The Edge of Democracy

A Suitable Girl(en)

A Suitable Girl follows three young women in India struggling to maintain their identities and follow their dreams amid intense pressure to get married. The film examines the women's complex relationship with marriage, family, and society.

O Rap Pelo Rap(en)

To do this documentary, the director Pedro Henrique Fávero featured 42 characters - among MCs, DJs and producers - to make a detailed map of its kind in the country. Without mincing words, they speak openly here about 8 topics proposed by the film and try to understand Hip Hop in Brazil. The result is a collection of stories from a lot of fighting, where there are many eternal start-end-start, overcoming the difficulties of being understood and feeling of belonging to a group and many clichés.

A Farra do Circo(pt)

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.

Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations(de)

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty(de)

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

Zaineb Hates the Snow(fr)

When her mother remarries and her newly blended family moves to Canada, a 9-year-old Tunisia girl's life takes a profound turn as she struggles to find her place and maintain her Muslim identity in a new land.

The Aryans(de)

THE ARYANS is Mo Asumang's personal journey into the madness of racism during which she meets German neo-Nazis, the US leading racist, the notorious Tom Metzger and Ku Klux Klan members in the alarming twilight of the Midwest. In The ARYANS Mo questions the completely wrong interpretation of "Aryanism" - a phenomenon of the tall, blond and blue-eyed master race.

I Was Only 14(nl)

Filmmaker Froukje van Wengerden’s 86-year-old grandmother shares a powerful memory from 1944, when she was just 14. As her story unfolds, we see a group of contemporary 14-year-old girls. Their procession of portraits permits the spectator to see simultaneously forward and back, into the future and towards the past. A miraculous testimonial that uses eye contact to focus the viewer inward and evoke unexpected emotions.

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.

Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids(en)

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.

Full Metal Village(de)

The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.

Bukovyna, Ukrainian Land(uk)

Dovzhenko and Solntseva's documentary about the Bukovina region.

Victory in Soviet Ukraine(ru)

A wartime documentary directed by Alexander Dovzhenko and Yuliya Solntseva, depicting the final campaigns that drove Nazi forces from Ukraine in 1944–45. Combining frontline footage, liberated cityscapes, and scenes of returning civilians, the film chronicles both the devastation of occupation and the triumph of Soviet arms. It stands as both a historical record of the Ukrainian front and a patriotic celebration of victory at the close of the Second World War.

Tres instantes, un grito(es)

Ukraine in Flames(ru)

A 1943 Soviet war propaganda film by Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko and Yuliya Solntseva. It is Dovzhenko's second World War II documentary, and dealt with the Battle of Kharkiv. The film incorporates German footage of the invasion of Ukraine, which was later captured by the Soviets.

Liberation(uk)

Wartime documentary by Dovzhenko and Solntseva.

Wild Women Don't Have the Blues(en)

Recaptures the lives and times of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, and the other legendary women who made blues music a vital part of American culture. The film brings together for the first time dozens of rare, classic renditions of the early blues.

The Head of a Pin(en)

The Head of a Pin reveals the awkward ruminations of the filmmaker and her friends as they attempt to learn about nature. Starting out as an examination of the differences between urban and rural life, between the daily grind and summer vacations, the film turns unexpectedly into a portrait of what happens when city dwellers encounter a country spider.

The Odds of Recovery(en)

After a twenty year period of multiple illnesses and injuries, the filmmaker turns the camera on herself as a way to analyze her chances for a happier, healthier life. In the process, she captures the frustration, tedium and petty annoyances of a revolving-door relationship with the medical establishment, while portraying the complicated web of emotions that accompany any medical problem. With humor and honesty, The Odds of Recovery uses the filmmaker's medical history as a means to address a perennial human problem: the desire to avoid conflict and deny the need for radical change.

Microcosmos(fr)

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Nefta Football Club(ar)

In the south of Tunisia, two football fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears.

The Cave(en)

Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.

Rolling Papers(en)

On January 1, 2014, recreational marijuana sales began in Colorado. With all eyes on ground zero of the green rush, The Denver Post became the first major media outlet to embrace it and appointed the world’s first marijuana editor. Legalization is not just an experiment for society, but a risk for the dying industry of newspapers to hedge its bets on the booming business of marijuana. Ricardo Baca sets out to report on history in the making with a team of straight-laced staff writers and fish out of water freelancers in tow for The Cannabist as it unfolds. Policy news, strain reviews, parenting advice and edible recipes are the new norm in the unprecedented world of pot journalism.

Gus(en)

The California Atoms are in last place with no hope of moving up. But by switching the mule from team mascot to team member, (He can kick 100 yard field goals!) they start winning, and move up in the rankings, Hurrah! The competition isn't so happy.

Possible Loves(pt)

Fifteen year ago, Carlos went to the cinema to meet Júlia, his university colleague with whom he was in love. She never showed up. Carlos was left waiting in the lobby alone. While he waits, something happens which will change his life. A scene, an encounter, an unfinished sentence... Something insignificant, but which will determine the character's life. Fifteen years later, we follow three completely different versions of Carlos's life. In one, he is a man divided between the stability of a secure life in a lukewarm marriage, and the growing desire to live a great love affair. In the second, he is homosexual and places passion above all else. In the third possible life, Carlos is a man who hasn't yet discovered love, and lives through successive disastrous relationships in search of the perfect woman. One of them is his real life. Another is not his life. And a third is the life he'd like to lead. Which is his true life ?

The Trial(pt)

The impeachment and removal from office of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 was triggered by a corruption scandal involving, among others, her then vice-president Michel Temer. Director Maria Augusta Ramos follows the trial against Rousseff from the point of view of her defence team. This is a courtroom drama that unfolds slowly: the appearances of the various parties gradually turn the proceedings into something akin to theatre. Inside the courtroom, grand emotions are played to full effect whilst, on the other side of the doors, lobbyists and supporters pace the corridors. Meanwhile, outside, in front of Brasília’s modernist government buildings, demonstrators are chanting like a Greek chorus. Only the main character, Rousseff herself, remains professional and aloof.

Maria do Caritó(pt)

Maria, a virgin spinster, is trying magical superstitions to find a husband. In her dialogue with the marriage saint, she implores for a companion. Her father offered her as a bride to Saint Djalminha, if the saint saved her during her complicated birth which ended in the death of her mother. Since then Maria has lived this dilemma: revered and loved by the residents and pilgrims that believe she is a miracle worker; she is desperate to live a great love, with a flesh and blood prospect with real passionate desire. She asks for a sign from the heavens, a clue on how to find a crumb of love when a gypsy arrives on scene saying "someone who loves her very much, but she doesn't know will come from afar on an artists' caravan." Maria can't take the solitude she is living anymore and decides "to find Mr. Right," no matter how much it may cost.

VS.(en)

VS. is an urban rites of passage drama set in the hostile and exciting UK rap battle scene.

Lower House(pt)

During 2016, a film crew embeds inside the Brazilian Congress while lawmakers plot to overthrow the country's elected president, Dilma Rousseff.

Boy 23: The Forgotten Boys of Brazil(pt)

The film accompanies the investigation of the historian Sidney Aguilar after the discovery of bricks marked with Nazi swastikas in the interior of São Paulo. They then discover a horrifying fact that during the 1930s, fifty black and mullato boys were taken from an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro to the farm where the bricks were found. There they were identified by numbers and were submitted to slave labour by a family that was part of the political and economic elite of the country and who did not hide their Nazi sympathizing ideals.

Chicago Syndicate(en)

An ex-military accountant is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the mob in Chicago in an attempt to break open the rackets. To complicate his job, two women stand in his way, each with their own agenda.

Empty Days(pt)

"Empty Days" tells the story of a day in the life of Jean and Fabiana, a couple of young boyfriends who try to reinvent their lives in a small town in the Brazilian interior. They are in their senior year of high school and live the old dilemma: either we leave this city or we stay here and continue the history of our parents. At the end of this day Jean commits suicide and Fabiana disappears. Two years later, Daniel and Alanis, another couple of young boyfriends, try to understand how everything happened.

How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal(pt)

Lisbon, Portugal, 1927. The writer and journalist Fernando Pessoa accepts from his boss the commission to create an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca; but conservative government authorities consider the new drink as revolutionary as it is diabolical.

São Paulo's War(pt)

In 1932, more than two hundred thousand men armed with machine guns, grenades and canons took part in on of the most violent wars in America in the 20th century. Brazilian against Brazilian, in a conflict that involved air raid of big cities – such as Campinas, Santos and São Paulo - and resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Why did this war happen? Who took part in it? What were the details of the conflict? How did the war end? The documentary tells this episode of the country's history, not only grand but also unknown, with an accessible language and an involving rhythm.

The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later(fr)

Agnès Varda’s follow-up to her acclaimed documentary THE GLEANERS AND I takes us deeper into the world of those who find purpose and beauty in the refuse of society, revisiting many of the original film’s subjects.

Minha Fama de Mau(pt)

An emotional dive into the music and life of Erasmo Carlos, from his years as a young rock-and-roller looking for gigs through his enduring musical partnership with Roberto Carlos.

Whisky(es)

When his long-lost brother resurfaces, Jacobo, desperate to prove his life has added up to something, looks to scrounge up a wife. He turns to Marta, an employee at his sock factory, with whom he has a prickly relationship.

Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now(en)

Oprah Winfrey talks with the exonerated men once known as the Central Park Five, plus the cast and producers who tell their story in "When They See Us."

Citation(wo)

A bright student in Nigeria takes on the academic establishment when she reports a popular professor who tried to rape her. Based on real events.

Lula, the Son of Brazil(pt)

The true story of a working class boy who moves to the nation's financial capital at a young age and becomes one the most influential politicians in Brazilian history.