Forbidden Transit (2020)

Liminality & Communitas

After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.

The First Emperor of China

This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China’s vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.

The Colour of His Hair

Based on an unrealized film script written in 1964 for The Homosexual Law Reform Society, a British organisation that campaigned for the decriminalization of homosexual relations between men, "The Colour Of His Hair" merges drama and documentary into a meditation on queer life before and after the partial legalization of homosexuality in 1967.

Open Water

Nikki is no professional athlete. Still, she swims the English channel to raise money for a good cause.

What Remains

In 2013, self-defense groups originated in the state of Michoacán with the aim of eradicating cartels from their communities. But it was not until 2014, when in Nueva Italia, Michoacán, the self-defense groups looted and burned properties linked to drug trafficking, including the only existing cinema in the town. "Now what are we going to do if we don't have a cinema?" Asks one of the voices in the documentary.

A Daughter’s Memory

Indonesia, 1965: hundreds and even thousands of people are arrested without warrant. Some did come back, the others lost without trace. Svet, one of the survivors of the Indonesian dark history recounts the memory she had of her father, whom she believes to be responsible for the 1965 tragedy.

Antigravitation

An isolated village in the Lithuanian countryside. Seated in her house, an elderly woman recites an old folk story. Then she climbs up the tall ladder that takes her to the rooftop of the church.

Larisa

Elem Klimov's documentary ode to his wife, director Larisa Shepitko, who was killed in an auto wreck.

Keeping Track

Tribute to the workers responsible for maintaining and repairing the tracks, stations, terminals, and tunnels of the metro.

Trans in Trumpland

A transgender Iranian-American embarks on a road trip to discover the everyday realities of being trans in conservative states across the United States. As he travels through some of the country’s most anti-trans states, he uncovers the struggles and triumphs that define being trans in America today.

Magritte or the Object Lesson

The surrealist painter René Magritte questions the objective reality and emphasizes the arbitrariness of the relationship between an object, its image and its name: the evocation of mystery consists of images of familiar things gathered or transformed in such a way that they no longer conform to our ideas, whether naive or wise.

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one veteran dies by suicide in America every 80 minutes. While only 1% of Americans has served in the military, former service members account for 20% of all suicides in the U.S. Based in Canandaigua, NY and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Veterans Crisis Line receives more than 22,000 calls each month from veterans of all conflicts who are struggling or contemplating suicide. This timely documentary spotlights the traumas endured by America’s veterans, as seen through the work of the hotline’s trained responders. CRISIS HOTLINE captures extremely private moments, where the professionals, many of whom are themselves veterans or veterans’ spouses, can often interrupt the thoughts and plans of suicidal callers to steer them out of crisis.

Detainment

Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler.

Scapegoat

An aimless journey, where a trailer enters the bowels of a disappeared city, a black cat and 20 ° below zero.

Rest of Delirium

Maricarmen is a writer who lives with schizophrenia since she was seventeen years old. The film is a portrait of her live, her illness and her work.

Conquest of Light

Examines the mesmerising construction of clear crystal glass pieces created by the craftsmen of Waterford. The process from the intense heat of the furnace to glass blowing, shaping, cutting, honing, filling and finishing is all depicted in this celebration of the art of creation of Waterford Glass. Academy Award Nominee: Best Live Action Short - 1976.

The End of the Game

An intimate view of the panorama of African wildlife, giving a sense of what it is really like to be there, and in a dramatic climax makes a poignant plea for conservation. Filmed in Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania, the film takes the viewer from deep inside an anthill, to the majestic giraffes suckling their young. African storms, dung beetle ritual dances, duels for supremacy, feeding time, and playtime all end as the animals disappear one by one while the sound of a rifle shatters the existing magic of life. Winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, 1976.

Megalópolis

Exploration of the territory in a delirious time-space journey through the largest Megalopolis in America.

Filamento

The odyssey of the Mayice designers, who had to face to bring an impossible-to-manufacture piece to the Rossana Orlandi gallery, in Milan, in time to be exhibited at the Salone.

The Face of a City

The stories of four Iranian families who emigrate to Canada and the city they leave behind. As departure time approaches, social spaces become places of memory, fading into the distance.

David Gan: the Front Lines

A young David Gan joins the WWII effort, eager to serve his country. Feelings of exclusion as a Chinese-American disappear in the Army. After experiencing the loss of so many fallen comrades, David dedicates his life to those who never came home.

Cityscape

From La Région Centrale (1971), Snow orchestrates new patterns of movement that exchanges the focus on landscape with the cityscape of Toronto.

Flying Stewardess

A short documentary depicting a typical day in the life of a 1940s era flying stewardess.

North by Current

Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and the subsequent arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit. Using the audio-visual approaches of essay film, first-person cinema vérité, staged actions, and decades of home movies, Madsen navigates a town steeped in opioid addiction, economic depression, and religious fervor, while using the act of filmmaking to rebuild familial bonds and reimagine justice. Posing empathy as a tool for creating a more just world, North By Current does not seek to investigate a crime, but creates a relentless portrait of an enduring pastoral family, poised to reframe and reimagine narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans embodiment, and ruralness.

No Foe Can Scare Us

The people of Samogitian village are preparing to participate in civil protection competitions. Exercises are held in the village. The most important thing is to be prepared for an nuclear attack. All instructions are carefully executed. And it does not matter at all that the exercise looks funny for bystanders. Samogitians are also happy to be together.

The Views From Sunset Hill

My debut short film - as I approached adulthood, I created this as a means of reflection towards adolescence and life. A poetic documentary about looking away from the past and being present in the beauty of life.