Germán Araújo (2025)

Forbidden Films

Between 1933 and 1945 roughly 1200 films were made in Germany, of which 300 were banned by the Allied forces. Today, around 40 films, called "Vorbehaltsfilme", are locked away from the public with an uncertain future. Should they be re-released, destroyed, or continue to be neglected? Verbotene Filme takes a closer look at some of these forbidden films.

Forest of Memory

The documentary tells the story of the Memory Forest, located in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of San Juan. The short film shows some of its protagonists; Margarita Camus, Diego Fiol, Alicia Ruso, Cristina De Santis and Carlos Rodríguez, who met again in the place where the idea of ​​creating this space for the memory of the detained-disappeared people in the last civil-military dictatorship was born. The piece was filmed entirely at the Faculty of Social Sciences and is the only high-resolution record of the history of the Forest and the testimony of its protagonists.

The Cleaners

A deep dive into the hidden industry of digital cleaning, which rids the Internet of unwanted violence, porn and political content.

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th

A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.

Nas Entranhas de Nicolópolis

Plot unavailable

Cuba and the Cameraman

This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.

Con amigos así

The Falklands War began on April 2, 1982, with the Argentine landing on the islands ordered by Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, and culminated with the cessation of hostilities between Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain on June 14, 1982. Through dynamic editing and the use of archival materials, the documentary considers the war as part of our recent past, but also opens up multiple questions and reflections on contemporary society and the future projection of what such a conflict generates for us Argentines.

Corporate Accountability

Images of Argentinian companies and factories in the first light of day, seen from the inside of a car, while the director reads out documents in voiceover that reveals the collusion of the same concerns in the military dictatorship’s terror.

The Red Princess

Who is Kim Yo-jong? In a context of maximum tensions between North Korea and the United States, Pierre Haski paints an unprecedented portrait of the little sister of Kim Jong-un, whose influence in Pyongyang is growing stronger day by day.

Los prohibidos

Documentary film that follows Silvana Castro, a woman who works at the National Congress Library in Argentina where the books that were forbidden during the military dictatorship are kept. After the exhibition of the books is suspended, she'll try to open it again.

Nazis in the CIA

Florian Hartung and Dirk Pohlmann have reconstructed a previously unknown dimension of the collaboration between Nazis and the CIA in the Cold War. Drawing upon recently released documents, the film exposes for the first time a perfidious, worldwide net that reaches deep into the power structures of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lending their authority to the fact-finders’ mission are high-ranking statesmen, journalists and historians.

Women's Memoirs

The Punta de Rieles prison was where most female political prisoners were incarcerated during the dictatorship in Uruguay. The way up to the building led through “the meadow” where there were animals grazing, and the prison itself was surrounded with flowers. The place seemed eminently liveable, almost comfortable, and at first sight there was no sign of the silent struggle going on behind those walls. This documentary is an attempt to reconstruct life at the prison through the testimony of some of the hundreds of women who were there and who resisted the military regime's attempts to grind them down and destroy them.

Susana y el sexo

The story of iconic Spanish artist Susana Estrada's struggle against censorship and sexual repression during the turbulent years following the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

Cover Your Ears

When does art become obscenity? Cover Your Ears takes a close look at this question through the lens of the past 100 years of music and the ever-evolving discussion of legal and moral lines in the industry

El Pepe: A Supreme Life

A documentary on the life of Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter José Mujica.

The Pearl Button

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

Our House in Cuba

There was a time in Argentina, not so long ago, when the army wasn't only one, official, but many and made up by civilians. In those times of courageous youths determined to fight to the death for that cause upheld around Peronism as wll as some left-wing postulates, revolutionary Cubas was a beacon of hope in the world scheme -a Montonero nation. "A House in Cuba" seeks to recover the curious adventure of a couple of Montonero parents and their small children, who were lovingly sent into exile in order for their parents to take up arms.

Citizen Boilesen

A documentary about the controversial businessman Henning Boilesen Jr. and his involvement with the military regime as one of its most enthusiastic supporters, financing it and participating in the tortures of political prisoners. Those actions later culminated in his assassination in 1971 by members of militant groups opposed to the regime.

The Silence of Others

The story of the tortuous struggle against the silence of the victims of the dictatorship imposed by General Franco after the victory of the rebel side in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1975). In a democratic country, but still ideologically divided, the survivors seek justice as they organize the so-called “Argentinian lawsuit” and denounce the legally sanctioned pact of oblivion that intends to hide the crimes they were subjects of.

The Emma Bovary Trial

On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused, the real one, is, through him, Emma Bovary, heroine with a thousand faces and a thousand desires, guilty without doubt of an unforgivable desire to live.

La Arquitectura Del Crimen

At the end of the last civil-military dictatorship, a camouflage operation took place in the Information Service, an office of the former Rosario Police Headquarters that operated as a clandestine detention center in the heart of the city. This architectural intervention, not recorded in the plans, obscures the survivors' accounts and hides the traces of crimes against humanity. Drawing on images, previously unpublished archives, and survivor testimonies, the documentary explores the scars of political repression and highlights the importance of preserving memorial spaces to ensure the transmission of fundamental events in our contemporary history.

Sex and Revolution

In the early ‘70s, in Argentina, a group of homosexuals decided to confront the status quo. With testimonies from its survivors as its denouncement source, Sex and Revolution brings back the voices of those who thought in order to be recognized as political actors in a society that wasn’t prepared for them.

The Red Chapel

Two Danish comedians join the director on a trip to North Korea, where they have been allowed access under the pretext of wanting to perform a vaudeville act.

Memorándum

Plot unavailable

The Secret Life of Brian

A documentary about the making of the controversial Life of Brian and the surrounding accusations of blasphemy.

An Illustrated Story

This short documentary explores how the Ilustrada section of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper had to fight back against censorship from the military dictatorship in Brazil after Lourenço Diaféria, one of its columnists, published an article criticising the patron of the Brazilian army, Duque de Caxias.

Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S”

Spain, 1975. Franco's death opens the door to the possibility of uncensored cinema. After two years of relaxed censorship, it is abolished in 1977, and the “S” rating is created to protect viewers from films that may “offend their sensibilities.”

Montenegro: A Land Divided

Montenegro is the newest European country with a proud history, one that is being falsified for current political purposes, thus creating an alternative identity. In a nation where it possible for two brothers to claim different ethnic backgrounds despite having the same parents, everything is on the table: language, church, democracy. Can the truth set Montenegro free?

Cinema Againts Power

There was an undeclared war for nearly half a century in Bulgaria between the then government and the majority of democratic-minded filmmakers during the Communist regime. Paradoxically, most of the banned or censored out movies were made by members of the Communist Party, believers in their party's ideas and justice. The Communist Party aesthetics against the freedom to tell truth.

Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape

A documentary analyzing the furore which so-called "video nasties" caused in Britain during the 1980s.

Nostalgia for Dictatorship

Several decades after the collapse of the communist system, nostalgia for the former regime has reached unimaginable proportions in almost all former communist European countries. The documentary Nostalgia for Dictatorship does not limit itself to presenting this genuine syndrome of "longing for dictatorship", but, in parallel with the opinions and motivations of ordinary citizens living in the former communist space, it advances explanations by researchers from various fields, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, ethologists, etc., regarding the intimate motivations of such a paradoxical feeling.

Una carta de Leticia

Leticia was 17 years old when she was kidnapped from school. She had arrived in Cipolletti a year earlier from the Vicente López National School in Buenos Aires. This letter was found while searching for photos and testimonies from those days.

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood

A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.

An Olympic Family

The story of Florida gymnast Daiana Casella, who, along with her family and teacher, overcame the obstacles that Down syndrome could put in her way. In addition to her training and preparation for future competitions, Daiana works as an artistic gymnastics teacher for a large number of children with whom she maintains a very special relationship. During the making of the film, Daiana is training for the Berlin 2023 Special Olympics, an event that will conclude her athletic career at the Olympic and world levels.

Theaters of War

If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?

Uncle Saddam

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Saddam Hussein (but were afraid to ask).