"letters to eleanore" is a poignant feature-length documentary that explores the intertwined journeys of two remarkable girls, Keith from Canto Grande in Lima, Peru, who bravely navigates life with cerebral palsy alongside her devoted mother, and Olivia from Litchfield, Minnesota, whose experiences highlight the stark contrasts in societal attitudes towards disability in their respective countries. As their narratives unfold, they are beautifully interwoven with the legacy of Eleanore and her family, whose life, untimely death, and the impact of her wheelchair ignited a powerful movement of hope for countless children and their families facing similar challenges. This film is not just a story of perseverance and love; it is a testament to the strength of community, brought to life through the collaborative efforts of volunteers, students, and communities across Peru and the United States, embodying a true grassroots style of storytelling that resonates with authenticity and compassion.
A dance group rehearses for their latest performance Inabitáveis about black homosexuality. While the choreographer conducts research and gives guided tours, he meets Pedro, a young trans girl looking for her own means of expression. She desperately wants to be taught by him.
A documentary that approaches polyamory from the intimate point of view of an Afro-American family who decided to live an authentic life without denying the option of diversity in their love and family.
The work deals with the election campaign of Vladimir Luxuria, the first transgender woman to sit in the Italian Parliament. She started off as an entertainer in gay nightclubs, found fame in television parlours and achieved consecration as a defender of LGBT rights by organising the first World Gay Pride in Rome in the Jubilee year. Luxuria entered parliament and with her emerged a social cross-section of an Italy that is changing in spite of prejudice. Thanks to her social battles around Italy, the voices of LGBT people gain visibility and social recognition
The Hundred Squares: "No more delays," the cry of citizens echoes from the lives of those barely holding out against discrimination and hatred. Struggling with diverse identities in their daily lives, citizens reflect on the meaning of "discrimination" through their own experiences and testimonies. They question and reflect on what is needed to eliminate it and speak out before the camera. The Blooming Equalities: discrimination law that has been on hold for 20 years. A lawyer, a researcher, a religious figure, a writer, and an activist stand in the square again after a year, and, in this time of rampant right-wing extremism and hate, they speak of an anti-discrimination law as "the right answer to ending the insurrection, the last line of defense for human dignity, a current that can no longer be held back, a square that cannot at all harm families, churches, and the nation, and a place where the voices of the less fortunate can be heard."
In this film, 24 LGBTQIA2* gardeners show their gardens and explain how their queerness affects the design of the spaces. They also speak about how they are queering ecology, as well as the natural-cultural relationship. Ella von der Haide has been visiting community gardens in North America for several years with her camera. It is the 6th film in her documentary series Another world is plantable! about community gardens, and their social-ecological activism worldwide.
Fragmentary perspectives on Human Rights and transgender (trans*) People in Turkey. What remains at the place where a murder happened? What constitutes trans* life? How to cope with daily violence and hatred? We begin to search for traces. We follow the tracks of resistance and survival. We are collectors of the expelled. We gather fragments of trans* lives inspired by texts of Nazim Hikmet, Foucault, Benjamin and Zeki Müren. Trans*BUT is a documental research study driven by the question: “What keeps you going when all else falls away?”
Ompung Putra Boru, a sixties indigenous Batak woman from Humbang Hasundutan, North Sumatra, retraces her life stories through photographs that interweave her past and present as a wife, mother, healer and indigenous land defender in two neighboring villages. Her multi-layered stories are juxtaposed with visual records of everyday life in the two villages, where people’s living space is still increasingly threatened by a giant pulp expansion.
A chronicle of gay culture in New York during the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDs era. Thirteen men and one woman look back at gay life and sex in Manhattan and Fire Island - from Stonewall (June, 1969) to the first reporting on AIDS (June, 1981). They describe the rapid move from repression to celebration, from the removal of shame to joy, the on-going search for "someone," the freedom before AIDS, the friendships, and brotherhood.
In his debut documentary, Dylan Valley explores the untold Creole history of Afrikaans, using what he knows best: HipHop, humour and personal perspective. The film follows a group of local artists creating the stage production (or 'hip-hopera'), AFRIKAAPS, as they trace the true roots of Afrikaans to slaves in the Cape. The play, and the film, reclaims and liberates Afrikaans from its reputation as the language of the oppressor, taking it back to the people who own it. Features music from Jitsvinger, Kyle Shepard, Emile (black noise), Moenier Parker, Shane Cooper, Blaq Pearl, the powerhouse bboy, Bliksemstraal, and the poetic genius of Jethro Louw.
A Europa é um Jardim
A documentary that brings together voices of clergy and laypeople who question the Church and society about the meaning of faith today—touching on the body, emotions, sexuality, and relationships—finding in the city the concrete, everyday place where faith is embodied. The documentary explores the beauty of contrast through life testimonies that foster listening and dialogue, opening a space where people feel welcomed and can be reborn. A collective reflection on the incarnate love of the Gospel, the beauty of relationships, and the complexity of a Church that wants—or should want—to truly be a home for everyone.
Amber belongs to a queer generation which no longer wants society to dictate their identity. The teenagers proudly inhabit a spectrum of fluid identities and master their first loves and losses.
Here, where even monsters are political, the topography has its own memory. It has the mythological blues. Meanwhile, old gods are upset with us, and I am upset with my father.
Berlin queer community members mourn the substance abuse-related loss of their friends by sharing memories and rituals. Resembling glow-in-the-dark fungi, they radiate light together as a network of support and care.
In October 1995, Forbach witnessed one of the most violent strikes in the history of contemporary France. A thousand or so miners took to the streets for a merciless struggle against a reform in their rights. Twenty years after the mines shut down, people’s will to fight is still alive, just hidden away somewhere.
A partnership between the Government of Mali and an American agricultural investor may see 200-square kilometers of Malian land transformed into a large-scale sugar cane plantation. Land Rush documents the hopes, fears, wishes, and demands of small-scale subsistence farmers in the region who look to benefit, or lose out, from the deal.
An inside look into the effort to preserve Philadelphia's ballroom scene, a black LGBTQ safe-space that has endured for 30 years.
Caitlyn Jenner's unlikely path to Olympic glory was inspirational. But her more challenging road to embracing her true self proved even more meaningful.
Jessica Bair, a longtime LGBTQIA+ rights advocate with Human Rights Campaign, shares her struggle to remain in her Mormon faith despite coming out as transgender.