ENCRUZILHADAS DO SOM (2023)

Maximón: Devil or Saint

MAXIMÓN - Devil or Saint is a documentary about the controversial Maya deity, also known as San Simon or the drinking and smoking saint of Guatemala. He is a mixture of ancient Maya beliefs and Christianity. The movie concentrates on the people who surround Maximón with their strong personalities, opinions and faith. The documentary gives us a rare view into the rituals and fiestas honoring Maximón. The cult of Maximón is flourishing because he performs miracles. He is also feared and despised because he is used to cast curses that can result in death. Ultimately, Maximón transcends the duality of good and evil, reflecting the Maya cosmovision in which everything in the universe co-exists.

Marjoe

Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism". Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti

This intimate ethnographic study of Voudoun dances and rituals was shot by Maya Deren during her years in Haiti (1947-1951); she never edited the footage, so this “finished” version was made by Teiji Ito and Cherel Ito after Deren’s death.

put the goat in the goat boat

“Let’s think of nature as a big room. Nature is a room you know you’ll have to leave some day, most likely not by choice”. Heather Phillipson’s hallucinatory video put the goat in the goat boat explores endless declinations of nature—natural, naturing, finding a better nature, the nature construction, nature on loan, nature’s lack of nudity...—while revealing humanity’s ambiguous relationship to it.

A Jihad for Love

A documentary on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds.

Life in Australia: Mount Gambier

Made by the Department of Immigration to entice immigrants from Great Britain, this film shows an idyllic picture of life in the South Australian regional town of Mount Gambier in the mid 1960s.

Two Blue Balls

Short documentary about the making of Twin Peaks: The Return.

Killing America

A 38 minute documentary that investigates why antisemitism exploded in Bay Area High Schools after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. This comes after years of anti-Asian hate and anti-white hate.

Dolores guapa!

Religious-based images and traditions permeate the lives of all the people who inhabit Seville. Historically, the city's mariquitas ("sissies") have also assimilated them in their childhood and, through them, have been creating their own encounter spaces and their own codes. Nowadays, new dissident identities continue to respond to them: they participate or distance themselves, they continue what exists or transform it. This film looks at these traditions from a perspective always relegated to the margins.

Deep Ocean: The Lost World of the Pacific

The same submarine which successfully captured the world's first moving images of a giant squid in its natural habitat is used for exploring the deep sea cliffs off the coast of New Guinea. The team encounters true living fossil species one after another. Join this exciting deep sea adventure!

Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption

Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi is a play retelling the Jesus story, with Jesus as a gay man living in the 1950s in Corpus Christi, Texas. This documentary follows the troupe, playwright, and audience around the world on a five-year journey of Terrence McNally’s passion play, where voices of protest and support collide on one of the central issues facing the LGBT community: religion.

The Revenants

The filmmaker travels to the mysterious land of the “poor souls.” He visits eyewitnesses in rural areas of Central Switzerland. They offer their account of mystifying experiences in connection with the afterlife, of evil deeds by people who passed away long ago in need of atonement. The film investigates the hidden signs of mountain magic and reminds us of our own myths, ghosts and primal images. It also looks for paths to self-awareness that could be revealed to us within and under layers of centuries-old Catholic cultural sediment.

We Live Here: The Midwest

Explore timely, personal stories of LGBTQI+ families who strive to build lives in their communities despite biased legislation and mounting prejudice.

My Name is Hungry Buffalo

Jan calls himself Buffalo. He loves cowboys, he’s blind, and may lose his hearing. The documentary follows his journey to America to visit the chief of the Navajo tribe, who wants to perform a ritual to help his hearing. The film is full of unpretentious humor thanks to Jan’s charisma. In the USA, he’s like the Don Quixote of the Wild West - a naive adventurer in a world that is much more ordinary than his imagination. This observational, but not standoffish, film is also an example of how the medium of film can relate to blind people by constantly showing the difference between what Jan perceives and what we actually see.

Only the Bravest: Tales of the Green Lantern Corps

Documentary talking about bravery in the context of Green Lantern, the hero, and the Green Lantern Corps.

The Police vs Grime Music - A Noisey Film

In February, Just Jam's event at The Barbican was cancelled at the last minute. It was an event that seemed to be yet another victim of the London authorities now notorious risk assessment procedure, Form 696.

Beato, el Origen del Xacobeo

Plot unavailable

Before Father Gets Back

In a darkened classroom, the white cracked walls serve as a movie screen. We are in a remote mountain village in Georgia. The light from the projector breaks the darkness: the children's first cinematic experience is about to begin. Among the kids are Iman and Eva, two Muslim girls, for whom the experience becomes a turning point and inspires them to pick up a camera and start filming their daily lives. The girls are growing up in a valley infested by radicalism, where most people live in constant fear that their relatives will sacrifice their lives in the name of God.

Now and Then - The Last Beatles Song

The story of The Beatles' last song featuring exclusive footage and commentary.

Arreda Homem Que Chegou Mulher

Documentary about terreiro women in Fortaleza who occupy the highest positions in the hierarchy, subverting the patriarchal tradition of religious communities.

Hysteria

Hysteria explores issues surrounding women's emotions and sexuality, and their social manifestations.

Where are you, Adam?

The plot of the film unfolds in the ancient monastery of Dokhiar on the west coast of Mount Athos, on the Aegean peninsula. This peninsula is given to the exclusive use of the monks of Eastern Christianity. Images of nature are woven into a virtually uninterrupted series of work and prayer, lining up in the rhythmic interrelation of man and nature. The central figure of the film was the monastery’s elder, Hegumen Gregory, whose long-term experience of spiritual nourishment rewarded him with a deep understanding of the human soul and her desire to return to the state characteristic of Adam’s human nature before the fall.

Makayla's Voice: A Letter to the World

A teen with autism unlocks a joyous world of self-expression as she shares her voice for the first time using a letter board.

Strangers

When does someone stop being a Stranger? In a world emerging from social lockdown, this documentary explores the way communication is changing. Seven participants give us their views on social interactions, before having a conversation with a Stranger. Will this change their perceptions?

A Sonorous Melody

Growing up as a Deaf individual in Indonesia, Mufi was taught to speak instead of sign. As an adult, now she carves her music career to inspire others to express themselves through sign language.

Disappear Here

The vexed question of how to live an artistic life is illustrated in DISAPPEAR HERE, the story of Australian 90's alternative group Glide and founding songwriter William Arthur - in an atmospheric, texturally rich exploration of thwarted ambition in the independent music scene of 1990's Sydney. This extraordinary artist and the shifting sands of the music industry are revisited by band members as well as Aussie music industry luminaries including Tim Rogers (You Am I), Jamie Hutchings (Bluebottle Kiss), Peter Fenton (Crow) and Jane Gazzo (ABC's Recovery and Triple J). DISAPPEAR HERE is a completely independent production which was directed, shot, edited and written by Ben deHoedt.

Andre Levesque Missionary

For the past 4 years a devout Catholic Andre Levesque has been performing dance shows inside the trains of Montreal's underground metro. Using old school pop and rock music hits as the accompaniment to his amateur dances, he devotes his performances to Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary.

I'll Never Forget the Last Time

A movie that portrays a reflection about sense of being self, to love and to be loved.

Yeonjun's "Make it Happen" Winter 2023

Choi Yeonjun prepares for his end of the year performances. He takes us along with him in his journey as he makes it all happen.

Michael Lost and Found

When a feature film is made about them seven years after their break-up, Benjie Nycum visits his ex-boyfriend Michael Glatze and finally tries to get answers about his bewildering shift from gay activist to ex-gay evangelical.

Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet

A documentary about the making of, and legacy of, the Forbidden Planet movie.

Cseh Tamás énekel

Smoky little clubs, late nights, late nights of conversation over a glass of beer and a guitar. The lyricist Géza Bereményi and the composer-performer Tamás Cseh are the creators of the most topical and accurate songs of the 70s and 80s, expressing the mood of the "30s and 40s" of that time - a mood that was their own destiny. This stunning recording from 1980 includes songs like Tangó, Álomfejtés, Szabó Kálmán tegnap este..., A 100. éjszaka, A legjobb viccek, Születtem Magyarországon, A dédapa dala, Egy bogár, Krakkói vonat, Az ócska cipő, Filmdal.

Mayor of Lowell

This short documentary chronicles the culture and arts of Cambodian Americans and the Lowell, MA community through the eyes of Sokhary Chau, the first Cambodian American Mayor in the United States. Chau immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old to escape the Khmer Rouge genocide. Through this unique story that showcases the best of Lowell—immigrant success, assimilation, history, and the development of the arts—we see a man born into a war-torn country who comes to America to be a first-in-the-nation leader.

Absoluuttinen Nollapiste: Archival footage 1992–2008

Old home videos, documentaries, music videos and gig recordings of the Finnish rock band Absoluuttinen Nollapiste.

Smoke Signals

"Smoke Signals" follows the volunteers at High Point Lookout, one of the last remaining fire lookout towers in California. Alternating between the daily duties of the fire lookouts, and a series of profiles on wildfires that have traced their history, "Smoke Signals" questions the role of the fire lookouts in the face of rapidly advancing technology and climate change.