One inside, one outside. One thin line that creates “us” and “them”. The importance of the borders has again a huge impact in Europe. Yesterday it was all about free movement. Today it´s about controled borders. And walls and fences have become normality. “Before our eyes” is a testimony that shows a situation where Hungary, and indirectly Europe closes itself to the outside world. The film portrays four places, four events, which was filmed over three days in early September 2015, when the worst refugee crisis we have seen since the Second World War started in earnest. “My Europe does not build walls!” said Stefan Löfven, the swedish prime minister, in a speech a few days later. Before our eyes shows how words and actions are no longer connected. Today, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, the UK, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria have built fences and walls to strengthen theirs and Europe’s external borders.
Federal officer with the Department of Homeland Security discovers a national security breach related to the entry of 23 aliens from terrorist countries into the United States. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, former head of the DEA Robert Bonner can't afford any more media scrutiny, since his incompetence was already exposed in the NASA 'Challenger' disaster. To avoid the scandal, the full might of the government is unleashed against Julia Davis, her family and witnesses. This retaliation reaches an unprecedented magnitude, including four unexplained deaths, Hollywood and the Mafia, false imprisonments and the use of Blackhawk helicopters and airplanes for warrantless surveillance. Amidst many shocking revelations, this documentary provides a new insight into the deaths of well-known Hollywood figures unwittingly dragged into this scandal. The truth is no longer a secret.
GAZA brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict. Throughout its entire history the Gaza Strip has been witness to conflict and upheaval. From ancient times this tiny coastal territory, located at a crossroads between continents, has been a pawn whose fate rested in the hands of powerful neighbours.
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Errol Morris confronts one of the darkest chapters in recent American history: family separations. Based on NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, Morris merges bombshell interviews with government officials and artful narrative vignettes tracing one migrant family’s plight. Together they show that the cruelty at the heart of this policy was its very purpose. Against this backdrop, audiences can begin to absorb the U.S. government’s role in developing and implementing policies that have kept over 1300 children without confirmed reunifications years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Sassnitz is a small coastal town at the Baltic Sea on the Island of Rügen. In its vicinity are the world-famous chalk cliffs, a tourist magnet. The Mukran Port is also part of the municipality. The overseas port is the starting point for the construction of Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline that connects Germany directly with Russia. In 2020, the port town hit the international headlines. Even the New York Times reported and cited Mayor Frank Kracht as a staunch opponent from the northeast German province against the rumbling America of Donald Trump. The reason is the undisguised threat from Washington to ruin the international port economically if the natural gas pipeline continues to be built from there. Many jobs and the region's economic stability are at risk. Reporter Klaus Scherer documents the case, questions experts as well as those affected and looks at the behavior of national politicians towards the USA and how they react to the interference in internal affairs.
Notes about identity
As thousands of migrants attempt to cross the French-Italian border on foot through treacherous mountain routes, the state cracks down on the local communities that come to their aid in this revealing look at an unfolding human rights crisis.
Raiano
It is said that before entering the sea, a river trembles with fear.
With a visual style that alternates between intimate verité moments, meditative reflection and suspenseful sequences, the film tells the story of Chief Ramon Gonzalez, detective Manuel Casas and officer Mayra Garza, as they navigate the complexities of their existence on the US/Mexican border.
La Gemma té un pla
The old bus "Tired Theodore" came into service in 1954 and operated for long periods along the line Lumparland - Mariehamn. One summer day a number of older people had gathered for a bus ride along the winding country roads in Lumparland, and to relive old memories. At the same time one of the locals, Putte Karlsson, took up a large project: rebuilding the old mill in Lumparby. The mill was owned by his grandfather, skipper and farmer in the village. Sawmills previously existed in many villages in Åland Islands but today they are no longer in use. It is a big challenge and many are skeptical that Putte will put everything to work.
Bomarsund 1854 tells the story of two humanists, whose actions during the Crimean War prevented bloodshed. They are the British hydrographer, Bartholomew James Sulivan, and the Russian commandant, Jacov Andreyevitch Bodisco, two men who fought on opposite sides in the war. It also traces the rise and fall of the multi-cultural community of Bomarsund. The small island of Åland, located in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, played a significant role in the war that raged during 1854, originally called the Oriental War and partially fought in Northern Europe. The Baltic campaigns became the forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. The attention awarded events elsewhere has overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which lay close to the Russian capital of St Petersburg.
A group of treasure hunters discover a mysterious object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in this documentary. Theories abound about the large object's origins. It might be a UFO, manmade, or it might be a naturally occurring phenomenon. Nobody knows.
Near the Oder River, where Poland and Germany meet, the two friends Szymon and Franek spend every free moment at the skatepark. A place where everyone comes together, regardless of where they come from. But as they look across to the other side of the river, their perception begins to shift. The river becomes a border, fences cut through the space, appearing and disappearing again. Shot on 16mm, this short combines documentary observation and animation and follows two children growing up at a borderland who begin to question what borders really are: something tangible, like the river they are looking at, or something that exists only in their imagination?
A film about borders and border checkpoints, poetically following the people that come into contact with them - one way or another. Borders is about men and women dreaming of a better life in Europe and the high price they often have to pay for it - if they succeed at all. Without taking an immediate moral stance, the film follows the route that many immigrants take from the heart of Africa to the centre of Europe, stopping at each border: Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal , Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, France, Belgium, and finally, the Netherlands.
Rügen is the largest island of Germany. Located off the Baltic Sea coast of Western Pomerania, two thirds of its area is protected. The green beech forests of the Jasmund National Park are considered an original virgin forest that is unique in Europe and are part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The white chalk cliffs, which can be seen from afar, are the island's distinctive symbol and were immortalized in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich more than 200 years ago. On the small island of Vilm, which belongs to Rügen, there is another core area of nature conservation with a 500-year-old, untouched beech forest. Within sight of this refuge, organic farmers are trying to bring more diversity back to the fields. Small-scale agriculture with a great diversity of species has emerged between hedges, tree islands and biotopes. The documentary shows Rügen's natural treasures and introduces different people who have found their home here and are fighting to preserve nature.
24 October 2015, a nice day in autumn in a nice landscape. A crowd of refugees and migrants accompanied by soldiers and police officers make their way from the Schengen border between Slovenia and Croatia towards the refugee camp in Brežice. Suddenly, the landscape starts to appear less nice than it was.
Jellyfish blooms are making headlines around the world. This is due to the damage they cause to tourism, fishing and our health. How can these creatures, which are over 98% water and have no shell, skeleton or brain, expand so rapidly? Although this is a normal stage in the life cycle of these gelatinous animals, we have to admit that blooms have become much more frequent and massive in recent decades. We're even witnessing jellyfish populations appearing in more and more regions where fish have been replaced by them, such as off the coast of Namibia, in the Black Sea, in the Sea of Japan and in certain areas of the Baltic Sea. What causes this? Why has the role of jellyfish in the ocean been underestimated, even though they outlived the dinosaurs? Are jellyfish on their way to dominating the oceans as they once did? What if they were to be the only ones left?
As daylight breaks between the border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, undocumented migrants and their relatives, divided by a wall, prepare to participate in an activist event. For three minutes, they’ll embrace in no man’s land for the briefest and sweetest of reunions.