On Paradise Road

Chinese filmmaker Fang Bin's report from hospitals in Wuhan, Hubei province, People's Republic of China, regarding the current outbreak of corona-virus disease (COVID-19), first officially reported on 31 December 2019. The film was recorded during the first week of February 2020. Fang Bin was not heard of after February 10,2020 3:00P.M.

As Cirque du Soleil reboots its flagship production, O, more than a year after an abrupt shutdown, performers and crew members face uncertainty as they work to return to their world-class standards in time for the (re)opening night in Las Vegas. With unfettered access, filmmaker Dawn Porter captures the dramatic journey of the world's most famous circus act on its way back from the brink.

March 2020. Fabrizio, a photographer and filmmaker who lives in Luxembourg, returns to his family in central Italy after his father has suffered a heart attack. It’s the beginning of the pandemic, the country is in lockdown. An intimate diary and an ode to filial love in the face of the most trying circumstances a son can face. A tale of the soul and personal hardship in the context of a broader collective tragedy.

This is the story of Bob Moran, the ethical British cartoonist who lost his job at the Telegraph during the Covid-19 crisis for being too honest. Tune in to learn more about Bob and what led him to become one of the few political cartoonists crossing the lines that need to be crossed.

A collective documentary film, from five european directors asked to witness the revolutions and dramas caused in their own countries by the pandemic. Among them, “Two Fathers”, directed by Julia von Heinz (20’). After the death of his father, Hans-Michael von Heinz, the director finds out the truth about her parent true sexual identity. In order to know more, she starts emailing persons who got to know him over the last years, among them his closest friend, director Rosa von Praunheim.

A young man from Lima faces anxiety and depression in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic while trying to carry out the most ambitious project of his life: an experimental documentary in the style of the French New Wave about Peruvian wrestling, in which which will condense more than a thousand hours of footage that he has been recording for 4 years. The political and health crises that the country is going through, the confinement and the ghosts typical of someone who suffers from emotional problems will make this work more difficult. So he will cling to the enormous passion he has for cinema and for this beautiful sport that has fascinated him since he was a child.

Yugto is a short documentary of the lives of Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shot by various and willing Filipinos during the onset of the country’s General Community Quarantine, Yugto showcases sneak peeks into their struggles, hopes, and transformations.

Sin descanso

Hacking at Leaves documents artist and hazmat-suit aficionado Johannes Grenzfurthner as he attempts to come to terms with the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker movement. The story hones in on a small tinker space in Durango, Colorado, that made significant contributions to worldwide COVID relief efforts. But things go awry when Uncle Sam interferes with the film's production.

In the midst of the social unrest caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Calpan, Puebla, there is a small corner where hope is harvested daily: the people's asylum.

Since 2013, the Casual Gabberz collective has been storming dancefloors and the stages of the biggest festivals with its gabber surge, that hardcore techno sound born in Holland in the 90s. Until a virus causes the planet to go haywire. And triggered an existential crisis within the collective.

In March 2020, daily life as we knew it came to an abrupt halt when the federal government announced a general lockdown. Belgium went into lockdown, public life evaporated, and time stood still as the COVID-19 virus gained ground. On the front lines, which ran through hospitals and residential care centers, people fought day and night for life and against the virus. While we were locked up between four walls in our homes, the healthcare sector worked overtime for the health and freedom of us all.

Quarentena Pra Quem?

It’s spring in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Uyantza festival is underway with the community celebrating all that the forest has to offer. Meanwhile, news is breaking around the world that a novel virus is spreading and a state of emergency is declared across the country. As people test positive for COVID-19 in the community, some families decide to leave and head deeper into the jungle. Disconnected from school, friends, the internet, and work, one family learns to reconnect with life in the forest. The children begin to unlearn the national curriculum, and instead are taught Indigenous knowledge that mainstream schools normally pass over. As COVID-19 wreaks havoc around the planet, the family reconnect to their ancestral ways, but as news arrives that Ecuador’s lockdown will end soon, will the family choose to return?

In this collaborative film, documentary filmmakers and photographers from around the world reflect on the mass movements and protests during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A video essay by Mark Rappaport, which spans René Magritte and Michelangelo to Bonnie & Clyde. Let’s mask up to rob a bank! But make sure that you are home before the curfew.

THE UNSEEN is a short documentary about four small business owners who tell their personal stories of risk and sacrifice to keep their dreams and provide for their families while they fight local authorities who wish to put them out of business in the name of combating a virus.

The choral work of 57 directors and filmmakers who tell stories of Milan at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 WNBA season pivoted into a bubble site in Bradenton, Florida – where 144 players across 12 teams convened to face the rigors of an unrelenting schedule and finish their battle for a championship; all while just as dedicated to amplify social activism in response to the injustices that gripped that same summer. A documentary from ESPN Films.

Génération Covid