? How do you sift through the memories to find hidden clues and unlock a collective grief? Kingdom of Us takes a look at a mother and her seven children, whose father's suicide left them in financial ruin. Through home movies and raw moments, the Shanks family travels the rocky road towards hope.

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa

Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of eco-pioneers, teenage runaways, war veterans and drop-outs, live on the fringe and off the grid, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream.

The Rape of Recy Taylor

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. The film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.

My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

A documentary directed by Winding Refn's wife, Liv Corfixen, and it follows the Danish-born filmmaker during the making of his 2013 film Only God Forgives.

The House Is Black

Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness," of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.

The Sunrise Storyteller

Kasha Sequoia Slavner, aka The Sunrise Storyteller, is an 18-year old filmmaker, photographer, entrepreneur, young global leader and peace advocate. As a concerned high school student, disillusioned and outraged by the negativity and powerlessness she felt as a consumer of mainstream media, Kasha was compelled to find an alternative narrative. On her 16th birthday on an ambitious mission to travel the world for six months with her mom, camera in hand and no clear road map, she finds herself intersecting with the lives of people determined to rise above adversity.

Freakonomics

Some of the world's most innovative documentary filmmakers will explore the hidden side of everything.

The Secret Life of Geisha

Documentary about the world of the Japanese geisha. Unattainable by all but the wealthy and powerful, geisha are the ultimate massagers of the male ego. Behind the delicate fan and enigmatic smile can also be found a darker side to the geisha story, including treachery and suicide.

Gardeners of Eden

Africa's elephants are hurtling towards extinction to fuel the worldwide ivory trade. While conservationists howl and corrupt governments fail to address the ongoing slaughter, one brave family has been working for decades to stem the tide, one elephant at a time. Gardeners of Eden is a gripping, first-person experience inside the operations of Kenya's David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From the front lines of the crisis, we witness their heroic efforts to stop the poachers in the bush, rescue the orphans of slain elephants and raise them by hand, until one day, returning them to their home in the wild.

Seeing Slavery

Filmmaker Erica Jordan follows renowned photographer Lisa Kristine on an unforgettable journey into the front-lines of modern day slavery, witnessing intimate moments of human connection and devastation. Central to the story is Lisa's pursuit to document Sonagachi, the largest brothel in India. As Lisa struggles to gain access, we witness her dedication and courage to shine a light a light on slavery and 'give a voice to the voiceless.' Woven into the story, Lisa shares her work in the trenches of global slavery from the broiling brick kilns of Nepal and India to the illegal mine shafts of Ghana, and the hidden lairs of sex slavery worldwide. Through this experience, Erica confronts her own fears and together they bear witness to the indomitable human spirit.

Ending Note: Death of a Japanese Salaryman

Recently retired from a company after some 40 years of service, Sunada Tomoaki, father of filmmaker Sunada Mami, is diagnosed with terminal cancer and only has a few months left to live. True to his pragmatic core, Sunada sets out to accomplish a list of tasks before his final departure: playing with his grandchildren, planning his own funeral, saying “I love you” to his wife, among others. In a voice over, using words taken from her father’s diary, filmmaker Sunada speaks tenderly in first person as the elder Sunada.

Our Brand Is Crisis

A documentary on American political campaign marketing tactics and their consequences.

Roundup

Watch 4,000 cattle return from summer grazing to 20 families who share a communal pasture and corral. Mesmerizing visual patterns from sky and ground frame an evocative contemplation of the relationship between human and animals, landscape and architecture.

Witch Hunt

Executive Producer Sean Penn presents "Witch Hunt," a gripping indictment of the American justice system told through the lens of one small town. Voters in Bakersfield, California elected a tough on crime district attorney into office for more than 25 years. During his tenure he convicted dozens of innocent working class moms and dads. They went to prison, some for decades, before being exonerated. He remains in office today. This story on a micro level mirrors what the US has experienced over the last eight years. When power is allowed to exist without oversight civil rights are in jeopardy.

Feminista

An exploratory journey highlighting the largely unrecognized yet hugely vibrant Pan European feminist movement that is very much alive today, from Turkey to Portugal, by the way of the Balkans, to Italy, Spain and Portugal.