Deadlock

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Astrophysicist Jean Surdej brings a small group of teenage pupils on a trip to the Lofoten islands in northern Norway, for a very special class on the solar system. Using the geography of the archipelago to illustrate the distances between the planets, they journey through space by car and ferry, with the picturesque landscapes standing in for the black emptiness that surround the heavenly bodies. A masterstroke of both pedagogy and filmmaking, Children of Stars is a captivating documentary about humanity's place in the grand scheme of things.

Raudy's Story

Award-winning documentary Resilience & Sacrifice follows an emerging musician from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom who shelved his dreams to raise his family. Years later, he returns to the stage, facing the music industry and a medical crisis that nearly ends his career. A story of grit and passion.

On June 12, 2019, the Committee to Investigate Violence in Youth Care presented its final report. The conclusions were startling. Kim Feenstra set out to find out what progress has been made within the Youth Care system since then and ended up in a circle of grief and pain dominated by money, power and powerlessness. In her search, Kim Feenstra spoke to many people involved. The stories can be described as downright shocking. In many cases Youth Care appears to act as a revenue model that is exploiting parents and children. The complex system has only one entrance, but the exit is obstructed by all stakeholders who want to maintain their revenue model. The people who really matter, the parents and children, encounter a power block of inhuman proportions. A system dominated by money, power and powerlessness.

Black Angels

Making Noise chronicles the long struggle of the skateboarders of Northfield, Minnesota, to secure a permanent place for their sport. Shot in close collaboration with the latest generation of skateboarders, the film follows their efforts as they meet with city officials to fundraise, envision, and design a skatepark that seems to fit nowhere. A voiceover narration recorded by the skaters and based on city records, reveals the inefficiency of a process slowed down by outdated stereotypes about skateboarding and a thinly veiled resistance to the skateboarders. The film calls into question Northfield’s open-minded and friendly reputation in light of the community’s delay to find a place for its own youths. Making Noise bears witness to young people’s resilience and perseverance as it exposes the victories and failures of the civic process in small town America.

When the cheerful, crazy, fun, and sweet Milou is confronted with multiple traumatic experiences in her early teens, she develops severe flashbacks and serious psychological problems. Everything is tried, but no one can silence the monster in her head. Milou is seventeen when she dies in her mother's arms. Weary, completely exhausted, she is finally allowed to go. Milou is the first minor in the Netherlands to die by euthanasia due to hopeless psychological suffering.

In Bergen, we find one of Norway's largest harbor communities. The residents live close to the water, and even closer to one another.

At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.

Over a decade in the making, Swagger of Thieves follows rock band Head Like a Hole from the top of the charts to the bottom of a needle. Staring down their age, two pals and the main guts of HLAH, frontman Nigel Booga Beazley and 'co- conspirator' Nigel Regan strut the hard road out of hell, fighting to reconnect and return their band to past glory, amidst disgruntled band mates, a changed music industry, and disappointed wives. Struggling to place past addictions and sabotaged dreams behind them in their continuing quest for rock music relevance, the ever-collapsing binary stars of any Head Like a Hole lineup, are certain (not) to polish their legacy here. Swagger of Thieves captures what it means to be in a band with a reputation. Unrelentingly raw, wild and honest, to the point of being one of the most insightful music documentaries ever made. Essential viewing. New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF), Melbourne International Documentary Film Festival (MIDFF)

This film, with an autobiographical flavor, was shot in part on the very premises where Father Proulx grew up and highlights the importance of agriculture and the very special attention given to rural youth in the from the Government of Quebec. The farm and its little world are presented during the four seasons: the introduction of children to agricultural work, the holidays, the return to school. From November to the end of April, the older ones take courses in the various agricultural schools scattered across Quebec. In addition to studying the methods of cultivation and breeding, they receive notions of carpentry, blacksmithing and other lessons likely to be useful in their future work as farmers. In the spring, the young girls go to secondary schools of agriculture to learn domestic art, beekeeping, weaving, sewing, etc.

Three teenagers — Amelio, Blake and Kira — each begin their gender transition, supported in different ways by their families. This deeply sensitive documentary follows them between ages 15 and 17 as they navigate the emotional and physical challenges of being transgender. For them, puberty brings intense distress, as their developing bodies do not align with their true gender identity. The film explores the difficult questions faced by parents and doctors: whether to medically delay puberty, start hormonal treatment, or wait and risk worsening the teens’ suffering. Through moments of doubt, upheaval and hope, the documentary offers an intimate look at three young people who want only one thing — for the outside world to see them as they know themselves to be.

Eleni is 16 and has just moved from California to Virginia, where she must adapt to a new school. This comes easily to her thanks to her intense passion, which she instills in her peers. She becomes president of the school's rocket club and aims to build the perfect model for a competition attended by hundreds of teams from across the United States.

Vancouver-based voice artist Ashleigh Ball has been the voice of numerous characters in classic cartoons such as Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Cinderella and more. When Ashleigh was hired to voice Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash for Hasbro's fourth series to use the My Little Pony name - My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - she had no idea she would become an Internet phenomenon and major celebrity to a worldwide fan-base of grownups. Bronies are united by their belief in the show's philosophy. This documentary gives an inside view of the Pony fan-world, and an intimate look at the courage it takes to just be yourself...even when that means liking a little girls' cartoon.

In May 2005, after 30 years of Moroccan occupation, Saharawi students initiated a series of peaceful demonstrations demanding their right to the United Nations-mandated referendum on Western Saharan independence. The Moroccan authorities responded with a brutal campaign of repression, detaining and torturing human rights activists as well as Saharawi students and children as young as eight years old.

An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.

In a boarding school, legend has it that a time capsule has been hidden in the walls. They say it could change the world. Today, the new students fall in love, play cards, dream and laugh in their rooms, which in turn become their own time capsules, like snapshots of a generation at 20 years old.

Cocco and Stefano are two unlikely friends bonded by a mutual goal: reach Samarkand from the mountains of Northeast Italy. Cocco is an old biker with a troubled past whose dream is to depart towards the East with his Harley-Davidson from ’39. Stefano is a young director who wants to make a film about the adventure and the story of his friend. Between the highs and lows of a quixotic trip, the challenge will reveal bigger than the two expected. Only through friendship, Cocco and Stefano will be able to reach their dreams.

We met in first grade in Ms. Locklear’s class. During the summer of 2006, we decided to search for our beloved teacher. We chose not to use the internet or the telephone, but instead to rely on face-to-face contact with people. Looking for Ms. Locklear is a documentary chronicling our search, which led us far from home and into the company of a host of characters.