In Pakistan, veils hide one of the country's most terrible secrets. Driven by revenge, jealousy or sexual non-co-operation some men subject their wives to horrific attacks with acid that is freely available in the street. Completely disfigured, the victims are often ostracized by their families and become prisoners in their own home. This chilling documentary is a terrifying insight into the shattered lives of these women.
Guy Debord's analysis of a consumer society.
An intimate look at the human faces of America's current opioid epidemic. Seen through the eyes of a mother and the lens of a small town.
The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, followed by the publishing of twelve satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that was commissioned for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, provides the incendiary framework for Daniel Leconte's provocative documentary, It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks.
How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revealing documentary about the lifestyles and attitudes of ambitious career womenin conservative Saudi Arabia - the only country in the Arabworld where women are obliged to cover themselves inabayas and aren't allowed to drive cars. Because of the strong influence of fundamentalist Islam on society, filmingis severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. With unique access to the Kingdom, Backlight had the opportunity to film the daily routines of Saudi working women. This documentaryfeatures a top gyneacologist, a TV news anchor woman, a photographer, and a university professor. It also introducesthe wealthy Prince Al-Waleed, who passionately promotes the acceptance of women into the workforce. He kindly invitesBacklight to his luxury desert camp, but there are no women to be found - only thousands of men.
'Do you feel cheaper?' We are filming young Lithuanian men working in Sweden. They do not want to be caught on camera, they do not want to participate in creating yet another media image of guilt and pity. They film us. We empty a bottle of moonshine, we dance on their porch. They might let us film them tomorrow. Second Class is a time document about class, respect, the value of work and human being.
Each year, the pilgrimage of the Muslim brotherhood of the Mourides takes place in Touba. From all over Senegal (and even from all over the world) pilgrims flock to take part in this religious event which will last three days and two nights. Grand Magal in Touba evokes the black Islam, promotes peace and tolerance, born of syncretism between Islam and the blackness of the Sufi brotherhoods in Senegal.
On June 1st, 2019, around 11:30pm, the shoot which represents a turning point in the federal republic falls. In the hessian small town Wolfhagen-Istha, the district president of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, is murdered during this night, while, just a few meters away, the annual carnival is putting the locals into a festive mood. It is DNA-evidence on the clothes of Walter Lübcke which leads the investigators on June 15th, 2019, to his presumptive murderer: Stephan Ernst. The previously convicted right-wing extremist Ernst gets arrested by a SEK unit in Kassel. A first background check reveals: Stephan Ernst was known to the security authorities, but they did not have him on their radar for six years. Now he is back. And a person is dead. The docu-drama “Schuss in der Nacht” („Shoot in the dark“) tells emotionally, and simultaneously factually, how the deadly attack on Lübcke came to be. It tells about the first far-right motivated murder of a politician since the era of national socialism.
There is a 10km wall in Lima that separates the richest neighbourhood in the city from the poorest. For some it is known as the ‘wall of shame’, for others its essential to security. What are the root causes of this massive monument to inequality, how is it that a low income person on one side of the wall is paying twice what their rich neighbour is, on the other side of the wall, for a glass of water
10 brave kids, 2 Emmy award winning journalists, 1 clinical psychologist at Columbia University and 1 determined mother take on the fear and stigma plaguing the mental health community, leaving us enlightened, empowered and equipped to either live life or lift up life with these challenging and even life threatening conditions.
Filmed with a cybershot camera, the experimental short proposes a journey about architecture, loneliness, and hope.
An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)
A porn-loving, Charles Manson-befriending, Mississippi Republican runs to become the next sheriff.
Prior to 1973, Satan seemed all but dead and gone, the causality of a modernist mindset. But with Linda Blair's disturbing performance in The Exorcist, Satan returned with a vengeance and since then films about demonic possession have fascinated viewers worldwide. However, was the visage of Satan that returned Biblical or distorted? And how have these images influenced society's view of the demonic and spiritual warfare? In this thought provoking documentary, these questions are examined with objectivity and insight from psychologists, modern-day exorcists and leading voices in Christianity.
Milan, western suburbs. In one of the nine districts ("zone") of the city, the students of the "Rosa Luxemburg" trade school meditate over the meaning of living in the suburbs. And they do so using their smartphones, filming their days and looking for a common thread among their lives. Crossing and mixing video-diaries, documentary shooting and fictional scenes, the project struggles to take a definite shape: every character and perspective channels the tale in a different direction, escaping from linear narrative lines and bringing us to some kind of archipelago.
Originally founded as Freedman’s Town after the Civil War, The Fourth Ward is one of the oldest and most culturally significant black communities in Houston, Texas. In the 1970s, the city along with big business interests planned to redevelop the Fourth Ward in order to revitalize the dilapidated real estate and freshen the image of downtown Houston. The price of progress in this case would be the removal of many poor black families. The film explores a complex series of encounters with elected city officials, businessmen and the people of Fourth Ward in order to better understand how a city like Houston works. Who makes the decisions about where resources are spent and so determines the growth and wealth of the community.
The life of a female weaver is thrown onto the socio-political canvas of pre-war and post-war communist Poland through the use of expressive allegorical and symbolic imagery in this imaginative take on the documentary form.