April Tragedy (2024)

Soup and Ideology

Confronting half of her mother’s life—her mother who had survived the Jeju April 3 Incident—the director tries to scoop out disappearing memories. A tale of family, which carries on from Dear Pyongyang, carving out the cruelty of history, and questioning the precarious existence of the nation-state.

Jeju Prayer

Focusing on Mrs. Kang Sang-hee’s life, she lost her husband in the Jeju Uprising (March 3rd, 1948). The film views the dark-side of Jeju Island, a huge grave, which is completely opposite of the other side of the island, the famous tourist attraction. It says that the tragedy has been going on about the recent Gang-jeong village situation.

Voices

In the turmoil of the Jeju 4.3 incident, Jeju Island witnessed the loss of an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 lives, with women constituting a significant yet often unrecognized proportion of the victims. This documentary illuminates the once-shrouded experiences of these women, led by a dedicated Jeju 4.3 researcher.

Memories Showers Seas

The late Kim Dong-il, a Jeju April 3 refugee in Japan, left behind over 2,000 crocheted items and pieces of clothing that preserved her memories, identity, and history. As the film traces the redistribution of her belongings, it illuminates the still-unhealed lives of various Zainichi Koreans who lived through the same era, sharing and connecting their intertwined memories.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

The story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. The documentary was inspired by the book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda which was published in 2003.

Rwanda : the silence of words

Their words had never been heard before. Co-directed by French-Rwandan musician and author Gaël Faye and director Michael Sztanke, this movie records with sensitivity and for the first time the testimonies of Prisca, Marie-Jeanne and Concessa about their lives during the genocide and after. The three Tutsi women tell the camera about their daily lives during the genocide and in the refugee camps of Murambi and Nyarushishi, where they lived a nightmare under the guard of the French soldiers of the Opération Turquoise who, under a UN mandate, where supposed to protect them. While the French army denies any rape accusation, the three women filed complaints with the French justice system in 2004 and 2012. The investigation is now at a standstill.

The Birth of Korea 2: Freedom Fighter

How did South Korea, after liberation in 1945 defend liberal democracy against leftist and communist forces? The door to that secret is now revealed.

Ghosts of Rwanda

Ghosts of Rwanda marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a documentary chronicling one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. In addition to interviews with key government officials and diplomats, this documentary offers eyewitness accounts of the genocide from those who experienced it firsthand. FRONTLINE illustrates the failures that enabled the slaughter of 800,000 people to occur unchallenged by the global community.

Circus Rwanda

Eliseé survived the Rwandan genocide as a child. Today he leads an orphan acrobat group in a country, which heavily relies on foreign aid. He cares for the orphaned children and wants them to be happy, to have some sense in their lives. Rosta Novák built a worldwide-acclaimed circus group in Prague, where he successfully rules with a firm, paternal hand, but has permanently dark under-eye circles from the workload. The majority of Rwandese think that all people in Europe are fairy rich. On the other hand, many Europeans think that it is necessary to help Africa with everything. What happens, if we merge these two worlds in a film, during the preparation of a joint circus performance? What are the true motivations of our protagonists and what does it tell us about the Africa-Europe relationship? And who actually helps whom, in the end?

The Red Filter is Withdrawn.

If you look into the entrance of one of the huge caves on the Korean island of Jeju, it looks like a camera lens. If you walk into the cave, it looks like a screen, a rectangle showing clouds and white light, just like a film. Director Kim Minjung delves into the bloody history of Jeju, where tens of thousands were killed in a massacre in 1948. The camera follows the traces in the landscape, sometimes transformed by a strident, distance-creating red light, accompanied by a commentary by avant-garde filmmaker Hollis Frampton. Film as a means to address history and its taboos.

Until the Stones Speak

There are five grandmothers, four of whom went to Jeonju Prison due to the Jeju 4.3. All of them were young people around the age of 20 at the time of the incident in 1948. The outline of the incident is formed when hearing the experiences of those who were sent to prison without trial particularly as women. The audience feels indescribable emotions by the fact that they have lived on despite what they had gone through, things that are just too much for a human being to bear.

Haewon

According to a survey by the U.S. military government in 1946, 78% of the South Korean people wanted socialism and only 14% capitalism. By appointing the pro-Japanese collaborators and the rightists, Rhee Syngman, who had not received the people's support, massacred those groups and civilians that were political stumbling blocks. In dealing with the Jeju 4.3 uprising in 1947 and the Yeosun incident in 1948 and The Korean War having broken out, massive civilian massacre became regularized.

I Married My Family's Killer

Childhood sweethearts Beatrice and Purudenci plan to wed until Beatrice becomes hunted by Purudenci's family during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The Faces We Lost

A documentary about how Rwandans use personal and family photographs to remember and commemorate the loved ones they lost in the 1994 genocide.

Shooting Dogs

Two westerners, a priest and a teacher find themselves in the middle of the Rwandan genocide and face a moral dilemna. Do they place themselves in danger and protect the refugees, or escape the country with their lives? Based on a true story.

Birds Are Singing in Kigali

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

Blood Diamond

An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.

Hotel Rwanda

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

The Constant Gardener

Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.

Shake Hands with the Devil

In 1993, Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire was sent by the United Nations to Rwanda as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Its mission, to ensure the ceasefire, is underfunded, excessively bureaucratized and made up of military units which come from dozens of countries and which each have a very different program... These are Lt Gen Dallaire's efforts to stop the madness of the Rwandan Genocide, despite the complete indifference of his superiors.

A Sunday in Kigali

In April 1994, the middle-aged Canadian journalist Bernard Valcourt is making a documentary in Kigali about AIDS. He secretly falls in love for the Tutsi waitress of his hotel Gentille, who is younger than him, in a period of violent racial conflicts. When the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda begins, Bernard does not succeed in escaping with Gentille to Canada. When the genocide finishes in July 1994, Bernard returns to the chaotic Kigali seeking out Gentille in the middle of destruction and dead bodies.

Kinyarwanda

A young Tutsi woman and a young Hutu man fall in love amid chaos; a soldier struggles to foster a greater good while absent from her family; and a priest grapples with his faith in the face of unspeakable horror.

Hallan

Set against the backdrop of the Jeju Uprising in 1948, which was sparked by an armed revolt of islanders fearing the division of Korea into North and South, the film portrays the tragic consequences of an indiscriminate punitive expedition by the South Korean government. Under the guise of an anti-communist campaign, more than 25,000 civilians were slaughtered. Through the story of a mother fiercely protecting her young daughter, the film highlights the resilience and strength of Jeju women amidst the chaos.

The Chosen: Forbidden Cave

Jin-Myung is a psychiatrist and exorcist. With his assistant, Ji-Kwang, they attempt an exorcism on Geum-Joo. She suffers from a bizarre phenomenon. They then face a powerful existence within Geum-Joo. Extreme horror arises out of her.

Trees of Peace

Four women from different backgrounds forge an unbreakable sisterhood while trapped and in hiding during the genocide in Rwanda.

Jiseul

The populace of a South Korean island rebels against police brutality. The protesters are labeled as communists, and the army is dispatched.

Rwanda

Two white Italian actors play Black Rwandans in a fact-based tale set during the Rwanda genocide.

Sunless Shadows

In an Iranian juvenile detention center, a group of adolescent girls serve their sentence for the grave crime of murdering their father, their husband or another male family member.

Megg - The Margin Who Migrate to the Center

Megg Rayara overcame obstacles that should not exist to get where she is. Get a Doctorate Degree is a very important victory not only for her, but also for the transvestite community. For the first time in Brazil, a black transvestite wins a Doctorate Degree. It is the margin that migrates to the center, taking all its history with her.

LGBTs no regime militar

In 1980, the first march of gays, lesbians and transvestites took place in Brazil in protest against the constant police operations that took place in São Paulo, which aimed to repress these groups. Based on Renan Quinalha's doctoral thesis, “Against morality and good customs: the sexual politics of the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1988)”, carried out by the Institute of International Relations, a series of four 5 minute videos about the birth of the LGBT movement during the Military Regime.

Cultivating the Seas: History and Future of the Full-Cycle Cultured Kindai Tuna

An in-depth look at the full-cycle breeding program for bluefin Kindai tuna pioneered by Kinki University’s Aqua Culture Research Institute.

Uma Garota Chamada Marina

This documentary portrays the trajectory of Brazilian singer and songwriter Marina Lima, an exponent of popular music with a career spanning over 40 years.

Hamilton's Journey - Manatees in a New Light

As a manatee, one has to be extremely unlucky to be given a name. The young Hamilton is a living example of this. 600 kilos of pure friendliness – a sea cow, or manatee, is not exactly a paragon of beauty. However, they are without doubt the friendliest giants that inhabit the crystal waters of Florida’s rivers and shores. For the first time, a team of filmmakers has managed to observe a manatee for three years. As a result, the footage astounded even the experienced researchers of the Sirenia Projects. Besides, the gorgeous images of sea birds, alligators and dolphins depict the astonishing eco-system of the Gulf Coast and Florida’s crystal clear rivers.

Scossa

100 years ago, a terrible earthquake, followed by an equally terrible tidal wave, devastated and largely destroyed Messina and Reggio Calabria.

Take Your Pills: Xanax

A cure for some and a curse for others, widely prescribed anti-anxiety medication is examined by patients and experts in this revealing documentary.

Designed to Kill

Gripping documentary-thriller series that dives into the depths of graphic realism and gives us a better understanding about what influential factors mold certain individuals into mass murderers.