Mães do Brasil 2 (2023)

Filhos de João, O Admirável Mundo Novo Baiano

A panorama of Brazilian popular music from the 60s and 70s through the musical group Novos Baianos. A retrospective of the community lifestyle adopted by its members and the influence inherited from singer João Gilberto.

Baraka

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

Freedom Road: Women / Ikwewag

Shoal Lake 40 women talk about their struggles, and those of their parents and grandparents, in trying to raise their families in a hazardous state of enforced isolation. Everyone in the community has a harrowing story of a loved one falling through the ice while trying to get across the lake, with pregnant women and new mothers fearing for their babies and having no choice but to make the trek in dangerous conditions. The film shows the key role of the community’s women in demanding funding for the road from three levels of government, and how their reconnection to culture and ceremony give them the strength to keep going.

One Book at a Time

Sarah Kamya is a school counselor in New York City. She began the project Little Diverse Libraries on June 3rd and has already raised over $13,000, supported black owned bookstores, and has distributed 775 books to Little Free Libraries across all 50 states. Sarah is helping educate communities while most importantly amplifying and empowering black voices.

Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad

When a tragedy strikes the worlds most unique skate park, a dogged group of old school skaters, BMXers and street artists team up to fight for its survival.

Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya

'Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya' is a documentary exploring Catalan climbing and culture. Bringing light to a relatively unknown community based in Sydney, NSW. Viewing insights into the personal lives of individuals who partake in this thrilling sport.

Century of Smoke

Laosan, a young family man, spends all his time smoking opium. For his community, lost in the heart of the Laotian jungle, opium farming is the only way to survive. But opium is also the poison that puts men to sleep and kills their desires.

Young @ Heart

Documents the true story of the final weeks of rehearsal for the Young at Heart Chorus in Northampton, MA, and many of whom must overcome health adversities to participate. Their music goes against the stereotype of their age group. Although they have toured Europe and sang for royalty, this account focuses on preparing new songs for a concert in their hometown.

Making Dust

Making Dust is an essay film, a portrait of the demolition of Ireland's second largest Catholic Church, the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West, Dublin. Understanding this moment as a 'rupture', the film maps an essay by architectural historian Ellen Rowley on to documentation of the building's dismantling. Featuring oral interviews recorded at the site of the demolition and in a nearby hairdressers, the film invites viewers to pause and reflect on this ending alongside the community of the building. The film is informed by Ultimology, and invites its audience to think about the life cycles of buildings and materials, how we mourn, what is sacred, how we gather, what we value and issues of sustainability in architecture.

Adventure Never Ends: A Tabletop Saga

From dungeon-like basements to worldwide phenomenon, ADVENTURE NEVER ENDS: A TABLETOP SAGA explores how tabletop role-playing games have fought their way through decades of trial by fire to emerge at the height of pop culture- now shaping and bringing together millions of lives through storytelling. The film takes a behind the curtain look at an open community of fans, as well as youth programs who use tabletop role-playing games to promote socialization, team building, and empathy.

Elbert Hubbard: An American Original

This public television documentary examines the passionate life and career of Elbert Hubbard, a businessman who in 1895 established a socially progressive community of arts and crafts-style furniture-makers and other artisans in New York state. Narrated by actor Liev Schreiber, this film explores the scope of Hubbard's vision and his commune that became known for its controversial political activism as much as for its exquisite handmade goods.

Dreama Team

Dreama Team is a film about a mom and amateur runner named Dreama Walton, as she competes in America's biggest ultra-marathon: The Western States 100. As she pushes to finish the historic race in under 24 hours, she draws inspiration from painful experiences in her youth, and the positive influence of others in the present. Dreama is determined to prove to her daughter the value of doing hard things.

Whose Home on the Range?

Catron County, New Mexico -- the 'toughest county in the West' -- has been at the center of a struggle between ranchers, loggers, environmentalists, and the U.S. Forest Service over the management of federal land. The only physician in the county, concerned about the health of his community, began a process of dialogue among citizens. This is a story of how health was used as a catalyst to make peace.

Why We Cube

Speedcubing is a sport where the goal is to solve a twisty puzzle as fast as possible. Alongside this emerging sport, a community full of diverse and driven individuals is steadily growing. It is impacting the next generation of youth and teaching them valuable life skills.

The Hermits

In the midst of the chaos of México City, a group of eight bachelor millennials who call themselves ´The Hermits´, open the doors to their tiny apartments in the historic Ermita Building, in the yet-to-be gentrified neighborhood of Tacubaya, and share their life experiences in a time when precarity changes the way in which we love, feel and relate to each other. As we explore the homes of these eight neighbors, we also witness their personalities intersect in a Whatsapp chat, a virtual space that functions as a supporting system that helps them face the adversities that living alone in this city brings.

The Story of a Slough

When the Tanana River bridge was installed in Salcha, Alaska, the community worried about the levee's effects on fish wildlife. Salcha Elementary School, along with the help of Tanana Valley Watershed Association, conducted a 10-year scientific project with students to study the effects the levee had on Piledriver Slough. Tori Brannan - the filmmaker's mother - is a retired principal at Salcha Elementary and was the project's centerpiece. She shares her experiences with the project, the community, and how her daughter's involvement strengthened their relationship.

Reimagining A Buffalo Landmark

The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.

Persecution Blues: the Battle for the Tote!

In 2010, the iconic Tote Hotel – last bastion of Melbourne’s vibrant music counterculture – was forced to close by unfair laws. Filmed over 7 years, “Persecution Blues” depicts the struggle of more than 20,000 fans – and the bands who inspire them – to preserve their history and protect their future, and puts the audience on the front line of an epic-scale culture war.

This House Is Not A Home

A short documentary about gentrification and tenant activism in one Toronto neighbourhood, "This House Is Not A Home" presents a poignant and informative look into resident experiences in Parkdale.

Sinatra in Palm Springs

Palm Springs, a small desert oasis 100 miles East of Los Angeles was Sinatra's true home for 50 years. During his brief yet turbulent marriage to Ava Gardner his Palm Springs home was center stage. For the rest of his life, the Rancho Mirage compound on Frank Sinatra Drive, was the home he called "My Heaven". Palm Springs still feels the ghost of Frank Sinatra.

Cultural Preservation

'Cultural Preservation' is a short documentary film which discusses the importance of community and how the development of gentrification can become a threat to it. With this film, Hussain looks at Whitechapel Road market in East London, one of the most popular markets in London and uncovers the reason behind this popularity. Through interviews with the public, he learns about the problems the community face within itself and with the changes to the area.

Silver's Uprising

Raised in an orthodox home, Amos Dov Silver dreams of becoming Prime Minister. But when the State continues to shun him, he soon finds unexpected solace in the velvety smoke of Marijuana. Spreading his new Torah, he establishes an online community using a mobile app called "TeleGrass" that turns into the largest marketplace for drugs in Israel, raising Silver to Messiah status. Through exclusive footage of Silver, his family and his partners’ investigations, as well as secretly filmed footage of Silver in the Ukrainian prison, a polarizing portrayal of the man charged with heading a crime organization emerges. Champion of the people, or a lost soul corrupted by power?

The Tunes

A café in the north of Brussels. Days are punctuated by the songs that the customers sing at all hours, to amuse themselves, to remember or to pass the time. Those songs transform the place little by little, making the film a strange musical.

Motel

As Niagara Falls transformed from honeymoon capital of the world to Las Vegas North, corporate hotel chains and casinos cast a long shadow over the independent motels that once populated the town. The Continental survived the transition by converting its rooms into affordable housing units, becoming a home for those with few places to go. The night manager, Brian, once a freelance photographer who survived the horrors of war in Vietnam, shares his duties with his colleague Linda. Together they manage both the Continental and the individual struggles of its tenants, providing more than a roof over the heads of those who live under their supervision. Bringing a fresh focus to one of the most photographed places on Earth, director and cinematographer Jesse McCracken develops an intimate and caring portrait of the residents of this modest micro-community set against the backdrop of neon-lit tourist attractions.

Valldaura: A Quarantine Cabin

A group of young architects, confined to a forest in Barcelona during the COVID crisis, explore the problems generated by the ambition of wanting to be completely self-sufficient.

Oyler

A Cincinnati public school fights to break the cycle of poverty in its Urban Appalachian neighborhood, where senior Raven Gribbins aims to become the first in her troubled family to graduate and go to college. When Principal Craig Hockenberry's job is threatened, it becomes clear it's a make-or-break year for both of them.

Utopiaggia - Un rêve de liberté en Italie

Plot unavailable

back home

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.

Between Land and Sea: A Year in the Life of an Atlantic Surf Town

Against the backdrop of Ireland’s stunning west coast, this film digs deep into the day to day lives of the surf community, taking the audience beyond the bluster of the typical adrenaline fueled film to create a very real portrait of those who choose the surf lifestyle.

Micropubs - The New Local

Inspired by the original micropub craze in Kent, three entrepreneurial Londoners decide to open their very own micropub and revitalise their high streets through a love of real ale, conversation and community spirit.

Whisper to be Heard

A group of musicians who have never met get together for a week to live in a mansion to write an album, record it in a studio, and perform it at a Masquerade Ball.

The Ants and the Grasshopper

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.

Polvere in Sala

Plot unavailable