Island Ablazed

Sicko(en)

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.

Royal Scots Regiment at Edinburgh Castle(xx)

Troops play up for the camera in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

Disaster at Chernobyl(en)

The explosion at Chernobyl was ten times worse than the Hiroshima bomb and was due to a combination of human error and imperfect technology. An account of the sixty critical minutes prior to the explosion of the nuclear power plant on the night of April 26, 1986.

National Geographic: The Volga(en)

Film cameras cruise the Soviet Union's mighty Volga River, providing a view of the Russian people along its 2300-mile length, including looks at the fishing industry, a rural village, a manufacturing town and the wedding of two factory workers.

Homemade(en)

Homemade is the cinematic and profoundly intimate five-year journey with decorated Force Reconnaissance Marine, Adam Sorensen, and his wife, Victoria, as they navigate marriage and the effects of Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, and addiction.

Detection(de)

DETECTION. Consideration of past, present and future of a small village in Germany. For over a century — wars and states went by — the military is the largest employer. The everyday life of the community is inextricably linked to the events on the nearby military training area. Diaries, daily instructions, petitions, letters and photos tell about daily life at different times.

Hotel Nueva Isla(es)

In the early twentieth century, the Hotel Nueva Isla was an emblematic luxury hotel. After the Cuban Revolution, it was confiscated by the State and became a shelter for homeless people. Located in Old Havana, today it is an imposing ruin. Jorge de los Rios, a retired clerk, is one of the few residents who remain there, along with La Flaca, his lover, and Waldo, a young itinerant. As the rest leave for safer places, Jorge clings to his dilapidated home and its buried treasures, slowly digging his way through its debris. The film speaks poignantly to a lost generation who fought in the Cuban Revolution and dreamed of a better society.

Cuba in Africa(en)

The dramatic untold story of 420,000 Cubans– soldiers and teachers, doctors and nurses– who gave everything to end colonial rule and apartheid in Southern Africa.

Astrakan 79(pt)

1979. Flicking through pictures from a Soviet magazine, 15-year-old Martim dreams of building a new society. His radical communist parents send him to study at Astrakan for one year. In her new film, Catarina Mourão captures with tremendous precision the moment a middle-aged man passes his story on to his son, thus shedding the taboo of his ineffable experience.

Guest from the Island of Freedom(ru)

A documentary about Fidel Castro's visit to the USSR from April 28 to June 3, 1963 and how the Cuban leader traveled throughout the Soviet Union for 40 days, from Severodvinsk to Khiva in Uzbekistan.

Carrier at War: The USS Enterprise(en)

Going from 0 to 150 mph in three seconds, withstanding three Gs of force, and taking off from what's often called "the most dangerous place on the planet" are just parts of everyday life for an aircraft carrier pilot-and it's no different for the crew aboard the USS Enterprise. After being stationed in the Middle East for a year, these pilots have seen heavy action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, finally, they're returning home. With amazing personal stories and real-time footage from missions, this is an exciting insider's peek at life onboard a wartime aircraft carrier.

Temporarily Exiled(ru)

A community of Armenians, refugees from the Soviet Union during the Baku pogroms, live in a deep American province. Baku life, Armenian blood, Soviet mentality, and American emigration mix in incredible tragicomic proportion.

Castro's Spies(en)

The thrilling story of an elite group of Cuban spies sent undercover to the US in the 1990s. From their recruitment, training and eventual capture on US soil; this film peers into a secret world of false identities, love affairs and betrayal. Using never seen before footage from the Cuban Film Institute’s archive and first-hand testimony from the people at the heart of this story, Castro’s Spies gives a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of a spy – where the stakes are life and death.

1912, Breaking the Silence(es)

Afro-Cubans played a leading role in the fight to free Cuba from Spanish domination; as part of that struggle, slavery was abolished. Nevertheless, as African descendants began to achieve a semblance of social and economic parity, the plantocracy, backed up by the US army, sought to undo their gains. Determined to resist, veterans of the Mambi army formed the Party of Independents of Color, gaining wide popular support and ultimately threatening the domination of the white Cuban rulers. Their response was savage, and 6,000 Afro-Cubans were massacred; until this film, these events have been shrouded in silence.

Fidel Castro no Rio de Janeiro, 1959(pt)

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes(en)

Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine, newly uncovered archival footage and recorded interviews with those who were present paint an emotional and gripping portrait of the extent and gravity of the disaster and the lengths to which the Soviet government went to cover up the incident, including the soldiers sent in to “liquidate” the damage. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unvarnished true story of what happened in one of the least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.

Rouge ! L'Art au pays des soviets(fr)

Barbarossa: Hitler Turns East(hu)

Hitler's invasion of Russia was one of the landmark events of World War II. This documentary reveals the lead-up to the offensive, its impact on the war and the brinksmanship that resulted from the battle for Moscow. Rare footage from both German and Russian archives and detailed maps illustrate the conflict, while award-winning historian and author John Erickson provides insight into the pivotal maneuvers on the eastern front.

Havana, From On High(es)

The chronic shortage of housing in Central Havana has pushed the city upwards, where life spills out onto the rooftops. Resilient and remarkable, these rooftop dwellers have a privileged point of view on a society in the process of major transformation.

People of Russia(en)

This FitzPatrick Miniature visits the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the largest geographically unbroken political unit in the world, covering one-sixth of the world's land mass.