Death Is But a Dream(2021)

Dance for All(en)

The Reaper(en)

Efrain, known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We will discover his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.

Reila(nl)

The Perfect Circle(it)

Earth to earth, water to water. The body weight of a newborn child is up to 85 percent water, but in adulthood, the ratio can be cut into half. In a way, people dry up as they grow older. In Claudia Tosi’s documentary, people drink water, watch the rain and wait for their death. The Perfect Circle depicts a man and a woman, Ivano and Meris, who spend their final days at a hospice in the hills of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy. Their illnesses are in the terminal stage and they know that death is only a matter of time. But the ever-nearing end may fleetingly be forgotten, like when they close their eyes and get lost in the music – until the bodies being carried out next door once again remind them of the inevitable. Death also becomes a part of life for the patients’ loved ones, who want to spend the last available moments with the soon to be departed.

Passing Time(fr)

Lou Colpé has been filming her grandparents since she was 15. In the process of this intense relationship, she notices some disconcerting signs in her grandmother: Alzheimer’s is slowing her down. A new film begins, a tougher one: the story of a couple that must face a tremendous challenge. Struggling against the tide of oblivion, the task of filmmaking becomes the ultimate act of resistance. Trying to retain the last images of her grandparents, an intimate conversation begins and echoes through the songs that play on the radio, conjuring lost stories and memories.

How Love Moves(en)

Following Shamim Khan’s and his co-workers’ daily care for the Islamic Delhi Gate Cemetery over the last two years, the film attempts to comprehend an event unprecedented in the recent history of the world – the COVID-19 pandemic – through the eyes of a keeper of the dead.

Dief!(en)

This documentary short is a portrait of Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and 13th prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Diefenbaker's political career spanned 6 decades. When he died in 1979, his state funeral and final train trip west became more a celebration of life than a victory for death.

Death Files(en)

A disturbing documentary about true murders and real death.

Running for His Life: The Lawrence Phillips Story(en)

Feature length documentary examining the troubled life and tragic death of college football standout and talented NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, whose scars of childhood abuse and abandonment haunted him throughout his career.

GEA(es)

Marble and Concrete(es)

A documentary that invites the viewer to immerse themselves in a intimate and thoughtful walk through Poblenou Cemetery in Barcelona, better know as "El Santet", to see what is happening at its surrounding areas and, especially, inside: work, buildings, people watching over those who are no longer here, cemetery workers... A trip through a space that is closer than we think.

Registros Fatais 3: Apocalypse(en)

The shocking finale of the titular trilogy, which features graphic footage of the macabre and grotesque as directed by Brazilian filmmaker Lázaro Hahn.

Leonie, Skeet and the piglets(nl)

Leonie’s dream is to become a pig farmer, just like her parents. She wanders happily around the farm, helping out in any way possible. She tends to the pigs, and is present from the fertilisation of the sows to the moment the truck leaves for the slaughterhouse. The family farm teaches her about the circle of life. However, new laws on nitrogen emissions have undermined the economic viability of the farm, and bankruptcy looms. Together with her cat Skeet, Leonie watches the last pigs disappear from the farm, and she realises that her dream of becoming a pig farmer might not come true.

Careless Reef part 2: Abu Kiffan(en)

Abu Kiffan is the name of a reef near Safaga in Egypt. In the film we are drowned in sound, time slows down and we are given a closer look at what’s going on. Part two of Holthuis’ series Careless Reef, four films about the world under water.

Mac Dre: Legend of the Bay(en)

Bay Area rapper Mac Dre began his career at 18 and quickly became an influential force in early west coast hip-hop. In 1992 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank robbery when his lyrics were used against him in court. He left prison with a new lease on life, founded an independent record company, and then was murdered just when he began to emerge as a star. For the first time ever, his mother Wanda reveals the true experiences of a hip-hop legend.

Autopsy(es)

Mondo-style docudrama about a war correspondent who comes back home and has a spiritual crisis about his own mortality. Surreal fantasy sequences are mixed with graphic real autopsy footage.

Artémis et la mort(fr)

During the Feria of Nîmes, a bullfight is filmed from the perspective of the animal, relegating the matador and public to off-screen spectators. A ritual at the frontiers of mysticism, carried by the sacrificial figure of the bull, revealer of our humanity.

How We Die(en)

Memento Mori is a morbidly beautiful journey into the world of alternative post mortem arrangements and an illuminating meditation on death, dying and our relationship with our bodies once they are no longer ours.

The Self-Made Man(en)

Is it ever rational to choose death? On Independence Day at Stern Ranch, 77-year-old solar energy pioneer Bob Stern finds out he’s seriously ill – possibly dying. Meanwhile, an elderly in-law is dying on artificial life support. Bob decides to cheat that fate and take his own life. His family tries to stop him. Bob sets up a video camera. Daughter Susan Stern explores “rational suicide,” the “right-to-die” and the difficult end-of-life choices faced by an aging population.

My Next Step(zh)

MY NEXT STEP follows a young Kunqu Opera artist YANG Yang(28 year-old) over the course of several years. It offers its audience a glimpse into the world of Kunqu, and a magnifying look into the ambivalence of a young man struggling to find a way out for a fading art.