Playing Hide and Seek

Brief portrait of a conformist.

Punk rock, B-movies, and Jehovah’s Witnesses unite in this heartfelt documentary. As members of Jehovah’s Witness start to explore culture outside of their religion, they have to wrestle with the possibility of being excommunicated from friends and family. Featuring in-depth interviews and extensive home video footage, Witness Underground tells the story of punk rocker Witnesses pushing against the highly controlling Jehovah’s Witnesses religion as they build their own community through music and art. This prolific community of Witness musicians create their own record label, Nuclear Gopher, and become early adopters of promoting their music through the internet, including what may have been the first album to ever be livestreamed. This community’s history is well documented through archival footage of their home movies and self-produced music videos, all with a very charming energy.

Conversations with four people — an artist, a woman struggling with her identity as a high achiever, an actor, and a priest — exploring their inner worlds, their self-image and how they feel they fit into society.

In this short documentary we learn the back story of the Buddha – the religion he founded and how it is manifested today. Travel through Southeast Asia to India, Burma, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Thailand, Japan, China and many other countries to discover the history and ideas behind Buddhism.

Five women – Palestinian, American, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish – tell stories of humiliation and harassment by Israeli border guards and airport security officials.

Follows the crime and scandal that took down President Richard Nixon the day of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel.

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…

Gojdič: Láska nadovšetko

We follow leading experts on a quest to unlock the mysteries surrounding the tomb of Christ, using the latest scientific techniques to restore the Aedicula housing the tomb.

Jerusalem can rightfully be called the hat capital of the world. Whereas the rest of the world has allowed its hats to gather dust in the closet since the 1950s, Jerusalem still teems with hats and caps. From soldier to monk, everyone is identifiable by his hat. Director Nati Adler, who is neither religious nor a hat-wearer, explored the how and the why of the hats of Jerusalem. His colourful and personal trip takes us along the diverse headdresses of the three religions populating the city. What begins as an innocent exercise by a curious documentary filmmaker develops as it were into a Pandora's box full of stories and history lessons. Every answer evokes new questions. Why do people in Jerusalem wear so many hats, what is a shtreimel, why don't Armenian Christians use their Turkish hats in their ceremonies, and why do women actually have to cover their heads?

The final oral exam in history and social studies at one of Warsaw's high schools. The film illustrates the theatre of social life in Soviet Poland where one says different things on the stage and another behind the scenes.

On 12 March 1999 Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bronisław Geremek, handed to the United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, the act of Poland’s accession to NATO. In such a way, Poland became a member of NATO. The efforts made by Polish politicians and diplomats of various political stands date back to the beginning of the 90s – the collapse of the Warsaw Pact structure and the time of Lech Wałęsa’s presidency. Accession to NATO was the main objective of Polish diplomacy.

Wisła

This mountain region that reaches across several countries in Eastern Europe is the home to gold diggers, wizards, cow herders and old Hassids.

Britain is one of the most secular nations in the world, a new poll in 10 countries finds. Levels of religious belief and activity in the UK are far lower than in almost all other countries surveyed across the globe in a special poll undertaken for the BBC. In January 2004 the independent opinion research company ICM conducted a survey of 10,000 people in 10 different nations for the BBC programme What the World Thinks of God. The countries surveyed were the USA, UK, Israel, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico and Lebanon.

A church-made amateur film which sees two Christian biker youths visit the legendary 59 club, where they meet its founder, Reverend Bill Shergold.

Polsko

The story of Muhammad Iqbal, a turn of the century poet/philosopher from South Asia. Through Iqbal's work we open a dialog between the East and West, refute the notion of a class of civilizations and discover our shared humanity.

Kann man Gott beleidigen?

MAXIMÓN - Devil or Saint (66min.) is a documentary about the controversial Maya deity, also known as San Simon or the drinking and smoking saint of Guatemala. He is a mixture of ancient Maya beliefs and Christianity. The movie concentrates on the people who surround Maximón with their strong personalities, opinions and faith. The documentary gives us a rare view into the rituals and fiestas honoring Maximón. The cult of Maximón is flourishing because he performs miracles. He is also feared and despised because he is used to cast curses that can result in death. Ultimately, Maximón transcends the duality of good and evil, reflecting the Maya cosmovision in which everything in the universe co-exists.