Chris on Chris

In the Lost City(es)

The city of Madrid as it appears in the Spanish films of the 1950s. A small tribute to all those who filmed and portrayed Madrid despite the dictatorship, censorship and the critical situation of industry and society.

Bill Reid(en)

Follows Haida artist Bill Reid, from British Columbia. A jeweller and wood carver, he works on a traditional Haida totem pole. We watch the gradual transformation of a bare cedar trunk into a richly carved pole to stand on the shores of the town of Skidegate, in the Queen Charlotte Islands of B.C.

Oberammergau(de)

A B'nai B'rith delegation visits the town of Oberammergau to meet with its mayor and the monk who is responsible for the passion play which is presented every ten years. The group discusses their efforts to eliminate the antisemitic tone of the play.

O Voo(pt)

Lipstick(en)

With an off beat sense of humour, the film looks at the politics and glamour of lipstick and the dilemmas of the modern woman in a marketed world.

Loyal to My Image(en)

Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.

Smile(en)

A heartwarming exploration of a community art project by photographer Tawfik Elgazzar providing free portraits for locals and passers-by in Sydney, Australia's Inner West. The film explores the nature of individuality, cultural diversity and the positive joy for the photographer of seeing his subjects smile.

As You Dreamt It(en)

A leading Australian photographer interprets and photographs the recurring dreams of four refugees living on a housing estate in western Sydney with both moving and highly surprising results.

Further Prophecies of Nostradamus(en)

This short film applies the prophecies of Nostradamus to events of World War II.

Dancing with Le Pen(fr)

In France’s last presidential election, Marine Le Pen, a right-wing candidate, won over 30 per cent of the vote after an attempt to rebrand a party long associated with her controversial father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. See how three of her supporters faced similar obstacles in changing the narrative.

World on Board(de)

Germany, as seen from the water. The landscape passes by in epic tranquillity as the audience immerses itself in the world of barge shipping. The top permitted speed for smaller watercraft is specified in the inland waterways regulations as a maximum of 15 km/h. A woman is along for the ride on Germany’s rivers and canals, with plenty of time to explore this little-known cosmos. In the end, the director dreams of a life on board and endeavours to find her place in the predominantly male domain. Welt an Bord is a hybrid of documentary and narrative film. The basic conditions are set by the limited space on the barge and the work that must be done. Kathrin Resetarits embodies the alter ego of director Eva Könnemann, while she herself takes charge of the cinematography. Together they accepted the captain’s invitation to join in this other life. What kind of life is it anyway? Resetarits/Könnemann listen and work their way through fiction and reality.

Aus der Tiefe empor(de)

Images and numbers illustrate the domestic political measures taken after the Nazis came to power to eliminate unemployment.

Past Perfect(pt)

Many cities or countries have a distinct malaise. They are places that could be Portugal, so sunk in a painful longing of the past, and where each tension of the present is only the tip of an iceberg that is explained in successive retreats that can go straight until origin of the species, at least. This feeling common to many latitudes is often presented as a diagnosis, a denial of a painful present as opposed to the desire to return to a glorious past.

Design: Fantasy(en)

Documentary on movie special effects.

Transition(en)

A documentary exploring gender identity and what it means to be transgender.

The Making of Me(en)

Martin Short narrates the story of "his own" birth to explain the subjects of sex, conception, pregnancy and childbirth in an entertaining and educational way.

Urban(en)

Urban is a short documentary on the importance of dance in shaping the identity of five young adolescent girls. In the Susp3ctz dance crew, they learn the basics of hip hop, house, krump, in order to learn to freestyle and reveal their own identity.

Tell Me All About My Body(fr)

Short documentary on Naila Rabel and her relationship with her body as she grew up having to navigate the stigma that fat people experience in our society.

Rated X(en)

Rated X, a short documentary about the adult industry, focuses on giving a voice to the porn actresses working within it. In a perspective of showing how these women empower themselves with their job, Rated X shows the porn industry like never before.

X-Ray Audio: The Documentary(en)

Cold War Leningrad: In a culture where the recording industry was ruthlessly controlled by the state, music lovers discovered an extraordinary alternative means of reproduction: they repurposed used x-ray film as the base for records of forbidden songs. Giving blood every week to earn enough money to buy a recording lathe, one bootlegger Rudy Fuchs cuts banned music onto such discarded x-rays to be sold on street corners by shady dealers. It was ultimate act of punk resistance, a two-fingered salute to the repressive regime that gave a generation of young Soviets access to forbidden Western and Russian music, an act for which Rudy and his fellow bootleggers would pay a heavy price.