Chimera (2024)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

A Spring Tango

A sound frame from the silent life

Heavy Metal

The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.

Bambi Meets Godzilla

Bambi is nibbling the grass, unaware of the upcoming encounter with Godzilla. Who will win when they finally meet? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

Trans

Trans is a 1982 Venezuelan documentary short film that offers an intimate look into the lives of a group of trans women and drag performers in Caracas, exploring their experiences in a society marked by transphobia and homophobia. Through interviews and performances, the documentary highlights the resilience and dignity of these women in the face of widespread discrimination and violence. Premiering at the Venezuelan National Cinematheque in 1982, Trans is considered a pioneering work in the representation of the trans community in Latin American cinema.

Renaissance

To find Ilona and unlock the secrets of her disappearance, Karas must plunge deep into the parallel worlds of corporate espionage, organized crime and genetic research - where the truth imprisons whoever finds it first and miracles can be bought but at a great price.

Queer Japan

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan.

Quantum Cowboys

Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories, with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons!

Silent

A duo of street performers learns how sound and picture work together to create amazing cinema experiences.

Man with a Movie Camera

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

Echo

A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?

Little Red Riding Hood

A classic Soviet, black-and-white, animated film by the sisters Brumberg, "grandmothers of the Russian animation". Its plot differs slightly from the original fairy tale.

Fire and Ice

In this animated tale, a tiny village is destroyed by a surging glacier, which serves as the deadly domain for the evil Ice Lord, Nekron. The only survivor is a young warrior, Larn, who vows to avenge this act of destruction. The evil continues, however, as Nekron's palace of ice heads straight towards Fire Keep, the great fortress ruled by the good King Jarol. When Jarol's beautiful daughter, Teegra, is abducted by Nekron's sub-human ape-like creatures, Larn begins a daring search for her. What results is a tense battle between good and evil, surrounded by the mystical elements of the ancient past.

Femmenell (City of Mermaids)

A journey between the sacred and profane in which the Femminielli, an ancient non-binary Neapolitan figure, fight for their survival against the globalizing tides of modernity.

A, B, C... Z

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

The Legend in Me

Living in the shadow of Canadian sports legend Lionel Conacher (1900–1954), whose legacy spans five sports, is a daunting challenge for any relative. For great-grandchild Lionel IV, better known as Chas, that challenge extends beyond athletics into the realm of self-discovery. As a non-binary individual navigating identity in the 21st century, Chas explores both the weight of their family’s star-athlete lineage and the evolving landscape of queer identity in a documentary that bridges nostalgia with forward-looking reflection.

Vincent

Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams that annoy his mother.

The Times of Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

Serving in Secret: Love, Country, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Tracing the U.S. military's long history of discrimination against the gay community and one couple's personal journey for acceptance.

Dark Days

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

The Alphabet

A woman's dark and absurdist nightmare vision comprising a continuous recitation of the alphabet and bizarre living representations of each letter.

Flying Padre

Two days in the life of priest Father Fred Stadtmuller whose New Mexico parish is so large he can only spread goodness and light among his flock with the aid of a monoplane. The priestly pilot is seen dashing from one province to the next at the helm of his trusty Piper Club administering guidance to unruly children, sermonizing at funerals and flying a sickly child and its mother to a hospital.

The Grandmother

To escape neglect and abuse from his parents, a young boy plants some strange seeds and they grow into a grandmother.

The Extinct Suite

An animated film made from approximately 1700 laser printed photo(collage)s, manipulated by hand.

The Case of Hana & Alice

A Japanese girl struggling to fit in at her new school teams up with a reclusive neighbor to find out what happened to an upperclassman who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Steamboat Willie

Mickey Mouse, piloting a steamboat, delights his passenger, Minnie, by making musical instruments out of the menagerie on deck.

Roze Bubbel

Two mothers lovingly raised Afra. Growing up felt like a safe pink bubble to her. But this bubble burst when she discovered the obstacles her parents had to overcome to have a child. For example, one mother did not exist legally for 12 years, and 30 years later this is still the reality for multi-parent families. When Afra heard this, she became determined to tell the story of these families. This documentary shows what happens to you when you fall outside the 'standard' picture of a family. In the film we follow Afra, and her two mothers, two multi-parent families, the experts Henny Bos (professor of Sexual and Gender Diversity in Youth), Sara Coster (board member Meer dan Gewenst and child wish coach) and former D66 member of parliament Lisa van Ginneken.

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution

From the sweaty basement bars of 70s New York to the glittering peak of the global charts, how disco conquered the world - its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy.

Unicorn Boy

A wild ride of gender and self identity set to a backdrop of a freak-adelic fantasy world. Matty, a down-on-their-luck artist, is going through a break up when they are swept into an alternate unicorn dimension. After realizing that unicorns are in danger from a dark force, Matty must make the difficult journey toward enlightenment in order to save this strange new world.

Alois Nebel

A train dispatcher encounters a mute stranger who appears out of nowhere, and finds himself mysteriously involved with a murder in Poland. The end of the eighties in the twentieth century. Alois Nebel works as a dis­patcher at the small railway station in Bílý Potok, a remote village on the Czech–Polish border. He's a loner, who prefers old timetables to people, and he finds the loneliness of the station tranquil – except when the fog rolls in. Then he hallucinates, sees trains from the last hundred years pass through the station. They bring ghosts and shadows from the dark past of Central Eu­rope. Alois can’t get rid of these nightmares and eventually ends up in sanatorium. In the sanatorium, he gets to know The Mute, a man carrying an old photograph who was arrested by the police after crossing the border. No one knows why he came to Bílý Potok or who he’s looking for, but it is his past that propels Alois on his journey…

Verbotene Liebe - Queere Opfer der NS-Diktatur

Sexual minorities were oppressed, imprisoned and murdered by the Nazis. Paragraph 175 criminalized homosexual men during the Nazi era – but the Nazis also discriminated against lesbians and trans people. They should be excluded from the national community. More than 50,000 queer people have been proven to have been persecuted. The documentary highlights three poignant fates in the context of Nazi terror.

The History of the Carabiner

Through a creative blend of mixed-media and charismatic narration balancing humor, sass and historical gravity, discover the queer history of the carabiner in this latest WaterBear Original, directed by Gianna Mazzeo and made in partnership with Nikon. Follow the carabiner’s story, from its humble 1911 climbing roots (thanks, Otto "Rambo" Herzog), to empowering butch mechanics and postal workers in the 60s, becoming a potent signal of identity and attraction in the 80’s (think Tinder, but with hardware) and as a TikTok fashion sensation today.

Always Amber

Amber belongs to a queer generation which no longer wants society to dictate their identity. The teenagers proudly inhabit a spectrum of fluid identities and master their first loves and losses.

Monty Python: Before the Flying Circus

Discover how six seemingly ordinary but supremely talented men became Monty Python, sketch comedy's inspired group of lunatics who turned such unlikely sources of inspiration as Spam, dead parrots and the Inquisition into enduring punch lines. This entertaining documentary includes interviews with members of the troupe, as well as home movies, photos and rare recordings from Monty Python's early years.

Once Upon a Vilnius

Vilnius is a city of notable historical heritage and unique character currently undergoing considerable changes. Some of the life fragments our camera has recorded are no more. The film, therefore, is a testimony to that which has faded into oblivion, and a glimpse into what is to come.

Häxan

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

Valparaiso

In 1962 Joris Ivens was invited to Chile for teaching and filmmaking. Together with students he made …A Valparaíso, one of his most poetic films. Contrasting the prestigious history of the seaport with the present the film sketches a portrait of the city, built on 42 hills, with its wealth and poverty, its daily life on the streets, the stairs, the rack railways and in the bars. Although the port has lost its importance, the rich past is still present in the impoverished city. The film echoes this ambiguous situation in its dialectical poetic style, interweaving the daily life reality (of 1963) with the history of the city and changing from black and white to colour, finally leaving us with hopeful perspective for the children who are playing on the stairs and hills of this beautiful town.

Lesbians of Buenos Aires

This documentary tells the tale of Buenos Aires lesbians, focusing on three personal stories. A former militant woman who now devotes her time to feminine soccer; a young woman who is active so no girl has to go through what she went through and a lesbian mother who recounts how hostile the laws are regarding the rights of lesbian women. In spite of the difficulties their characters go through, the stories have a lot of humour, some soccer and a tour of the city.