The Russian island Sakhalin lies 8000 km to the east of Moscow. Every summer, with state support, it hosts a military-patriotic camp for kids from the region. The children are being trained in patriotism and armed combat, backed by lessons of Russian orthodox tradition. In Summer 2015, due to the 70th anniversary of the victory of the soviet army in WWII, the camp takes part in reconstruction of a historic battle, where the kids take on the roles of soldiers. The documentary follows the children in their daily training until the final performance.
65 years of marriage, four systems, two people, one love: Ilse and Wolfgang Gutsche have gotten along well with each other their entire lives. And they would do it all again.
Four families recount how they met and formed their families at a time when marriage and civil unions were denied to LGBT+ people. The film demonstrates what homophobia seeks to attack: love and family.
Keenly aware that his niece is going through a particularly rough time at home, Uncle James teaches Ava Dee how to use the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. As an experiment, he tells her to shoot whatever she wants and he'll edit it into a film.
O Que Nos Separa
Seas the Day: The Sailing Movie is a genre-defying documentary that blends real-world adventure with deeply human storytelling. It transcends typical sailing documentaries by blending docu-fiction with a narrative inspired by Joseph Campbell’s classic The Hero's Journey. Directed by Ryan Luskin, an anthropologist and teacher, the film follows his family's quest across sixteen countries, learning life skills from diverse cultures.
A love letter told through still photographs
Hammer and compass in Mozambique. We see a GDR flag waved at a rally in Maputo, carried by "Madgermanes", contract workers who once toiled in eastern Germany. Some of them founded families there, like Eulidio. His daughter Sarah grows up with her mother in Berlin. The relationship with her "second home" is slow in growing, partly thanks to Luana, Sarah's baby, whose father, Eduardo is also from Mozambique.
This episode from the Czech Journal series examines how a military spirit is slowly returning to our society. Attempts to renew military training or compulsory military service and in general to prepare the nation for the next big war go hand in hand with society’s fear of the Russians, the Muslims, or whatever other “enemies”. This observational flight over the machine gun nest of Czech militarism becomes a grotesque, unsettling military parade. It can be considered not only to be a message about how easily people allow themselves to be manipulated into a state of paranoia by the media, but also a warning against the possibility that extremism will become a part of the regular school curriculum.
The fascinating history of the U.S. Air Force comes to life via vintage footage culled from official Air Force newsreels that were created to educate the public during wartime. Formed in World War I as a tiny airborne offshoot of the Army's American Expeditionary Force, the division subsequently grew into its own armed services branch and became the largest modern air force in the world.
After 20 years of wandering taiga weather stations searching for a suitable place for having a life, Nataliya and Yuri Usovy settled on Olkhon island, on a remote weather station. They thought to find happiness here.
Poème pour un foyer
ROGER, MY BROTHER immerses us in the moving story of Christiane, who is devoted to caring for her brother Roger, who has Alzheimer's disease. Her tireless commitment allows Roger to avoid being placed in a nursing home despite the challenges. At the heart of this sibling relationship lies an unbreakable bond of love, demonstrating human resilience and the strength of family ties. This film celebrates the dignity, compassion, and determination that drive the bond between brother and sister, offering a profound reflection on love's ability to overcome the most insurmountable obstacles.
The filmmakers' 21-year-old daughter journeys from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels toward expansive worlds of creativity, connection, and greater meaning. Featuring insights from trauma experts and others, the film challenges the widespread idea that mental illness should be understood purely in biological terms, revealing the myriad ways that madness has meaning beyond brain chemistry.
A short film following Anthony, a young child from the small, rural town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. We see him in different moments of his daily life as he interacts with different forms of environmental, familial, and social influences. While Anthony displays contradictory traits of creativity, destruction, rigidity, and tenderness as he interacts with his external and internal worlds, we see a story built from the the multidimensionality of Anthony's layered personality as a young man.
Fuck That
An ocean stood between Baba and her grandson, so she did the only thing she could: she became a whale and swam to him.
In the streets of Huentitán el Bajo, the horn of Chapo's car blares. He's a man who transformed his life, marked by violence, gangs, and addiction, into a story of redemption through art. After surviving a near-fatal ordeal, he found in sign painting and murals a way to heal and restore identity to his community. With his chopper bike, his music, and his wooden cart full of paint, Chapo travels the neighborhood, filling the walls with color and hope. Beyond his tough exterior, he reveals himself as a loving father, a committed artist, and a symbol of change in an environment still battling violence.
An animation about the uncertainties in human connections over time, portrayed in an affectionate relationship between a granddaughter and her grandfather with dementia as they grow old together.
Karan and Rohan, two biracial brothers raised in a marginal environment, are finding ways to get stimulated on a normal summer day. They embark on a trip to buy candies to avoid boredom. This film plays with the sense of boundaries between what is real and what is fiction. It is a film about the love of two brothers and their singular reality in the countryside of Quebec.