Lone Man(2014)

Ian James Made(en)

Ian James has been creating leather goods for nearly a decade, but only recently realized his dream of opening his own shop. When James got laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the plunge and opened his namesake boutique in San Francisco. James calls the shop—which includes both custom pieces and items that can be bought off the shelf—a “safe space for black people,” where culturally relatable creativity blooms in a gentrifying neighborhood.

The Two Eighty Project(en)

Chris Renfro doesn’t just grow and harvest grapes on a hillside high above San Francisco’s Highway 280 to make delicious local wine. He is dedicated to building a sustainable food community that nourishes every member of the local economy and ecosystem. With the 280 Project’s mission to reclaim space, realize opportunity and revitalize community, Renfro brings both passion and vision to the notion that land ownership is a powerful path to self-determination.

Live this Loudly: Afatasi(en)

Afatasi The Artist is a San Francisco based mixed-media conceptual artist and futurist. Her artwork—which includes textiles and fine art tapestry, small paintings and murals, metal work and clothing design—is a continuous exploration of the intersectionality of race, culture, gender, class, and geopolitics. “I like to create these things because there were so many who weren’t allowed to live this loudly,” Afatasi says, "and I know how much better the world would be if they had.”

Endlich Chef(de)

Lords of Riga(lv)

Lords of Riga allows to see an insight into a passionate subculture of bike couriers. Weaving their way through the urban traffic, they have become silent and sometimes unnoticed witnesses of everyday life in Riga as well as examples of our modern-day society. What is freedom to this bunch of rebellious messengers and where it ends?

Therapy(lv)

The film follows a thirty-year-old man’s efforts to introduce radical changes in his own life: to start visiting a therapist and preparing for the demolition of his bragging childhood home. Story chronicles the troubled relationship between Mārtiņš and his mother, just as he is about to tear down his childhood home.

To Be Beautiful(lv)

The documentary explores issues of beauty and acceptance in a culture increasingly saturated with idealised and unattainable ideals of femininity. It is a story about the world of young girls in today's Latvia, based on conversations about girls' attitudes towards the world and their place in it.

La ruta de don Quijote(es)

A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the melancholic knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his judicious squire Sancho Panza, the immortal characters of Miguel de Cervantes, which offers a candid depiction of rural life in Spain in the early 1930s and illustrates the first sentence of the first article of the Spanish Constitution of 1931, which proclaims that Spain is a democratic republic of workers of all kind.

Short Day(lv)

An ordinary old folks’ home on the Latvian border – one of many, where our parents, grand-parents and other relatives spend their old age. Theirs is the generation whose prime years co-existed with the Soviet Union, and who were promised: work, give all you can, and we’ll take care when you’re old. The system changed and the reality is different. How to live in this reality, accept the current rules, or live in the past and have regrets. We will touch upon their world, and the dreams and hopes of Vilnis, Imants, Alberts and Elizabete.

Sencis: Old Man(lv)

A documentary that chronicles twin brothers searching for their absent father in faraway Russia. Having very few leads, the twin brothers – different in character and interests – are also looking for the ties that have never bound them as closely as they would have liked.

We’re Still Here(lv)

The film portrays the political situation in occupied Latvia 37 years ago, when writer Imants Ziedonis formed a group of like-minded peers into ‘’Dižkoku atbrīvotāji’’ – DAGi. Film reels and photos of the time show Imants Ziedonis and the DAGi participants – Māra Zālīte, Anna Žīgure, Roze Stiebra, Andris Buiķis, Vitolds Kucins and others. Today, with their contemporary experiences, they reflect on a time when the dream of an independent Latvia seemed impossibly far away. We’re Still Here reminds the younger generations that it’s possible to do good in the name your nation and its future not matter the circumstances.

Without Them(lv)

Six theater and hip hop teachers take on a five month challenge to show the Latvian public that young men behind bars are more than just that. While seeming impatient, full of disbelief and even rude at first, it turns out to be a superficial impression given off by their masks that must be kept on at all time as an underage colony is a difficult place to be. It has its own rules and it’s not easy being creative there. Teachers help inmates reveal the talents within them that help transcending the monotony of the prison walls.

DeLorean: Back from the Future(en)

John Z DeLorean’s extraordinary and doomed attempt to build the sports car of the future in 1980s Northern Ireland is the stuff of legend. A buccaneering American entrepreneur, DeLorean had film star looks, a famous fashion model as a wife, and an enormous ego that drove him to rival the giants of the US car industry.

The Last Day of School(lv)

After receiving an edict from the municipal authorities about the closing of their school, the students at Mežvidi primary school continue to attend lessons and exercise creativity and fun, but it’s all clouded in a sense of fatality. They aren’t many students, and because of that the school resembles a large family rather than an institution. Near the Russian border, deep in the Latgale region, this place will become a nowhere-land once the youth depart. In an intimate message about a national problem, the story focuses on three sisters for whom life is about to drastically change. Through their daily lives and small adventures we try to understand the real meaning of the contention that “the countryside is dying”. And we see hope.

Mr Black Stork(lv)

Māris Strazds (also known as "Mr Black Stork") is a man who's been studying black storks and their behaviour for forty years. His love for and relationship with these beautiful birds is longer than the relationship with his wife. Having spent more than half of his life following black storks, Māris is aware that due to deforestation the number of these birds in Latvia is rapidly approaching zero.

The Inked Family(lv)

“The Inked Family” follows a couple of married Latvian-born tattoo artists – Anrijs and Monami Frost of online fame. They’re now living in Liverpool with their daughter, and their previous lives in Latvia seem almost surreal to them. The film traces Monami’s past, and the couple’s current lives and the success they’ve found as tattoo artists.

Residents(lv)

The documentary “Residents” probes problems in Latvia in general and Latvia’s medicine in particular with the story of two energetic young interns, Kārlis and Laura.

Trillium(lv)

There are about 250 people with a unique ancestry. Livonians – one of the smallest and most endangered nations. Each of Livonians has a duty to preserve their identity and the great history of their ancestors. Trillium follows the footsteps of a poet and researcher Valts Ernštreits, who is one of 20 people able to speak fluent Livonian – an indigenous language related to Estonian and Finnish – in his efforts to look after the language and culture of these ancient settlers of the Baltic Sea coast.

A Place of Our Own(it)

Cabbage, Potatoes and other Demons(ro)

1 village, 1.000 tractors, 100.000 tons of cabbages & potatoes each year - which are hardly sold and eventually destroyed. Is there any way out?