One year: this is the time left to the employees of the Ascoval steel plant to save their factory and their future. During these months of sacrifice, doubt and hope, Eric Guéret, author and director of the documentary, accompanies the management and employees in a race against time to increase productivity and try to find a buyer. For many, this steel mill, which was the story of a lifetime, becomes a matter of survival. A personal struggle that is also symbolic of a problem intrinsic to this documentary: French deindustrialization. Can we still have heavy industry in France today?
Afro-Cubans played a leading role in the fight to free Cuba from Spanish domination; as part of that struggle, slavery was abolished. Nevertheless, as African descendants began to achieve a semblance of social and economic parity, the plantocracy, backed up by the US army, sought to undo their gains. Determined to resist, veterans of the Mambi army formed the Party of Independents of Color, gaining wide popular support and ultimately threatening the domination of the white Cuban rulers. Their response was savage, and 6,000 Afro-Cubans were massacred; until this film, these events have been shrouded in silence.
After starting a painting business right before the housing crash, a filmmaker drives over 35,000 miles to track down the people who saw it coming and look ahead to the consequences of a decade of secret bank bailouts and 0% interest.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explore the causes and costs of addiction, poverty and incarceration plaguing America, from the inner city to small towns like Kristof's hometown of Yamhill, Oregon. While pockets of empathy and aid exist, are they enough to rescue the thousands of Americans in despair, for whom the American Dream of self-reliance is impossibly out of reach?
The story of a group of Cubans who arrived in Miami during the Mariel Boatlift and were housed in an improvised camp in the heart of the city. Everyone lived together —men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, separated only by cloth curtains that hung from ropes suspended between the beds, like floating walls.
This black-and-white film is a loving portrait of Santiago de Cuba and its people. It provides a view of Cuba as a picturesque country, the product of an earthy mix of black and criollo cultures. The film uses historical images which portray the end of the eighteenth century when Haitian slave owners fled with their slaves to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution.
When the U.S. trade embargo left Cuba isolated from medical resources, Cuban scientists were forced to get creative. Now they've developed lung cancer vaccines that show so much promise, some Americans are defying the embargo and traveling to Cuba for treatment. In an unprecedented move, Cuban researchers are working with U.S. partners to make the medicines more widely available.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday, an intimate documentary follows the illustrious pianist and great French jazz musician, Alain Jean-Marie from Guadeloupe, on a recent trip to Cuba. He talks about his career, his adolescence, and his youth in Guadeloupe, where he was rocked and deeply influenced by Cuban music. Director Bertrand Fèvre followed this now essential artist in Havana, to be discovered or rediscovered through a film set to jazz.
A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States whose main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance, the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
A documentary that explores bi-cultural identity through the Cuban-American lens, exploring the Cuban-American experience and their complicated relationship with Cuba.
Director Peter Joseph examines examples of economic subjugation and offers solutions based on alignment with nature.
A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.
"The Voice of Innocence" is a documentary that shows how, starting in 1959, the Cuban Revolution put into practice a comprehensive and universal policy of safeguarding the rights of the child, even under the multiple difficulties resulting from the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States more than six decades ago. Cuba is one of the main signatories of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed on 20 November 1989, when the country had already made extraordinary progress in protecting the rights of the child, in comparison to developed countries, such as the United States, which as of today hasn't yet ratified the Convention.
The first Road Movie feature film made by the Italian artist Sanzi together with the Cuban Balboa is inspired by friendship, the island and the motorbike. The two artists used, for the first time in Cuba, the form of the Road Movie--the cinematic genre the plot of which is developed during a trip.
This documentary profiles economist and writer Marilyn Waring. In extensive interviews, Waring details her feminist approach to finances and challenges commonly accepted truths about the global economy. The filmmakers detail Waring's early rise to political prominence and her successful protests against nuclear arms. Waring also speaks candidly about wartime economies, suggesting that government policies tend to marginalize the fiscal contributions of women.
What would you do if your basic income was taken care of month after month? Would you stop working? Follow your passions? Take more risks? The four-figure sum that all four members of the Wardwell family receive each year from the Alaskan government’s crude oil profits goes towards a college fund for their children, something they would otherwise be unable to afford. Filmmaker Christian Tod, himself a fervent supporter of the idea, explores the model of an unconditional basic income and takes a look at trial systems already underway in the US, Canada and Namibia. Wandering the history of this utopia reminiscent of science fiction he eventually ends up in Switzerland, where the new system was voted on in 2016. In this multifaceted and highly entertaining documentary, Tod broaches life’s existential questions and fuels the debate on one of the most prevalent economic topics of our generation.
Will Cubans be able to safeguard their heritage of pristine Nature and preserved ecological treasures under this new era, as they are facing the combined pressure of money and tourism? What policies can be implemented to maintain the island’s spectacular wilderness?
In this fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs in Amsterdam and New York City's famed Carnegie Hall, with director Wim Wenders capturing not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.
A love letter that unites Brazil and Cuba. In the film Travessias, the director goes on a long journey seeking to understand the feelings and transformations of a person who is close to her. On this path of doubts and concerns, she meets Justin, a trans man who will help her on this journey. With a poetic and self-referential look, the director invites us to rethink our own prejudices and limits in relation to the others.
A documentary that explores the myth behind the truth. Different people around the globe reinterpret the legend of Che Guevara at will: from the rebel living in Hong Kong fighting Chinese domination, to the German neonazi preaching revolution and the Castro-hating Cuban. Their testimonies prove that the Argentinian revolutionary's historical impact reverberates still. But like with all legends, each sees what he will, in often contradictory perspectives.