The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism

Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerising film is a feast for the eyes. The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism features the sell-out exhibition The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Still

The documentary tells the story of Uschi, a farmer living free and recluded in the bavarian alps. Shot in epic black and white pictures, Still follows Uschi's life over a ten year period. From an untroubled summer of making cheese through pregnancy and the uncertain future of the parental farm, Matti Bauer portrays Uschi's struggle to keep alive the dream of a way of life that has become rather untypical in this day and age.

Koyaanisqatsi

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Reflexiones de un salvaje

America's Hate Preachers

Director Hannah Livingston spends 6 months tracking two of America's most radical Christian hate groups - a notorious pastor from Arizona and a network of extremist preachers.

That Kid

A group of educators led by Fernand Deligny are working to create contact with autistic children in a hamlet of the Cevennes.

Small Happiness

Part Two: SMALL HAPPINESS - Despite the tremendous advances women in China have made, serious problems continue. Long Bow women talk about love, marriage, work, birth control, birth customs and the now outlawed custom of foot binding. Truly moving interviews with Lingqiao and her mother-in-law draw us into their lives.

The Pageant

Every year since 2011, a unique beauty contest has been taking place in Haifa. The contestants are female survivors of the Holocaust. In the midst of this flashy spectacle, their personal traumas remain as deep as ever. There are many things about this contest that are controversial: it is organized by the right Zionist organization, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and the dubious contest itself rises the public indignation of various speakers, including other survivors.

Coombs

Routine Pleasures, Slow Cinema.

Land Rush

A partnership between the Government of Mali and an American agricultural investor may see 200-square kilometers of Malian land transformed into a large-scale sugar cane plantation. Land Rush documents the hopes, fears, wishes, and demands of small-scale subsistence farmers in the region who look to benefit, or lose out, from the deal.

Prime Farmland

This documentary film follows farmers and activists fighting together to stop the Indiana Enterprise Center, a mega-sized industrial park planned west of South Bend, Indiana

Buffalo Girls

Buffalo Girls tells the story of two 8-year-old-girls, Stam and Pet, both professional Muay Thai prizefighters. Set in small villages throughout rural Thailand, the film chronicles these young girls' emotional and sometimes heartbreaking journey as they fight in small underground arenas to win prize-money to help provide for their families. After many months of rigorous training and a long schedule of fights, Stam and Pet fight each other for the 20 Kilo championship belt of Thailand and a cash prize that will change the winner's life forever.

SURVIVA

A narrative constructed in the wishful-filmmaking, or “fanumentary”, genre. Rural women artists unite via CR to support one another’s work and to showcase more women’s art publicly available in their community. A refreshing weave that combines animation, nature shots and live action into a story of actualization.

Lanbroa

An elegy dedicated to rural life and its inhabitants. A soundscape that evokes the history of the countryside and suggests the loss of a lifestyle and its culture.

Horse Wrangler

Nando, a young horse wrangler in a rural Mexican village, has taken his own life following a disagreement with his father. Caballerango shows the boy’s family members and townspeople as they reckon with the new realities borne out of this inexplicable tragedy. Each account of Nando’s story reveals a different aspect of this rural town, which is deeply affected by modernization. The confrontation between the centuries-old ways of life and the modern-day world seems to be creating serious identity crises among the younger generation. The story is told in a patient, observational style with methodical shots of the landscape, ranches, and of the two white horses, whom Nando and his father tended to. Those horses, the last to see Nando alive, connect us to an ethereal sensation of almost otherworldly mystical beings.

Dom starych kobiet

Werner We Love You

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

The Art of Movement

A sensual and insightful film about three elderly dancers from Budapest. Irén, Éva and Ágnes - all between 90 and 100 years old - were once part of the early modern dance movement in Hungary. Taking the role of a dance student and dialogue partner Boglárka retraces how each of the elderly dancers transformed their lives and movement practices in order to survive the major socio-political changes of the last century. The film takes us into a personal and bodily encounter with three very different personalities and their relation to their past and present. Returning to the stage and performing in their private rooms, Irén, Éva and Ágnes reveal us an incredible richness of experience stored in their bodies. A choreography of memories.

Honeyland

When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.

Lida

"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.