Facing the Mirror(2020)

Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things(en)

How might your life be better with less? The popular simple-living duo The Minimalists examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from various walks of life.

The Advocates(en)

A sweeping look at the history and causes of the current homeless crisis in Los Angeles and an intimate view of the tireless advocates who strive to create better lives for their homeless clients.

Waiting for Barcelona(en)

Waiting for Barcelona revolves around the struggles of undocumented immigrants collecting scrap metal and selling illegal replicas in Barcelona. The film centers on the idea of how the dream of the city is very similar to everyone, but in practice differs depending on your wealth and citizenship. Without the right documents for working our protagonists face serious difficulties and even end up on the verge of insanity.

I'll Be Home for Christmas(en)

I'll be Home for Christmas cuts through social taboos to explore the subculture of people commonly dismissed as ‘derelicts'. In its portrayal of five homeless men, the film challenges conventional views of alcoholism and homelessness by depicting these men as members of a social network with a highly developed sense of mutual concern and camaraderie.

Down in Dallas Town(en)

Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the November 22, 1963 assassination on issues in today’s world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K-2.

Cows Knocked Up by Fog(de)

Catchy mix of farce and documentary. Portrait of a Berlin theatre company made up entirely of the homeless, alcoholics and junks. They call themselves ‘rats’ and take the film over to have a party.

Bounty(fr)

Stealing Africa(en)

Zambia's copper resources have not made the country rich. Virtually all Zambia's copper mines are owned by corporations. In the last ten years, they've extracted copper worth $29 billion but Zambia is still ranked one of the twenty poorest countries in the world. So why hasn't copper wealth reduced poverty in Zambia? Once again it comes down to the issue of tax, or in Zambia's case, tax avoidance and the use of tax havens. Tax avoidance by corporations costs poor countries and estimated $160 billion a year, almost double what they receive in international aid. That's enough to save the lives of 350,000 children aged five or under every year. For every $1 given in aid to a poor country, $10 drains out. Vital money that could help a poor country pay for healthcare, schools, pensions and infrastructure. Money that would make them less reliant on aid.

Mom and Me(en)

Mom and Me is a personal and intimate documentary about a young filmmaker coming of age in extraordinary circumstances. It follows the complicated relationship between director Lena Macdonald and her mother, who was once a filmmaker herself, but ended up homeless, crack-addicted and on the streets. For ten years Lena filmed in the cold, hard streets of Toronto’s inner city and her story is raw, honest and unforgettable. Mom and Me is about addiction, prostitution and despair but it is also a story about family, the power of hope and the tenacity of love.

The Windmill(fr)

In preparation for a feature-length film about windmills, an assistant director travels through the Vaud region to search for locations with windmills. The research leads to a serious engagement with the meaning and purpose of windmills, which has something Don Quixote-like about it in the age of nuclear power stations. The transitions between document and fiction flow constantly and result in a charming and intellectual mixture of seriousness and fun, determination and coincidence, weightlessness and the weight of meaning.

49 Up(en)

49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.

Alpine Saga(de)

Award-winning director Langjahr returns to his beloved Alps to document a group of people continuing the legacy of their forefathers. Every year on Swiss National day, August 1, the Wildheuer climb up the steep mountain of the «Hinteren Heubrig», fitted out with scythes and wearing wooden shoes with spikes, just as their ancestors did before them. They are part of a generation who have lived with the challenges of nature and survived it. In his film, Langjahr's poetic realism gives an insight into these people's experience of the simple life, the very foundation of human existence.

Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son(en)

Now a successful filmmaker, Lorna Tucker was once a teenage runaway sleeping rough on the streets of London. For this frank, forceful and inspiring documentary, she returns to her former haunts and speaks to current and former homeless people about why, twenty-five years later, record numbers of people are still reduced to living on Britain's streets.

Human Garbage(en)

A look at the homeless problem in Manchester

The River's Bed(fr)

Following disastrous floods, a vast construction project is in the process of revitalizing the Rhone by removing the concrete straitjacket, and instead enlarging the river's bed to promote river life. The filmmaker follows the development of this unusually inclusive project through its diverse protagonists, including hydrobiologists, fishermen, farmers, engineers and concerned citizens. Their divergent concerns permit a fuller and unbiased understanding of the complexity of such a project. As a result, this engaging and lyrical film is a journey that prompts a universal questioning of our past and future relationship with nature and territory.

Art From the Streets(en)

Award winning feature documentary about an art program for homeless people.

Shado'man(en)

In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, a group of friends lives on the streets. They call themselves the Freetown Streetboys, even though there are some women among them as well. Suley, Lama, David, Alfred, Shero and Sarah have all faced enormous physical and psychological challenges, and have been abandoned by the world around them. Without commentary and in poetic, cinematic images, the camera records the dark environment that they inhabit. The group shares their heartrending stories of the precarious nature of life in this complex country. But there is also room for everyday personal struggles, such as starting relationships, how to bring up children (or not), and sex.

Community First, A Home for the Homeless(en)

Community First! Village is designed to lift the chronically homeless off the streets of the Austin, TX, offering them a place to call home, helping them to heal from the ravages of life on the streets, and allowing them to rediscover a purpose in their lives. This documentary explores the events that cause homelessness and the heartwarming stories of being welcomed into a nurturing environment where dignity and self-worth are restored.

Uncomfortably Comfortable(de)

In the spring of 2018, the filmmaker Maria Petschnig befriended Marc who at that time was living in his car in Brooklyn for more than a year, while also holding a day job. Petschnig started to record his life and struggle, his thoughts, routines, etc. over the course of two years.

Kaya Yanar - Reiz der Schweiz(de)

Stand-up comedian Kaya Yanar dissects the allure of Switzerland through the eyes of a German who's lived there.