The Knowledge of Healing (1997)

Heal

A documentary film that takes us on a scientific and spiritual journey where we discover that by changing one's perceptions, the human body can heal itself from any disease.

Brilliant Moon: Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Brilliant Moon chronicles the life of the writer, poet, and meditation master Khyentse Rinpoche, one of Tibet's most revered 20th-century Buddhist teachers. Spiritual guide to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Royal Family of Bhutan, his life and teachings were an inspiration to all who encountered him. Richard Gere and Lou Reed provide the narration for his dangerous journey out of China, the subsequent spread of his influence and the search for his reincarnation after his death.

The Shaman & Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms

Filmed in the jungles of Peru, shaman Don Jose Campos introduces the practices and benefits of Ayahuasca, the psychoactive plant brew that has been used for healing and visionary journeys by Amazonian shamans for at least a thousand years.

Povo da Floresta

Plot unavailable

Into Great Silence

An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.

The Psychedelic Experience

Experimental movie, where a man comes home and experiences LSD. His kaleidoscopic visions follow, with readings inspired by the Tibethan Book of the Dead.

Your Mind Matters

When Roger Lee slips on his front steps, he has no idea the fall will send him spiralling into the darkest chapter of his life. Injured, and drowning in despair, he hits rock bottom—until he discovers the power of his own words. Through pain, he finds purpose, turning his struggle into wisdom that inspires millions. Now, as a world-renowned speaker, he lifts others the way he once needed lifting. A raw and uplifting story of resilience, reinvention, and the unexpected ways we rise.

Free Tibet

A film about the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco in 1996.

Ho und Überall

Plot unavailable

Sicko

A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.

Von heute auf morgen

'From One Day To The Next' follows four elderly people through their everyday lives, observing how they cope with a gradual loss of autonomy.

Exit: The Right to Die

Switzerland is presently the only country in the world where suicide assistance is legal. Exit: The Right to Die profiles that nation's EXIT organization, which for over twenty years has provided volunteers who counsel and accompany the terminally-ill and severely handicapped towards a death of their choice.

Offshore: Elmer and the Swiss Bank Secrecy

While managers of Swiss banks in the USA ruefully apologize for their tax evasions practices and customer data is disclosed to the American authorities, Rudolf Elmer, former auditor at bank Julius Bär, is indicted for violating the Swiss banking secrecy law on the Cayman Islands. Rudolf Elmer: from insider to critic.

Operation T4: A Doctor Among the Nazis

A reckoning of Nazi Germany’s planned execution of its own citizens with physical and mental disabilities whom they deemed useless to their society.

Blindsight

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Bear-Like

At the far end of the Alaskan peninsula, for filmmaker Roman Droux a childhood dream comes true. He discovers together with the bear researcher David Bittner the universe of wild grizzlies. The two adventurists face bears at smelling-distance, experience the struggle for survival of a bear family and witness dramatic fighting scenes. Driven by a desire to explore the unknown the film tells a personal story of wilderness, framed in breathtaking pictures of unique creatures.

Violently in Love

Behind the closed doors of the Copenhagen-based women's shelter, the women and children are slowly recovering after having escaped domestic violence. Day by day the women are processing their traumas, building confidence and slowly understanding what it takes to break the cycle of violence.

The Congress of Penguins

The real place where the penguin congress takes place is also the most fictional place on this planet where you can stand on your own two legs. Here, even the animals can talk. This land of dreams and nightmares is called Antarctica. In this desert of ice surrounded by a stormy sea, a few dozen human beings also live. Using sophisticated instruments, they observe the worrying changes affecting our world: the hole in the ozone layer, climate change, and so on.

Genesis 2.0

A well-preserved mammoth carcass is found in the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, opening up the possibility of a world-changing “Jurassic Park” moment in genetics.

The Shelter

It is winter at an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Every night at the door of this little-known basement facility the same entry ritual takes place, resulting in confrontations which can sometimes turn violent. Those on duty at the shelter have the difficult task of “triaging the poor”: the women and children first, then the men. Although the total capacity at the shelter is 100, only 50 “chosen ones” will be admitted inside and granted a warm meal and a bed. The others know it will be a long night.

I Am Hercules

Herculane Baths, one of the oldest resorts in Europe, the place where, a few centuries ago, kings and queens were diving in the healing waters, became a maze where people get lost while looking for something better. Relu, Mitica and Gelu, three masseurs, are tour guides through the maze of an Eastern Europe garden of Eden.

Tibet: Roof of the World

Join us as we explore life on the highest mountain plateau on Earth. This beautiful and other worldly place is also one of the harshest on the planet. We follow the lives of some of the iconic creatures that call it home. From Tibetan wolves struggling to raise pups in the rugged peaks, and rare snub nosed monkeys facing family dramas on the forest slopes to chiru antelopes that travel hundreds of miles to give birth while facing death, and hardy pika who tough out the elements all year, whilst under constant attack. Discover how these extraordinary animals manage to not only survive, but also thrive on the roof of the world.

13 Summers Underwater

Parallel stories connected through an intimacy with death. The living and the dead communicate through visions, memories and reality.

My Year of Living Mindfully

Shannon Harvey was working in her dream job as a radio news journalist when, at the age of 24 she was diagnosed with a devastating auto-immune disease. Determined to find a solution, she began researching cutting-edge mind-body medicine. Is it really possible, she wonders, that a simple practice that can be done anywhere, any time, by anyone, can ease suffering and promote physical and mental healing? Synthesizing the work of leading scientists with the ways of mystics, she undertakes a year-long experiment, with herself as the subject. Will meditation revolutionize her health and well-being, or is it just another over-hyped self-help fad? This compelling account of her journey provides fascinating insights about how to be well and happy in the modern world.

Dakota 38

In the spring of 2005, Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. Now, four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to arrive at the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. This is the story of their journey - the blizzards they endure, the Native and Non-Native communities that house and feed them along the way, and the dark history they are beginning to wipe away.

Babylon 2

The first film about second-generation Swiss immigrants: A Turkish ice hockey player explains why, in Switzerland, he could only fall in love with an Italian. A young Italian woman explains why she prefers to rap in English. A hip-hop artist with Hispanic origins fights for his political rights and the director reminisces on how, despite his Arabic roots, he's been persecuted as a Jew. Babylon 2 reflects the rise of a new urban culture in Switzerland, which is instigated by the second generation of immigrants and the help of electronic media.

The Dread

The villagers of El Dorado, Argentina, shy away from doctors. Then again, they hardly need one. They have almost as many cures for ailments and illnesses as there are residents in the village. 65 year old Jorge can also cure the most dreaded ailment of them all, the much feared espanto.

Chris the Swiss

Croatia, 7th of January 1992: In the middle of the war, a young journalist's body is discovered dressed in the uniform of an international mercenary group. Twenty years later, his cousin Anja Kofmel investigates his story.

Fascinating Fasciae: The Hidden World Under Our Skin

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues, are largely unstudied parts of our anatomy. What role do they play in the organism? And could a better understanding of them help in finding a cure for back pain?

Stalin's Last Plot

January 1953: On the eve of his death Stalin finds himself yet another imaginary enemy: Jewish doctors. He organizes the most violent anti-Semitic campaign ever launched in the USSR, by fabricating the "Doctors' Plot," whereby doctors are charged with conspiring to murder the highest dignitaries of the Soviet Regime. Still unknown and untold, this conspiracy underlines the climax of a political scheme successfully masterminded by Stalin to turn the Jews into the new enemies of the people. It reveals his extreme paranoia and his compulsion to manipulate those around him. The children and friends of the main victims recount for the first time their experience and their distress related to these nightmarish events.

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.

Psychomagic: A Healing Art

Explores the therapeutic work of director Alejandro Jodorowsky, showing by means of real acts, what Psychomagic is, its principle, how it is practiced, and how it is applied in life. Jodorowsky works directly with real, suffering people who are eager to solve their problems.

Cloudy Times

Arami Ullón must return to Paraguay to make an important decision: what will happen to her sick mother, Mirna? The heartfelt gaze of the camera reveals a relationship filled with love, but also unspoken and unresolved issues. A sensitive film which examines the inner turmoil of the daughter during the final stages of her mother’s degenerative illness.

Dutti der Riese

Documentary about Swiss grocery store pioneer Gottlieb Duttweiler

Wheel of Time

Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.

Salvia Divinorum: A Western Approach

Salvia Divinorum is an often misunderstood and powerful psychedelic plant used by the Mazatec shamans in southern Mexico for centuries. This entheogen's mysteries are thoroughly explored, by Director Erin Wyche, from an American view point.

David Wants to Fly

A documentary. David Sieveking takes the advice of his idol, David Lynch and tries out Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's transcendental meditation technique.

Dépression, de l'ombre à la lumière

Plot unavailable

Gonorrhea

Diagnosis of gonorrhea should be done by clinical and laboratory investigation. The physician and patients are shown in the physician's office and examining room. The patients remove their clothing, and the physician takes samples from the end of the penis and makes thin smear slides from them. The techniques for stripping gonococci from male and female patients with chronic gonorrhea are shown in drawings and live footage. The physician is shown getting and preparing a urine sample for laboratory testing for the presence of gonococci, including using a hand-cranked centrifuge. The material is packaged to be sent away for laboratory diagnosis by gram stain and culture.