Becoming Home

Hiver 54 : L'Abbé Pierre et l'insurrection de la bonté

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.

Ompung Putra Boru, a sixties indigenous Batak woman from Humbang Hasundutan, North Sumatra, retraces her life stories through photographs that interweave her past and present as a wife, mother, healer and indigenous land defender in two neighboring villages. Her multi-layered stories are juxtaposed with visual records of everyday life in the two villages, where people’s living space is still increasingly threatened by a giant pulp expansion.

I have been pretty satisfied with my life before I got on the bus. When I do in June 2011, my whole life turns upside down. I am just a regular passenger at first. Like other people I was sorry, and felt obliged to help and care for other passengers. Then I begin to film these common heroes with my camera. Those who speak about hope, who provide it and get on the bus, Ms. Kim Jin-suk, and other crane laborers who risk their safety while demonstrating for their rights on high. She, while stationed insecurely on high, begins interacting with the world through Twitter and makes friends. Then I realize I really love her. Will we have her back safely?

In the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, nine children and their parents lived in perfect harmony with nature for 20 years – until they are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city.

Nacht Grenze Morgen

Once upon a time, the Venezuelan village of Congo Mirador was prosperous, alive with fisherman and poets. Now it is decaying and disintegrating—a small but prophetic reflection of Venezuela itself.

Though both the historical and modern-day persecution of Armenians and other Christians is relatively uncovered in the mainstream media and not on the radar of many average Americans, it is a subject that has gotten far more attention in recent years.

Olivia Martin McGuire (China Love) parallels a grandfather’s journey to safety during the Cultural Revolution with his granddaughter’s fight for freedom in Hong Kong today. Interweaving unflinching testimony of the elder’s exodus from the Chinese mainland, exquisitely animated recreations of the perilous escape to Hong Kong through land and sea, and vivid, evocative archival footage of both mid-20th-century China and the Hong Kong protests today, Freedom Swimmer emerges as a gripping and timely account of the struggle for survival across generations.

Makun (no llores) - Dibujos en un CIE

La Chapelle neighbourhood, Paris. Hundreds of exiled people from East Africa survive on the streets, chased violently by the police, yet seeking to defend their rights as asylum seekers. Some months later, having finally obtained their rightful housing, two Sudanese young men return to the sites where they first landed and talk about their arrival in Paris during this agitation.

Narir Kotha is an exploration of the experience of women in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. During the war, thousands of women were systematically raped and tortured by the Pakistan Army and their collaborators. But they were not only victims of sexual violence, they were also in the front lines of the popular resistance against the occupying Army, as fighters and martyrs. Narir Kotha is an attempt to explore some of these stories, through the words of the women themselves.

Through testimonies and images, the crude reality of human rights in Argentina in democracy is portrayed and the role of the hegemonic means of communication to make causes and protests invisible ...

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.

L'envers d'Amazon

A short documentary exploring the grueling cycle of child labor in Pakistan through the story of two children, one working at a brick kiln and the other at a car mechanic shop.

Marcela, Anabella and Estrella are three trans women who have defied the lifespan expected for a trans person. Through their recollections, one explores the memory’s strength, resistance and love for life of these three women.

"Gaza Is Our Home" is a profoundly personal documentary that peels back the layers of devastation within the Gaza Strip, as witnessed through the lens of filmmaker Monear Shaer. His debut documentary was created out of agony as a timely, impactful, and tragic response to the collective anguish of all who call Gaza home... What began as an auto-generated slideshow on Monear’s iPhone of his own trip to see his family in 2021, has since transformed into a feature-length documentary. Through a tapestry of intimate interviews, unfiltered personal footage, and raw storytelling, "Gaza Is Our Home" transcends the political rhetoric and confronts audiences with the agonizing reality and ongoing cruelty thrust upon the film-makers own family. It is more than just a documentary... Rather, "Gaza Is Our Home" stands as a testament to the humanity behind the over 33,362 innocent lives massacred since Oct 2023...

The documentary begins when the fictionalized drama ends. Sara spent three years volunteering to save refugees on the same journey that made her so famous, and was suddenly arrested in Aug. 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise with charges including “international espionage and people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Shot over three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery.

Sami reindeer herders win a Supreme Court victory against Europe’s largest wind farm - but when the state refuses to act, their fight reveals a deeper crisis of justice and trust.