Shida is the new kid in class in a private boarding school in Tanzania. He is shy, he has no self-esteem, he does not speak one word of English - the primary language in the school, and he suffers from albinism. Like most children with albinism in the country Shida was taken away from his parents to be protected from the witchcraft related killings. The film follows Shida during his first year at the new school where the rules are strict and tolerance low. He is trying his best to meet the demands. The school is a chance of an education and to escape a life on the bottom of society. With the help from his new friend Allan he is struggling to become better in school and to be accepted by the teachers and pupils.
Hollywood stars, historical footage and stylized reenactments tell the story of costume designer Orry-Kelly, who ruled Tinseltown fashion for decades.
This film is about the filmmaker's father who suffered an accident rendering him paralyzed from the neck down. The film uses original hospital footage to describe the time he chose to disconnect his ventilator and life support and show how his family and friends rallied around him as he made this decision.
Over the course of a controversial 10-year revolution in Nepal, 40% of the guerilla army fighting against the government were women. "Woman Rebel" follows the story of one such woman (codename "Silu") on her incredible journey — from the jungles, all the way through to the halls of Parliament. It's a powerful, unconventional topic featuring women as agents of change, not victims of circumstance.
"Scrum might technically refer to restarting a play in order to gain control of the ball, but it’s really about a group of guys packing close together in one place—in this case, gay rugby’s 7th Annual Bingham Cup in Sydney, with 1,000 participants from 15 countries. The documentary zeroes in on three determined gay athletes vying for a spot on the elite Sydney Convicts team: Aki, the Japanese outsider who worked tirelessly for two years so he could travel to Sydney; Brennan, a hunky Canadian jock who was built for contact sports but rejected by his former, straight teammates after they discovered he was gay; and Pearse, the Irish backpacker bullied in school, tired of being continually put down." - Brian Bromberger
David Becks highly original, intricate and kinetic artwork combines sculpture, painting, textiles, and mechanics on a scale that creates a genre all its own. Curious Worlds takes us into David Becks magical universe, to watch as he creates minutely detailed and often humorous animals, people and entire scenes that inspire profound wonder, delight and awe. A skilled woodworker, sculptor, painter and craftsman, Beck is recognized as a genuine American original. He is the only living artist to have three solo exhibits at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and his work is sought after by private art collectors across the country.
A documentary chronicling the impact and day to day operations of the journal The Nation.
Shopping Bag, Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space explores nine Los Angeles based artists reflecting on ritual in their life and art. Artist David Hammons discusses the role of chance and improvisation in his work while working on sculpture on a waste site while N’Senga Nengudi talks about staging her performances in freeway underpasses. Spanning performance to spoken word, environmental sculpture to music each artist talks about how ritual and cultural traditions informs their work. This experimental essay intercuts interviews, documentation and photographs with the music of Don Cherry seeking to adjust the criteria and language used to talk about artists of colour.
In Stone Circles, Hammer really leaves ‘nation’ as well as ‘era’ and creates a film poem on the prehistoric stone cultures of Britain.
RADICAL GRACE follows three fearless nuns who risk their place in the Catholic Church to follow another higher calling: social justice. When the Vatican reprimands the sisters – citing their “radical feminism” – they become the spiritual and symbolic center of a battle for the heart of the Catholic Church. From their cross-country Nuns on the Bus tour, to serving those on the margins, to a continued struggle for women’s religious equality under Pope Francis, these sisters are transforming American politics — and the Church itself.
Ted "Black Lightning" Patrick's practice of "deprogramming," also known as "reverse brainwashing," started in the early 1970s and quickly snowballed into a vast underground movement composed of concerned parents, ex-cultists-turned-deprogrammers and some sympathetic law-enforcers whose mission was to physically and mentally remove individuals from cults.
"The film was conceived as a coda to a longer (colour) film, Place of Work, made in the same year. It covers the time of finally emptying a long-time family home, with its personal memories and connection with some of my own work. Fragments of verse, along with young children's voices released into the emptying rooms and staircases, and an ersatz 'pop' music track, clarify the familiar and the alien in the situation." Margaret Tait
Documentarist Nina Davenport turns the conventions of the travelogue inside out. She takes us to India and abandons us there, leaving us to believe what we see through her eyes. Her movie replicates the experience of being a traveller and thus a voyeur, of taking in sights without necessarily understanding their meaning. Davenport seems less interested in cracking the enigma of India than in savoring it...Her hunger makes her unashamed, like the eager children who find the eye of her camera the next best thing to sweets.
Frederico Fellini's unmade film ll Viaggio di G. Mastorna Detto Fernet became a graphic novel, just before Fellini's death in 1993. This is the story of how that came to be, as told by long time Fellini collaborator and illustrator for ll Viaggio di G. Mastorna, Milo Manera. Combining still photography and moving images, the piece which was produced in conjunction with Fabrica, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. The short is anchored by an interview with Milo Minara shot entirely in stills. The interview discusses his personal take on the main existentialist themes of the book; this interview has been intercut with the actual graphic novel and what appears to be the lost footage (via recreation) of the story's first scene. This short doc is an exploration into dreams and fantasy, moving through different realities. Shot between Milan, Italy and Koln, Germany.
"This is a landscape study of an Orkney croft, with the figure of the crofter, Mary Graham Sinclair, very much in the picture. The croft is West Aith, on the edge of a small loch, which almost every passing visitor stops to photograph or draw or paint. I have been filming this beautiful place since 1977, observing many of the human activities which alter and define how it looks." Margaret Tait
A Perfect 14 explores the fascinating world of plus-size models fighting to reshape the fashion industry and the beauty standards of society.
This spellbinding documentary re-examines the issues raised by Oliver Stone's JFK, and explores the late Jim Garrison's contention that there was a "second conspiracy" to cover up the truth, including attempts to ruin his own reputation.
A documentary from within the Swedish Migration Board's locked repository where people are in custody awaiting forced deportation. Prisoner and guard are in close proximity around the clock. Converses during sleepless nights and playing football during hot summer days. We follow Sophie, 29, who loves her job at the repository, Sami, 20, the young rebel who is locked up but free inside, and Aina, 47, who were separated from her children and kept locked up while the police are stepping up efforts to enforce their expulsion order.
Kids being raised by same-sex couples are growing in numbers worldwide. We are in a Gayby-Boom. But who are these kids? What do they think about having same-sex parents? And do they face different issues to other kids? At a time when the world is debating marriage equality, these questions are more pertinent than ever. Told from the perspective of the kids, Gayby Baby is intimate and sometimes humorous account of four children and their families.
An unsettling and eye opening exploration into the spread of the radical Islamic school Red Mosque, which trains legions of children to devote their lives to jihad, or holy war, from a very young age. With incredible access and chilling footage, Among the Believers is a timely and relevant look into the causes that have led to the growth of radical Islam in Pakistan and around the world.