Toxic Sunset(1993)

Homes Apart: Korea(ko)

They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90s, as the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Koreans remain separated between North and South, fearing the threat of mutual destruction. Beginning with one man's journey to reunite with his sister in North Korea, filmmakers Takagi and Choy reveal the personal, social and political dimensions of one of the last divided nations on earth. The film was also the first US project to get permission to film in both South & North Korea.

The Devil We Know(en)

Unraveling one of the biggest environmental scandals of our time, a group of citizens in West Virginia take on a powerful corporation after they discover it has knowingly been dumping a toxic chemical — now found in the blood of 99.7% of Americans — into the local drinking water supply.

Zeitbombe Giftmüll - Noch Zeit zum Entschärfen?(de)

Documentary about the dangers of toxic waste and its long-term consequences.

Cybersocialism: Project Cybersyn & The CIA Coup in Chile(en)

A documentary on the rise and fall of Project Cybersyn, an attempt at a computer-managed centralized economy undertaken in Chile during the presidency of Salvador Allende.

Un-Documented: Unlearning Imperial Plunder(en)

Un-Documented argues against Alain Resnais and Chris Marker’s film Statues Also Die (1963). Focusing on plundered objects in European museums and listening to the call of asylum seekers to enter European countries, their former colonizing powers, the film defends the idea that their rights are inscribed in these objects that were kept well documented all these years.

This Bloody, Blundering Business(en)

In this satirical rendering of the history of American intervention in the Philippines following the Spanish-American War, the silent movie format with lively ragtime piano music is combined with a dramatically understated narration and excerpts from "newsreels" of the period to reveal the nature of American attitudes toward Third World peoples and significant parallels with contemporary American foreign policy.

Stealing Africa(en)

Zambia's copper resources have not made the country rich. Virtually all Zambia's copper mines are owned by corporations. In the last ten years, they've extracted copper worth $29 billion but Zambia is still ranked one of the twenty poorest countries in the world. So why hasn't copper wealth reduced poverty in Zambia? Once again it comes down to the issue of tax, or in Zambia's case, tax avoidance and the use of tax havens. Tax avoidance by corporations costs poor countries and estimated $160 billion a year, almost double what they receive in international aid. That's enough to save the lives of 350,000 children aged five or under every year. For every $1 given in aid to a poor country, $10 drains out. Vital money that could help a poor country pay for healthcare, schools, pensions and infrastructure. Money that would make them less reliant on aid.

Hezbollah: The Chronicle of a Return(ar)

Documentary tracing Hezbollah’s emergence in southern Lebanon after years of Israeli occupation, focusing on its social base, resistance activities, and the return of displaced villagers.

Investigating Operation Condor(en)

In the name of the struggle against terrorism, a special operation - code named CONDOR - was conducted in the 1970s and '80s in South America. Its target were left-wing political dissidents, the organized labor and intellectuals. Condor soon became a network of military dictatorships supported by the U.S. State Department, the CIA, and Interpol.

We're All Plastic People Now(en)

In an era of throw-away ease, convenience has cost us our well-being. Plastics have been found inside our bodies— in our colons, our brains, and even in mothers’ developing wombs. Scientists around the country are sounding the alarm, but without public buy-in, there is little that can be done. How much evidence do we need before we decide to take action?

Countdown für die Ewigkeit(de)

In 1980, the American professor Thomas A. Sebeok received a call that took him by surprise. He was to participate in a crisis team of the Bechtel corporation. This assembly of renowned scientists was concerned with the question of what should be done with the now accumulated quantities of radioactive waste from military and civilian use. One task was to develop notification systems that would still be able to warn of the dangers of radioactive substances 10,000 years from now.

Decay: On Fascism and Breakdown(en)

A feature length Marxist documentary looking at 20th Century fascism, early English settler colonialism in the Americas and the prospects of a contemporary neofascism. The film focuses on the political economy of these forms, drawing on Rajani Palme Dutt's view that fascism represented an organisation of capitalist decay, to illustrate the various different laws of motion which condition the development of reactionary political movements.

The Women Outside(en)

They're called bar women, hostesses, or sex workers and "western princesses." They come from poor families, struggling to earn a decent wage, only to be forced into the world's oldest profession. They're the women who work in the camptowns that surround U.S. military bases in South Korea. In 40 years, over a million women have worked in Korea's military sex industry, but their existence has never been officially acknowledged by either government. In The Women Outside, a film by J.T. Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park, some of these women bravely speak out about their lives for the first time. The film raises provocative questions about military policy, economic survival, and the role of women in global geopolitics

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation(en)

This hour-long documentary is a provocative look at a historical event of which few Americans are aware. In mid-January, 1893, armed troops from the U.S.S Boston landed at Honolulu in support of a treasonous coup d’état against the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen Lili‘uokalani. The event was described by U.S. President Grover Cleveland as an "act of war."

Grenada: Confronting the Past(en)

In the eighteenth century, the family of BBC World News anchor and correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, were absentee slave owners on the island of Grenada, profiting for years from the sale of sugar harvested from five different sugar cane plantations. When slavery was abolished in 1834, the UK government paid compensation to slave owners, but the enslaved received nothing. In the wake of the racial reckoning in America following the death of George Floyd, Grenada's national commission on reparations for slavery has begun to meet and debate what reparations means. In this film, Laura she travels to Grenada to try and learn more about the legacy of slavery on Grenada and her family's involvement in the slave trade.

Biosludged(en)

Biosludged reveals how the EPA is committing science fraud to allow the ongoing poisoning of our world with toxic sewage sludge that's being spread on food crops. Features former top government scientist and EPA whistleblower Dr. David Lewis.

Propaganda(en)

An anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.

La vengeance de Poutine(fr)

Teenage Wasteland(en)

Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s make a student film and uncover a vast conspiracy that is poisoning their community. Thirty years later, they revisit their film and confront the legacy of this transformative experience.

The Faces of North Korea(en)

This is a 25-minutes piece about the DPRK (North Korea), a country Vltchek visited and fell in love with. Vltchek goes against the hegemonic western propaganda that is perpetuated towards DPRK and their people, showing the beauty that resides in the country.