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Social & External
The American mountaineer Gary Hemming marked the era of the 1960s. The story of this "exceptional" character is intimately linked to that of the rescue of the two German mountaineers on the west face of the Drus, in 1966, a rescue which he had took the initiative. While the official emergency services of the EHM try to reach them from above, a pirate rope made up of Gary Hemming, René Desmaison, Lothar Mauch, Gil Bodin, Mike Brurke, François Guillot, the filmmaker Gérard Bauer organizes to join them from below and succeeded after a fierce struggle the rescue. The press seizes the event and elevates Gary Hemming to the rank of national hero. All the newspapers feature this big guy with a cool attitude, mismatched clothes, jovial smile and long blond hair on the front page. From then on, he was nicknamed: "the beatnik of the peaks".
The OCEAN is now on tour for the ninth time. This time we are accompanying, among others, 17-year-old Munich surfer Ben Neumann. He proves that it is not only the sea that sometimes seems limitless, but also the human will. Ben is blind and not surfing the famous Eisbach wave is not an option for him. The three Australians Madison Stewart, Alice Forrest and Jordyn de Boer also want to cross borders. They are environmental activists and have one goal: to protect the oceans and their flora and fauna. In "The Power of Activism", they prove that this can also be economically viable and show a possible path into the future of activism. The fact that this future must begin now is impressively demonstrated by the film "Stolen Fish", which tells the story of two Gambian fishermen and a Gambian fish seller. All three are struggling with overfishing off the West African coast. A story about cause and effect and the associated search for a better life.
The activist group Empty Cages (Tomma Burar) practices civil disobedience. They carry out well-planed actions against industrial animal husbandry and release a few individuals to bring attention to a problem. Follow a group of activists in behind closed doors as they fight animal oppression.
Visiting the home of Marija Janeković in Petrinja on 24th April 2013.
After constantly moving, two students finally find the opportunity to start a family by adopting a stray dog.
The film features a conversation between Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, producer of THX 1138. They discuss Lucas' vision for the film, including his ideas about science fiction in general and in particular his concept of the "used future" which would famously feature in his film Star Wars. Intercut with this discussion is footage shot prior to the start of production of THX 1138 showing several of its actors having their heads shaved, a requirement for appearing in the film. In several cases the actors are shown being shaved in a public location. For example, Maggie McOmie is shaved outside the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, while Robert Duvall watches a sporting event as his hair is cut off. Another actor, Marshall Efron, who would later play an insane man in the film, cut off his own hair and was filmed doing so in a bathtub.
In 1999, 11-year-old Nisha Platzer lost her older brother, Josh, to suicide. Twenty years later, her search for a specialized medical treatment leads her to the door of someone who was once exceptionally close to Josh. And so it is that she finally has the chance to truly know her brother through his chosen family. Captured over five years in which synchronicities continually manifested, Platzer’s documentation of these encounters gently asserts that both grieving and healing are meant to be communal experiences.
At the end of summer 2021 boys spend their last lazy days together in a small town by the Volga River. Their childish routine of roaming streets, riding scooters and vaping will change so soon — only Slava stays in Yuryevets with his foster family, most of his friends are leaving to study or work in a week. Vlad dreams about a military career. He wants “to save lives” just like characters in his favorite computer games and to earn enough money for his poor parents who work in a local supermarket. At his birthday party the teens argue and try to dissuade Vlad but he has already made his choice. Hope there will be no war in the future — they say.
Anita Chitaya has a gift: she can help bring abundant food from dead soil, she can make men fight for gender equality, and maybe she can end child hunger in her village. Now, to save her home in Malawi from extreme weather, she faces her greatest challenge: persuading Americans that climate change is real. Traveling from Malawi to California to the White House, she meets climate sceptics and despairing farmers. Her journey takes her across all the divisions that shape the USA: from the rural-urban divide, to schisms of race, class and gender, and to the American exceptionalism that remains a part of the culture. It will take all her skill and experience to help Americans recognise, and free themselves from, a logic that is already destroying the Earth.
Giving Voice is a musical documentary about a community choir in Central New York that uses singing as a tool to foster broad social inclusiveness and community building.
Vladan Vasev aka VaXz, is a lover of basketball and all kinds of team sports from Bosilegrad, who completely single-handedly restored faith in the hardcore music scene in Serbia. When the performers on stage noticed his jumps and the way of dancing specific to hardcore music and inquired about the most loyal member of their audience, they learned an incredible story. In order to attend the concert, VaXz travels from Bosilegrad to Belgrade sometimes up to ten hours, and then returns, sometimes immediately after listening to the gig. In this film, we meet Vladan and what it is that inspires him about hardcore, but through his portrait we also get to know life in a small town like Bosilegrad, as well as the history of hardcore music in Serbia and how bands came together to honor their most loyal fan.
Thea’s life is changed when she receives an unexpected call from her childhood ‘friend’, May. Memories of the past with May shake Thea out of the mundane and into the queer London landscape; although it doesn’t immediately welcome her with open arms. Except in the form of Mimi, a liberated and fellow queer femme, who shows Thea the unconditional love and friendship that queer community is built off. Inspired by a true story, this heartfelt short film celebrates the magic of queer femme friendship and love.
At L'Abri, a short-term "hospitality community" in the English countryside, five strangers spend a summer together exploring their big questions about faith, being human, and finding belonging back home.
Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in conversation about The Irishman.
the documentary short "The Stream XII" by Hiroya Sakuri (Japan)
For 20-year-old Madison Stewart, nothing feels safer or more natural than diving straight into shark-infested waters. Since childhood, growing up by the Great Barrier Reef, she's treated these predators as family. But they're vanishing from existence, and because of their bad reputation, few people seem to care. Follow Madison on her mission to protect our sharks, a battle that began when she put her studies on hold, grabbed a camera, and set out to save these incredible, misunderstood creatures.
"Grow a Better Dallas" is a short documentary film showcasing South Dallas' Restorative Farms, a registered non-profit offering restorative justice and urban agriculture solutions to the "food desert" problem in South Dallas. Restorative Farms offers the ability for rehabilitation and therapeutic solutions to individuals with criminal backgrounds to come and contribute as employees to the farm. Restorative Farms was co-founded by Tyrone Day, who was falsely incarcerated for over 26 years.
RETURN follows the efforts of a family of former sea-turtle–egg poachers, now dedicated protectors, leading VIVEMAR — a community-based organization in Oaxaca, Mexico. Through their work, they safeguard one of the world’s most endangered sea turtle species during its nesting season along the Mexican coast.
This documentary takes the viewer on a deeply personal journey into the everyday lives of families struggling to fight Goliath. From a family business owner in the Midwest to a preacher in California, from workers in Florida to a poet in Mexico, dozens of film crews on three continents bring the intensely personal stories of an assault on families and American values.
Around a fire in the middle of the forest, two former members of the armed anti-capitalist group La Bande à Fasel meet three young activists from the Mormont ZAD, XR Rébellion and anti-racist groups active in Switzerland. During a night as blank as a page, the five characters reflect on revolt, its forms and its limits, past and present.
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
In a crime-plagued neighborhood near Miami, brutal, bare-knuckled backyard fights give young men a chance to earn money -- and self-respect.
The successes and failures of a couple determined to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside of Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester, in this inspiring documentary.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity
For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.
In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
In 2019, Nepalese mountain climber Nirmal “Nims” Purja set out to do the unthinkable by climbing the world’s fourteen highest summits in less than seven months. (The previous record was eight years). He called the effort “Project Possible 14/7” and saw it as a way to inspire others to strive for greater heights in any pursuit. The film follows his team as they seek to defy naysayers and push the limits of human endurance.
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Echo is a youngster who can't quite decide if it's time to grow up and take on new responsibilities-or give in to her silly side and just have fun. Dolphin society is tricky, and the coral reef that Echo and his family call home depends on all of its inhabitants to keep it healthy. But Echo has a tough time resisting the many adventures the ocean has to offer.
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.