Arica

Lee Anne Schmitt explores California's landscape and past to document the history of one-time boom towns built and abandoned by the industries that necessitated their creation. Sold as a limitless land expansive with free opportunity, California was actually, from its onset, fissured by the interwoven needs of private and public interests. Schmitt's film covers various locations through time, as the major industries of the early 20th century (mining, lumber, oil) give way to the military, eventually leading to multinational corporations, and the use of small towns as satellites for growing urban metropolises.

Gathered by a theater company, a small town in Chile called Villa Alegre, looks deep into its origins and myths to tell their own history through a play.

This is one of the most beautiful rewilding stories of our time, that of Douglas and Kristine Tompkins, a couple of successful entrepreneurs – The North Face and Esprit – who decided to dedicate themselves to protecting vast territories in Patagonia. The results of their actions are astounding: in 30 years they enabled the creation and expansion of 18 national parks between Chile and Argentina, covering a total area of 7 million hectares, equivalent to the size of a country like Ireland. By transforming these spaces and reconstructing natural ecosystems, the development of these parks has also enabled the creation of social bonds, developed a new form of economic activity, brought forth a political space, and contributed to strengthening the population’s sense of belonging to their territories.

In this feature documentary, filmmaker Paul Cowan offers an innovative, moving account of the Westray coal mine disaster that killed 26 men in Nova Scotia on May 9, 1992. The film focuses on the lives of three widows and three miners lucky enough not to be underground that day when the methane and coal dust ignited. But their lives were torn apart by the events. Meet some of the working men, who felt they had no option but to stay on at Westray. And wives, who heard the rumours, saw their men sometimes bloodied from accidents and stood by them, hoping it would all turn out all right. This is a film about working people everywhere whose lives are often entrusted to companies that violate the most fundamental rules of safety and decency in the name of profit.

Make money. Salut, bonsoir!

Images from Grängesberg's mines. The ore is loaded onto trains and transported to the port of Oxelösund.

A new uranium mill -- the first in the U.S. in 30 years -- would re-connect the economically devastated rural mining community of Naturita, Colorado, to its proud history supplying the material for the first atomic bomb. Some view it as a greener energy source freeing America from its dependence on foreign oil, while others worry about the severe health and environmental consequences of the last uranium boom.

Documentary about the emergence of the strike movement in the iron ore mines of Rudňa in Slovakia. The miner Michal Ogurčák introduced a new way of mining iron ore here, overcame initial misunderstandings, and eventually inspired 160 followers to perform striking feats by his example.

In the Shadow of the Condor documents an expedition in January of 2002 into the spectacular pristine Corcovado wilderness in Southern Chile.

'The Devil's Miner' tells the story of 14-year-old Basilio who worships the devil for protection while working in a Bolivian silver mine to support his family.

A documentary on the rise and fall of Project Cybersyn, an attempt at a computer-managed centralized economy undertaken in Chile during the presidency of Salvador Allende.

Ten years after an enormous open-pit gold mine began operations in Malartic, the hoped-for economic miracle is nothing more than a mirage. Filmmaker Nicolas Paquet explores the glaring contrast between the town’s decline and the wealth of the mining company, along with the mechanisms of an opaque decision-making system in which ordinary people have little say. Part anthropological study, part investigation into the corridors of power, Malartic addresses the fundamental issue of sustainable and fair land management.

Beerput Nederland

Sir Chris Bonington’s return to Torres del Paine, 62 years after the first ascent of the Central Tower. At 91 years old, and while living with Alzheimer’s disease, the documentary accompanies Bonington in a profoundly human return: an attempt to reconnect with memories that time has erased, but that the Patagonian landscape still seems to guard. During the filming, Chris once again set foot on the territory of Estancia Cerro Guido, closing a circle between past and present, between the epic of mountaineering and the fragility of memory.

Unraveling one of the biggest environmental scandals of our time, a group of citizens in West Virginia take on a powerful corporation after they discover it has knowingly been dumping a toxic chemical — now found in the blood of 99.7% of Americans — into the local drinking water supply.

Documentary marking the 30th anniversary of the 1984 miners' strike, one of the bitterest industrial disputes in British history, with stories from both sides of the conflict.

Sonar Rock City: Seattle is a journey through the city that caught our attention back in 1992 thanks to the grunge movement which today no longer exists. Still today the creative spirit runs through its veins with a new music scene that captures what Seattle is in its core.

Rüdiger was a child, Aki two months old and Kurt, the deputy of the pedophile leader of the sect. In 1961 they came to Chile together with 500 other German sect members and for over 40 years they lived secluded from the rest of the world. The film tells about the attempt to survive as a collective after decades of crimes such as torture and murder and shows different ways in which the individual copes with the history of the community.

Documentary short about the death of Chilean general René Schneider by the CIA, following the election of Salvador Allende as president of the nation.

Documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining, and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.