Thailand Dreams

Prostitution is banned in Thailand, yet every year about 400,000 men from Germany travel to the Asian country. The so-called sex tourists spend a few nice days in the coastal city of Pattaya with bought "girlfriends" and thus circumvent the prostitution ban. Besides seemingly harmless sex meetings, however, there is also child prostitution, which has worsened especially since the Corona lockdown and also poses major problems for the police.

An intriguing exploration of the Asian massage parlor industry in Providence, RI, where a 25 year-old loophole has made the exchange of sex for money legal - as long as it happens behind closed doors. As the documentary follows a recent Korean immigrant, "Heather", working to operate her spa, the city's mayor fights to change the law that allows her business a legal existence. The film includes interviews with Korean women who work in spas, clients who frequent the spas, politicians from 1980 and today, police, local news footage, radio call-in shows and "voiced" reviews from inter-net escort review boards.

We followed Said Belhaj when he showed his good friend Dani Andrada around on the Swedish west coast for ten days. They climbed some of the old classic routes and also tried some of the projects the area has to offer. We tried our best to capture the spirit, surroundings and the atmosphere around their visit here.

James Wong and his female assistant visited various kinds of pleasure-houses, including invisible dens, high-tech private dens, smuggling blackpoints and famouse tryst places, both large and small ones, throughout Hong Kong. They also looked back to the Scientific Beauty in Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park, striptease in the Kowloon Walled City and the old stories in fish-ball stalls. There are also interviews of call-girls and grooms.

Chasing Fireflies focuses on the narratives of young female children who were victimized by human trafficking and their eventual captivity to child prostitution.

Back to the light

It's been 2 years since they've been together. They haven't seen each other in person. Only pixels on a screen.

Short documentary by Gunter Otto

How can an artist discover abstraction by the beginning of the 20th century and nobody is noticing? A woman, misjudged and concealed, rocks the art world with her mind-blowing oeuvre. Hilma af Klint was a pioneer creating her first abstract painting in 1906, four years before Vassily Kandinsky. But why was she ignored? Why are her paintings not available on the market? This first film on her is about her life and work, the role of women in art history and the discovery of an art scandal. Her quest for meaning in life and a boundless thinking led into a timeless, outstanding oeuvre.

Intimate portrait of four 70-year-old Quebec snowbirds who migrate every winter to Florida in search of sun, warmth and companionship. Behind their quest for love lies a desire to take advantage of this second and ultimate youth that comes with retirement.

In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.

This documentary retraces the life of Jacques Maritain (1882 - 1973), French Christian philosopher. In evoking his life, it paints a portrait of the 20th century: the scientism of the Sorbonne, the rise of Nazism, the Resistance, Free France, Christian Democracy in South America, but also art, freedom, peace and love for the human person. Jacques Maritain, in the torments of the 20th century, of it's murderous madness and it's hope for peace, holds a secret: his ineffable and faithful love for his wife Raïssa, the inspiration for his political commitments and his philosophical thought.

Travis—a sex-addicted, multi-lingual Scientologist—travels across Thailand sharing stories and entertaining his company.

Platónico, platónica

In China, it is hard for a divorced or widowed woman to find a good new husband, especially for those who have kids. For thousands of years, this phenomenon has been rooted in the profound Chinese culture. Though losing something, if not all, those women are still longing for love, one of the only things that can provide warmth to them. They want to give their descendants a family with a father who can fill in the gap of fatherly love. Export My Love is a cross-continent love-seeking story between the East and West. Shot in both China and America, this documentary follows four Chinese women who try to pursue love by finding U.S. husbands. Although they've never been to the U.S. before and most of them cannot speak English, they try their best to overcome these barriers and start new lives.

Exotismos arises from Yoná's ambition to confront stereotypes associated with beauty and aesthetics, which explore the insecurities of self-esteem. With an artistic approach, she creates cuts and colors that transcend visual changes. In a vibrant and intimate setting, the film portrays dialogues and transformations that reveal not only the expression of hair, but also the individuality of dissident bodies in the cultural effervescence of the capital of Goiás.

Interdependence

John Banvard and Jerry Nadeau are military veterans who served in World War II and Vietnam, respectively. John, 100, and Jerry, 72, sat down at the veterans home where they live to reflect on nearly 25 years together.

Buy Bye Beauty is a 2001 documentary film by Swedish director and performance artist Pål Hollender. The film is about the way Latvian sex industry and its being fueled by businessmen and sex tourists from Sweden visiting Riga. The film was shot in Riga in July 2000. The narration of the film is in English, with interviews conducted in Russian and Latvian.

1961 documentary about the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho.