Return to Cuba

Crucible of Empire demonstrates how and why the Spanish-American War constitutes such an important milestone in U.S. history. This program examines the events and attitudes that led to war, followed by an exploration of the conflict and its outcome. Early film footage and stills of battle scenes, plus rich visuals, a compelling story, and intriguing analogies to current foreign policy make Crucible of Empire a riveting documentary.

Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.

This documentary follows the lives of four elderly Japanese men living in Manila's impoverished districts. Known as "distressed Japanese," they navigate their daily lives with minimal earnings and assistance from others. Despite once having jobs and families in Japan, they find themselves spending their final days in Manila for various reasons. The documentary offers a poignant portrayal of their struggles over seven years.

Thirst overcomes the hordes of Wildebeest and Zebra moving through Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve on their spectacular annual migration. With the cycle of the seasons comes the dry months, the water of the marsh receded. Now the residents of the marsh face a time of hardship, food will be scarce, until the next rains fall.

In 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the Angola's civil war. There, he witnessed once again the dirty reality of war and discovered a sense of helplessness previously unknown to him. Angola changed him forever: it was a reporter who left Poland, but it was a writer who returned…

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

"Die Unbeugsamen" ("The Indomitable") is the story of women's struggle against sexual discrimination and for inclusion in the democratic process in (West) Germany after WW II.

Between music and climbing, the film Rockin' Cuba retraces the exploration of the Vinales Valley in Cuba by six Franco-Swiss climbers: Nina Caprez, Mélissa Le Nevé, Mike Fuselier, Enzo Oddo, Cedric Lachat and Seb Boussogne. The landscapes are magnificent, the images by Julien Nadiras sumptuous, the humor always around the corner and the work on the music by Vladimir Cellier, simply incredible.

The EU is investing billions to establish African states as its new border guards. It also supports dictatorships that close their borders in return.

Through dances and games, migrant boys and girls who live in a shelter in Reynosa, on the US-Mexico border, shared their dreams and stories of hope with us.

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's 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 rampant, street level story of mentorship and everyday heroism in tough circumstances. An inner city coach's son, estranged in his youth from his father, spends five years on ball fields in inner city Oakland and Havana, following the lives of two extraordinary youth baseball coaches, Roscoe in Oakland and Nicolas in Havana. The coaches meet on videotape and two years of red tape later, Coach Roscoe and nine Oakland players travel to Havana to play Coach Nicolas' team. For one week, the players and coaches eat, dance, swim, argue and play baseball together. But when the parent of an Oakland player is murdered back home, it brings back the inescapable reality and challenges of life in an American inner city.

2021 was a turning point for Belarus and 6 Belarusian students - as well as for the city of Łódź, Poland, in which they found themselves. Across the rails of change and transformation, documenting a time that has not been before and will not repeat again. Heroes of the film have very different fates and experiences, but they are all connected by the place they found themselves in - the post-industrial and post-apocalyptic city, which becomes a part of their story and a hero of its own. Students, transport, quaters, youth, revolution, local apocalypse, changes and turns - they all mix in a documentary kaleidoscope 'Across the Rails'.

Kubánske otázniky

This film is a general travelogue about Cuba from 1950.

Facing threats of jail and censorship, four hip-hop groups struggle to reveal the boundary of artistic expression in Castro's Cuba.

Ana Deborah Mola and Belkis Lescaille were among the first young teachers who started pilot programs around the island of Cuba in 1960, laying foundation for the massive National Literacy Campaign that would take place the following year.

Documentary collecting some experiences of the first two years of the "Gira interminable" tour were Silvio Rodriguez performs for the marginal neighborhoods of Havana and other provinces.

Each year over 1.2 million wildebeest travel across the vast Serengeti plains and Kenya's Masai Mara on a 1,800 kilometer circular journey, relentlessly followed by every big African predator. Revolutionary spy cams - airborne, swimming or disguised as rocks, skulls or dung - reveal the Great Wildebeest Migration from entirely new perspectives. This 2-part series focuses on the growing-up of a calf as he takes his first steps, faces his first deadly perils and tries to cross crocodile-infested rivers. It combines natural humor with exciting drama and gripping music.

Obāchan is Japanese. She left her native archipelago in 1941 to marry one of her compatriots, 17 years older, settled in Mexico. Through fragments of family films, manga and sequences that she has shot, Nicolasa Ruiz sculpts a complex and delicate memory landscape between the two shores of the Pacific.