The Leading Role

Thomas Haemmerli is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he learns of his mother's death. A further shock follows when he and his brother Erik discover her apartment, which is filthy and full to bursting with junk. It takes the brothers an entire month to clean out the place. Among the chaos, they find films going back to the 1930s, photos and other memorabilia.

Gangstresses, a documentary by Harry Davis, tells the story of violence, poverty, and survival in the streets from a female perspective. Over a two-year period, Davis interviews female hustlers, drug dealers, rappers, porn stars, prostitutes, mothers, and daughters. Among them are Champagne, a well-known African American porn star who has a small child; Mama Mayhem, a street hustler; Uneek, a rapper from the Bronx; and Vanessa Del Rio, a famous porn actress. Musicians Lil' Kim, Mary J. Blige, Ice T, and Tupac Shakur also share personal stories of survival. The documentary conducts follow-up research on the women's complicated lives, offering glimpses of both tragic reality and hopeful recovery.

A story of a mother and her son and a race against a tortoise where you always lose.

Documentary portrait of the actress Romy Schneider, in which director Frederick Baker tries to form an overall picture from the facets of image, myth, real life and screen persona.

A peep behind the scenes of the golden era of Hollywood to discover exactly how and why Katharine Hepburn became one of the most famous actresses in the glamorous world of cinema.

Follow Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis behind the scenes in this affectionate profile of a stalwart New Yorker and beloved stage and screen treasure.

Diana Mariscal reached a moment of fame in the sixties, when at just 18 years of age she was the lead actress of the movie Fando and Lis by Alejandro Jodorowsky. The moment seemed to trigger a promising career, but her public image faded little by little until disappearing. Forty years later the traces of her existence have not been entirely erased.

Through vintage film clips of past Bond movie epics, and with the participation of several former "Bond Girls" as interviewees (among them Dr. No's Ursula Andress and Diamonds Are Forever's Jill St. John), the documentary traces the evolution of the typical James Bond heroine from decorative damsel in distress to gutsy (but still decorative) participant in the action.

Moeder & Grunberg

Middle-aged women start acting and launch a drama club. However, nothing big or small goes right. But they never give up the play.

Documentary that retraces Isabelle Adjani's life and career.

Artistic director of the National Theater Eric de Vroedt writes and directs a performance about his own mother Winnie, who passed away in 2020. This piece, titled The Century of My Mother, is a family story about the migration from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands. It is De Vroedt's way of examining the relationship with his mother and not having to say goodbye to her yet: 'I can let her live on stage, but when the curtain falls, when the play is completely finished, then she is really dead'.

The life of Mrs. Bertha Sánchez has changed because of a virus that threatens the world. She, locked in her home, adapts to the important change and the challenge that society suffers. She finally finds a balance in her routine between what appears to be a dark reality and a bright learning opportunity.

Loba

Mother compiles clips of mother figures from classic Hollywood cinema and television dramas. The figures range from the Virgin Mary and Mother Courage, to characters from Maude (1972–78), Aliens (1986), Imitation of Life (1959), and American Gangster (2007). The characters play out scenes of care, loss, emotional manipulation, abandonment, and grief. The intense relationships between mothers and daughters are especially prominent.

After a routine partial hip replacement operation leaves his mother in a coma with permanent brain damage, what starts as a son's video diary becomes a citizen's investigation into the future of American health care.

Daddy’s Girl is a story about differences, but also about similarities, reunions and the difficulty to hate. Father and daughter know each other so well, that even the most tragic scenes start to seem comical. Melisa’s relationship to her father is so painful, because there’s so much love involved.

Pivetta

Ninlawan Pinyo is the matriarch of a Thai American family, who hustled for her fortune by founding a naem pork sausage factory in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Documentary on female B movie stars.