Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark

In 1971, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE ceased to be part of Britain’s empire in the Middle East and became fully independent states. BBC News Persia and BBC Arabic collaborate in this gripping film, to uncover the secrets and shady deals that underpinned the decolonization process. From eye-witness accounts of a British-organised coup to Iran being left in control of disputed islands, it's a fascinating insight to a murky history.

Bonifatius - Mönch und Prediger

On June 28, 2018, laundry workers from El Barrio in New York City marched to the laundromat where they work. Their community and the Laundry Workers Center were there to support them.

This documentary focuses on a group of women artists, photographers, musicians and actresses who express their hopes in the Arab Spring of 2011 through their crafts. Not only do we get a look at modern day Cairo, Egypt, we also examine the challenges women face there.

Faced with a lack of prosecution of those accused of crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s military dictatorship, family members and descendants of the country’s estimated 30,000 disappeared took action. In the mid-1990s, they began gathering outside of accused perpetrators’ homes and workplaces to publicly shame them and raise awareness about the government’s systematic and brutal targeting of its people — and how it had gone unpunished. The human rights group HIJOS (Sons and Daughters for Identity and Justice Against Forgetfulness and Silence) led and labeled this direct-action style of protest “escrache,” or exposure.

Recounts the incidents that occurred in La Plata on February 20, 1996, when hundreds of students, social and worker organizations demonstrated against the modification of the university statutes required by the new Higher Education Law, fearing a gradual privatization of university education with the consequent destruction of one of the main cultural bastions of the country.

The 6 Guarani villages of Jaraguá, in São Paulo, fight for land rights, for human rights and for the preservation of nature. They suffer from the proximity to the city, which brings lack of resources, pollution of rivers and springs, racism, police violence, fires, lack of infrastructure and sanitation, among others. Unable to live like their ancestors, their millenary culture is lost as it merges with the urban culture.

Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. Thousands more like them can't tell their stories.

When 24-year-old Hend Nafea is arrested and tortured for demonstrating peacefully in Cairo's Tahrir Square, her pursuit of justice reflects post-revolution Egypt at an uncertain crossroads.

Survivors

A friendly football match between Bahrein and Togo in 2010, turns out to be rigged, as the team representing Togo is a fake team set up by international gamblers. The bad guys turn out to be victims, the good guy is revealed as the international gambling criminal while the top crooks stay out of sight since they have the power to determine who’ll be convicted. A revealing peek into a hidden world.

In May 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing became President of the Republic and wanted to bring about a new era of modernity. One of his first decisions was to break up the ORTF with the creation of three new television channels: TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3. Three new public channels but autonomous and competing. It is a race for the audience which is engaged then, and from now on the channels will make the war! This competition will give birth to a real golden age for television programs, with variety shows in the forefront. The stars of the song are going to invade the living rooms of the French for their biggest pleasure. This unedited documentary tells the story of the metamorphosis of this television of the early 1970s, between freedom of tone, scandals, political intrigues and programs that have become mythical.

Yallah! Underground follows some of today’s most influential and progressive artists in Arab underground culture from 2009 to 2013 and documents their work, dreams and fears in a time of great change for Arab societies. In a region full of tension, young Arab artists in the Middle East have struggled for years to express themselves freely and to promote more liberal attitudes within their societies. During the Arab Spring, like many others of this new generation, local artists had high hopes for the future and took part in the protests. However, after years of turmoil and instability, young Arabs now have to challenge both old and new problems, being torn between feelings of disillusion and a vague hope for a better future.

A short documentary experiment on a trip to Bahrain, exploring nostaglia as a borrowed perspective.

Amid the tumult of the Arab Spring in Cairo, vendors in a small souk observe the political upheaval while seeking to preserve an ancient tradition of fabric making.

“Looks at the impact key movements throughout U.S. history have had in shaping our society, laws and culture. From the labor movement of the 1880s, women's suffrage and civil rights, to the LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter movements, protest is in the American DNA and this documentary gives an unfiltered look at the ways it has evolved the world in which we live.”

Follow the breathtaking adventures of divers looking for pearls in the Persian Gulf and learn how the gems brought fortune to the islands of Bahrain.

In the 14 months prior to the revolution, filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young activists as they struggle against the odds and at great personal risk to remove an uncompromising US-backed regime.

Documenting the Kapu Aloha movement, as they take a stand to defend Mauna Kea in the wake of the Thirty Meter Telescope protests.

Staatsgewalt in Georgien - Wenn Wasser zur Waffe wird