Dear Thirteen(2022)

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.

On Native Soil(en)

The film analyzes the efforts by the families of 9/11 victims to create the 9/11 Commission and what information was revealed by it in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Michael Lost and Found(en)

When a feature film is made about them seven years after their break-up, Benjie Nycum visits his ex-boyfriend Michael Glatze and finally tries to get answers about his bewildering shift from gay activist to ex-gay evangelical.

Secrets of the Gay Sauna(en)

Gay saunas are places where men meet strangers to have sex. With exclusive access to one Nottingham business, this candid one-off documentary enters the often controversial and always secretive world of the gay sauna for the very first time. The programme meets the people who go there for sexual pleasure - from teachers to plumbers to Tory councillors - and the staff who clean up after them.

The Colour of Olives(es)

Like many Palestinian families, the Amers live surrounded by the infamous West Bank Wall where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locks and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. Through director Carolina Rivas' sensitive lens, we discover the private world of all eight members of the family. As their dramas unfold, we catch a glimpse of their constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them, including olive trees, two small donkeys and their many friendships. Constructed with a combination of verité scenes and re-enactments, this poignant and richly crafted film offers its audience a much needed opportunity to reflect on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war

Mr. Gay Syria(en)

In focusing his attention on the competitors of Mr Gay Syria, director Ayse Toprak shatters the one-dimensional meaning of “refugee”. Using the pageant as a means of escape from political persecution, the organiser Mahmoud — already given asylum in Berlin — hopes to offer the winner a chance to travel as well as bring international attention to the life-threatening situations faced by LGBT Syrians.

Dalya's Other Country(en)

In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?

Mountain(en)

An epic cinematic and musical collaboration between SHERPA filmmaker Jennifer Peedom and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, that explores humankind's fascination with high places.

Apuntes a la Orilla(es)

Sabbath(en)

An Ancient Practice Meets the Modern World

Waiting for August(en)

Georgiana Halmac is turning 15 this winter, but she has no time for teenage dreams when her mother, who's on unemployment, moves to Torino to find work. Georgiana is left in charge of her six siblings in a social housing condo on the outskirts of Bacau, Romania. Caught between adolescence and the responsibilities of adulthood, Georgiana does the best she can, improvising with parenting advice from the television and the occasional phone call with her mother. As she handles her own issues and high-school dramas, Georgiana must also deal with admonishing neighbours who threaten to turn the whole family into social services. With incredible calm and stoicism, Georgiana amazes as she holds everything together in an ingenious and delicate balance.

Volver a Volver(es)

The Sykora family are only four people out of millions of Venezuelans that have recently escaped their collapsing country. They land in the Czech Republic, the country where Grandpa Jan was born, but also a place utterly strange to them. In a matter of months their savings have almost gone and job seeking becomes a nightmare. Again, the dream of just having a normal life starts to vanish. Will the family manage not to crumble along the way?

Chronicle of a Dream(es)

October 2004. Uruguay. After three years away Mariana returns to her country to be reunited with her family and also to vote. After the economic crisis that plunged the country into a terrible depression, Uruguay is on the brink of a real change. We are shown day to day life in Melo, a small provincial city, we are given an intimate insight into a family of militant leftists, and we accompany a Latin American people in the month leading up to a historic political event: the first ever election victory in Uruguay of a party from the political left, the Frente Amplio.

Displaced Perssons(sv)

Per Persson left Sweden 40 years ago. In Pakistan he fell in love and became the father of two daughters. Trouble starts when the girls grow up and the family decides to emigrate to Sweden. When they end up living in a caravan outside Hässleholm, all their expectations are dashed.

Gemmel & Tim(en)

In 2017 and 2019, Gemmel “Juelz” Moore (26) and Timothy “Tim” Dean (55), two gay black men, died of a meth overdose at the West Hollywood apartment of white businessman, activist & political donor Ed Buck (66). The parallel stories of these two men, are intimately told by the friends who loved them, grieve their loss, and who hope to protect others from similarly tragic fates.

The Story of a Butcher Shop(ja)

The Kitades run a butcher shop in Kaizuka City outside Osaka, raising and slaughtering cattle to sell the meat in their store. The seventh generation of their family's business, they are descendants of the buraku people, a social minority held over from the caste system abolished in the 19th century that is still subject to discrimination. As the Kitades are forced to make the difficult decision to shut down their slaughterhouse, the question posed by the film is whether doing this will also result in the deconstruction of the prejudices imposed on them. Though primarily documenting the process of their work with meticulous detail, Aya Hanabusa also touches on the Kitades' participation in the buraku liberation movement. Hanabusa's heartfelt portrait expands from the story of an old-fashioned family business competing with corporate supermarkets, toward a subtle and sophisticated critique of social exclusion and the persistence of ancient prejudices.

Die Uneinsichtigen - Aids-Aktivismus in Frankfurt(de)

A documentary that explores AIDS activism in Frankfurt, focusing on activists, affected individuals, and organizations fighting the epidemic, raising awareness, and advocating for policy changes. Directors Lou Deinhart, Evi Rohde, and Zoë Struif incorporate 1980s/90s theatre productions, news footage, and protest recordings into their research. Alternating between present-day encounters and historical media, they interview numerous witnesses, constructing a collage of diverse memories rather than a single narrative, highlighting grassroots movements' struggles, solidarity, and impact.

The Stroll(en)

The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.

King Coal(en)

The cultural roots of coal continue to permeate the rituals of daily life in Appalachia even as its economic power wanes. The journey of a coal miner’s daughter exploring the region’s dreams and myths, untangling the pain and beauty, as her community sits on the brink of massive change.