Eu Deveria Estar Feliz (2023)

Motherland

The planet’s busiest maternity hospital is located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.

(M)Other

Being mother is the most natural thing in the world. Or so it seems. Yet the demands on women with children have rarely been as overloaded and contradictory as they are in today’s Western world. Promises of happiness are often followed by disadvantages, excessive demands and feelings of guilt. The mother has become an artificially glorified ideal, which nevertheless is often legitimized by the „nature of the woman“. We live in a time when three people could claim to be the same child’s mother: egg donors give their genes to beget children, surrogate mothers deliver babies which they give away immediately after birth, and men raise children by themselves – without a woman at their side. Hence the question arises: What makes a human being a real mother?

Waiting Time

Under the shade of a Magnolia tree, a group of pregnant women gathers weekly. Among them is Teresa, an experienced midwife who listens to them attentively. Sitting in a circle, the women reflect on the impending birth of their children and their own emerging roles as mothers.

A letter to Nikola

As a letter to her son, the filmmaker testifies her experience as a photographer aboard the Aquarius, a ship that rescued 29,523 people in the Mediterranean between 2016 and 2018.

Mater Amatisima

Given the fetishizing and normalizing character that is given to motherhood in patriarchy in order to perpetuate the social order, do we truly choose to be mothers? Why is care, of fundamental vital labor, presupposed as an especially appropriate task for women?

Tully

Marlo, a mother of three, including a newborn, is gifted a night nanny by her brother. Hesitant at first, she quickly forms a bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging nanny named Tully.

Babysitter

After a sexist joke goes viral, Cédric loses his job and embarks on a therapeutic journey to free himself from sexism and misogyny. He and his girlfriend hire a mysterious and liberated babysitter to help shake things up.

You Are Not My Mother

In a North Dublin housing estate, teenage Char's mother mysteriously goes missing. When she returns without explanation, Char resolves to uncover the truth behind her disappearance and shed light on her family's dark secrets.

A Trip Elsewhere

During the Covid-19 pandemic, four anxious strangers take a record-breaking dose of LSD, catapulting them into a shared psychedelic dream where they must find solace and redemption before they can return to the real world.

The Midwife

Claire is a midwife and has devoted her life to others. At a moment when she is preoccupied by the imminent closure of the maternity clinic where she works, her life is further turned upside down when Béatrice, her father's former mistress, turns up on the scene. Béatrice is a capricious and selfish woman, Claire's exact opposite.

A Happy Event

She drove me into a corner, then forced me to go beyond my limits. She made me confront the absolute: love, sacrifice, tenderness, abandonment. She dislocated me, transformed me. Why didn't anyone warn me? Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this?" Un heureux événement, or an intimate view of motherhood, sincere and with no taboos.

Mamífera

Lola (40) enjoys a happy life until an unforeseen pregnancy throws her plans into disarray. Resistant to motherhood and confronted by societal expectations, Lola and her boyfriend, Bruno, deal with the situation. As Lola confronts her inner fears about the repercussions of not embracing motherhood, she embarks on a quest for answers. Unexpectedly, Bruno reveals his desire to become a father, adding further tension and complexity to Lola's search for clarity about her future amidst pressure to conform to societal norms.

Odayaka

Saeko and Yukako live together in a small apartment complex in Tokyo. After the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, both live in a state of unease. Saeko, who is in a divorce, is worried that her daughter is exposed to radiation. Yukako is also afraid of radiation and tries to convince her husband to move. The two become friends after Yukako tries to save Saeko after a suicide attempt.

The Stranger in Me

A young couple in love: Rebecca (32) and her boyfriend Julian (34) are expecting their first child and are full of pleasant expectation. As Rebecca gives birth to a healthy boy their luck seems to be perfect. But instead of the unconditional motherly love she was expecting she is thrown into an emotional turmoil. Helplessness and desperation reign and her own baby is a stranger to her. With every day that passes her inability to meet the demands of motherhood become more and more apparent. Unable to admit this to anyone, not even Julian, she falls into a deep darkness - to the point that she realises she is becoming a threat to her child. Now only unconditional love can bring her back on track…

Palma

Jeanne take her daughter for the week-end in Majorque. While everything goes to rack and ruin, mother’s only concern is to photograph Kiki, the classroom mascot.

Static

Charlotte, a sleep-deprived new mother grappling with postpartum depression, begins to hear unsettling interference noises emanating from her baby monitor.

Mia

Alba, a young woman, lives with her boyfriend in a small apartment. One morning she receives terrible news along with the few month-old baby Mía, who is dropped off in her life. Upon her arrival, Alba experiences a series of insecurities and fears that will cause her into a mental breakdown. After her father is dead, Alba is forced to take care of the baby he left, even though the baby represents imbalance in her life.

Lo Invisible

When Luisa, 45, returns from a psychiatric clinic after a bout with severe postpartum depression, she enters a new confinement in her dazzling home, surrounded by family members and a brigade of servants who expect her struggles to remain invisible. Unable to continue playing the role of the perfect housewife, Luisa's only escape is to waltz elegantly into madness.

The Rye Horn

Maria is a shellfisherwoman and midwife in a small village in the Illa de Arousa in 1970s Galicia. After an unexpected event, she is forced to flee to Portugal.

Bebé

Plot unavailable

Veil of Silence

It is 1968 and Marianne is nineteen years old. She has been sent to a home for young girls, far from her family and friends. Here she meets other girls whose secrets have turned their lives upside down.

I'm Going to Santiago

This black-and-white film is a loving portrait of Santiago de Cuba and its people. It provides a view of Cuba as a picturesque country, the product of an earthy mix of black and criollo cultures. The film uses historical images which portray the end of the eighteenth century when Haitian slave owners fled with their slaves to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution.

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.

A Bunch of Amateurs

A bunch of British working class amateur filmmakers with nothing left to lose tackle one of Hollywood's greatest musicals in order to save their beloved Club. Britain’s oldest amateur filmmaking club struggles to survive, as its members grow old amid flickering memories and hardships. In the northern industrial town of Bradford, England, a handful of diehard amateur filmmakers desperately cling to their dreams, and to each other, in this warm and funny look at shared artistic folly that speaks to the delusional dreamer in us all.

Bios: Titãs

Containing exclusive material and interviews, "Bios" dives into the history of Brazilian rock band Titãs. TV host Sarah Oliveira looks back at the band's formation in a São Paulo school and their breakthrough hit "Sonífera Ilha", as well as Titãs' moments of crisis. Also included is footage of the band's performance at the SESC Pompéia music hall, some 40 years after their first concert.

Subjects of Desire

Subjects of Desire is a thought provoking film that examines the cultural shift in beauty standards towards embracing (or appropriating) Black aesthetics and features, deconstructing what we understand about race and the power behind beauty.

Sam Cooke: Crossing Over

In 1958, when Sam Cooke crossed over from gospel to popular music, he ran the risk of alienating his gospel fans by embracing "the devil's music." Instead, he set in motion a chain of events that altered the course of popular music and race relations in America.

An Oprah Special: The Presleys – Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley

In this primetime television event, Oprah Winfrey travels to Graceland to sit down with Riley Keough, Elvis Presley's first-born grandchild, in Riley's first in-depth interview since her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, died unexpectedly in 2023.

In the Realms of the Unreal

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.

Les yeux dans les Bleus

This documentary follows the French soccer team on their way to victory in the 1998 World Cup in France. Stéphane Meunier spent the whole time filming the players, the coach and some other important characters of this victory, giving us a very intimate and nice view of them, as if we were with them.

From Both Sides Of The Aegean: Expulsion And Exchange Of Populations, Turkey-Greece 1922-1924

Maria Iliou documents the ethnic cleansing and violent expulsion of Greeks from the Ottoman Empire. In the first compulsory "exchange of populations" in the modern world, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox and 400,000 Muslims were forcibly relocated from Turkey to Greece and Greece to Turkey respectively.

Cherry Bomb: The Documentary

Illegal Civ Cinema made a documentary about the making of Tyler's latest album, Cherry Bomb.

Blindsight

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal

Paranormal investigators Sam and Colby have hunted ghosts at the world's most iconic haunted locations. Now they set out to investigate a mysterious desert ranch famous for ghosts, UFOs, and terrifying monsters lurking in the dark.

Family Secrets: The Disappearance Of Alissa Turney

Explores the disappearance of Alissa Turney in 2001, with her sister Sarah giving unprecedented access to the continuation of her story, including a recently unearthed trove of home videos, as she re-examines her and Alissa’s childhood. Sarah makes chilling discoveries, breaking through years of manipulation to reconstruct the truth of the past and be free of her father’s influence. Sarah’s final conversation with her father is haunting and a testament to her tenacity and unending search for Alissa.

The Moviemakers: Tarantino

Since the early 1990s, Quentin Tarantino has been on a cinematic rollercoaster ride, that's never looked like slowing down, that has cemented himself as one of the worlds most influential filmmakers. Through his unique style, Tarantino carved out a place in Hollywood just for him, and even when others have tried to emulate him, his films stand-out amongst the crowd. And with one movie left before he supposedly retires, we take a look back at the ups and downs of his incredible life on film.

Pengi and Sommi

Baby Emperor Penguin Pengi and Sommi's Ultimate Challenge Begins! At 60 degrees below zero, winter has come to the South Pole, the coldest glacial region in the world. Abandoned due to its bitter coldness, the South Pole is greeted by the real natives of this place, the Emperor Penguins, who have come to welcome new lives. Through the indescribable love and care given by mom and dad, baby Emperor Penguins Pengi and Sommi awake from their egg shells. Gluttonous Pengi, the number one trouble maker in the South Pole, and cutie Sommi, who loves daddy's embrace the best, become great friends. Then one day, Sommi’s dad goes out to the sea to seek her out. Sommi left all alone, cold and starving to the brink of death, and Pengi desperately tires to help Sommi through her troubles. Could Pengi and Sommi possibly overcome numerous hardships and become beautiful full-grown Emperor Penguins?