Vivante(s)
Forbidden to Wander chronicles the experiences of a 25-year-old Arab American woman traveling on her own in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the summer of 2002. The film is a reflection on the complexity of Palestinian existence and the torturously disturbing "ordinariness" of living under constant curfew. The film's title reflects this, as the Arabic words used to describe the imposed curfew "mane' tajawwul" literally translate as "forbidden to wander". The video is also the journey of personal discovery for the filmmaker, the wanderer who falls in love with a Palestinian man in Gaza.
Director Anna Broinowski explores how Pauline Hanson's speech in 1996 and the decades of debate that followed has influenced Australia today; the impact of her political career on modern multicultural Australia, and the people who have helped her transition from local fish shop owner to Member for Oxley. Featuring many of Hanson's critics, opponents, advisors and commentators, from former Prime Minister John Howard, to current members of the media, including Margo Kingston and Alan Jones; and leading Indigenous commentator, Professor Marcia Langton.
Follows dub poet master Linton Kwesi Johnson out of the recording studio onto the Brixton streets.
After the insurrection erupted in Libya in the spring of 2012, more than a million people flocked to neighboring Tunisia in search of a safe haven from the escalating violence. When a massive refugee camp was hastily constructed near the Ras Jdir border checkpoint in Tunisia, a trio of filmmakers carried their cameras in and began filming with no agenda. This on-the-fly chronicle of the camp's installation, operation, and dismantling captures a postmodern Babel complete with a multinational population of displaced folk, a regime of humanitarian aid workers, and international media that broadcasts its “image” to the world. Visually stunning and refreshingly undogmatic, Babylon reveals a rarely seen aspect of the Arab Spring.
A reflection on the assassinations of social democrat politician Fernando Buesa Blanco and his bodyguard Jorge Díez Elorza, perpetrated by the terrorist gang ETA in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain, on February 22, 2000.
What happened in France just after WWII, between 1945 and 1949? An interesting historic documentary looks at the fate of male and female (presumed) collaborators with the Nazis, the use of the POW in the reconstruction of the plundered and devastated country.
The story of four pioneering lesbian politicians and the battles they fought to pass a wide range of anti-discrimination laws.
This documentary takes an economic perspective, painting a candid picture of how the Dutch chain store HEMA has had to adapt to modern times and globalization to continue as a major player on the highly competitive retail market. It's all about expansion, even as far as China. But do foreign countries really need quintessentially Dutch concepts such as uniform pricing, the classic HEMA smoked sausages and timeless ladies' dresses? Chinese filmmaker Yan Ting Yuen, who came to the Netherlands at the age of six, followed the passionate CEO for a year, trying to find out what makes HEMA so unique. It turns out to be about more than just smoked sausages, as shown by the success of the new stores in France, where customers stuff their baskets with coffee mugs and Dutch syrup waffles.
In the face of the environmental threat presented by the polluting tar sands industry, Pipelines, Power and Democracy reminds us that power doesn't always lie where we think it does. From the hallways of Quebec's National Assembly, where parliamentary power resides, to the campaigns waged by environmental defence groups and the big media splashes made by some activists, director Olivier D. Asselin follows the journeys of four people who adopt a variety of tactics--showing that it still possible to effect change. In documenting recent battles against pipelines in Quebec, the film appeals to our conscience as citizens during a time of great global crises.
Tu nourriras le monde
"What could be more unsettling than a man close to death whose profound arrogance drives him relentlessly to hang onto both his power and his writing, to the bitter end?" In the twilight of his second seven-year term, François Mitterrand was alone. Ravaged by illness and abandoned by a large majority of the Socialist Party, who would not forgive him for the disastrous outcome of the March 1993 elections, the Head of State was preparing to tackle a second round of cohabitation with the right wing. However a series of unexpected tragedies and revelations would arise, casting a shadow over the end of his reign…
In a series of long interviews, 12 prime ministers talk about their experience in the upper echelons of power. The function of prime minister, torn between the president and the parliament, appointed without necessarily being elected but responsible for everything, is at the center of debate. With the exception of Jacques Chirac (1974-1976 and 1986-1988), deliberately left out because of his image as French President, those who governed France for the past 35 years agreed to discuss the exercise of power, as seen through archive footage, but also how they experienced it personally. Filmed in the same studio and sitting in the same chair, 12 French prime ministers talk freely about their time in office, from their appointment until their resignation.
In 2002, serial killer Patrice Alègre was sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders. Gendarme Roussel, the main investigator of this case, believes that he will make him confess to other unsolved crimes in Toulouse. Two ex-prostitutes give a series of names of presumed accomplices of the killer, among them Dominique Baudis, then president of the CSA. He decides to face the case alone. Around him, it is silence: not an official support of his political family. Almost twenty years later, we return to the Baudis affair to try to understand it, with the testimonies of Pierre and Benjamin Baudis, his sons, François Hollande, Camille Pascal and the main protagonists.
THE ELECTION CAMPAIGNERS tries to analyse the phenomenon of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). The party’s great success is generally regarded as a result of its leader’s demonic charisma. But this film doesn’t focus on Jörg Haider. Instead it gives a face to the people who make Haider’s election victories possible, taking a clear stance, yet refraining from commentary or judgement. It is up to the viewers to draw their own conclusions.
À l'Élysée, un temps de président
Aïcha is 59. She's been through some hard times. She decided to turn to helping others. Seeing firsthand the government's lack of support, she tries in her own way to remedy the lack of care for refugees. She dedicates the majority of her time to helping refugees in the greater Paris area, first as part of the "Solidarité Migrants Wilson" organization operating in the suburbs north of Paris, then in the nonprofit she founded, "la Team du Coeur", with the help of one of her daughters, her son-in-law, a Sudanese refugee himself, and a friend. Together, they offer on-street support and enter refugee camps daily to talk, provide material support and a listening ear.
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith and today, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone: the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where, in all of this, is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial and, as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.
When a young woman is shot by an undocumented immigrant on Pier 14 in San Francisco, the incident ignites a political and media furor that culminates in Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. In the eye of this storm, two public defenders fight to reveal the truth.
Chambord, the most impressive castle in the Loire Valley, in France, a truly Renaissance treasure, has always been an enigma to generations of historians. Why did King Francis I (1494-1547), who commissioned it, embark on this epic project in the heart of the marshlands in 1519? What significance did he want the castle to have? What role did his friend, Italian genius Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) play? Was he the architect or who was?