Documentary Movies

Isabel Allende: A Thousand and One Voices

A documentary about famous writer Isabel Allende.

The Making of a Farmer

Every day, farms disappear due to a lack of successors. Leonard, the son of doctors and a university graduate, makes the unexpected choice to become a farmer.

Genesis

An African narrator tells the story of earth history, the birth of the universe and evolution of life. Beautiful imagery makes this movie documentary complete.

14 Apples

Wang Shin-hong is suffering from insomnia. A fortune teller advises the Mandalay businessman, whose car and bulging wallet suggest that business is going pretty well, to spend 14 days in a monastery, living life as a monk and eating an apple a day. Such a thing is possible in Burma today. Wang Shin-hong arrives at the rural monastery, has his head shaved and dons a red robe, in which he instantly becomes an authority. During the welcome procession, the village women, their poverty clear from their clothing and the huts in the background, put more than they have in his alms bowl. During his fleeting role as their advisor, Wang Shin-hong soon learns of the villagers’ attempts to survive and make a living as legal or illegal migrants in China, Thailand or Malaysia. He also finds out how the other monks try to generate profit and additional income.

Calle de la pietà

Unhappy Party

The documentary film of one of the concert series "Unhappy Party" (Mutsuz Parti) by Büyük Ev Ablukada performed at the end of 2019.

The Disquiet

Earth-shattering events are relatively par for the course in Lebanon, with war, political upheaval and a number of social revolts. While the Lebanese focus on surface level events that could rock the nation, few realize that below the ground we walk on, an actual shattering of the earth is mounting. Lebanon stands on several major fault lines, which are cracks in the earth's crust. The film investigates the geological situation in Lebanon, trying to look for the traces of the imminent disaster.

Pop

A talented American musician finds himself entangled in a chaotic film project led by a relentless Kiwi director determined to complete his disasterpiece at all costs.

It Started with Trees – Revolt in the Gezi Park

Protesters diary from Gezi Park - Taksim Square, Istanbul. Occupy Gezi movement started when the government decided to build shopping mall in place of the last green area that remained in the middle of Taksim Square.

Together / Apart

All around the world schools for the deaf are closing, depriving deaf children of the benefits of having a sign language comunity. One school in Mexico City remains steadfast in giving the deaf comuniy a space to learn and comunicate in sign language, and shows extrordinary results in it´s aproach.

Aires

In a village in Melgaço, Adelino Fernandes, better known as Aires, spends his days working in his "tiny" workshop at home. Retired and at 87 years old, he dedicates himself to arranging the most diverse objects at the request of neighbors for whom he is very fond, and he asks them for nothing in return. A poetic portrait of a man who contributes to his community and in return life smiles back at him.

Dragon Girls!

Yves Montmayeur takes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the starting point for his study of the new female warrior in Asian pop culture. From Beijing to Tokyo and Taiwan, he went to meet with the most iconic muses of this new trend, including Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi and Asami.

Gimme Truth

False flags. Forbidden archeology. Chemtrails. Nefarious extraterrestrials. Fake pandemics. Through the intertwined stories of truth-seekers, influencers, and ex-believers, the film explores what draws people into the gravitational pull of conspiracy culture, and what happens when your truth becomes your identity.

Somewhere After

In 2020, seven Australians shared their hopes, dreams and fears and chose a landscape to reflect their experience of isolation. Three years later, they listen back with vulnerability and humour, confronting the universal question: can we use difficult times to become who we hope to be?

Explorer: Lake of Fire

In 2001, satellite imagery captured a mysterious “thermal anomaly” on an unexplored volcano at the ends of the Earth. What lies inside could provide new clues to help predict volcanic eruptions around the globe. But the island is so remote with conditions that are so extreme. No one has ever been able to reach the top to investigate what lies inside.. until now.

The Language of Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films: The Early Works

Documentary made in two parts by Luciano Berriatúa. This first part focuses on childhood, personal life and the early works in films by German director F.W. Murnau.

The National Touch

After the fall of the Soviet Union large numbers of immigrants from the East stayed in Latvia for good, Latvians simply call them “Russians”. Over 20 years of independence later mutual suspicion and bias are still there in the most part of the local community. Therefore, a Latvian director involves an independent Russian speaking Norwegian colleague in helping him understand Latvian “Russians” and coming up with an integration plan. But soon enough it becomes clear that only Latvians themselves can manage the challenge. And so begins director’s journey away from the division “us / them”.

Headhunter's Song: The Cry of the Aboriginal People of Taiwan

Kao Chin Su-mei, a former actress and now a legislator in the Taiwan Legislative Yuan (the legislative assembly), is from the Tayal tribe, one of the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. Together with both the Taiwan Aborigine Workgroup, consisting of all the tribes including the Han people, and the aboriginal music group Feijuyuenbao Synectics, she finds the courage to fight for the return of their ancestors’ souls from Japan. Their appeal is unambiguous: “We cannot bear it that our ancestors’ souls are still in Japan. This is because we are not Japanese.”

Past Perfect

Many cities or countries have a distinct malaise. They are places that could be Portugal, so sunk in a painful longing of the past, and where each tension of the present is only the tip of an iceberg that is explained in successive retreats that can go straight until origin of the species, at least. This feeling common to many latitudes is often presented as a diagnosis, a denial of a painful present as opposed to the desire to return to a glorious past.

Free Spaces

"Free Spaces" sketches a new and transformative image of four major cities in Eastern Europe. In te post-communist urban settings of Tbilisi (Georgia), Yerevan (Armenia), Chișinău (Moldova) and Kiev (Ukraine), Ina Ivanceanu follows artists and activists as they reclaim public spaces and assert their freedom of expression. Occupying a cinema, reviving an old Soviet circus, converting a grim metro passage into a glamorous arena, and repurposing a defunct factory building into a cultural agora. By seizing and creatively transforming public spaces characterized by an abondoned past, today's new generation explores democratic means and freedom while also confronting pervasive neoliberal structures in their respective societies.