Fugu - A Taste to Die For

Io sono nata viaggiando(it)

A journey back through Dacia Maraini's and her trips around the world with her close friends cinema director Pier Paolo Pasolini and opera singer Maria Callas. An in-depth story of this fascinating woman's life. Maraini's memories come alive through personal photographs taken on the road as well as her own Super 8 films shot almost thirty years ago.

A Tale of Two Kitchens(en)

Two countries, two restaurants, one vision. At Gabriela Cámara's acclaimed Contramar in Mexico City, the welcoming, uniformed waiters are as beloved by diners as the menu featuring fresh, local seafood caught within 24 hours. The entire staff sees themselves as part of an extended family. Meanwhile at Cala in San Francisco, Cámara hires staff from different backgrounds and cultures, including ex-felons and ex-addicts, who view the work as an important opportunity to grow as individuals. A Tale of Two Kitchens explores the ways in which a restaurant can serve as a place of both dignity and community.

Secret Ingredients(en)

While the debate continues about GMOs, Roundup and other toxic pesticides, this powerful film shares remarkable stories of people who regain their health after discovering the secret ingredients in their food and making a bold commitment to avoid them.

Tokyo Idols(ja)

This exploration of Japan's fascination with girl bands and their music follows an aspiring pop singer and her fans, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

Ayi(fr)

Ayi comes from a rural area of Eastern China and doesn’t have the residential permit that would allow her to work in Shanghai. Yet, she has been cooking in the streets for twenty years, in an old neighbourhood soon to be demolished. The film unveils the chaos of an ultra-modern city aiming to wipe out so-called substandard practices and to deport an unwanted population.

Have You Eaten?(en)

Living in downtown Toronto to attend school, Lina Li returns to the comfort of home in Thornhill and her mother's cooking. In this candid short, filmmaker Lina Li and her mother engage in an intimate conversation about immigration to Canada, misunderstandings, barriers to communicating, love and the taste of home.

The Search for General Tso(en)

From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.

Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story(en)

We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash? Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on discarded food. What they find is truly shocking.

Government Cheese(en)

After years of overproduction, the Reagan administration unloads over 500 million pounds of surplus cheese on the American public in the 1980s. The pungent dairy product comes to be known as 'Government Cheese.'

The Most Remote Restaurant in the World(da)

The meals based on indigenous ingredients and sustainability at the forefront. Project managers are soon faced with problems ranging from sourcing ingredients to staffing a high-end restaurant in a location inhabited by only 53 people.

Cherry Blossom Time in Japan(en)

In this Traveltalk short, the symbolic role of cherry blossoms in Japanese culture is explored as well as the traditional Japanese religions of Shintoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Mrs Birks' Sunday Roast(ja)

A Japanese food writer embarks on her quest to cook the perfect Sunday roast. Her gravy evokes a taste of home both gently Japanese and quintessentially English. Blending her passion for British food with the memories that accompany each dish, it is a labor of love with all the trimmings.

In The Heat(en)

This explores the reality of chefs and cooks as they struggle to create dishes and experiences enjoyed on a daily basis. The restaurant industry is a tough business, not just for profits, but for everyone involved.

Toypunks(en)

Toypunks is a documentary film series covering the converging world of Japanese toys, fashion and punk rock. Exploring the birth of the designer vinyl explosion from its roots in character culture and punk music, Toypunks takes you in-depth with Japanese fashion icon, Hikaru Iwanaga, creator of the worlds first designer toy. Frank Kozik, Hiddy Kinoshita of Secret Base, Balzac, Three Tides Tattoo and more are interviewed highlighting profound cross-cultural connections between todays top creative talents in toys and fashion.

Fresh Start: A Marcus Harvin Story(en)

“Fresh Start: A Marcus Harvin Story” presents an intimate portrayal of Marcus Harvin’s journey as he transcends his past to make a profound impact on the lives of those around him. The documentary offers a rare glimpse into Marcus’s daily life, capturing his heartfelt mission to share not only food but also compassion through his innovative non-profit organization, Fresh Start. Through candid interviews with key figures in Marcus’s life, including Stephanie Harvin, Babatunde Akinjobi, and Bradley Woodworth, the film illuminates Marcus’s unwavering determination and the vital support system that has helped him achieve his dreams. Viewers are invited to follow Marcus for a day, witnessing his dream project in action—an extraordinary restaurant concept where the only payment required is one’s presence.

Artifishal(en)

Narratives of ecologists and conservationists are pitted against the human tendency to engineer and control in this probing documentary on the lucrative salmon-hatchery industry.

Joso2020(en)

Joso (josō 女装) is a film collaboration combining anthropology and art film to explore the nature of male reaction and sentiment on the cusp of transformation in contemporary Japan.

A Handful of Salt(ja)

A documentary that focuses on the craftspeople who continue to make salt with a technique called Agehama-shiki that has been passed down since ancient times, and the lush natural environment of the northernmost tip of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It is also the feature-length debut of director Ishii Kaori. The process of making salt by collecting sea water and boiling it in a hiragama cauldron temporarily died out during the period of Japan's rapid economic growth following World War II, but one family's efforts to keep it alive has miraculously ensured its continuation. Salt is a vital element of people's lives. The saltmaking artisans who perpetuate their traditions represent a way forward for those of us living in this modern age.

Raise Your Arms and Twist - Documentary of NMB48(ja)

Launched in 2011 as a sister group to girl band behemoth AKB48, the Osaka-based NMB48 has become a musical force itself. With a string of No.1 hit singles and albums, not to mention sell-out performances, NMB48 continues Japan’s pop-music phenomena. Director Funahashi Atsushi, whose documentary work has previously chronicled such harrowing events as the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, pulls back the curtain on the life and struggles of the band members and the workings of the idol-making industry.

Bloed(nl)

Elles Kiers and Sjef Meijman lived intensively with four Bunte Bentheimer pigs for seven months. During the slaughter month they had their beloved pig Bom killed and then prepared it themselves. The short documentary Blood (Dinanda Luttikhedde, 2011) follows the visual artists in the final phase of their research project into the origin of our food. A valuable ritual unfolds around the processing of this animal.

Gulp(en)

The world's largest stop-motion animation film. "Gulp" follows the adventures of a fisherman who is swallowed by a big fish. This animation was shot using a Nokia N8 phone by suspending three phones high above the action on a crane.

Dark Parasite(es)

After a Robbery at a jewelry story, a group of robbers takes refuge with a host in a shabby apartment building in the suburbs. But they don't know that in the basement hides an obscure alien creature with telepathic powers.

A Lure: Teen Fight Club(en)

A community is under siege as three Belmont Highschool coed students go missing with no trace of their whereabouts. The pressure is on the police to capture the culprits responsible. Scouring the school hallways in search of clues, undercover female detective Maggie Rawdon (Jessica Sonnerborn) enters Belmont High as a transfer student in an attempt to solve the hideous disappearance of the students. Maggie makes a few new friends, and gets invited to a private rave in the country. Just as the group begins to suspect that they've taken a wrong turn, however, the trap is sprung and Maggie finds out firsthand what fate has befallen the missing girls.

Sunset Grill(en)

Ryder Hart is a private investigator and former police officer who is down on his luck and drinks too much. His estranged wife Anita runs a bar and restaurant called the Sunset Grill and is romantically involved with Jeff Carruthers, a detective who worked with Hart. When someone close to them is murdered, Hart and Carruthers team up to try to solve the crime.

Raquel: Total beauty and fitness(en)

I Love You Jet Li(en)

Taking us into what for Mark Augé is the ultimate non-place - an airport waiting lounge - Stacy Hardy and Jaco Bouwer provide still more proof of supermodernity's failure to do away with organic social life. Granted, the space we enter with them is not one of healthy connections between human beings encountering each other in a functional polis. Clearly, theirs is a world of radical disconnects. At the same time, however, it is a world in which people invent highly idiosyncratic lives for themselves - if there is one thing missing here it is precisely uniformity - and in which imaginaries go haywire. Indubitably, the Hardy/Bouwer airport lounge is a dystopian space and this space, it seems fair to say, functions as a synecdoche for a larger social condition. But dystopia here stands in radical opposition to uniformity and it is determined to break the mold of late capitalist habitus (Dominique Malaquais, SPARCK).

Today(ru)

A visual composition of the world.

It Wants Blood 2(en)

Two giant monsters are forced to battle head to head on the political circuit as they run against each other for a seat in the Senate.

Al Borde(es)

During a couple of days, different extreme situations lead the characters to discover that human relationships is what keep us on foot when we are about to fall: the love of a father towards his son choices, the unconditional love of a friend, the homefeeling of a neighbour who's almost part of the family. On the edge explores those extreme experiences that confront us with our prejudgments, exposing them and giving them a new meaning.

Together Brothers(en)

A group of ghetto kids try to find out who killed a popular police officer.

Bobby Ware Is Missing(en)

This suspense film revolves around the crime of child abduction. The parents of the missing child undertake a feverish search for their son. The police are contacted, and a ransom letter is received.

ESPY(ja)

The film deals with the recruitment of race car driver Jiro Miki (Masao Kusakari) and his dog, Caesar, to a group of people who use ESP, psychokinesis, and other special mental abilities to fight crime.

Blaubeerblau(de)

Shudō(en)

Hayate and Iwa face one another on a battlefield. Absorbed by their pride, they clash in a duel fueled by deep emotions.

The Raven(en)

As a child, Lenore was tormented by nightmares and obsessed with the dark poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe. As the lead singer in a Los Angeles band, the adult Lenore (Jillian Swanson) finds herself, friends and colleagues haunted by a murderer from beyond the grave. Only in her dreams -- in which she's visited by Poe's ghost -- will Lenore find the key to defeat her supernatural stalker and finally escape the spirits battling for her soul.

This Car Up(en)

In this comedy of errors and elevators, a bike messenger and a businessman can't stop thinking about each other after their paths cross.

Torn(en)

A tortured woman goes on a spiritual journey to find peace and leave guilt behind.

FC Barcelona Confidential(en)

Documentary following the new board of FC Barcelona as they attempt to turn around the club's business performance.

Bendito Machine VI: Carry On(en)

An inevitable and enigmatic bio-technological interweaving is just around the corner. What could go wrong?