The Edge of Democracy(2019)

Nefta Football Club(ar)

In the south of Tunisia, two football fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears.

The Cave(en)

Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.

Rolling Papers(en)

On January 1, 2014, recreational marijuana sales began in Colorado. With all eyes on ground zero of the green rush, The Denver Post became the first major media outlet to embrace it and appointed the world’s first marijuana editor. Legalization is not just an experiment for society, but a risk for the dying industry of newspapers to hedge its bets on the booming business of marijuana. Ricardo Baca sets out to report on history in the making with a team of straight-laced staff writers and fish out of water freelancers in tow for The Cannabist as it unfolds. Policy news, strain reviews, parenting advice and edible recipes are the new norm in the unprecedented world of pot journalism.

Gus(en)

The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.

Possible Loves(pt)

Fifteen year ago, Carlos went to the cinema to meet Júlia, his university colleague with whom he was in love. She never showed up. Carlos was left waiting in the lobby alone. While he waits, something happens which will change his life. A scene, an encounter, an unfinished sentence... Something insignificant, but which will determine the character's life. Fifteen years later, we follow three completely different versions of Carlos's life. In one, he is a man divided between the stability of a secure life in a lukewarm marriage, and the growing desire to live a great love affair. In the second, he is homosexual and places passion above all else. In the third possible life, Carlos is a man who hasn't yet discovered love, and lives through successive disastrous relationships in search of the perfect woman. One of them is his real life. Another is not his life. And a third is the life he'd like to lead. Which is his true life ?

The Trial(pt)

The impeachment and removal from office of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 was triggered by a corruption scandal involving, among others, her then vice-president Michel Temer. Director Maria Augusta Ramos follows the trial against Rousseff from the point of view of her defence team. This is a courtroom drama that unfolds slowly: the appearances of the various parties gradually turn the proceedings into something akin to theatre. Inside the courtroom, grand emotions are played to full effect whilst, on the other side of the doors, lobbyists and supporters pace the corridors. Meanwhile, outside, in front of Brasília’s modernist government buildings, demonstrators are chanting like a Greek chorus. Only the main character, Rousseff herself, remains professional and aloof.

Maria do Caritó(pt)

Maria, a virgin spinster, is trying magical superstitions to find a husband. In her dialogue with the marriage saint, she implores for a companion. Her father offered her as a bride to Saint Djalminha, if the saint saved her during her complicated birth which ended in the death of her mother. Since then Maria has lived this dilemma: revered and loved by the residents and pilgrims that believe she is a miracle worker; she is desperate to live a great love, with a flesh and blood prospect with real passionate desire. She asks for a sign from the heavens, a clue on how to find a crumb of love when a gypsy arrives on scene saying "someone who loves her very much, but she doesn't know will come from afar on an artists' caravan." Maria can't take the solitude she is living anymore and decides "to find Mr. Right," no matter how much it may cost.

VS.(en)

VS. is an urban rites of passage drama set in the hostile and exciting UK rap battle scene.

Lower House(pt)

During 2016, a film crew embeds inside the Brazilian Congress while lawmakers plot to overthrow the country's elected president, Dilma Rousseff.

Boy 23: The Forgotten Boys of Brazil(pt)

The film accompanies the investigation of the historian Sidney Aguilar after the discovery of bricks marked with Nazi swastikas in the interior of São Paulo. They then discover a horrifying fact that during the 1930s, fifty black and mullato boys were taken from an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro to the farm where the bricks were found. There they were identified by numbers and were submitted to slave labour by a family that was part of the political and economic elite of the country and who did not hide their Nazi sympathizing ideals.

Chicago Syndicate(en)

An ex-military accountant is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the mob in Chicago in an attempt to break open the rackets. To complicate his job, two women stand in his way, each with their own agenda.

Empty Days(pt)

"Empty Days" tells the story of a day in the life of Jean and Fabiana, a couple of young boyfriends who try to reinvent their lives in a small town in the Brazilian interior. They are in their senior year of high school and live the old dilemma: either we leave this city or we stay here and continue the history of our parents. At the end of this day Jean commits suicide and Fabiana disappears. Two years later, Daniel and Alanis, another couple of young boyfriends, try to understand how everything happened.

How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal(pt)

Lisbon, Portugal, 1927. The writer and journalist Fernando Pessoa accepts from his boss the commission to create an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca; but conservative government authorities consider the new drink as revolutionary as it is diabolical.

São Paulo's War(pt)

In 1932, more than two hundred thousand men armed with machine guns, grenades and canons took part in on of the most violent wars in America in the 20th century. Brazilian against Brazilian, in a conflict that involved air raid of big cities – such as Campinas, Santos and São Paulo - and resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Why did this war happen? Who took part in it? What were the details of the conflict? How did the war end? The documentary tells this episode of the country's history, not only grand but also unknown, with an accessible language and an involving rhythm.

The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later(fr)

Agnès Varda’s follow-up to her acclaimed documentary THE GLEANERS AND I takes us deeper into the world of those who find purpose and beauty in the refuse of society, revisiting many of the original film’s subjects.

Minha Fama de Mau(pt)

An emotional dive into the music and life of Erasmo Carlos, from his years as a young rock-and-roller looking for gigs through his enduring musical partnership with Roberto Carlos.

Whisky(es)

When his long-lost brother resurfaces, Jacobo, desperate to prove his life has added up to something, looks to scrounge up a wife. He turns to Marta, an employee at his sock factory, with whom he has a prickly relationship.

Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now(en)

Oprah Winfrey talks with the exonerated men once known as the Central Park Five, plus the cast and producers who tell their story in "When They See Us."

Citation(wo)

A bright student in Nigeria takes on the academic establishment when she reports a popular professor who tried to rape her. Based on real events.

Lula, the Son of Brazil(pt)

The true story of a working class boy who moves to the nation's financial capital at a young age and becomes one the most influential politicians in Brazilian history.

Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness(en)

A survivor of the Rwandan Genocide struggles to forgive the man who killed her children. A victim’s daughter strikes up an unusual friendship with the ex-IRA bomber who killed her father. And two men—one Israeli, one Palestinian—form a bond after tragedies claim their daughters.

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations(de)

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty(de)

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

The Empty Center(de)

Steyerl’s film traces the impact of an influx of transnational companies on the city dwellers of Berlin in post-reunification Germany. The effect of the changing economy and politics on the city and its inhabitants is echoed through their physical relocation to its outer edges. In 1990, squatters proclaim a socialist republic on the death strip. Eight years later, the new headquarters of Mercedes Benz are built in the same location. The film makes use of slow super-impositions to uncover a journey across changing architectural and cultural boundaries. "The Empty Centre" tries to give a voice and a history to those who continue to be marginalised by the simultaneous dismantling and reconstruction of the borders which they are trying to cross.

Hold on Tight(en)

A short documentary exploring the ways LGBT couples show affection, and how small interactions like holding hands in public can carry, not only huge personal significance, but also the power to create social change.

Saludos Amigos(en)

A whimsical blend of live action and animation, "Saludos Amigos" is a colorful kaleidoscope of art, adventure and music set to a toe-tapping samba beat. From high Andes peaks and Argentina's pampas to the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro, your international traveling companions are none other than those famous funny friends, Donald Duck and Goofy. They keep things lively as Donald encounters a stubborn llama and "El Gaucho" Goofy tries on the cowboy way of life....South American-style.

The Rape of Recy Taylor(en)

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.

Deep Water(en)

DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever – the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.

Yellow Fever(en)

What does beauty look like? In this award-winning short, Kenyan filmmaker Ng’endo Mukii combines animation, performance, and experimental techniques to create a visually arresting and psychologically penetrating exploration of the insidious impact of Western beauty standards and media-created ideals on African women’s perceptions of themselves. From hair-straightening to skin-lightening, YELLOW FEVER unpacks the cultural and historical forces that have long made Black women uncomfortable, literally, in their own skin.

Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party(en)

Directed by the wife of 'That Kevin Smith', Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, a feature length documentary looking at the behind the scenes making of JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.

Brothers(no)

A film about the close relationship between two brothers. Markus (10) and Lukas (7) live in an old, yellow townhouse in the middle of Oslo. The river runs close to their home. A paradise in the heart of a big city. Here the brothers grow up with their dreams and longings for the future.

Fantastic Laloux(fr)

A short documentary about the life of director and artist René Laloux, featuring an interview with Laloux from 2001.

Pelican Dreams(en)

Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker Judy Irving (with her first film since the widely acclaimed and loved “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges of these ancient birds, sometimes referred to as the flying dinosaurs. The film is about wildness, and asks the following questions: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it? PELICAN DREAMS, stars “Gigi” (for Golden Gate) and Morro (a backyard pelican with an injured wing).

Piripkura(pt)

The last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region's massive deforestation. Living deep in the rainforest, Pakyî and Tamandua live off the land relying on a machete, an ax, and a torch lit in 1998.

Freefalling: A Love Story(en)

I meet Herbert in the same week I get diagnosed with cancer. We fall madly in love and plan to stay together for the rest of our lives. Three months later, he is dead. Herbert was a BASE Jumper. Leaping off a cliff with nothing but a parachute, he loses his balance, slams into the rock face and falls to his death. His loss in the midst of my chemotherapy completely throws me. Why does he gamble his life away, while I fight for mine? Desperate for answers, I return to Lauterbrunnen, the scene of the accident where Andreas, his best friend and coach, introduces me to the world of BASE. The jumpers teach me not only about the sport, but about facing fears, harnessing and controlling them. To make the most of the life we get. In the Swiss Death Valley I slowly find my way back to life.

Depeche Mode 101(en)

A fascinating documentary focusing on backstage realities of art and business during the British synthesizer band's 1988 American tour.

The War Room(en)

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.

Horns and Halos(en)

"What if someone wrote your biography? Would there be horns and halos involved?"

Golden Gate Girls(en)

The film traces the life and times of Esther Eng, a San Francisco native known as Hong Kong’s first “directress.” She directed 10 Cantonese talkies.

Clara Estrela(pt)