Occupied Cinema

From both local and global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis. Learn how politics, pollution and human rights are intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth. With water drying up around the world and the future of human lives at stake, the film urges a call to arms before more of our most precious natural resource evaporates.

The Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) invited an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) delegation to Haiti to learn about their fight against "le plan neoliberal" and recruit help in the form of material aid and solidarity. The delegation was in Haiti from April 24 to May 25, 2008, two weeks after the country erupted in mass protest at burgeoning food prices. This video shares the stories and experiences.

Moscow, January 1996. Boris Yeltsin gets ready to run for a second mandate of the presidency of the young Russian Federation. Polls are in the single digits. A painful economic transition, war in Chechnya, and the rise of criminal groups have left the majority of Russians dissatisfied with Yeltsin… and willing to vote for the communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. Yet six months later, Yeltsin won the election with nearly 54% of the vote. How did that happen?

No Measure of Health profiles Kyle Magee, an anti-advertising activist from Melbourne, Australia, who for the past 10 years has been going out into public spaces and covering over for-profit advertising in various ways. The film is a snapshot of his latest approach, which is to black-out advertising panels in protest of the way the media system, which is funded by advertising, is dominated by for-profit interests that have taken over public spaces and discourse. Kyle’s view is that real democracy requires a democratic media system, not one funded and controlled by the rich. As this film follows Kyle on a regular day of action, he reflects on fatherhood, democracy, what drives the protest, and his struggle with depression, as we learn that “it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

“El apagón: Aquí vive gente” is a 23-minute film that explores the socio-economic challenges in Puerto Rico, focusing on the effects of power outages and gentrification driven by the real estate and energy sectors. Through visuals and personal stories, the documentary highlights the experiences of Puerto Rican communities facing these issues.

"The Boss" is a documentary about transition, privatization and corporations in Croatia, and touches upon the history of the largest Croatian corporation - Agrokor.

Can you imagine a water market? A market where owners of water stock would buy and sell, while others would profit on its price without needing it? What would life be like if all of the planet’s water resources, superficial or subterranean, the waters of rivers, lakes and glaciers, belonged to the private sector? ‘Life For Sale’ examines the biggest water market in the world, set up in Chile.

A journey through abandoned cinemas of Sardinia interspersed with memories of three senior projectionists, a profession now suppressed by technology.

Cinema clerks Silva and Felix work the final night before their beloved cinema is demolished by private investors. An empty final screening allows them to reflect on the meaning of cinema in an age wherein art no longer occupies physical space.

Enchanting holiday tale of a young runaway who has broken into an old movie palace, looking for shelter on a snow-filled Christmas Eve. Closed for decades, the building is filled with countless discarded artifacts from the past. The girl is discovered by the old caretaker, who uses the ghosts and spirits that inhabit this long-abandoned world to turn her life around.

A group of thieves and outcasts are living in a big abandoned movie theater where they have created a very friendly and very particular universe. The police will use all its resources to violate their space, but again and again fail in their attempts.

In the not-so-distant future, a terrible water shortage and 20-year drought has led to a government ban on private toilets and a proliferation of paid public toilets, owned and operated by a single megalomaniac company: the Urine Good Company. If the poor don’t obey the strict laws prohibiting free urination, they’ll be sent to the dreaded and mysterious “Urinetown.” After too long under the heel of the malevolent Caldwell B. Cladwell, the poor stage a revolt, led by a brave young hero, fighting tooth and nail for the freedom to pee “wherever you like, whenever you like, for as long as you like, and with whomever you like.”

A classic Czech comedy about the privatization of a small South Bohemian brewery. In a series of comical situations, good Czech police officers encounter the mafia, and honest citizens encounter swindlers. This amusing story, which of course includes a romantic subplot, is significantly influenced by fairy-tale creatures that suddenly emerge from the distant past.

Is it more difficult for a woman to direct a movie? To finance it? To be respected by her team? Does she have a different way of looking at the world? Does cinema have a gender? In our two previous documentaries, we had already asked these very contemporary questions to 20 female and 20 male directors in France. But we have been eager ever since to expand the borders of our work, to question women filmmakers around the world. That is what this film has achieved, from Asia to Africa and Europe… All the women we met were funny, sincere, committed, concerned, and all looking for the best possible way to exist in an environment always governed by men. All FilmmakErs and living witnesses of the dysfunctions that still exist in the film industry.

Jodie is a fast paced, breezy look at the transatlantic phenomenon that has made Hollywood actress Jodie Foster an icon for lesbians who identify with, adore and celebrate the screen personas of her remarkable career.

A short film about Tay, a ladyboy, and his daily life, traveling to and from school, and silently touching up his makeup in front of the mirror.

You know, I like sweet blues... I want to be singing. I want to be sweet," said music legend Mike Bloomfield of his searing, lyrical guitar playing. His awesome instrumental prowess is on full display in this raucous documentary celebrating the legacy of a hard-living, finger-fretting renegade. Described by fellow icon Al Kooper as "not just another white boy [but] someone who truly knew what the blues were about," Bloomfield drew on African American tradition while burnishing his licks with a radical compositional approach reflecting the social and cultural upheaval of the 1960s.

As the 'one country two systems' policy in Hong Kong has slowly eroded, resentment among the territory's citizens has steadily grown. What began as a series of spontaneous protests against an extradition law in March 2019 has now escalated in to a full-blown popular uprising that shows no signs of abating. ABC Four Corners reports from the frontline of the action, capturing extraordinary footage of the growing tension and violence.

Drawing on original footage from National Geographic, Etched in Bone explores the impact of one notorious bone theft by a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Hundred of bones were stolen and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, until it became known to Arnhem elders in the late 1990s. The return of the sacred artefacts was called for, resulting in a tense standoff between indigenous tribespeople and the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.

Short documentary on surfing.