Empire Builders (2018)

Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini

The documentary begins when the fictionalized drama ends. Sara spent three years volunteering to save refugees on the same journey that made her so famous, and was suddenly arrested in Aug. 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise with charges including “international espionage and people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Shot over three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery.

The Venerable W.

A view of the religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhist through the portrait of the Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar.

Immigrants

A fascinating, unsettling study of immigration in 1960s English cities.

A letter to Nikola

As a letter to her son, the filmmaker testifies her experience as a photographer aboard the Aquarius, a ship that rescued 29,523 people in the Mediterranean between 2016 and 2018.

Life Ahead of Her

La vie devant elle is the diary of the exile of Elaha, a 14 year old Afghan girl, who films herself with a small camera to tell her story. Through her story, the film portrays the reality of children growing up on the road, tossed from place to place to flee conflicts in the hope of finding a normal life.

#387

This is the story of a Greek physician who collects pendants and bracelets. This is the story of an Italian woman who has been fighting for 15 years to «make bodies talk.» This is the story of those who watch over the forgotten migrants.

The Caravan

We accompanied an 8 months pregnant Yuri, who migrates with her partner Mike and her son Santi with one objective, to give birth in USA

Walk The Line

More than 37,000 Chinese citizens entered the US illegally via its southern border in 2023, hoping to find a better life in America. Many more are following in their footsteps, often with young children in tow. To reach the Land of the Free, they embark on a most treacherous journey: the migrants first need to reach Ecuador, the country closest to the US that would grant Chinese passport holders visa-free entry. From there, they need to cross Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, all illegally, to reach California. In this documentary series, CNA correspondent Wei Du travels the route with the Chinese migrants, and try to understand why they've been driven to such desperation, and if the American Dream is all it's made out to be.

Refuge(e)

Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. Thousands more like them can't tell their stories.

America; I Too

Three arrested and detained undocumented immigrants must navigate the system to fight impending deportation.

Dancing with Le Pen

In France’s last presidential election, Marine Le Pen, a right-wing candidate, won over 30 per cent of the vote after an attempt to rebrand a party long associated with her controversial father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. See how three of her supporters faced similar obstacles in changing the narrative.

Stranger at the Gate

A U.S. Marine plots a terrorist attack on a small-town American mosque, but his plan takes an unexpected turn when he comes face to face with the people he sets out to kill.

Re-Births

A documentary film depicting five intimate portraits of migrants who fled their country of origin to seek refuge in France and find a space of freedom where they can fully experience their sexuality and their sexual identity: Giovanna, woman transgender of Colombian origin, Roman, Russian transgender man, Cate, Ugandan lesbian mother, Yi Chen, young Chinese gay man…

Český Alláh

Plot unavailable

L'Aventure

In the Briançonnais mountains, in France, men and women on the roads of exile find the courage to cross the passes on foot, risking their lives. Arrived at the end of a long journey, exhausted, they do not know if they could settle down somewhere to start their life over. It is this transitional time that "The Adventure" tells. Ossoul, the Sudanese poet, Mamadou, survivor of an icy night at the Col de l'Échelle, Charlotte, Mother Courage and others are gradually getting back on their feet and settling to embark on a new life. Filmed over three years, "L'Aventure" is a story of resilience, friendships and revealed emotions. The portraits are drawn and deepened until everyone can recognize themselves in the other, put themselves in their place and understand them.

Récits d'une jeunesse exilée - J'ai marché jusqu'à vous

Plot unavailable

Mosques - Behind the Veil

With the help of hidden camera, Danish TV 2 documents how a known Danish imam teaches Muslim women about Islam's violent rules of adultery.

The Wire

The inhabitants of the canyon of river Kupa, located on the border between Croatia and Slovenia, have historically been united due to their harsh living conditions, but this peaceful cohabitation between members of different cultures is threatened by the construction of iron fences to prevent the transit of refugees from Bosnia.

Devil's Chapel

After finishing building his Chapel, Lorenzo suffers a depression and is locked in it for three years. When he opens the doors he calls his children to show what he did: good and evil.

Dynamic Wisdom

Dynamic Wisdom is a housing collective that exists since 2017. It brings together 16 people from Nigeria and 4 people born in Switzerland who have pooled their energy to respond to an emergency situation: sleeping on the street.

Khakee

DCP Anant and his team get tasked with escorting an alleged terrorist to Mumbai. However, a rogue ex-police officer makes their task difficult as he tries to stop them from reaching their destination.

Final Round

Rachid is a young man who survives in Morroco boxing in clandestine fights in order to save enough money with which to pay a smuggler, and be able to cross the Strait of Gibraltar with his two friends.

PK

A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, the man's innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting go.

Wagon Master

Two young horse traders guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter rugged terrain, the cutthroat Clegg gang, hospitable Navajo, and moral challenges on the journey.

Bheed

8 hours, complete lockdown in the whole of India, movement shut and state borders sealed. Thousands of migrants without food, water and mode of transport were forced to return to their homes. A crisis that shook the whole nation, a time when borders of disparity divided the people and one man stood for humanity.

2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action

The year’s most spectacular Live Action short films.

Dharmputra

The story of two families — one Muslim and one Hindu — living together in India under British rule.

The Long Goodbye

A short about racism and Islamophobia in the UK.

Mulk

The youngest son of a Muslim family settled in Benaras gets involved in terrorist activities, leading to a bomb blast massacre. His actions have an adverse effect on the family who are left to defend themselves as people who are innocent and not anti-nationals.

Business as Usual - Der Prophet fliegt mit

Plot unavailable

American Sharia

Fast paced, action packed comedy. Tension flares in The Motor City as Officer Richardson profiles every Muslim he sees as a terrorist. He goes on an arrest frenzy, which makes the community activists, Jihad and Osama take to the streets and rally the people to stand up for their rights. The Chief of Police wants to gain the trust of the Muslim community in order to get re-elected, but Attorney Leila Rodriguez is standing in the way with a discrimination law suit against Officer Richardson and the Motor City Police Department. The Chief calls on his most unreliable detective, Mohammed and partners him with a Middle Eastern, Sharia Law fanatic, Detective Abdul. The Chief wants them to "Speak Muslim To The Muslims" which he thinks will guarantee his re-election. - Written by Omar Regan

The Kerala Story

A converted Muslim woman narrates her ordeal of how she once wanted to become a nurse but was abducted from her home and manipulated by religious vanguards and turned into an ISIS terrorist and landed in Afghanistan jail.

Nudo Mixteco

The imprint of the past is made present by the return of three migrants to a community in the upper Mixteca region of Oaxaca, where the three stories intersect.

The Old Oak

A pub landlord in a previously thriving mining community struggles to hold onto his pub. Meanwhile, tensions rise in the town when Syrian refugees are placed in the empty houses in the community.

Pure in Heart: The Life and Legacy of Lon Chaney, Jr.

A short documentary about the classic Universal Monster actor, Lon Chaney, Jr.

Bald: The Making of 'THX 1138'

The film features a conversation between Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, producer of THX 1138. They discuss Lucas' vision for the film, including his ideas about science fiction in general and in particular his concept of the "used future" which would famously feature in his film Star Wars. Intercut with this discussion is footage shot prior to the start of production of THX 1138 showing several of its actors having their heads shaved, a requirement for appearing in the film. In several cases the actors are shown being shaved in a public location. For example, Maggie McOmie is shaved outside the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, while Robert Duvall watches a sporting event as his hair is cut off. Another actor, Marshall Efron, who would later play an insane man in the film, cut off his own hair and was filmed doing so in a bathtub.

Quand tu disais, Valéry

Divided into five parts, this film traces the long strike by workers at the Caravelair caravan factory in Trigniac, near Saint-Nazaire, led by the C.G.T. and C.F.D.T. unions. Shot in 1975, the film achieved the strange feat of being produced entirely by workers' producers - 15,000 of them paid in advance for their tickets - and of being amortized, and even made profitable, by being shown outside the commercial circuit alone.

Live from Space

National Geographic and NASA are sending you into space - live! For the first time ever, board the International Space Station and take a complete orbit of Earth in real time.

Tough Guys

10 years before the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In 1979, Bill Viola and Frank Caliguri dreamed up a contest pitting barroom bigmouths against wrestlers, martial artists, boxers, bouncers and brawlers, billed as no-holds-barred new type of competitive fighting. When the fights succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, they were swept up in a chain of events that ended in the first mixed-martial arts ban in the nation. “Tough Guys” chronicles the inception of Caliguri and Viola’s first bouts and the colorful, crazy cast of fighters who made them a hit as well as the politicians who brought it all crashing down. The film brings to life a moment when the national martial arts craze was building to a crescendo as the economies of Pennsylvania steel towns were plummeting to levels of unemployment never seen, breeding desperate men looking for a chance to prove their worth and make some money in the ring.

Pressing On: The Letterpress Film

Why has letterpress printing survived? Irreplaceable knowledge of the historic craft is in danger of being lost as its caretakers age. Fascinating personalities intermix with wood, metal, and type as young printers save a traditional process in Pressing On, a 4K feature-length documentary exploring the remarkable community keeping letterpress alive.

Kolébka hokeje

Plot unavailable

The Vasulka Effect

The opening of The Vasulka Effect couldn’t be more apt: Steina Vasulka addresses her husband Woody through various TV screens. He does the same and replies. A perfect image of the relationship between the free-spirited, groundbreaking pioneers of video art. After meeting in Prague in the early 1960s, they relocated from Czechoslovakia to New York, where they later founded The Kitchen, their legendary art and performance gallery.

Looking Good

Rare workout video from the 1980s hosted by Laura Gemser, delivering her instructions to a team of toned and athletic dancers as they sweat and groove on a set drenched in abstract 80s design sensibilities.

Something Self Explanatory (15x)

An educational film about an aspect of political economy. The concepts of use value, barter value and labor as a commodity are the subjects; they are intended to introduce the process of understanding the theory of value of work and the law of values, alienation and fetish.