
The region of Lake Turkana, located in Kenya and Ethiopia, is considered to be “the Cradle of Humankind”. Among other finds, primate fossils from millions of years ago have been discovered in the region. But what about the region’s modern inhabitants and their relationship to their environment? Iiris Härmä, whose previous work includes the award-winning Leaving Africa, had the chance of joining Helsinki University’s researchers, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares and Mar Cabeza, on their pre-pandemic trip to study the Daasanach people’s relationship to their environment through traditional animal tales. The researchers hope that storytelling would help to bridge the gap between people’s everyday lives and conservation efforts.
Self
Self

The region of Lake Turkana, located in Kenya and Ethiopia, is considered to be “the Cradle of Humankind”. Among other finds, primate fossils from millions of years ago have been discovered in the region. But what about the region’s modern inhabitants and their relationship to their environment? Iiris Härmä, whose previous work includes the award-winning Leaving Africa, had the chance of joining Helsinki University’s researchers, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares and Mar Cabeza, on their pre-pandemic trip to study the Daasanach people’s relationship to their environment through traditional animal tales. The researchers hope that storytelling would help to bridge the gap between people’s everyday lives and conservation efforts.
2022-02-01
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5.5Reima Elo ends up trying to commit suicide when he is abandoned by his wife Molla. He is also the village's laughing stock due to his communism. At a critical moment, a Lenin lookalike from Russia named Vladimir rescues him.
A hitman is tasked to take out ex-mobsters when he suddenly hears a voice that questions his morality.
7.4Valdis Nulle is a young and ambitious captain of fishing ship 'Dzintars'. He has his views on fishing methods but the sea makes its own rules. Kolkhoz authorities are forced to include dubious characters in his crew, for example, former captain Bauze and silent alcoholic Juhans. The young captain lacks experience in working with so many fishermen on board. Unexpectedly, pretty engineer Sabīne is ordered to test a new construction fishing net on Nulle's ship and 'production conflict' between her and the captain arises...
7.3An animated road-movie set across the vast and barren landscape of Australia's Nullarbor Plain.
8.1An unknown girl breaks out of her daily grind by undergoing an intense audio-visual trip.
3.6From this popular series that counts 37 works, the 6th compilation of episodes carefully selected by the staff.
6.0An archival investigation into the imperial image-making of the RAF ‘Z Unit’, which determined the destruction of human, animal and cultural life across Somaliland, as well as Africa and Asia.
4.0The film follows the daily experiences and dreams of the residents of a specific type of seclusion of freedom in which the convicts assume the maintenance of the space, the control of their own activities and their security. With a multifaceted approach, it proposes a reflection on the creative potential of incarcerated people, the documentary genre itself and its truth.
6.0Andrea is a young journalist who feels her professional and personal life have come to a halt. But the return of Lorenzo, her former college flame she once dumped, now turned rock star, will give her a new perspective on life, love, and being true to herself.
6.2Galois is practicing shooting in preparation for a duel the very next day. His last night.
8.0In the form of a gripping social thriller, Saeed Roustayi's "The Law of Tehran" (2019) offers a striking insight into the war declared on drug traffickers by the authorities. We look back at the making of a film that revealed the extent of the drug scourge in Iran today.
8.0Balanced on the edge of what is visible, everything comes from nothingness and returns to nothingness. Strands of consciousness trying to convene with each other. Forms of personal significance in a time of crisis, set free into random motion through chance operations. Recurring details point towards a center.
5.0A found-footage film made entirely from Academy leader, which is normally used to cue the start of films. The film was hand-printed on a home-made contact printer. It was rolled back and re-printed several times over, to create a complex layering of both image and sound.
6.0This documentary about the life and work of filmmaker Jean Painlevé was originally presented in eight parts on French television. It was edited to remove duplicated material from its original length of 240 minutes.
6.0Kim and Pie are in love, but after graduation they have to travel into two different directions for their internship; Kim is going to work in a farm in the northern province of Nan, while Pie is going South to work in a fishery center. Their love is being tested by the distance between them.
10.0A crazy day spent literally between life and death gives nerdy, socially inept junior professor Avinash more than the adventure he dreamed of. Stumbling through the world between the living and the lead, could he make it alive?
6.0The story of Kenyan athlete David Rudisha, the greatest 800m runner the world has ever seen, and his unusual coach, the Irish Catholic missionary Brother Colm O'Connell.
0.0A short film documenting Ethiopian musician Hailu Mergia's life as the leader of the Walias Band in the 1970, his immigration to the United States and his subsequent re-emergence as a performer in 2014.
5.0Haile Gerima and Ryszard Kapuscinski travel around Ethiopia talking to people about their current situations and what needs to be done for a prosperous country.
0.0Though commissioned by Trinity College Dublin as a fundraiser for the Berkeley Library and with extensive discussion of the history, architecture and collections of the Old Library, this film also provides a rare insight into student life in Dublin in the 1950s – at work and at play – and lauds the arrival of women and students from many lands.
0.0When his family tries to kill him, Sidney, who is intersex, flees to Nairobi where he meets a group of transgender friends. Together, they fight discrimination and discover life, love and self-worth.
Running Movie is a documentary film that focuses on Israeli long-distance runner Ayele Seteng (a.k.a. Haile Satayin), the oldest marathon runner to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and his efforts to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Satayin has been a long-distance runner since he was a young boy in Ethiopia, but he only became a marathon runner after immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s. Now, at the age of 55, he keeps on running. We follow him as he practices in Ethiopia, far from his wife and eight children, and witness his moments of victory and defeat, as he competes in marathons around the world—from Berlin, Germany, to Tiberias, Israel.
"A Walk to Beautiful" tells the story of five women in Ethiopia suffering from devastating childbirth injuries. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. The trials they endure and their attempts to rebuild their lives tell a universal story of hope, courage, and transformation.
Kibera is the largest slum area in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa. This documentary depicts three important problems; violence, drugs (miraa) and albinos killing.The 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census reports Kibera's population as 170,070, contrary to previous estimates of one or two million people .Most of Kibera slum residents live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1.00 per day. Unemployment rates are high. Persons living with HIV in the slum are many, as are AIDS cases. Cases of assault and rape are common. There are few schools, and most people cannot afford education for their children. Clean water is scarce. Diseases caused by poor hygiene are prevalent.
A documentary about people in Kenya who are imprisoned by the global flower industry. The dilemmas of the industry become painfully clear and a dark world of oppression, sexual abuse and terrible working conditions unfolds. There is only one conclusion possible: the smell of the imported rose is not sweet, but bitter.
35 Cows and a Kalashnikov is a joyously made triptych about warrior-farmers, colorful dandies and voodoo wrestlers in Ethiopia, Brazzaville and Kinshasa. It paints a loving and attentive portrait of African pride and beauty.
Short ethnographic documentary on the Tetela tribe in Congo based upon footage and commentary by director Luc de Heusch from 1953 reassembled by Damien Mottier (Université Paris Nanterre) and Grace Winter (CINEMATEK).
As if they were showing their film to a few friends in their home, the Johnsons describe their trip across the world, which begins in the South Pacific islands of Hawaii, Samoa, Australia, the Solomons (where they seek and find cannibals), and New Hebrides. Thence on to Africa via the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, North Africa, and the Nile River to lion country in Tanganyika. (They are briefly joined in Khartum by George Eastman and Dr. Al Kayser.) Taking a safari in the Congo, the Johnsons see animals and pygmies, and travel back to Uganda, British East Africa, and Kenya.
8.3You find fungi in Antarctica and in nuclear reactors. They live inside your lungs and your skin is covered with them. Fungi are the most under appreciated and unexplained organisms, yet they could cure you from smallpox and turn cardboard boxes into forests. They could even transform Mars into Eden. There are vastly more fungi species than plants and each and every one of them play a crucial role in life’s support systems. Join us on a journey into the mysterious world of Fungi to witness their beauty, unravel their mysteries and discover how this secret kingdom is essential to life on Earth, and may in fact hold the key to our future.
8.0In the Kenyan bush, a crackdown on ivory poaching forces a silver-tongued second-generation poacher to seek out an unlikely ally in this fly-on-the-wall look at both sides of the conservation divide.
10.0Rat Brain is a documentary that highlights Dr. John D. Douglass and his team's research at Seattle Pacific University on chronic stress' neurological impact, striving to uncover its link to suicidal behavior. Their work navigates ethical dilemmas while aiming to showcase vital insights into mental health and suicide prevention.
6.0Groundbreaking psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross dedicated her career to working with the incurably ill. In this intimate documentary filmed near the end of her life, Kübler-Ross relates her life story, from childhood to her final years. Friends, family members and colleagues weigh in with insightful observations and share their memories of this remarkable woman whose innovative concepts helped spawn the field of thanatology.
6.2This documentary provides a window into the extraordinary life of activist and Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who has worked to regain ownership of her country and its fate after years of colonialism. While gentle and thoughtful, Maathai carries a powerful message: the First World holds much of the responsibility for the environmental, economic and social struggles of the developing world.