A Woman Captured
Slavery is a European invention, and still exists. Filmmaker Bernadett Tuza-Ritter encounters Eta in Hungary, a woman proud of keeping domestic slaves. Violent, abusive, and manipulative, Eta has stripped 53-year-old Marish of her belongings, her family and her identity. As trust builds between Marish and the filmmaker, Marish begins to mentally prepare for a dangerous […]
The Other Side of Everything
Taste of Cement
Taste of Cement is a portrait of workers in exile. Ziad Kalthoum creates an essay documentary of Syrian construction workers building new skyscrapers in Beirut on the ruins caused by the Lebanese civil war. At the same time their own houses are being bombed in Syria. A Curfew prohibits them from leaving the construction site […]
Stranger in Paradise
‘Stranger in Paradise’ is a controversial role play in three acts about a controversial topic: the refugee crisis. The scene is a classroom in Sicily, the students are real refugees hoping to get asylum. In the role of a teacher is an actor who alternates between right-wing conservative, humanist and genuine ‘realpolitik’ approaches to whether […]
Plastic China
Yi Jie’s uneducated parents left the area where they grew up, looking for work. They now sort and recycle plastic waste from Europe, the United States and other parts of Asia. The family literally lives among mountains of plastic and the disgusting stench from incinerators. Nevertheless, the children always manage to find hidden treasures: a […]
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle
This is the story about Julita, a matriarch whose three childhood wishes have been granted: lots of kids, a monkey, and a Spanish castle.At her 81 years old, one of her children needs to find the vertebra of his murdered great-grandmother, lost among the exorbitant amount of weird objects she has hoarded throughout her life, […]
An Insignificant Man
Call him the Bernie Sanders of India: fed up with rampant corruption in Indian politics, Arvind Kejriwal decided to shake things up and challenge the status quo by forming the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party, or AAP) in 2012. This was no small feat in a country that (much like the United States) has […]
Donkeyote
The grandest adventure is afoot for Spanish septuagenarian Manolo, his mischievous shepherd, Zafrana, and his stalwart donkey, Gorrión, if only they can survive chronic arthritis, impertinent travel agents, shipping concerns, and just one more bridge. Director Chico Pereira deftly delivers a lyrical meditation on the quest for individual liberty among infinite borders. Equal parts larger-than-life […]
Les Sauteurs (Those Who Jump)
Abou and his friends stand on a sparse Moroccan hillside looking out at the tiny Spanish enclave of Melilla. All that stands between them and their El Dorado are three towering fences. German filmmakers Moritz Siebert and Estephan Wagner entrusted Abou with a camera to film life in the makeshift camp the men call home. […]
The Pearl
Far from the celebrity and magazine covers of Laverne Cox and Caitlin Jenner, THE PEARL witnesses the loss and extraordinary risk of four middle-aged senior war vets, steel foremen, and fathers and grandfathers coming out for the first time as transgender women in the hyper-masculine culture of the Pacific Northwest. Over the course of the […]