Claes (2011)

Like Water Through Stone

In the Espinhaço Mountains one winter, a group of small-town Brazilian girls are experiencing the end of their youth. Impossible romances leave marks on their bodies and the surrounding landscape. Each of the friends finds her own particular way to overcome the loneliness and to live within a tangle of uncertainty.

Good Neighbours

Documentary about loneliness in the elderly.

Islands in the City

Like ghosts, the temporarily shut down cruise ships lie in the port of Hamburg. A young man comes into town and is stranded on the riverbank, waiting for a message. He watches couples strolling along in the sunset and gets himself some sweets. In a moment of collective pause, ISLANDS IN THE CITY captures a fragile romance. There is a departure in the air, the destination of which no one seems to know.

Karaoke Paradise

Evi, Finland’s most experienced karaoke hostess, wants to hug her customers’ pain away. With thousands of bars and kilometres behind her, yet again she packs her equipment and travels through the northern landscapes of Finland. Toni, the shyest guy in the world, catches everyone’s eye on the stage. Kari is searching for love and sings in his empty karaoke car repair shop. Elina can hardly walk because of Parkinson’s, but punk songs make her dance. Laura sings because talking is too painful. Karaoke Paradise is a story of how the Finns have found a unique way out of loneliness.

Symphonie Atonale

Plot unavailable

Blijven Gaan

Five seniors, the eldest is 91 years old, train together in a gym in Rotterdam to keep fit. But the body falters and their environment is getting smaller and smaller. By doing sports, the seniors support each other: origin and social status disappear. The gym fraternizes and gives the elderly unprecedented pleasure. Despite the fanatical sports, the decline is unstoppable. This documentary also shows the seniors alone at home and the confrontational fight against the body that is becoming stiffer, with the realization that that battle is always lost in the long run.

My AI Lover

Follows Yo, Siyuan and Mia, three young women who, using the mobile application Replika, have formed romantic relationships with virtual partners. This short documentary captures the richness of these bonds, from philosophical questions to intimate moments to the real sense of security and companionship afforded by these artificially intelligent lovers.

The End of the Road

In Peru, Sergio García Locatelli visits both those places where human life is fragile and personal fate is uncertain and those where death reigns, places where everything is already lost, where appeal is not possible. A walk in search of the meaning of death that is actually a celebration of life and the living.

Werner We Love You

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

The Horseman

A engaging and exotic man–nature documentary that is sure to capture audiences in many countries. Beautifully filmed by Peter Gerdehag and sensitively edited by Tell Johansson. He lives for horses, he lives with horses, he works with horses and he just about dies when he is forced to leave his horses because of a storm that turns his life upside down.

Synonymous With

A student's increasingly intimate line of questioning causes his interview with a local horror host to take a vulnerable turn.

Ofelia

At 88 years old, Ofelia reflects on her life under the attentive gaze of her grandchildren. Family, love, disputes, adventures, and tragedies. A story brimming with characters that, as a result of the passing of time, leaves Ofelia as the sole witness to recount it

The Hermits

In the midst of the chaos of México City, a group of eight bachelor millennials who call themselves ´The Hermits´, open the doors to their tiny apartments in the historic Ermita Building, in the yet-to-be gentrified neighborhood of Tacubaya, and share their life experiences in a time when precarity changes the way in which we love, feel and relate to each other. As we explore the homes of these eight neighbors, we also witness their personalities intersect in a Whatsapp chat, a virtual space that functions as a supporting system that helps them face the adversities that living alone in this city brings.

Only Day and Night

A pandemic, a time of hard lockdown, when contact with other people is severely limited. The most common means of communication are online conversations, which the director uses to talk to people who, like him, are stuck alone in their apartments.

Reila

Plot unavailable

30 (Still Single)

A short documentary exploring the loneliness that comes with being single as a millennial. Set over the course of the thirtieth year of filmmaker Cathy Woods' life. This intimate and raw film delves into what it is like to be thirty and single in a time when situationships are the norm, and the societal pressure to be in a relationship is evident.

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.

Going Alone

Every year, five to ten percent of all deceased Berliners are buried by the authorities because no relatives are found. Most of them are put into the ground by mortician Bernd Simon going alone. But sometimes companions do turn up and say goodbye in their very own way. An observational documentary about an undertaker who actually wanted to become an entertainer, a bizarre city portrait and a mirror of how we deal with death, mourning and commemoration.

The Thinnest Line

A fist-person story of the director of the documentary, who talks about the loneliness that entails living with an eating disorder and her vision now thar she is entering into adulthood.

The Mole Agent

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother's well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident—and a mole inside the home, who struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents.

Sold

A film about friendship and the occasional loneliness.

ciao Aracà

"...a charming depiction of life as I knew it with my grandparents in my own village..." Clara Caleo Green, Cinema Italia UK "The sum of the individual fates and life choices paints a picture, the validity of which extends far beyond this village." Joachim Manzin, Black Box This documentary records the thoughtful and emotional confrontation with time, change, loss and hope related by the members of a small community in the idyllic Ligurian countryside who are dealing with a rapidly changing agricultural industry, transformed by globalisation and technological advances and an increasing number of foreigners buying the empty houses in their village. Forgoing the use of music and voice over, the film lets Aracà's inhabitants tell their own stories and allows the audience to dive into the rich soundscape of the ligurian alpine countryside.

Bucolic

Danusia and her daughter Basia live far away from the modern world, in tune with the rhythm and laws of nature, among animals and the spirits of the dead. The peace and sense of security offered by their enclave come at a price - the women increasingly long for contact with other people. Bucolic is an affectionate observation of people who live in a different way. It evokes a curiosity about their world and a desire to take a closer look.

The Loneliness of the Big City Dwellers

Karate, a forty-year-old woman without a relationship, contacts ten different women via dating apps from Tinder, OkCupid or Badoo and meets some of them to escape the desert of loneliness in this big city during post-pandemic times of crisis and learns a lot about life, complex relationship structures, loneliness and herself during these very different encounters.

Ashes

A cellar. A forgotten amphora. The ashes of a woman. Her granddaughter, daughter-in-law and son characterise her, entwining their memories and experiences. They reflect about filial love, gender and isolation through her overbearing nature.

América

This sparkling, irreverent, and deeply emotional piece of creative nonfiction announces the arrival of a standout filmmaking partnership. When their father is hauled away, a colorful trio of brothers — a sibling team to rival Moe, Larry, and Curly — step up to take care of América, their grandmother, in Colima, Mexico. Rodrigo, Diego, and Bruno are stilt-walkers and acrobats and Elvis impersonators and unicycle riders — when not running the family's agriculture warehouse. With a loose, offhanded charm, Stoll and Whiteside capture the family’s natural performative streak in a way that makes even the most explosive, dramatic moments feel organic. The endearing, genuine scenes between Diego and his grandmother celebrate the possibility of multigenerational connection.

Love Me, Love My Doll

This special focuses on a group of men who have fallen in love with their life-size dolls, called "Real Dolls." For these men, their $10,000 lifelike, built-to-order creations have replaced human women. For some people, finding a partner in life can be difficult. For these men, it's almost impossible. Some years ago, a small factory in California began making an alternative partner. Each one is tailored made to suit every taste. There are now 3000 real dolls across the world providing some of those with love and companionship that real women cannot.

Arada

The story of three Turkish men. They all grew up in Switzerland and all got deported after various criminal offenses.

Flora's Life is No Picnic

Flora Schvartzman is a ninety year-old single woman who has wanted to die since the day she was born. Distanced from her family, she gets in touch with them to organize her own death. Iair, her great-nephew, is the first one to take an interest in her and her heirless apartment.

The Baudis affair, the murderous rumor

In 2002, serial killer Patrice Alègre was sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders. Gendarme Roussel, the main investigator of this case, believes that he will make him confess to other unsolved crimes in Toulouse. Two ex-prostitutes give a series of names of presumed accomplices of the killer, among them Dominique Baudis, then president of the CSA. He decides to face the case alone. Around him, it is silence: not an official support of his political family. Almost twenty years later, we return to the Baudis affair to try to understand it, with the testimonies of Pierre and Benjamin Baudis, his sons, François Hollande, Camille Pascal and the main protagonists.

Handicapped Love

Documentary about the obstacles handicapped people face when looking for love