Isabelle Adjani, 2 or 3 Things We Don't Know about Her...

'if you only had one year left of your life, what would you do?' This question asks Swiss author Franz Hohler. His answer: 'Make death your adviser to live life to the fullest.' He is one of several carefully chosen Swiss citizens who give us an insight into their personal views on life and death. Besides these colorful, oftentimes funny quotes we meet Tom, a 50-year old male that has been diagnosed with incurable brain tumor. Contrary to what one would expect, Tom takes his sickness not as a burden but as a chance and lives his life happier than ever before. This to the surprise of his family and friends and above all - himself. The film encourages people to live life more consciously.

This cinematic portrait shows the Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl at work. The much-discussed ‘Seidl method’ is conveyed here vividly and directly: The camera watches over Seidl’s shoulder during the filming of his new production IM KELLER, and observes him at the rehearsals for his latest theatre production ‘Böse Buben / Fiese Männer’. The film paints the picture of a fascinating and exceptional artist using a combination of extensive interviews and excerpts from earlier works.

This film begins, so to speak, where ‘Vol spécial’ left off. The reality of migration bears its teeth: Following a scuffle, 20-year-old Koumba from France is sent back to the place where she was raised – Senegal. She returns to the lost village of her ancestors hysterical, argumentative and unproductively rebellious. Now the mother of a toddler, she continues to come to terms with the two cultures; the outcome is unforeseeable, as is the outcome of this cinematic long-term observation. The risk of its failure due to its protagonist is palpable. But Koumba’s fascinating metamorphosis is also obvious, her body and character have taken on a more harmonious nature. All hope is not lost.

The portrait of Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, through fragments of the present, archives, readings and close voices. A film where political thought is felt in gestures, friendship and struggles, and where cinema becomes a space for the lively circulation of thought.

Through vintage film clips of past Bond movie epics, and with the participation of several former "Bond Girls" as interviewees (among them Dr. No's Ursula Andress and Diamonds Are Forever's Jill St. John), the documentary traces the evolution of the typical James Bond heroine from decorative damsel in distress to gutsy (but still decorative) participant in the action.

Jay worked as a security guard at the door of Kanaal40, a bar located in the heart of Amsterdam's Warmoesstraat. At the threshold of the club, Jay found a sense of security: a space to express themselves and explore who they want to be. Even after the bar closed its doors, the experience continued to shape their life in deeply personal ways.

Mariem, 53, a former estate agent, has been living at a shelter for several months. Surrounded by women in far more precarious circumstances than herself, she tries to regard her unprecedented social downfall as an immersion in real life. By the time she leaves, Mariem’s view of the world will have changed forever, enriched by all the women she has met along the way.

How do you deal with life's curveballs? FIGURE 3 tells trapeze artist Korri Singh Aulakh's story of being diagnosed with the chronic autoimmune condition Myasthenia Gravis. It's the third installment in FIGURES, a new series of portrait films. Shot on a mix of 16mm film, VHS and digital.

Achour is thirty. Night and day, he walks. Rebellious soul, he crisscrosses Alger and its neighborhoods, stays at friends' houses and often leaves the city to meet the nearby montain in Kabylia, his alter-ego. In this environment his resistance continues, mobile and ascending. Algerian hardcore-punk musician, Achour once screamed his anger against the country's regime and sang "Anarchytecture". But the movement died down, friends went their separate ways. His Facebook wall became his notebook, his window open to the world. It represents a scream aimed towards the echo of the mountains, between virtual wall, infinite facades of large complexes and the strata of mineral cliffs. A scream comes back at us.

Sean Penn is almost a living legend. His filmography paints a picture of an 'other America': the lower class, the oppressed and the outsiders. Whether as an actor or director, he turns all the great myths upside down.

La bande à Fifi : plus besoin d'Alibi

A young woman of the Tarahumara, well-known for their extraordinary long distance running abilities, wins ultramarathons seemingly out of nowhere despite running in sandals.

Enrico Mattei, le rebelle du pétrole

For four years (1977-1981) Esaias Baitel documented a violent Parisian neo-Nazi gang. Having gained their trust, he was able to get close to them. Living among the gang members, he witnessed horrific events, and while hiding his real identity, he photographed a one-of-a-kind collection of gripping stills. Over thirty years have passed. Esaias Baitel has laid his camera down. He returns to the dark nights he spent in the City of Lights, the city where he lived a double life, going back and forth from the gang to the young family he had just started.

"It takes courage to accept growing old. It's the response to the cruelty of passing time that I wanted to film." (Xavier Liébard) A group of elderly people decided to live their journey through middle age to the fullest. United in the same small group for over fifteen years, they chose to share their vitality through song with others, those whom old age has excluded from the social, familial, and human experience. Against all odds, "The Joyful Companions" are active and committed to maintaining the social connections that bind them to life. But what strategies, tricks, and struggles they must invent to live old age with hope... Xavier Liébard Director, Writer

Annedore takes care of orphan birds. They give her that which humans througout her turbulent life could never give her: love.

Rolland, a 70 year-old man, exiled by his family due to his sexual orientation, makes peace with the past by finding himself in a small ghost town in the western part of Jalisco, San Sebastián del Oeste. Almost 40 years later, he wants to go back to his hometown, try to regain his daughter's love and be a part o his granddaughter's life.

André Minvielle, l'homme à la manivelle

When the world was on fire, they called Hans Blix. This is how the Swedish diplomat is introduced in ‘Blix Not Bombs’. And if there is one fire he is particularly associated with, it is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the invasion, Blix led the delegation of UN officials to find out whether weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq. And it is the invasion and its consequences that we get Blix’s formidably insightful analysis of in a thorough and honest conversation with director Greta Stocklassa. Few others understand the complexities of international politics on the world stage like Blix, and none can explain it with his intellectual elegance. But Stocklassa’s film is also a portrait of the man himself, now an elderly gentleman, writing his memoirs, walking with a cane and watching birds through the window of his apartment. His outlook and commitment is as urgent as ever, as Blix takes stock of the invasion of Iraq and the state of the world today.

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