Zen & the Art of Dying

A big hearted community celebrates life by fronting up to death. Set against the stunning backdrop of the industrial seaside town of Port Kembla, a feisty and resilient community group have determined to take back the responsibility that most of us leave to someone else — to care for their own dead. Scattered throughout are stories that cut to the core revealing why this small band have decided to take on a practice that for most is taboo. As their plans for community-based funerals gather momentum one of their own is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Tender is at once a heartbreakingly beautiful and beautifully funny glimpse of an extraordinary community taking on one of the most essential challenges of human life … its end.

Stretching along the river Ganges rests Varanasi, the holiest of India’s seven sacred cities, and a place where devout Hindus go to die in hopes of achieving moksha - becoming liberated from the cycle of rebirth. Hindu scriptures say that a soul has to undergo 8.4 million rebirths before reaching the human form, the only form one can attain moksha, and dying in Varanasi and being cremated along the banks of the river is believed to be the ideal way of achieving this. Several so-called ‘death hotels’ exist to accommodate believers who abandon their lives and come here in wait for death - some for as long as 40 years.

In August 1997, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned her family and catapulted the British public into one of the most extraordinary weeks in modern history. What was it about Diana that resulted in such an outpouring of grief? And what does that week reveal about Britain's relationship with the monarchy, then and now?

An exclusive interview with Death as he goes about his everyday business.

The third installment of the infamous "is it real or fake?" mondo series sets its sights primarily on serial killers, with lengthy reenactments of police investigations of bodies being found in dumpsters, and a staged courtroom sequence.

‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.

Dertien Dagen

Mourir pour soi

Parallel stories connected through an intimacy with death. The living and the dead communicate through visions, memories and reality.

A doctor's efforts to live a green life near the Appalachian Mountains lead to the development of a radical idea to use green burials to conserve one million acres of land and to create wildlife reserves.

New forms of manipulation and the inundation of stimuli from new media pose a great risk to children’s mental health. Finally, society has started to respond. A secular culture of consciousness is arising: meditation and new forms of resilience and mindfulness training have formed part of the curriculum in many of Europe’s schools. Can systematic inner development genuinely enable young people to take responsibility – for their own lives, for society and for the world? Can openness, compassion and an ethical attitude in children be increased by mental training?

"What could be more unsettling than a man close to death whose profound arrogance drives him relentlessly to hang onto both his power and his writing, to the bitter end?" In the twilight of his second seven-year term, François Mitterrand was alone. Ravaged by illness and abandoned by a large majority of the Socialist Party, who would not forgive him for the disastrous outcome of the March 1993 elections, the Head of State was preparing to tackle a second round of cohabitation with the right wing. However a series of unexpected tragedies and revelations would arise, casting a shadow over the end of his reign…

Hors les murs

A father killed his son. In a state of alcoholic delirium, a young man murdered his friend. A 21 year-old boy shot a policeman. Faced with their death sentence, they tell about what happens with them at the moment when they are between death and ... death.

A film about the artist Daniel Spoerri. It's actually a film about a thought by Daniel Spoerri: a film almost without Daniel Spoerri, it's actually mostly acted out by a child - to say no less than that everything somehow goes on in life, even if you die in between.

Since 2007, dozens of young people have been found hanged in Bridgend, a town in southern Wales. Many of them knew one another-they were friends, neighbors, and family. The striking similarities between their deaths have confounded authorities and struck fear into the hearts of parents. Headlines splashed across the UK earned Bridgend its infamous nickname: ""Death Town."

In New Jersey, the Good Grief community focuses on a holistic way of dealing with grief, where children can give in to rage in ‘the volcano room,' and say goodbye to a dying teddy bear patient in ‘the hospital room.' Over the course of a year, we follow the weekly meetings and get close to Kimmy, Nicky, Peter, Nora, Nolan, and Mikayla and their close companion: grief. It is sometimes heartbreaking, but also humorous, to experience the questions about life and death through their open and curious minds. Grief is high and heavy as a mountain, but it helps you understand what has happened, and that death is irreversible.

Mondo-style docudrama about a war correspondent who comes back home and has a spiritual crisis about his own mortality. Surreal fantasy sequences are mixed with graphic real autopsy footage.

December 21, 2012 is on everyone's mind. What will it bring? Is it the end of the world? A new beginning for mankind? Or just another year on the calendar? Brave Archer Films presents '2012 Crossing Over, A New Beginning.' The feature documentary explores a positive spiritual perspective on the events of Dec 21, 2012. The film investigates the galactic alignment, consciousness awakening, cycles of evolution, our binary star system with Sirius, the fear agenda in the media, who's behind it, love vs fear and much more. The film is loaded with amazing revelations of the current times we live in, from exceptional astrologer and teacher Santos Bonacci, spiritual leaders Bud Barber, George Neo and much more. The doco is shot entirely in Full HD, illustrated with high end animations and includes original music by Jonathan Kent.

How much can you trust your childhood memories? Director Sam Firth investigates, sweeping her parents into the experiment and on a journey into the past.