Lula (2024)

Stories Our Cinema Did (Not) Tell

Filled with raunchy laughs, this documentary compiles outrageous scenes from sex-comedies that shaped Brazil's "pornochanchada" boom of the 1970s.

O Presidente Improvável

Plot unavailable

Letter Beyond the Walls

Letter Beyond the Walls reconstructs the trajectory of HIV and AIDS with a focus on Brazil, through interviews with doctors, activists, patients and other actors, in addition to extensive archival material. From the initial panic to awareness campaigns, passing through the stigma imposed on people living with HIV, the documentary shows how society faced this epidemic in its deadliest phase over more than two decades. With this historical approach as its base, the film looks at the way HIV is viewed in today's society, revealing a picture of persistent misinformation and prejudice, which especially affects Brazil’s most historically vulnerable populations.

Secret Friend

In 2019, the leakage of messages exchanged by authorities in Brazil undermines the credibility of Operation Lava Jato. A group of journalists follows the unfolding of the case, in a sequence of crises that puts Brazilian democracy at risk.

Maranhão 66

A report on Sarney's inauguration as the governor of the Maranhão state. His promises are heard alongside images of the grim reality.

Flux014: os rolês da quebrada

A city that has been living for two years with the law that prohibits "clandestine parties". A youth who, when reunited, risks receiving a police raid on their doorstep, in the street, in the park or in the square. Spatial segregation, denial of the right to the city and public space for the leisure of the poor, black and peripheral. Willingness to make art, create music, lyrics, poetry, beats, hits and spread culture in this repressive scenario.

Um Documentário Brasileiro

Plot unavailable

The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros

This documentary tells of the extraordinary rise of Jair Bolsonaro, from relative obscurity to the ultimate seat of South American power. Told through intimate interviews with some of those closest to him including his eldest son Flávio, former government ministers, as well as his opponents, explore Bolsonaro’s brilliant yet ruthless journey to the presidency, with high-stakes drama, guns and God.

Political Bodies

At a time when the far right is ascending to power around the world, the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections saw a surprising and unprecedented record of LGBT candidates. This film follows four young queer politicians during their electoral campaigns and reveals their struggle to affirm their rights to exist and be heard.

Falácias

Plot unavailable

Mars One

The Martins family are optimistic dreamers, quietly leading their lives in the margins of a major Brazilian city following the disappointing inauguration of a far-right extremist president. A lower-middle-class Black family, they feel the strain of their new reality as the political dust settles. Tércia, the mother, reinterprets her world after an unexpected encounter leaves her wondering if she’s cursed. Her husband, Wellington, puts all of his hopes into the soccer career of their son, Deivinho, who reluctantly follows his father’s ambitions despite secretly aspiring to study astrophysics and colonize Mars. Meanwhile, their older daughter, Eunice, falls in love with a free-spirited young woman and ponders whether it’s time to leave home.

Medusa

By day, Mari and her friends broadcast their spiritual devotion through pastel pinks and catchy evangelical songs about purity and perfection, and by night they form a vigilante girl gang, prowling the streets in search of sinners who have deviated from the rightful path. After an attack goes wrong, leaving Mari scarred and unemployed, her views of community, religion, and her peers begin to shift.

O Banquete

An elegant dinner, which takes place in real time, brings together a group of intellectuals in the early 90s in São Paulo, Brazil: the hosts are the editor of the country's top news magazine and her husband, the company's lawyer, and the occasion is the wedding anniversary of the magazine publisher and his wife, a famous theater actress. The publisher has written an open letter to the president of the country, with serious denunciations, which will run in the upcoming issue. He risks being arrested this very evening. As tensions increase with the imminence of prison, secrets come to light revealing the conflict between the ethics sought in public life and the ethics practiced in private life.

Inácio Garapa, Um Matuto Sonhador

Plot unavailable

High Tension

Ueli Steck (Switzerland), Simone Moro (Italy) and Jon Griffith (GB) are not like 95% of the climbers on Everest: they don't use oxygen, altimeters (improperly called Sherpas), or fixed ropes. In 2013, the trio aims to repeat the arduous Western Spur. The Sherpas have the mission to equip the mountain with fixed ropes on this famous day, up to Camp 3: ropes without which customers of commercial expeditions could not climb Everest. An argument ensued, insults were hurled from both sides. The confrontation at Camp 2 degenerated: a Sherpa water bottle physically attacked the trio of Europeans. Blows and stones were thrown and threats led the trio to flee the mountain. The Réel Rock film crew, which is part of the climbing team, films this chaos without complacency.

Greyhounds of the Sea

Plot unavailable

The Alphabet of Truth: The Climate Change Deception

The Alphabet of Truth" is a documentary series consisting of 24 chapters of varying lengths. It is freely available on the internet solely for informative purposes. The series does not delve into conspiracy theories but focuses on real events. It serves as a collection of information, excerpts from documentaries, seminars, and research conducted by both Greek and international independent researchers, journalists, YouTubers, and bloggers.

Adrenaline Crew 100% Illegal

Spawned from the hit Pay-per-view special “Introduction to Street Bike Insanity”, Kenny Kelley’s fearless Adrenalin Crew is here on DVD with a barrage of motorcycle and car stunts, pranks and other offensive and illegal mayhem that will keep them in court for years! Named by Europe as “Jackass on wheels”, watch them create havoc on roads across the USA terrorizing everything in their path. The Director’s Cut features new footage like AC tattooing, new riders, girls, fireworks, fights, wrecks, angles and new illegal stunts, new footage, skits and cop interaction for your amusement! Featuring Street Bike Tommy’s front flip wreck and Gia Lynn from Rock of Love and Charm School 3.

Storm in Poland

Short documentary about the flooding that struck Poland in the spring of 1947.

Joe's Violin

A 91-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor donates his violin of 70 years to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old schoolgirl from the nation’s poorest congressional district, and unexpectedly, his own.

Spider House

Professor Alice Roberts joins entomologist Tim Cockerill in a house filled with hundreds of spiders in a one-off documentary revealing the secret life of the spider in the home.

Compostelle, le chemin de la vie

The pilgrimage to Compostela is an experience that attracts more and more people. The pilgrim is led to go beyond his limits, to confront himself and his environment. The trials are physical, but above all psychological. The director followed the journey of several pilgrims for 3 years. None of their paths are the same. Step by step a new rhythm of life sets in, offering new perceptions. The repeated contact with nature, the elements and other pilgrims puts each personality in its rightful place. The alchemy of the path operates little by little. Old clothes facing the setting sun. The old man disappears to give birth to the new man.

My Brothers and Sisters in the North

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a country with a very strong social cohesion and the unprecedented admiration of the people for their leader, which is absolutely unique and incomprehensible especially from a Western point of view. The native Korean director Sung-Hyung Cho tries to understand this by accompanying several Koreans from different backgrounds in their daily lives. The film shows the country and its people in a way, as it is rarely done in Western media, non-judgmental and respectful towards the people.

Prince: A Purple Reign

Part of BBC Four's Black Music Legends of the 1980s, this documentary explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionized the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as "1999," "Kiss," "Raspberry Beret" and "Alphabet Street." He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie "Purple Rain" in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continues to this day.

Bullshit

Her opponents gave her the “Bullshit Award” for sustaining global poverty. Time Magazine hailed her as one of the great heroes of our time – an icon for young people all over the world. She is Vandana Shiva and this is a film about globalization, genetic engineering, bio-piracy, and indigenous knowledge.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Hugo Chavez was a colourful, unpredictable folk hero who was beloved by his nation’s working class. He was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, and proved to be a tough, quixotic opponent to the power structure that wanted to depose him. When he was forcibly removed from office on 11 April 2002, two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace.

Fashion As A Social Control

A look at the ways fashion has been used to socially control women in Canada, both historically and in the 20th century.

Barrel Full of Magic: The Beethoven Story

The poignant story of Blake Caldwell, who purchased and subsequently destroyed the Beethoven film franchise in the 1990's.

The Women's Suffrage Movement In Canada

Moira Mulholland narrates the history of (European) women's rights through images, interviews, and performances focusing in on the Women's Suffrage Movement in Canada.

City Slickers: A tale of two African penguins

Fifteen years ago, a handful of African Penguins, normally found only on remote islands off the Southern African coast, stumbled across on of the Cape's most beautiful and popular tourist beaches. They swam, they saw, they conquered. And today, Boulders beach is home to more than 4,000 of these delightful, resourceful and entertaining seabirds who live side by side with their human neighbours -well, most of the time! These knee-high invaders not only share the beach, they dodge traffic, scale fences, and take over gardens, the golf course and even the occasional bedroom! For the two feathered stars, Henry and Margot, it's a tale of romance, the challenges of parenthood, separation and a penguin's worst nightmare, oil.

Rape Is A Social Disease

A presentation of the historical process of rape, followed by a more recent approach of current studies that reinforce ÒRape Reliefs own statistics.

Women Composers

Female composers' names are mentioned throughout history.

That's Sexploitation!

Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.