The Healing (2023)

Begrijpt u nu waarom ik huil?

The work of Leiden professor Bastiaans on dealing with the trauma of war victims attracts the attention of filmmaker Louis van Gasteren. He decides to make a film about the psychotherapeutic treatment with LSD of a former concentration camp prisoner in the clinic of Bastiaans. Patient Joop is arrested in September 1941 and begins a long hellish journey through various camps, until he is liberated by the Russians. When he returns to his wife, he has become a completely different man. Joop suffers from nightmares and is incapable of normal human contact. With two cameras, Van Gasteren records approximately six and a half hours of the first treatment that Joop undergoes with Bastiaans (four more will follow later). Special attention is paid to details: Joop's hands, the sweat on his forehead, a tear running slowly down his cheek. Van Gasteren reduces the recordings to more than an hour.

Winged Migration

This documentary follows various migratory bird species on their long journeys from their summer homes to the equator and back, covering thousands of miles and navigating by the stars. These arduous treks are crucial for survival, seeking hospitable climates and food sources. Birds face numerous challenges, including crossing oceans and evading predators, illness, and injury. Although migrations are undertaken as a community, birds disperse into family units once they reach their destinations, and every continent is affected by these migrations, hosting migratory bird species at least part of the year.

Relative

A filmmaker unearths a pervasive history of multigenerational trauma in her Italian-American family. As decades of secrets, home movies, and long-avoided conversations surface, a family once bound by tradition forges a new path forward.

Circus

We all carry hell with us. The filmmaker’s hell exists on a canvas, which he studied carefully in childhood. The mystical picture has many names: Circus, Hell, Game at the Arena. Decades later he finds the painting again. The film unravels as loose ponderings about the plight of being an artist and touches upon the filmmaker’s personal demons. Can he see the painting in a new light?

Total Trust

By exploring the relationship between the watched and the watching, our film uncovers the trauma and hope engendered by the Chinese all-surveilling state and lends a voice to those that stand in resilient defiance of such blatant abuse of power.

Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait

Told in the cinematic tradition of classic westerns, “COWBOYS - A Documentary Portrait” is a feature-length film that gives viewers the opportunity to ride alongside modern working cowboys on some of America's largest and most remote cattle ranches. The movie documents the lives of the men and women working on these "big outfit" ranches - some of which are over one million acres - and still require full crews of horseback mounted workers to tend large herds of cattle. Narrated through first-hand accounts from the cowboys themselves, the story is steeped in authenticity and explores the rewards and hardships of a celebrated but misunderstood way of life, including the challenges that lie ahead for the cowboys critical to providing the world's supply of beef. “COWBOYS” was filmed on eight of the nation’s largest cattle ranches across ten states in the American West.

American Mustang

Fueled by stunning footage, this stirring documentary considers wild horses' role in the American psyche and their dwindling numbers in today's West. In an artful blend of exquisite nature documentary and character-driven narrative, the majestic wild horses of the American West are revealed in stereoscopic 3D as never before. The wonder in a girl’s eye pulls us into the drama that unfolds on hundreds of millions of acres of public land. The battle lines have long been carved into the landscape, and the players are deeply entrenched. Yet as the subtle choreography that has evolved over thousands of years begins, we are captivated. The intricate dance between a man and a wild horse presents lessons for us all, even the battle-hardened special interest groups fighting for the place of the AMERICAN MUSTANG.

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

Le Bataillon du Pacifique

Plot unavailable

Cornish Cowboy

A documentary on horse whisperer Dan Wilson

Faces Places

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Royal Scots Regiment at Edinburgh Castle

Troops play up for the camera in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

Attila

Filmmaker Stephen Hosier takes a journey with Richard Csanyi, his childhood friend, as he investigates the life and death of his twin brother Attila, who was found dead on a rooftop in 2020.

Violently in Love

Behind the closed doors of the Copenhagen-based women's shelter, the women and children are slowly recovering after having escaped domestic violence. Day by day the women are processing their traumas, building confidence and slowly understanding what it takes to break the cycle of violence.

Sherwood Park

Reclaiming what was once stolen from him, a man journeys back to the place of his childhood nearly 80 years after his world came crashing down.

Dark Horse

The larger than life true story of how a barmaid in a poor Welsh mining village convinces some of her fellow residents to pool their resources to compete in the "sport of kings" with a racehorse they would breed and raise.

Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West

An immersive journey into the world of wild horses, Wild Beauty illuminates both the profound beauty, and desperate plight faced by the wild horses in the Western United States. Filmmaker Ashley Avis and crew go on a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth in hopes to protect them, before wild horses disappear forever.

Equus: Story of the Horse

While the earliest works of art of mankind depicted horses, the early history of the two species remains largely unknown. From the last nomadic peoples of the Altai Mountains to the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula and the Blackfoot Indians, Canadian anthropologist and filmmaker Niobe Thompson traveled the world for two years. He went to meet these communities who live in osmosis with their horses, and tried to understand the history and the nature of the very special bond between man and animal. At the same time, the work of German evolutionary biologist Martin Fischer allows, thanks to a 3D animation, to bring back to life the ancestor of the horse, whose appearance is surprisingly reminiscent of a small fox.

Such a Resounding Silence

Through this documentary, Emmanuelle Béart aims to uncover the truth about incest. The actress, accompanied by director Anastasia Mikova, breaks her silence and confronts her reality with that of others, shedding light on a taboo subject.

The Wisdom of Trauma

One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness every year. Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15-24, and kills over 800,000 people globally per year. Drug overdose kills 81,000 in the US annually. The autoimmune disorder epidemic affects 24 million people in the US alone. What is going on? The interconnected epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse are, according to Dr. Gabor Maté, normal - but not in the way you might think.

Overdose - Run for a Dream

As the carrier of a nation's hopes, there is a lot riding on Overdose. The successes of Hungary's premier racehorse have provided welcome relief from a decades-long legacy of fiscal austerity. But with Big Business cashing in on this symbol of optimism, the horse soon becomes a pawn in a game of egos and politics.

Váňa

Plot unavailable

The Last Stop

The Élan School was a for-profit, residential behavior modification program and therapeutic boarding school located deep within the woods of Maine. Delinquent teenagers who failed to comply with other treatment programs were referred to the school as a last resort. Treatment entailed harsh discipline, surveillance, degradation, and downright abuse. Years later, the patients who were institutionalized in this facility still carry the trauma they endured, with mixed opinions on the impact of their experience.

Flee

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.

Harry & Snowman

Dutch immigrant, Harry deLeyer, journeyed to the United States after World War II and developed a transformative relationship with a broken down Amish plow horse he rescued off a slaughter truck bound for the glue factory. Harry paid eighty dollars for the horse and named him Snowman. In less than two years, Harry & Snowman went on to win the triple crown of show jumping, beating the nations blue bloods and they became famous and traveled around the world together. Their chance meeting at a Pennsylvania horse auction saved them both and crafted a friendship that lasted a lifetime. Eighty-six year old Harry tells their Cinderella love story firsthand, as he continues to train on today's show jumping circuit.

Kitchen Dialogue

Mimi Yu, Nebraska's First Youth Poet Laureate, reminisces about her childhood through her poem Kitchen Dialogue, a journey from the innocence of her childhood to healing from generational trauma in her early adulthood years.

Horse of Kings, Thief of Hearts

A cinematic search for the story of the Carthusian horse. The roots, triumphs and future of this old Spanish breed.

My Depression (The Up and Down and Up of It)

Based on Elizabeth Swados’ picture book of the same name, this animated short film charts one woman's struggle with depression.

Smong

This documentary film will follow Juman and Zahrina’s journey in the process of healing from the trauma of the Aceh Tsunami, 20 years ago.

What About ME?

Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.

Unbranded

Documentary about four friends on a 3,000 mile journey across the American West on horseback.

Horse Shoeing

One of the pictures to be seen in the machine, for example, was that of a blacksmith shop in which two men were working, one shoeing a horse, the other heating iron at the forge. One would be seen to drive the nail into the shoe of the horse's hoof, to change his position and every movement needed in the work was clearly shown as if the object was in real (life). In fact, the whole routine of the two men's labor and their movements for the day was presented to the view of the observer.

Wings of Kyrgyzstan

As „wings of men“ they became the faithful companion of a great nomadic nation thousands of years ago. Today, 28 years after the Soviet occupation, the little horse is an essential part of the cultural heritage and the search for identity of the modern Kyrgyz people. Based on its own story, a so called „good brown horse“ leads through the film and offers an insight of what it could mean to be „todays wings of men“. Told by a horse’s voice and through its eyes, this short film still is a documentary, but also a poetic journey to a nomadic culture.

The Blackout Experiments

You arrive at a secret location at a precise time, prompted by a mysterious email. You must follow the instructions closely. Once inside, disturbing visions begin. Unspeakable acts befall you—often frightening, sometimes sensual, possibly painful—each stimulating your deepest fears. And when it's over, you are changed, abandoned, and left wondering what is real and what was merely a game.

Dare Remember

"It's been 25 years and there is so little I remember. I can not remember the police investigation and I can not remember the trial. I have never talked to my parents about the rape, but it is always there anyway. " Dare Remember is an exceptionally brave documentary film that put words to what has been hushed. About meeting what you prefer to forget. A movie about moving forward.

Camp 14: Total Control Zone

Shin Dong-Huyk was born on November 19, 1983 as a political prisoner in a North Korean re-education camp. He was a child of two prisoners who had been married by order of the wardens. He spent his entire childhood and youth in Camp 14, in fact a death camp. He was forced to labor since he was six years old and suffered from hunger, beatings and torture, always at the mercy of the wardens. He knew nothing about the world outside the barbed-wire fences. At the age of 23, with the help of an older prisoner, he managed to escape. For months he traveled through North Korea and China and finally to South Korea, where he encountered a world completely strange to him.

The Wolf Suit

How much can you trust your childhood memories? Director Sam Firth investigates, sweeping her parents into the experiment and on a journey into the past.

Elegy

Often called a “film poem” or a “film symphonie” Huszárik’s masterpiece consists of montages of horses from the dawn of time to the modern times from cave paintings to horse races. (MUBI)

Atlan

In Turkmen language, Atlan means "mount a horse and depart". Horse is the most important element in the life of Iranian Turkmen. That's why courses are some of the most significant social events in their land, Turkmen Sahara. Turkmen Sahara is a region in north eastern Iran and is homeland to Iranian Turkmen. Ali is a Turkman with his life, like many of his peers', intertwined with courses. Now his wedding depends on his success in courses. This documentary film is about Iranian horses.

Chuckwagon

Focusing on the sport of chuckwagon racing at the Calgary Stampede, captured through a mix of aerial, POV, and ringside footage, the film is ahead of its time in the way it captures adrenaline-pumping action. This short documentary offers a ringside view of the chuckwagon race, star attraction of the world-famous Calgary Stampede. Once ponderous Percheron and Clydesdale draught thundered around the course. Now they are racers, and it takes a firm hand to guide such horsepower.