A Distant Noise

The Songs of Rice(th)

In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.

30 (Still Single)(en)

A short documentary exploring the loneliness that comes with being single as a millennial. Set over the course of the thirtieth year of filmmaker Cathy Woods' life. This intimate and raw film delves into what it is like to be thirty and single in a time when situationships are the norm, and the societal pressure to be in a relationship is evident.

Small Talk(zh)

In the table that symbolizes the value of traditional women, a woman who wants to break free from her family must face her daughter.

The House We Lived In(en)

Nearly a decade in the making, The House We Lived In is a strikingly candid portrait of a family transformed by a father’s brain injury. In 2011, 61-year-old Tod O’Donnell awoke from a coma with a case of total amnesia that doctors assured his wife and children was temporary. But when it proved permanent, and for no discernible reason, the O’Donnell’s were left to themselves to untangle the mystery — a struggle for answers that would only raise more questions as they came to realize, painfully, that the real mystery was Tod himself.

Reila(nl)

To Be and to Have(fr)

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

Battle Front in Britain(en)

From growing potatoes in Green Park, London, to transforming rabbit crates into seed boxes – just a couple of the many ingenious ways of supporting the war effort which are covered in this film from the Ministry of Information.

Manhattan, Kansas(en)

Filmmaker Evie Wray travels to rural Kansas in an attempt to reconnect with her mentally unstable mother, Evie, for the first time since Evie’s psychotic breakdown five years earlier. She finds a parent still chasing her demons, both real and imagined, struggling to make a career for herself as an abstract artist and searching for the Geodetic Center of the United States, the finding of which, Evie says, will bring about world peace.

Arctic Tale(en)

Arctic Tale is a 2007 documentary film from the National Geographic Society about the life cycle of a walrus and her calf, and a polar bear and her cubs, in a similar vein to the 2005 hit production March of the Penguins, also from National Geographic.

Neirud(pt)

Aunt Neirud was always present at family gatherings. Neirud was big, strong, and worked in the circus. Who was this woman so close to the family and about whom we know so little?

Eneida(pt)

Eneida, 83 years old, makes a journey into her past, in search of her firstborn daughter, whom she has not seen for over two decades.

Where Dragons Live(en)

Following the death of their parents, Harriet and her siblings must unpack their childhood fears as they prepare to sell their dragon-filled Oxfordshire home. Between the clutter and the boxes, the siblings find themselves haunted by the memories of their late parents: a dragon-obsessed father and an exacting mother, and the esoteric collections of objects they left behind.

95 and 6 to Go(en)

Filmmaker Kimi Takesue captures the cadence of daily life for Grandpa Tom, a retired postal worker born to Japanese immigrants to Hawai’i in the 1910s. Amidst the solitude of his home routines — coupon clipping, rigging an improvised barbecue, lighting firecrackers on the New Year — we glimpse an unexpectedly rich inner life.

Haus und Hof(de)

Agricultural scientist and mother Isolde struggles with the dicrepancies between her personal convictions and the political realities in East Germany.

Capturing the Friedmans(en)

An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.

In Search of Balance(en)

An exploration of a new paradigm of health, science, and medicine, based on the interconnections between us and nature.

Cows With No Name(fr)

Cows With No Name is almost a diary, filmed one day at a time, of each stage of this process, documenting the operation of the farm with critical and incisive humour. But it is also an intimate documentary. By filming scenes of daily life on the family farm, around the kitchen table during meals, or in front of the TV in the evening while everyone falls asleep on the sofa, more personal questions are raised: the farmer’s connection to his herd, or even the handover that Hubert has chosen not to ensure.

Passing Time(fr)

Lou Colpé has been filming her grandparents since she was 15. In the process of this intense relationship, she notices some disconcerting signs in her grandmother: Alzheimer’s is slowing her down. A new film begins, a tougher one: the story of a couple that must face a tremendous challenge. Struggling against the tide of oblivion, the task of filmmaking becomes the ultimate act of resistance. Trying to retain the last images of her grandparents, an intimate conversation begins and echoes through the songs that play on the radio, conjuring lost stories and memories.

The Story of the Weeping Camel(mn)

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

Nan(zh)

A portrait that follows Nan, my uncle and the last two years he and his parents live together. In long, tightly framed shots, a picture emerges of three intimately interwoven lives: the gentle and touching bickering between Nan and his mother, the evenings in front of the television when time seems to stand still, and the minutes ticking by as Grandpa silently peels an apple. In the film, disability is not only seen as symptoms on individual bodies, but as social, physical, and temporal relationships. It is a meditation on time, disabilities, and the economies of care in contemporary China.