The true history of a collection of some 500 films dating from 1910s to 1920s, which were lost for over 50 years until being discovered buried in a sub-arctic swimming pool deep in the Yukon Territory, in Dawson City, located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
Synopsis courtesy of the New York Film Festival
Two unemployed friends have a fresh idea: they want to stage Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' in Grand Theft Auto. But even in a virtual world, reality intrudes in a wild and trippy film shot entirely inside the ultra-violent video game.
Timely, intimate, and deeply empathetic, OUR BODY observes the everyday operations of the gynecological ward in a public hospital in Paris. In the process, veteran documentarian Claire Simon questions what it means to live in a woman’s body, filming the diversity, singularity, and beauty of patients at all stages of life. We see cancer screenings and fertility appointments, a teenager dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, a trans woman considering the beginnings of menopause. The specific fears, desires, and struggles of these individuals illuminate the health challenges we all face—even, as it comes to pass, the filmmaker herself.
After documenting her pregnancy, director Eliza Capai talks with other women who have had similar experiences, creating a powerful and touching choir of voices that reverberates on universal themes: life, death, mourning and public policies that affect us all.
Audiovisual material gathered by filmmaker Fox Maxy over a decade, including documentary footage, television clips, and animation—sometimes layered on top of one another—are presented as one collage. Amid this sensory barrage, themes of sexual violence, community, confidence and joy are explored.
A raw depiction of the lives of four black trans sex workers as they confront the dichotomy between the black community and themselves.
If history is written by the victors, where does that leave those who were never allowed to be part of the game? A collective of queer athletes enters the Olympic Stadium in Athens and sets out to honour those who were excluded from standing on the winners’ podium. They meet Amanda Reiter, a trans* marathon runner who has to struggle with the prejudices of sports organisers, and Annet Negesa, an 800m runner who was urged by the international sports federations to undergo hormone-altering surgery. Together they create a radical poetic utopia far from the rigid gender rules found in competitive sports.
The lack of respect with which the Black musician Thelonious Monk was treated in Autumn, 1969. At the end of his European tour, legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk appears on an interview show in Paris for French state television.
Staged as a series of voiceover sessions, written with gloriously off-balanced precision and dipped in the color green, THE FUTURE TENSE unfolds as a poignant tale of tales, exploring the filmmakers’ own experiences in aging, parenting, mental illness, along with the brutal history that lies submerged beneath Ireland’s heavy, moist earth.
Driving around the streets of Cuba, Lav Diaz – the famous Filipino director – and Gustavo Flecha - a talkative Cuban taxi driver – find themselves discussing about politics, migration, social conditions and love; touching many personal stories and experiences, they create an historical affresco of the conditions of their own countries.
Peter Tscherkassky condenses the long history of railways in the movies into a rousing blast for the senses in a heartfelt tribute to another legend of experimental cinema Kurt Kren.
During the 2020 lockdown, Lucrecia Martel returns to her home in Salta, Argentina’s most conservative region. Here she follows Julieta Laso who, like a muse, introduces her to a group of female artists and defiant people who exchange glances and opinions around a fire.
"A Cambodian Spring" is an intimate and unique portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and often violent development that is shaping modern-day Cambodia. Shot over six years, the film charts the growing wave of land-rights protests that led to the 'Cambodian spring' and the tragic events that followed. This film is about the complexities - both political and personal, of fighting for what you believe in.
Jean grew up in a community under the influence of a guru named Chris. Years after escaping its grip, he receives a mysterious package. Chris has just died and Jean's sister who has lived all this time reclusive by his side sends him recordings. In these mysterious sound and visual archives, Jean rediscovers voices and sounds emerging from the past. On the tapes, interviews between members of his family and Chris. The memories start to come back : Jean decides to follow in the footsteps of the missing guru to try and decipher his family history.
Simon Liu's eerie, entrancing portrait of contemporary Hong Kong tracks a series of strange disruptions to the city's urban infrastructure. Deceptively tranquil 16mm images of everyday life are accompanied by muffled music cues, ominous radio transmissions, and intimations of an impending hazardous event that may never arrive.
Rome, 1968: at the pinnacle of his artistic career, Pino Pascali died in an accident. 50 years later the Pascali Museum in Apulia—where Pino was born—buys and exhibits one of his works. This is the story of a work of art returning to its origins told through Pino Musi and Pino Pascali’s photographs.
In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.
Like Don Quixote, Zivan Pujic Jimmy fights for his annual punk festival. A film about failure, ambition, friendship and clinging to your dreams. Glavonic received much praise for this exceptional film that doesn't reveal what's fact and what's fiction.
Artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire spent four years interacting with the pupils of a film class, at a secondary school in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. Keeping himself on the sidelines, he gives way to the children to express their thoughts and dreams. Their remarks are intuitive, inquisitive, yet passionate and surprisingly mature, concerning rocky and complicated issues, ranging from racism, immigration, and identity, all the way to the possibilities of film as a medium. As time flows almost unnoticed, it is evident that these children have not only become the co-directors of this film but also the heroes of their own lives.
An intimate portrait of Yemen as the revolution unfolds, told through the eyes of tour guide leader Kais, an intelligent commentator on the changing times in Yemen, offering poignant moments of reflection, loss, anger and hope on the unknown road to revolution. Filmed over the course of the past year we see Kais's journey from pro-President to reluctant revolutionary, joining angry protesters in the increasingly bloody streets of Sana'a.