The Raging Soil

Four stories set between the 60s and the 70s in Italy. Four personal female adventures crossing the path of Italian history, the struggle for women rights, the liberation of the body, in a country without memory.

Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.

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.

During the last argentine military dictatorship, the Army developed a systematic plan for the abduction of children, with maternity wards inside the clandestine detention centers. This film proposes itself as a trip to the truth "to bring to light the places where lots of babies saw the light for the first time"; Three restored children show the part for the whole :how a genocide was orchestrated,a scheme which planned the deprivation of identity of babies born in captivity, children of illegally kidnapped and detained women.

Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.

Through first person narration, Tari reveals personal stories related to her decision to work in Taiwan, her strained family relationships, the risks involved in working abroad and the traps she has fallen into.

A Woman's Soul unveils the world of Rio de Janeiro's travestites - these mythological figures who have opt for sexual ambiguity. Caricatures of women who live in marginality. The documentary shows that behind the stereotypes, exoticism and flamboyancy that involve the travestites, there are human beings with dreams, rights, ambitions and frustrations - as everybody else. The film recieved the Honorable Mention at the XXV Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia in 1998. It was also exhibited in New York and at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

A 3-year-old girl and her family's long journey from a Greek refugee centre to Uppsala.

Dandara: Enquanto Morar for um Privilégio, Ocupar é um Direito

Oxana is a woman, a fighter, an artist. As a teenager, her passion for iconography almost inspires her to join a convent, but in the end she decides to devote her talents to the Femen movement. With Anna, Inna and Sasha, she founds the famous feminist group which protests against the regime and which will see her leave her homeland, Ukraine, and travel all over Europe. Driven by a creative zeal and a desire to change the world, Oxana allows us a glimpse into her world and her personality, which is as unassuming, mesmerising and vibrant as her passionate artworks.

United States, September 1st, 2016. American football player Colin Kaepernick kneels during the national anthem, protesting police brutality against black people. Part of the population regards the gesture as an unacceptable affront to the flag. Later, he loses his place on his team. Today, however, he is considered by many as a true hero.

When the Nuxalk trace their vanished ooligan alongside a land claim filed the day smallpox arrived, their radio station becomes courtroom, confessional and conjuring ground, where an older law insists: the fish and the people return together or not at all.

A short documentary about the October 14 1979 March For Lesbian And Gay Rights in Washington D.C.

A feature-length documentary film by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi. After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.

Hijos de África

Directed by the Archbishop of Concepción, Monsignor Fernando Chomali, the documentary ‘Miércoles 15.30, memorias de una ausencia’ addresses the stories of loss, pain, and the search for justice of the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees of Concepción. The Association, created under the auspices of the Archbishopric of Concepción and the Human Rights Pastoral during the dictatorship, has been working and meeting for more than 40 years to find their relatives.

Magdi, a strong-willed, but lonely caregiver faces a daunting reality as she grows older: If she were to pass away, her disabled adult son, Feri would be left to the inhumane conditions of the Hungarian state care system, and would quickly follow her. Determined to secure a future for Feri, Magdi unites with a group of mothers who are in the same situation and they take legal action against the state. “Your Life Without Me” is a story of the strength and sacrifices of these women who find their own voice through the common fight and their community.

In a candid and unflinching portrait of Palestinian prisoners, Shimon Dotan takes viewers inside the highest security prisons in Israel where thousands of Palestinians fill these detention facilities.

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

The bleached palette and home-movie aesthetics of Super 8 footage provide the image track for this testimonial about an illegal abortion in Mexico City in the 1960s, delivered in voiceover by the filmmaker’s mother. In its account of this intimate and disorienting memory, Lesser Choices summons a time of profound uncertainty—a moment from an era without rights—and offers a warning to the present.