Worlds Apart

Manifest(da)

An intimate statement about the filmmaker’s need for self-expression through her own nudity and simultaneously an effort to reject the taboo of patriarchal society. Using diary entries, anger-filled personal reflections, and discussions with a mother painting her nude daughter, the film opens the topic of overcoming shame for one’s own physicality and female sexuality.

Common Language(ru)

The director, who has always been viewed as the black sheep in her family, sets out to the Belarusian town of Vitebsk to talk with her parents about previous grievances and topics that were considered taboo. The effort to find a common language, which runs into stormy emotions and the inability to voice honest opinions, is captured through both personal moments and detailed shots of the protagonists’ faces.

Our Daily Work(ro)

A group of men share a small space in a prison metal workshop in Botosani, Romania. When they’re not working, they animatedly discuss religion and hypocrisy, lament during tea that they don’t have onions for sausage, or joke and sing.

Mrs. Happy(cs)

A platonic relationship between a young girl employed at a spa hotel and its former client develops through romantic letters full of old-fashioned respect, exchanged between the couple in the mid-50s.

Greetings from Myanmar(en)

Umbrella drinks and genocide. More than 24.000 Rohingyas have been killed. Over 900.000 Rohingyas have fled their homes. Rapes and beatings are unaccounted for. Myanmar’s sivil leader Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She is calling it an «internal conflict».

Aeon(en)

Dealing heavily with perceptions of time, Aeon documents the urban cityscape as Wellington transforms through a zen-influenced eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth within a 24-hour period.

heroes(en)

Displaying the faces and voices of transgender youth, the documentary short shows the authenticity of queer and trans people living in Toronto, while simultaneously discussing the struggles for self-acceptance that people who do not conform to cisgender and heteronormative ideals of gender face. Andy Nguyen, trans director and film student, captures his trans friends in their natural state on 16mm film shot on a Bolex h16 camera. Accompanied by narration written and recited by Salem Rao, this film represents that trans people exist and this is what we look like. Regardless of the obvious everyday transphobia, trans people find community and uniqueness within each other and themselves.

Elevado 3.5(pt)

A documentary about the crowd of people that commingle throughout the 3.5km of the Minhocão, an overpass in the central region of São Paulo, built during Brazil's military dictatorship.

Time is(ce)

In a quiet and snowy Chechen village, mother tells her daughter about the return of Zara – their relative, who left this place 20 years ago. Outside, the whole world is hidden in a thick white fog. For both women, the upcoming meeting is a bright event in their dull daily life that they are very much looking forward to.

We Were Kings (Burma's Lost Royals)(en)

In 1885 the British army invaded Burma and deposed its King. He died in exile, ending a thousand years of monarchy. The royal family vanished, and the country was plunged into war and the longest military dictatorship of modern times. But after a century of silence they are back, and they're on a journey to bring the family - past and present - back together. Filmed through three years of seismic change in Burma, this is the story of a family and a country emerging from the darkness.

Self-portrait as Doubt(cs)

Last Knights of the Right Side(pl)

Although they look almost identical in black balaclavas, they have arrived at extremely right-wing views along very different paths. For six months Michał Edelman documented the activity of the National-Radical Camp brigade from Łódź ranging from propaganda events including an obligatory barbecue through attempts to disrupt the Gay Parade in Radomsko to the culmination on the Independence Day in 2019 when they marched along the streets of Warsaw. Are the nationalists really a group of friends with clear-cut views only?

Isaiah vs. The Hodag(en)

A young man living with his parents in Wisconsin comes face to face with a terrifying monster while searching for the elusive cryptic known as the Hodag.

The Street Performers(en)

This documentary-style short follows two impoverished teens performing on the streets of London in the days leading up to the London Blitz of 1940.

Hawaii: Living on the Edge in Paradise?(en)

During the summer of 2018, hundreds of earthquakes shook the summit of Kiilauea, sparking the volcano's largest eruption in 200 years. To some, it was a disaster. To others, it was the goddess Pele's way of creating new aina (land). The Hawaiian peoples' resilience and cultural unity is a lesson in the true spirit of Aloha.

El jardín de las delicias(es)

El circo(es)

Madrid, Spain, 1949. The Circo Americano arrives in the city. While the big top is pitched in a vacant lot, the troupe parades through the grand avenues: the band, a witty impersonator, the Balodys, acrobats, jugglers, acrobatic skaters, clowns and… Buffallo Bill.

Everything(pl)

Here's a strange one. First, a song on a blackboard: a Polish translation of “I love my little rooster” by American folk writer Almeda Riddle. Then, two men roll around trash bins and lift them to the garbage truck. They do it several times. A woman shouts in the distance. At the end, the picture stops, and the woman sings the song. An early short by Piotr Szulkin.

Cars Without a Home(cs)

Jan Schmidt and Pavel Juráček turn their attention to the problem of Czechoslovakia's unloved cars in this whimsical documentary short.

Meuthen's Party(en)

MEUTHEN'S PARTY unmasks the rise of the provincial politician Dr. Jörg Meuthen who doesn't shy away from spreading racist sentiments with a smile on his face.