Oyler (2015)

Wild Amsterdam

The city from the unique perspective of the many wild animals and plants that inhabit it. Seen through the eyes of the adventurous urban cat, Abatutu.

Teaching War

This episode from the Czech Journal series examines how a military spirit is slowly returning to our society. Attempts to renew military training or compulsory military service and in general to prepare the nation for the next big war go hand in hand with society’s fear of the Russians, the Muslims, or whatever other “enemies”. This observational flight over the machine gun nest of Czech militarism becomes a grotesque, unsettling military parade. It can be considered not only to be a message about how easily people allow themselves to be manipulated into a state of paranoia by the media, but also a warning against the possibility that extremism will become a part of the regular school curriculum.

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.

Connection | Isolation

Connection | Isolation presents eight intimate portraits of trans and post-gender individuals navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst moments of connection and isolation, these participants reveal a deepening awareness of gender, their bodies, and trans community. Created by an all trans and queer crew, this hybrid documentary film interlaces portraits with reenactments, integrating archival material documenting what so many experienced and many still do.

Mayor of Lowell

This short documentary chronicles the culture and arts of Cambodian Americans and the Lowell, MA community through the eyes of Sokhary Chau, the first Cambodian American Mayor in the United States. Chau immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old to escape the Khmer Rouge genocide. Through this unique story that showcases the best of Lowell—immigrant success, assimilation, history, and the development of the arts—we see a man born into a war-torn country who comes to America to be a first-in-the-nation leader.

Baraka

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

The Punk of Natashquan

In 1981, an unusual person arrives in Natashquan, marking the beginning of an unlikely love story between this small Quebec village and the young man they call “The Punk”. Five years later, he vanishes without a trace, forever impacting the community.

Elementary

In the Makarenko public elementary school in the Paris outskirts, children want to learn and to be cheered while teachers know they do not only teach, they also educate. With care, tenacity and efforts, children are trained to become not only responsible citizens but also human beings.

Kindergarten

One day in a kindergarten classroom at Van Horne Public School in Montreal. The teacher encourages children to turn their curiosity into questions and organizes group activities and play periods.

Lions in the Corner

In the rural mountains of Virginia, "Scarface" starts a fight club in his backyard to end gang violence. He calls it Streetbeefs.

L'école de demain

Plot unavailable

Making Dust

Making Dust is an essay film, a portrait of the demolition of Ireland's second largest Catholic Church, the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West, Dublin. Understanding this moment as a 'rupture', the film maps an essay by architectural historian Ellen Rowley on to documentation of the building's dismantling. Featuring oral interviews recorded at the site of the demolition and in a nearby hairdressers, the film invites viewers to pause and reflect on this ending alongside the community of the building. The film is informed by Ultimology, and invites its audience to think about the life cycles of buildings and materials, how we mourn, what is sacred, how we gather, what we value and issues of sustainability in architecture.

The Lost Highway

Once the main road between Toronto and Ottawa, Highway 7 is a black ribbon of failed businesses and derelict properties. Howard Gibbs's 80-year-old gas station needs new tanks or the inspectors will shut him down. He's desperate to lure his daughter back from the city to help carry on the family legacy. Next door, David and Linda, a couple who moved from the city, are set to open an upscale B&B. But what would lead them to build here, along a derelict stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway?

Temporary Identity

What does it mean to belong to a place, a country? In a south Tel Aviv elementary school, that question is addressed head-on by a fourth-grade class and their teacher. The children are asylum seekers whose families mostly do not have a legal status in Israel, yet learn, sing and play in Hebrew all the while examining their identity and sense of belonging.

Hope Ways

Amid the 2019 drought in Brazil’s Northeast, Madalena loses her mother in a tragic event that changes her life. Alone, she joins a rebellion at the Grajaú farm in Canudos, where a community rises against government neglect. A violent State response turns their hope into sorrow. Later, journalist Júlia returns to uncover the truth, hearing from people like Lúcia, a grieving mother. As Júlia investigates, hidden stories emerge: Madalena's forbidden love with rebel João and Pedro's thirst for revenge after losing his father to political violence. Their paths cross in a tale of justice, pain, and redemption. Inspired by Ariano Suassuna, famed for "A Dog’s Will", this short film is a prelude to "A Pena e a Lei", created by 9th-grade students from Escola SESI Cambona, in Maceió, Brazil. It was screened at the SESI Festival of Art and Culture in July 2023, touching audiences with its emotional and socially conscious narrative.

Cathedrals

In CATHEDRALS, filmmaker Dan Algrant embarks on a journey to reconnect with two black collaborators from a film made nearly 50 years ago. CATHEDRALS becomes a powerful exploration of the bonds that tie us together and the experiences that shape our identities. Through the lens of a creative collaboration, the film illuminates the struggles and triumphs that define life in a close-knit community, ultimately reaffirming the importance of human connection and the power of collective memory.

Four on Eleven : The Fading Glory Of Parsi Cricket

The Parsi Community has inked an incredible mark in Cricket, with a rich and storied legacy dating back to the early days of Cricket in India. Parsi Cricketers played a pioneering role in nurturing and popularising the game, producing some iconic cricketers. However, over time, the Parsi Community's influence on the sport has gradually declined, reflecting broader changes. While their contributions remain essential to the history of Indian cricket, the community's active participation on the field has diminished. But, is there still hope left?

First Case, Second Case

A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

Leftovers

A manufactured memory.

Appartement proche Paris, charme atypique

Five floors. Forty apartments. Rats, leaks and debts. In Pantin, I live in a building with a danger order. Under court order, we have to renovate it. Between Dantesque arguments, missing money and humor as a fire extinguisher, I film our collective rescue.

The Pool

Bondi Icebergs is the most photographed pool in the world. This is where generations of children have learnt to swim, where the diehard have braved the frigid waters of one hundred winters, where the young and beautiful have come to bond and bake in the hot sun. THE POOL is a stunning cinematic experience with a soundtrack that harks back to the 1960s and a cast of characters who each have a story to tell. It speaks to the enduring power of community and our collective longing to find it. No matter your background or where you’re at – everyone is equal in their swimsuits.

The Story of a Slough

When the Tanana River bridge was installed in Salcha, Alaska, the community worried about the levee's effects on fish wildlife. Salcha Elementary School, along with the help of Tanana Valley Watershed Association, conducted a 10-year scientific project with students to study the effects the levee had on Piledriver Slough. Tori Brannan - the filmmaker's mother - is a retired principal at Salcha Elementary and was the project's centerpiece. She shares her experiences with the project, the community, and how her daughter's involvement strengthened their relationship.

A, B, C... Z

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

Waiting for "Superman"

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

Pensionnats catholiques de Guyane, la blessure

Plot unavailable

We Will Speak

The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. The covid pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge of urgent radical revitalization efforts to help save the language from the brink of extinction.

Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya

'Sydney Castells: Spirit of Catalunya' is a documentary exploring Catalan climbing and culture. Bringing light to a relatively unknown community based in Sydney, NSW. Viewing insights into the personal lives of individuals who partake in this thrilling sport.

City of Outlanders

"Gunsan is a city of outlanders that has experienced waves of deterioration and revivals. Gunsan, a sparse area prior to 1910, opened doors for workers from all over Korea after it was exploited for rice harvesting during the Japanese colonial period. After liberation, the American military moved in along with large conglomerates that came to build factories, but they are now all shutting down. What remained from this history made the topography and landscape of the town. In the film, cameras float around the lonely landscape of Gunsan. A dancer from Switzerland named Anna mourns the scenes of Gunsan with sorrowful gestures, new musicians in town write a piece of music called City of Outlanders in lament

Set In Stone

The race to save the world's only dedicated Māori World War One Memorial from collapse reveals an unknown soldier's heroic story to the community he was once part of.

A Long Way to School

Plot unavailable

MOVE

This documentary explores the aftermath of a 2015 mass shooting that took place during an anti-violence community basketball tournament at the Boys and Girls Club in Rochester, New York. Members of the Community along with family members of the victims join together to speak out against the needless violence that took the lives of multiple children and young adults and injured many others.

Let the Child Be the Guide

As a young father, watching his daughter go through her life experiences, film director Alexandre Mourot discovered the Montessori approach and decided to set his camera up in a children's house (3 to 6 years of age) in the oldest Montessori school in France. Alexandre was warmly welcomed in a surprisingly calm and peaceful environment, filled with flowers, fruits and Montessori materials. He met happy children, who were free to move about, working alone or in small groups. The teacher remained very discreet. Some children were reading, others were making bread, doing division, laughing or sleeping. The children guided the film director throughout the whole school year, helping him to understand the magic of their autonomy and self-esteem - the seeds of a new society of peace and freedom, which Maria Montessori dedicated her life work to.

Acts of Reparation

Two friends, one Black and one white, journey to their Southern ancestral homes, exploring reparations' meaning. Their travels uncover opportunities that transform their bond, communities, reclaiming and reckoning with their roots.