The Volunteer Archivists(2022)

The End of Memory(fr)

Each day, some 2.5 trillion bytes of data are exchanged, a deluge known as "big data." How can we classify, store, and give meaning to this mass of digital information? Will our digital society remain capable of producing a lasting memory? Learn the fate of memory storage in the future.

Beyond Paper(en)

At a critical moment in the history of the written word, as humanity’s archives migrate to the cloud, one filmmaker goes on a journey around the globe to better understand how she can preserve her own Romanian and Armenian heritage, as well as our collective memory. Blending the intellectual with the poetic, she embarks on a personal quest with universal resonance, navigating the continuum between paper and digital—and reminding us that human knowledge is above all an affair of the soul and the spirit.

A Life's Work(en)

What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project(en)

Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.

Nani Ma(or)

Musamoni Panigrahi (1920s–2017), fondly called “Nani Ma” by her neighbours, appears in the centre of this first film in the Baleswari dialect of India's Odia language. The story revolves around folklore and folk songs narrated by Nani Ma. Born in the 1920s in pre-independent rural India in a coastal village in the Balasore district of Odisha, she never got to go beyond the first few days of school. The film is an alternate history of a society broken through colonization, Brahminical patriarchy and a post-famine (Orissa famine of 1866, killing nearly 5 million people, one-third of the population), and the dominance of formal writing over spoken tongues. Three academics -- Damayanti Beshra, PhD (recipient of India’s fourth civilian award, “Padma Shri”), Panchanan Mohanty, PhD (noted linguist), and Laxmikanta Tripathy, PhD, DLitt (anthropologist and author) -- also appear in the film to provide contextual commentary on patriarchy, oral history and the sociolinguistic diversity.

Byaase Sunucha(or)

A Carefree Artist confronts The Pioneer of Odia literature Byaasakabi Fakir Mohan, to lament about the current state of the Odia Language and how it has been looked down upon by the elites of the state. Will his voice be heard?

Hakim Babu(or)

A man from lower social background qualifies and gets an administration job and to match his higher social occupation, he leaves his family, friends, and fiance. But gradually he understands his mistake and returns for his people. Finally he finds his wrong decision for the mining in his village has lead to the destruction and down fall of his people and everyone lives the village and him behind alone.

Bringing Down a Mountain(en)

A rural village never wanted to be a city’s landfill or a distant blur in Reels but rather home to new imaginations. Bringing Down a Mountain dissects the intersecting themes of access, abolition and caste through the experiences of residents of a rural village and that of a hyper-urban city. The film follows the village residents’ dreams—of mobile data, digital payment and relief from menial work. What happens when the landfill is full, and dreams want to break free?

A Life Illuminated(en)

Explores the life and legacy of pioneering marine biologist Edie Widder.

La primera imagen de Marte(es)

The Legendary Rick Perry and the Art of Dimension 20(en)

Take an inside look at Rick Perry’s strange and wonderful life as Creative Producer for Dimension 20.

I did not come either(pt)

Letícia discovers she is pregnant but does not know who the father of her child is. There are four possibilities. Despite being insecure and afraid, she gets in touch with the potential parents. Everyone claims that the child can’t be theirs because they didn’t come. She didn’t come either. The solitary pregnancy takes a turn. When the child is born, her restlessness takes shape: she goes on a quest to find out who her child’s father is. The pressure and overload on her reveal a cycle of violence. In an honest and direct way, the documentary is a trigger of unease, exposing the negligence of parental abandonment.

Broken Worlds: The Island(en)

The Island of Vieques and its people were devastated by Hurricane Maria, bringing to light both the most beautiful and terrible parts of their way of life. This is their story.

Yilmaz-Clan(de)

Feine Leute(de)

Bäckerei im Kiez(de)

Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You(en)

A collage film that filmmaker, artist, and archivist Ryan Daly has created – in collaboration with Will Oldham – to accompany the album "Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You" by Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Echoing the spirit and themes of the album, utilizing his vast archive of 16mm film prints, and working in the avant-garde tradition of “found footage” filmmaking, Daly has assembled a tour de force visual manifestation of Oldham’s album. Daly’s footage recalls, re-imagines, and suggests an alternative, timeless counterpoint to the era of the recent pandemic.

Apples in the Dark(pt)

Following the life of theater actor Edson Aquino, the documentary plays with his character's actions to discuss performance as a way of nullifying reality itselfю

Wishlist for Superagüi(pt)

Martelo is a 70-year-old fisherman who has not yet been able to retire. He is the lighthouse man, points his light towards the island of Superagüi and illuminates earthly desires: better working conditions, retiring with dignity, returning to the way things used to be.

Eros(pt)

Brazil's love motels are a sexual haven where fantasy becomes reality. When the filmmaker's own date never shows up, she gets a fresh idea for a film instead. The result is a kaleidoscopic insight into a parallel world of human desire.