Back to the light (2024)

Perfecting the Art of Longing

Cut off from his loved ones due to the strict COVID-19 lockdown at the long-term care facility where he lives, a quadriplegic rabbi is filmed by his daughter while reflecting on love, mortality and longing.

Dancing in the rain

Self-portrait of a 38-year-old mother from Abitibi, struggling with breast cancer.

Meters Away

Some members of the Al-Mawad family (of Palestinian origin) visit their relatives in the town of Kfarshuba in southern Lebanon, which is a few meters away from Palestine. This documentary portrays this journey with its narratives and family adventures.

A Happy Man

People who knew R. perceived her as a happy woman. A woman from Brno in her thirties who moved to Sweden together with her Slovak husband, psychiatrist Ivan. In their new home country, the young couple bought a house and had two children. It seemed that R.’s life would continue in a predictable way. As a distraction from the routine, she chose an unusual hobby. She created a male alter-ego and started writing novels for LGBTQ+ audiences. R. was happy but felt empty on the inside. She could only fill it by living out her true self. Things started speeding up and R. began changing. R. is now Marvin. And Marvin is a man.

Al Djanat, the Original Paradise

The death of a Burkinabé family’s patriarch and the division of his estate unearths conflict between his heirs and larger questions about inheritance, belonging and the communal customs of West Africa versus Westernized courts.

Lupulos' House

An emotional journey that takes us into one father – daughter relationship, through their struggles and dificultéis, ending in the house by the sea where they were happy together.

My Own Normal

Filmmaker Alexander Freeman who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of two, was raised by his loving and supportive parents but the one thing he has always wanted was to be in a loving relationship with a woman and to have a family of his own. When Alexander meets his life partner Orina by chance at a film screening his life changes forever for the better, especially when his daughter Maya is born. As Alexander and Orina raise Maya, have a commitment ceremony, start their lives together, and struggle with life's challenges, Alexander's parents learn to accept that Alexander can live a normal life independently and can be a great father despite their original views on the pregnancy.

The Happiest Man on Earth

A lonely 40-year-old man sits on the balcony of a Finnish apartment building. Joonas Berghäll has learned that he will die in 14 years’ time, unless he changes his way of living or attitude towards life. Joonas wants to make a film about the state of wellbeing of Finnish men, drawing from his own experiences and mirroring the society at large. The film is built around six stories. It starts with the context of school and proceeds through the contexts of military service, custody battle, burnout and substance abuse to end on the subject of premature death caused by health problems.

Ireland

Film capturing a family holiday on the North Antrim coast, with trips to the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

Bad Axe

A real-time portrait of 2020 unfolds as an Asian-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Passing Time

Lou Colpé has been filming her grandparents since she was 15. In the process of this intense relationship, she notices some disconcerting signs in her grandmother: Alzheimer’s is slowing her down. A new film begins, a tougher one: the story of a couple that must face a tremendous challenge. Struggling against the tide of oblivion, the task of filmmaking becomes the ultimate act of resistance. Trying to retain the last images of her grandparents, an intimate conversation begins and echoes through the songs that play on the radio, conjuring lost stories and memories.

Two Sisters

Violeta and Vyollca Dukay live in the south of Kosovo, close to the border with Albania. Faced with a very high unemployment in their country since the end of the war, they became deminers. They’ve been going to the minefields every day for six years now. The unique and very strong relationship that exists between the two sisters helps them to overcome their fear and to keep hoping in spite of the precariousness of their situation and the risks they run each day to earn their living.

Small Talk

In the table that symbolizes the value of traditional women, a woman who wants to break free from her family must face her daughter.

Grandma's

An observation of a Grandma's life. Every day, Grandma greets a wide range of characters, most of them typically in need of something. Her family uses her house as a magnet, visiting practically every day. Just like her home itself, she has always been there for her family.

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.

The Story and Forgiveness of José and Maria

After 50 years, José and Maria break off their marriage for good and agree to tell their grandson, for the first time, about the reasons that led them to this decision. A story about love, pain and forgiveness.

Broadstairs and Margate Items

The Thanet coast featuring boat rides, horses and family outings.

A Day on the Broads

With their gramophone perched on the back of their launch, the family set off for a day of rest and relaxation on the Broads and Suffolk coast.

Like It Is

This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.

Ripple

Rae Ripple, a welder from the outskirts of West Texas transforms neglected metal into works of art and in the process finds healing from her traumatic past.

Ca Nostra

Plot unavailable

Trip to Ucacha

A documentary video-essay that reflects on the feeling of belonging to a territory and its people.

Gay Chorus Deep South

In response to a wave of discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws and the divisive 2016 election, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus embarks on a tour of the American Deep South.

Arctic Tale

Arctic Tale is a 2007 documentary film from the National Geographic Society about the life cycle of a walrus and her calf, and a polar bear and her cubs, in a similar vein to the 2005 hit production March of the Penguins, also from National Geographic.

To Be and to Have

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

Goodbye, Hunter

For the Frigons, hunting is a family affair that forges and solidifies the bonds between generations. For many autumns, Louis-Henri has been tracking moose alongside Sasha, his grandson. On the other hand, at the dawn of his 81st birthday, old age reminds him that his career as a hunter is behind him. This year, Louis-Henri will not go hunting and Sasha will go without him for the first time. Goodbye, Hunter offers an intimate look at the moment of the passing of a long family tradition.

Quand la Seine débordera

Plot unavailable

Cambalhota

A girl mixes fiction with reality while writing a letter to her grandmother.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

During the pandemic, living under an extreme right-wing government, filmmakers Bel Bechara and Sandro Serpa receive the news that would change their lives: there was a baby to be adopted.

Animal Love

In conurbations where hundreds of thousands live alongside one another, in the era of a highly technological society, in which communication has never played such a significant role, man has become lonely. Disappointed by his fellow human beings, he turns to animals. Dogs and other domestic animals serve him as companions, life partners, cuddly objects and bedfellows.

Innocence Unprotected

A documentary about the famous athlete and movie enthusiast who made Serbia's first sound film, Innocence Unprotected. The Nazi occupation of Belgrade prevented the film from gaining wider acclaim. Director Makavejev intersperses clips of the original film with interviews of surviving cast and crew members, as well as newsreel and archival footage.