Prairie Women

A groundbreaking documentary on the internationally renowned painter, designated by ARTnews Magazine one of the world's top-ten living artists. This documentary was shot over a period of four years, from 1998 through 2002, Agnes Martin's ninetieth year. Interviews with Martin are inter-cut with shots at work in her studio in Taos, New Mexico, with photographs and archival footage, and with images of her work from over five decades. It is a venue for Martin to speak about her work, her working methods, her life as an artist, and her views about the creative process. She also discusses her film, "Gabriel" and reads from her poetry and lectures. In keeping with Martin's chosen life of solitude, she alone appears in the documentary.

Li Shouwang is the leader of a blind storytellers team, learned storytelling at the age of 19. His childernare living hard in other cities. Li's money amost goes to his children's pocket every year. But with urbanisation, the storytellers have lost almost all their audience. As the conflict between the storytelling team and the village team intensified, his son, who was far away from home, became the only spiritual sustains... When he was excited that his son would be taking his family home for Chinese New Year, what's await is a sigh.

Filled with rare archive footage and frequently hilarious interviews with the trailblazers themselves, Men of Wood & Foam is a compelling look at Australian surf culture in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Looking at surf music, industry development and the historical context of the era with the biting wit writer and surf journo Phil Jarratt is known for, the film is a lively and fun look back at an era that now feels almost mystical.

As obesity progresses inexorably, Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade investigate the causes of this planetary plague and reveal the fight waged in certain countries to stem it.

In 1942, when computers were human and women were underestimated, a group of female mathematicians helped win a war and usher in the modern computer age. Sixty-five years later their story has finally been told.

Authors, teachers, social activists and feminists explore manifestations of contemporary women's spirituality in the Western world.

Entirely shot on a mobile phone, the film evolved from chance encounters in the streets of London: Sandrine, an attractive young woman on a mission to find a husband, Steve, a seasoned beggar, struggling with addiction and and Steve's girlfriend Precious, a poet. Blurring the confines between fact and fiction. the film raises questions about the relationship between filmed and filmmaker. The closer he gets to his subjects, the more the obstruction of his camera seems to distance him from them. Ultimately People... reveals a personal and humane space that only came into existence precisely because it had been filmed.

The Other Side of Fear signifies the actions which incite religious violence and broaden the divide of cultural and moral beliefs in society. The film shadows two clashing perspectives both of which are searching for safety in their own communities and these perspectives blend testimonies of trauma and manifestos of power. By using poetic documentation, the director acknowledges that there are more than two sides to every story and intertwines these sentiments, embodiments and experiences into one journey to understand what is happening behind the doors of communities the other hasn’t experienced.

Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser's efforts to document and present the reality of Tibet were considered a "political problem" by the Chinese Party-state and she was fired from her job. Since then, she has persevered as an independent writer and has continued to speak out for the sufferings of Tibetan people. Zhu Rikun, the director, came into possession of Tsering's official dossier which then became the main thread of this film. The first half of the movie is centred around her reading of the dossier; be patient as the theme grows and her interviews document the changed direction her career took including footage from Tibet.

Short documentary about the Oxcroft Land Settlement near Bolsover. Between 1934 and 1939, the Land Settlement Association (LSA) established 1,100 smallholdings within 26 settlements across the country, the objective of which was to re-settle unemployed workers and their families (mainly miners at Oxcroft) and get them working and producing on the land. The film examines ideas of food production, environment and community through the eyes of current residents, some of whom moved onto the estate at its inception in 1936 as the children of original settlers and have never left.

This film deals straightforwardly with the consequences of a nuclear attack for the Canadian Prairies. The Prairies are singled out because of their proximity to huge stockpiles of intercontinental ballistic missiles located in North Dakota. Scenes include a visit to a missile base and to an emergency government bunker in Manitoba. A doctor, a farmer and a civil defence coordinator provide different perspectives on nuclear war. Although the film focuses on one region, it provides a model for people everywhere who would like to know more about their own situation but don't know what questions to ask.

At a time in the United States when the tech sector outpaces the overall growth of the employment market, CODE asks the important question: Where are all the women?

Twelve Palestinian women sit before us and talk of their life before the Diaspora, of their memories, of their lives and of their identity. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery. Twelve resilient, determined and articulate women from disparate walks of life: lawyers, artists, housewives, activists, architects, and politicians stitch together the story of their homeland, of their dispossession, and of their unwavering determination that justice will prevail. Through their stories, the individual weaves into the collective, yet remaining distinctly personal. Twelve women, twelve life-spans, and stories from Palestine; a land whose position was fixed on the map of the world, but is now embroidered on its face.

Guardaram Por Nós

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.

If Samuel Beckett had lived in Scotland and made a great film, it would be this: a lucid, sometimes funny, and profoundly compassionate study of extreme old age, death, grief and loneliness. These facts of life are revealed in an act of virtuoso film-making that is dedicated, laconic and ultimately - impossible as it may seem - uplifting. A unique experience, this is a very significant and totally original film that will test, and reward any audience. The challenge is to spend time with lonely old people and Dolak is unflinching. He handles words, sounds and image with extreme care. His film is composed of long takes that juxtapose a daily routine alongside the expansive and empty landscapes of the north east, and both shot in exquisitely beautiful monochrome. Everything seems settled and inevitable until the film makes a completely unexpected move into another realm and intimates a further reach of the imagination.

A thought provoking short film on Indian farmers told through clay sculptures made from barren farms of the farmers who have committed suicide.

'I Used to be Normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story' is the surprising coming of age story of four diverse women who have had their lives dramatically changed by their love of a boyband - Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.

The villagers of El Dorado, Argentina, shy away from doctors. Then again, they hardly need one. They have almost as many cures for ailments and illnesses as there are residents in the village. 65 year old Jorge can also cure the most dreaded ailment of them all, the much feared espanto.

Interviews with former drug dealers, over-prescribing doctors and DEA agents uncover a shocking truth of the pharmaceutical industry’s plan to target opioid sales to an impoverished community.