Land of Tears

Still(de)

The documentary tells the story of Uschi, a farmer living free and recluded in the bavarian alps. Shot in epic black and white pictures, Still follows Uschi's life over a ten year period. From an untroubled summer of making cheese through pregnancy and the uncertain future of the parental farm, Matti Bauer portrays Uschi's struggle to keep alive the dream of a way of life that has become rather untypical in this day and age.

Silence(pl)

A portrait of a family living in a village in Masuria.

Prime Farmland(en)

This documentary film follows farmers and activists fighting together to stop the Indiana Enterprise Center, a mega-sized industrial park planned west of South Bend, Indiana

America's Hate Preachers(en)

Director Hannah Livingston spends 6 months tracking two of America's most radical Christian hate groups - a notorious pastor from Arizona and a network of extremist preachers.

Koyaanisqatsi(en)

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Toubib(fr)

Small Town Gay Bar(en)

The story of community in the Deep South that is forced to deal with the struggles of ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression.

Land Rush(en)

A partnership between the Government of Mali and an American agricultural investor may see 200-square kilometers of Malian land transformed into a large-scale sugar cane plantation. Land Rush documents the hopes, fears, wishes, and demands of small-scale subsistence farmers in the region who look to benefit, or lose out, from the deal.

Prairie Women(en)

This film illustrates the struggles of Canadian prairies women to achieve a more just and humane society within the farm movement and at large. During the early 1900s, women on the prairies looked for ways to overcome their isolation. Out of the resulting farm women's organizations grew a group of women possessing remarkable intellectual abilities, social and cultural awareness, and advanced worldviews.

Small Happiness(zh)

Part Two: SMALL HAPPINESS - Despite the tremendous advances women in China have made, serious problems continue. Long Bow women talk about love, marriage, work, birth control, birth customs and the now outlawed custom of foot binding. Truly moving interviews with Lingqiao and her mother-in-law draw us into their lives.

The Dread(es)

The villagers of El Dorado, Argentina, shy away from doctors. Then again, they hardly need one. They have almost as many cures for ailments and illnesses as there are residents in the village. 65 year old Jorge can also cure the most dreaded ailment of them all, the much feared espanto.

Werner We Love You(de)

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

DV China(zh)

A documentary following Zhou Yuanquiang, a cultural worker in Jingdezhen, China who makes movies with untrained local actors.

Horse Wrangler(es)

Nando, a young horse wrangler in a rural Mexican village, has taken his own life following a disagreement with his father. Caballerango shows the boy’s family members and townspeople as they reckon with the new realities borne out of this inexplicable tragedy. Each account of Nando’s story reveals a different aspect of this rural town, which is deeply affected by modernization. The confrontation between the centuries-old ways of life and the modern-day world seems to be creating serious identity crises among the younger generation. The story is told in a patient, observational style with methodical shots of the landscape, ranches, and of the two white horses, whom Nando and his father tended to. Those horses, the last to see Nando alive, connect us to an ethereal sensation of almost otherworldly mystical beings.

Ayotzinapa(es)

This film is a story, testimony and documentation of the forced disappearance of 43 student teachers, which exposes the criminal complicity between the police and military authorities, between the political and economic elites and criminal organizations in Mexico, which appear to be different forces, but respond to similar interests.

Tren Paraguay(es)

The Paraguayan railroad, created in 1861, fell in the late twentieth century in decline. Operated for decades by foreign companies and later by the Paraguayan State has been in a growing abandonment since the late 90s. Since then there have been projects of recovery, but the stations are empty and the main terminal was demolished late last year.

Lida(en)

"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.

The Celts(hr)

A documentary about the Celts, the fans of the Bilogorac football club from the Croatian village of Veliko Trojstvo. Interestingly, the members are not locals, but people from Bjelovar, a city 10 kilometers away that has a much better ranked football team. Dressed in green and white, the Celts spend every weekend escaping from provincial life to support the players.

Harvest and Seed(fa)

The banned and unseen Harvest and Seed is a sardonic look at the conditions of a poverty-stricken Iranian village after the so-called agrarian reforms of the early 1960s, which amounted to a corrupt land grab rather than an equitable redistribution of wealth. This film recorded in village in south of fars, Shiraz, Esmaeel abad

Girls of Hope(en)

In Turkey far too many women are still unable to read and write, and all they see in their life span is being forced into early marriage and relegation to the home, where they look after extended families and more children than they can feed. The girls are portrayed in their homes, together with the strongest supporters of their emancipation through education: their mothers. Girls of Hope portrays five girls who struggle for their education and, despite all the difficulties, try to hold on to their hope for a better future.