Raise The Umbrellas (2016)

Meeting Snowden

Moscow, Russia, December 2016. Edward Snowden, Larry Lessig and Birgitta Jónsdóttir meet for the first time in a secret place. Apparently, Russia is interfering in the US presidential elections while it mourns the death of its ambassador to Turkey. Snowden carefully chooses his interviews, so nobody really knows something about him. As the world prepares for Christmas, they gather to discuss the only issue that matters, their common struggle: how to save democracy.

If We Burn

Hundreds of thousands − perhaps even millions − of protestors have taken to the streets of Hong Kong since early June. Sparked initially by the government's plans for a controversial extradition bill, the movement has now transformed into a broader push for greater freedoms and democracy, with anger over police brutality fuelling a cycle of violence. The protests are Hong Kong's biggest challenge to Beijing since its return to China in 1997. If We Burn looks at the movement through the eyes of Hong Kongers whose fates, like their city's future, now hang in the balance.

Do Not Split

The story of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, told through a series of demonstrations by local protestors that escalate into conflict when highly armed police appear on the scene.

The Corporation

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Jeunes, Militants et Sarkozystes

Plot unavailable

Stonebreakers

In a year of uprisings and political unrest, Stonebreakers documents the fights around monuments in the United States and explores the shifting landscapes of the nation's historical memory.

The Prostitutes of Lyon Speak

Documentary about the Lyon sex workers who occupied the church of St. Nizier on June 3, 1975.

Freedom Downtime

A feature-length documentary about the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world.

Be Water

In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.

Steal This Film

Steal This Film focuses on Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm, Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, prominent members of the Swedish filesharing community. The makers claimed that 'Old Media' documentary crews couldn't understand the internet culture that filesharers took part in, and that they saw peer-to-peer organization as a threat to their livelihoods. Because of that, they were determined to accurately represent the filesharing community from within. Notably, Steal This Film was released and distributed, free of charge, through the same filesharing networks that the film documents.

Umbrellas Move

“Umbrellas Move” is a long feature documentary capturing scenes from Hong Kong’s city-wide protest, the occupy movement in 2014. This documentary witnessed a critical page of Hong Kong after transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from Britain to China. Around 1200 thousand people have involved in this longest occupation in the history of Hong Kong in 2014. 79 days of occupation, Hong Kong people are fighting for their rights to vote under a fair election in order to be against the political controls from China.

Schade, daß Beton nicht brennt

A documentary about the clashes between squatters and the police in Berlin in early 1981. Despite the absence of commentary, this is an openly partisan film that aims less for political analysis than for an up-close description of the situation and mood.

Tugging Diary

Tugging Diary documents a footbridge over a year between August 2019 to January 2021. Due to social unrest and the uncertainty of various immediate happenings, both the internet and physical spaces act as critical communication platforms of its own during this period. As such, information can be circulated in the community more widely and rapidly outside of the existing mainstream media. As time goes by, these materials are continuously altered, some were renewed, while the others were removed, covered with paint, or overlaid by other information.

Antonio García-Trevijano: Transición e historia política de España en primera persona

Spanish jurist and republican thinker Antonio García-Trevijano (1927-2018) expounds his political thought and reflects on the recent political history of Spain.

The Yes Men Are Revolting

Activist-pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano pull the rug out from under mega-corporations, government officials and a complacent media in a series of outrageous stunts designed to draw awareness to the issue of climate change.

Revolution of Our Times

Throughout Hong Kong’s history, Hongkongers have fought for freedom and democracy but have yet to succeed. In 2019, a controversial extradition bill was introduced that would allow Hongkongers to be tried in mainland China. This decision spurred massive protests, riots, and resistance against heavy-handed Chinese rule over the City-State. Award-winning director Kiwi Chow documents the events to tell the story of the movement, with both a macro view of its historical context and footage and interviews from protestors on the front lines.

The Yes Men

A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.

The Green Army

Andy is a loyalist of the Ka'bah Youth Movement (GPK) which is one of the 'civil militias' under the United Development Party (PPP) based in Yogyakarta. In 2019, Andy decided to support Prabowo Subianto to become the President of Indonesia. During the unstable political tension in Indonesia, Andy was required to maintain the condition in Yogyakarta.

Poverty, Inc.

Poverty, Inc. explores the hidden side of doing good. From disaster relief to TOMs Shoes, from adoptions to agricultural subsidies, Poverty, Inc. follows the butterfly effect of our most well-intentioned efforts and pulls back the curtain on the poverty industrial complex - the multi-billion dollar market of NGOs, multilateral agencies, and for-profit aid contractors. Are we catalyzing development or are we propagating a system in which the poor stay poor while the rich get hipper?

We Have Boots

The Umbrella Movement of 2014, also known as the Occupy Movement, paved the way for Hong Kong’s current upheavals, but unfolded in significantly different ways. This creative documentary focuses on the intellectual, political, and discursive underpinnings of the social and political actions of 2014, before fast-forwarding to 2019. A range of thoughtful and engaged intellectuals, students, scholars, activists, and artists including Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man, Ray Wong, and Agnes Chow (many of whom are facing imprisonment for their democratic activism) articulate a range of philosophies, viewpoints and emotions, set against Hong Kong’s spectacular urban background of skyscrapers, night lights, and street-occupying mass movements.

Hong Kong Mixtape

Political engagement spawned the wildest of wonderlands for Hong Kong’s creativity – but as a new law annihilates freedom of expression overnight, underground artists and creatives find themselves targets, and their works disappeared. Together we race to preserve the creative uprising amid China’s crackdown.

Two Pandemics

Seven Asian-Americans discuss their experiences with racism and the spike in Asian-directed hate crimes as a result of COVID-19.

Blue Island

Although the Chinese government promised that Hong Kong would retain separate status until 2047, in recent years the Chinese state has consolidated its power over the metropolis. Large-scale protests by the populace have been brutally suppressed. This mix of documentary, fiction, and visions of the future reveals the current state of desolate depression among the people of Hong Kong. “A desperate attempt to capture the final moments of a sinking island”, as maker Chan Tze-woon himself puts it.

Occupation

Students seeking greater control over the hiring of faculty occupy the offices of the Political Science Department at McGill University. The film crew lives with the students and follows their action through confusion, argument, dissent, and negotiations with faculty. The result is an intimate view of a student political action.

TAEYEON's Frozen Journey

Rising beyond K-pop to become Asia's ultimate diva, TAEYEON explores the World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland. Step into the enchanting world and engage in the stories with TAEYEON, who has drawn endless inspiration from Disney since childhood and now captivates audiences as a dream-weaving singer. From lovable characters to scenic winter landscapes, every aspect feels like a fairy tale come to life. Get immersed in the captivating World of Frozen and hear TAEYEON's behind-the-scenes tales of this beloved story.

Catalonia: Spain on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

A serious crisis has shaken Spain since the referendum on self-determination and the proclamation of the independence of Catalonia by the government of Carles Puigdemont, bold actions firmly fought by the Spanish government by applying the constitutional article that allows it to place a region under guardianship. While Spain is on the verge of implosion, Europe is holding its breath.

Anarchism in America

A colorful and provocative survey of anarchism in America, the film attempts to dispel popular misconceptions and trace the historical development of the movement. The film explores the movement both as a native American philosophy stemming from 19th century American traditions of individualism, and as a foreign ideology brought to America by immigrants. The film features rare archival footage and interviews with significant personalities in anarchist history including Murray Boochkin and Karl Hess, and also live performance footage of the Dead Kennedys.

Pussy Riot and other sins

"Puss Riot and other sins" - The Putin system is taking on more and more features of the Soviet system. The big fear and paranoia returns.

Berkeley in the Sixties

A documentary about militant student political activity at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s.

Oproerkraaiers

Plot unavailable

Frantz Fanon, trajectoire d'un révolté

Frantz Fanon alone embodies all the issues of French colonial history. Martinican resistance fighter, he enlisted, like millions of colonial soldiers, in the Free Army out of loyalty to France and the idea of freedom that it embodies for him. A writer, he participated in the bubbling life of Saint-Germain with Césaire, Senghor and Sartre, debating tirelessly on the destiny of colonized peoples. As a doctor, he revolutionized the practice of psychiatry, seeking in the relations of domination of colonial societies the foundations of the pathologies of his patients in Blida. Activist, he brings together through his action and his history of him, the anger of peoples crushed by centuries of colonial oppression. But beyond this exceptional journey which makes sensitive the permanence of French colonialism in the Lesser Antilles at the gates of the Algerian desert, he leaves an incomparable body of work which has made him today one of the most studied French authors across the Atlantic.

The Reverend

Winner of the DOC NYC Audience Award, Director Nick Canfield’s first film follows gospel-rock icon and activist Reverend Vince Anderson. After entering seminary, Vince dropped out to follow his second calling - music. With his band The Love Choir, he has played a now-legendary weekly show for over twenty years. Reconnecting with his faith and using his intense soulful music, he began to preach a type of spirituality that is open to all, meets people where they are, and moves everyone that sees him play. Reverend Vince is also deeply involved in social justice, working with other faith leaders around the country to build inclusive communities. Featuring Questlove and an ensemble of eccentric musicians, The Reverend is a rocking concert film as well as an intimate portrait of Reverend Vince’s inspiring personal and spiritual life.

The State Against Mandela and the Others

South Africa, July 11th, 1963. Several members of the African National Congress, an organization declared illegal, are arrested in Rivonia, a country house near Johannesburg. The detainees, along with Nelson Mandela, imprisoned since 1962, are charged with serious crimes for their radical activism against the apartheid regime.

Home and a Distant Archive

A poetic, experimental portrait of four Hong Kong women in London working to digitise records of the handover agreement between the United Kingdom and China. Impressionistic and precise, personal and expansive, Cheung's elegant, eloquent work decodes history and how politics are enacted.

Age of Valiant

At the forefront of most of Hong Kong's demonstrations, 'frontliners' (aka 'the valiant', yung mo in Cantonese) are the black-clad, masked, often armed youth willing to use violence against the HK government and its heavily-armed police force. Willis Ho's remarkably revealing doc approaches from the inside, giving them voices and offering understanding, not judgment.

Free Chol Soo Lee

On June 3, 1973, a man was murdered in a busy intersection of San Francisco’s Chinatown as part of an ongoing gang war. Chol Soo Lee, a 20-year-old Korean immigrant who had previous run-ins with the law, was arrested and convicted based on flimsy evidence and the eyewitness accounts of white tourists who couldn’t distinguish between Asian features. Sentenced to life in prison, Chol Soo Lee would spend years fighting to survive behind bars before journalist K.W. Lee took an interest in his case. The intrepid reporter’s investigation would galvanize a first-of-its-kind pan-Asian American grassroots movement to fight for Chol Soo Lee’s freedom, ultimately inspiring a new generation of social justice activists.

Nothing Compares

Since the beginning of her career, Sinéad O’Connor has used her powerful voice to challenge the narratives she was surrounded by while growing up in predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland. Despite her agency, depth and perspective, O’Connor’s unflinching refusal to conform means that she has often been patronized and unfairly dismissed as an attention-seeking pop star.

Letter from Masanjia

Damascus, Oregon, United States. Julie Keith finds a baffling message hidden in a pack of decorative items, a desperate plea for help, written by someone imprisoned in a Chinese labor camp called Masanjia…

YP1967

Everyone has their secrets. Everyone has the past no one’s heard about. But what makes an entire generation sit in stunned silence with unmentionable hesitation to talk about their past? Even the past was 50 years ago. Five decades after the Hong Kong leftist riots, six ex-young prisoners speak out for the first time about their personal and unmentionable experience. Documentary film YP1967 is about their love and hate towards their country, their honour and dishonour as a convicted criminal, their condonation and condemnation of the parties involved, and their truth-seeking and reconciliation with the past.

Sa Ngalan ng Tubo

A documentary on the struggle of millworkers, farmworkers, and people of Hacienda Luisita, Philippines.

Not One Less

The documentary “Not One Less” records the clash in Hong Kong Island on 31st August, 2019, and the assembly on Mid-Autumn festival night supporting protestors in custody. The protests initiated by the "Extradition Bill" has continued for more than 100 days. In this period, over 1000 citizens were arrested, a number of people committed suicide, and there are rumors that some protestors are missing. In the clash scene, protestors strive to protect their comrades from being isolated. After the clash, they still care about their comrades in custody. On the mid-autumn festival night, they sang loudly outside the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, to let their comrades know that they were not abandoned.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

Hong Kong Moments

As pro-democracy activists and armed police battle in the streets of Hong Kong, ordinary citizens are choosing sides. Historically an outlier of both western and Chinese power, Hong Kong wields its own economic force, affording the city and its people a spirit of independence that has now erupted into clouds of tear gas. Filmmaker Bing Zhou uses a nimble camera to follow a group of protagonists—two opposing political candidates, a tea shop owner, a cab driver, a police officer, a paramedic—on two separate days of conflict. On September 21, 2019, protestors from three districts join forces, resulting in unprecedented violence. Just 10 days later on October 1, the National Day of the People’s Republic of China, previously undecided onlookers show their stripes. Thoughts transform into action in this demonstration of how mercurial and personal Hong Kong’s politics have become.

Her Anti-WTO

The 2005 World Trade Conference in Hong Kong was the starting point of the "direct action" that emerged from the Hong Kong protest movement. It was also the first time the Hong Kong police used a large number of tear-gas and beanbag rounds on the street after the 1967 riots. Outside the conference, there were many Hong Kong protestors. Why and how did they get involved in this movement centered on Korean farmers?

Night Is Not Eternal

For seven years, award-winning Chinese-American filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows Rosa María Payá, daughter of the five time Nobel Peace Prize nominated activist, Oswaldo Payá, in Rosa's fight for democratic change in Cuba. Rosa's narrative is interwoven with Wang's poignant reflections on her Chinese upbringing and her observations of eroding democratic norms in the U.S., revealing unsettling similarities to the authoritarian system she left behind.