Blue-Eyed Helsinki(1963)

Khamsin(fr)

Lebanon today. The traces of the civil war are all too tangible as government corruption becomes unbearable. In a country where conflict and peace are caught in an endless cycle, musicians from different backgrounds pool their talents to create an underground music scene. Each evokes his or her representation of Lebanon: its shifting geographical, political, historical and social borders, its painful passage through conflict and instability. A touching portrait of a young generation trying to build an oasis in a hostile environment where the forces of destruction continue to wreak havoc.

Sylvia Kristel – Paris(en)

Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.

Between the Holy and the Profane(en)

Documentary film that takes a visual and anthropological journey through man's spirit across the thin line dividing excessive faith in religious believes and the passion with which he devotes himself to worldly pleasures in a city that coexists in harmony with its double standards. Religion, faith, politics, violence and death are intimately bound in this social portrait.

Track Two(fi)

A newspaper clip of a 30-year-old movie makes our middle-aged protagonist in the middle of his peak years to look for his best childhood friend. The journey leads him back to his teenage years in the 1990s depression, over-generational substance abuse and past encounters. This partly essayistic, autobiographical documentary tells the story of friendship and generational experiences while also pondering on the causes and effects of destinies in the judgmental atmosphere of our society.

Karalahti(fi)

Documentary movie about a Finnish professional ice hockey player, Jere Karalahti. More than 50 people have been interviewed for the documentary film, such as Jere's family, coaches, journalists, fellow players and childhood friends. A profound documentary consists of archive material and dramatized scenes in addition to interviews.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Parempaan asumiseen(fi)

Risto Jarva's short documentary on housing in Helsinki in the late 1960's.

Moments in Helsinki(fi)

A compilation of excerpts from old Helsinki-themed documentaries and new material.

Being Seen Seeing(da)

What happens when we meet in the street? Suddenly, mistakenly, intimately. Estranged, rushed, too much, too little, too late. Smiles, small talk, and promises.

Haaveiden kääntöraide(fi)

Metro trains disappear on the turning track, only to immediately return on the same route. Tapio (57), Toni (42) and Aksa (60) are also stuck on these tracks. The men meet every morning in the square behind the Herttoniemi metro station, from where they transfer to Vuosaari in the metro's "restaurant car". Men's lives are dominated by alcohol and unemployment. The turning track of dreams follows the lives of Tapio, Toni and Aksa for a year - moments filled with joy, despair, self-destruction and friendship in the metro stations and trains of Eastern Helsinki. It gives voice to those who do not have special human dignity in the eyes of society.

The City Through Time(fr)

A documentary in which Marcel Hanoun examines, delimits, paces up and down and criss-crosses the town of Langres, offering the houses, walls and everything which makes up the identity of a place, an opportunity to express themselves through the time of seasons but through that of History.

Atlântida(pt)

This time, in “Atlantida”, Puertas wanders through stories based on memories he keeps from his hometown, Póvoa de Varzim, wondering what happened to the aura of this city he remembers so nostalgically.

Then the Times, They Changed(fi)

Known as one of Finland’s most prominent rock institutions, Tavastia club celebrated half a century of being in the business, whilst withstanding the challenges of a global pandemic. In this rockumentary, director Antti Kuivalainen takes us through the history of Tavastia, as the club which brought rock ‘n’ roll to Finland.

A City Runs Through the Festival(tr)

A City Runs Through the Festival is an anatomy of the Festival through the eyes of its own audience.

Vila do Conde Extended(pt)

A boy from Vila do Conde records a love letter on a cassette. His voice blends with music, archive images and stories from the past, some lived and others heard.

Hidden Cities(de)

"The theme of the film HIDDEN CITIES is personal urban perceptions, which we call 'the city'. The city, as a living organism, reflecting social processes and interactions, economic relations, political conditions and private matters. In the city, human memories, desires and tragedies find expression in the form of designations and marks engraved in house walls and paving slabs. But what the city really is under this thick layer of signs, what it contains or conceals, is what we are researching in the HIDDEN CITIES project. The source material for the film are 9 sequential photo works created by Gusztáv Hámos between 1975 and 2010. Each of these 'city perceptions' depicts essential situations of urban experiences containing human and inhuman acts in a compact form. The cities in which the photo sequences have been made are Berlin, Budapest and New York – places with a traumatised past: Wars, dictatorships, terrorist catastrophes."

Summer, City and a Camera(ar)

Summer 2021, in Damascus city, some young emerging directors roamed the city's streets to follow their dreams and shoot their first movies with the simplest available tools. so, the city would open her arms and hug them day and night with her streets and neighborhoods.

Survival in Berlin-Neukölln(de)

About Stefan Stricker, who calls himself Juwelia and has been running a gallery on Sanderstraße in Berlin Neukölln for many years. Every weekend he invites guests to shamelessly recount from his life and to sing poetic songs written with his friend from Hollywood Jose Promis. Juwelia has been poor and sexy all her life, has always struggled for recognition, but only partially.

I Am Gentrification. Confessions of a Scoundrel(de)

Is the city of Zurich suffering from ‘density stress’? What is it like to live in mega cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City and Tiflis? Filmmaker Thomas Haemmerli broaches the topics of city development, architecture, density, housing market, xenophobia and gentrification from an autobiographical perspective. The path of his life has led him from a childhood in the villa district of Zürichberg, through his teenage years as squatter to flat shares, yuppie apartments and finally second homes in various cities. Only recently having become a dad, he plans to further enhance Zurich’s price appreciation by purchasing a huge, extended city apartment… This multifaceted essay not only humorously questions the filmmaker’s decisions, but also those of the right-wing conservatives, who are afraid of losing their space to immigrants, and the political left, who fail to embrace modern-age architecture.

Fading City(uk)