Chasing the dragon (2021)

Archipelago

A true animated film about invented islands. About an imaginary, linguistic, political territory. About a real or dreamed country, or something in between. Archipelago is a film of drawings and speeches, that tells and dreams a place and its inhabitants, to tell and dream a little of our world and times.

Life After the Oasis

In 2008, feature documentary, The Oasis, shocked Australia with its gritty insight into the lives of homeless teens at a notorious youth refuge in inner city Sydney. An outpouring of social and political goodwill followed, with the then Prime Minister pledging to halve homelessness by 2020. A decade later, with social inequality and homelessness worse than ever, the original participants reflect on where their lives have taken them.

Woodstock

An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

Kids

In Bettina Büttner’s exquisitely lucid documentary Kinder (Kids), childhood dysfunction, loneliness, and pent-up emotion run wild at an all-boys group home in southern Germany. The children interned here include ten-year-olds Marvin and Tommy. Marvin, fiddling with a mini plastic Lego sword, explains matter-of-factly to the camera, “This is a knife. You use it to cut stomachs open.” Dennis, who is even younger, is seen in a hysteric fit, mimicking some pornographic scene. Boys will be boys, but innocence is disproportionately spare here. Choosing not to dwell on the harsh specifics, Büttner reveals the disconcerting manner in which traumatic episodes can manifest themselves in the mundane — a game of Lego, Hide and Seek, or Truth or Dare. Filmed in lapidary black-and-white, Büttner’s fascinating film sheds light on childhood from the boys’ characteristically disadvantaged perspective — one not yet fully cognizant — leaving much ethically to ponder over.

Like It Is

This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.

Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist

In 1998 Marco Pantani, the most flamboyant and popular cyclist of his era, won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a titanic feat of physical and mental endurance that no rider has repeated since. He was a hero to millions, the saviour of cycling following the doping scandals which threatened to destroy the sport. However, less than six years later, aged just 34, he died alone, in a cheap hotel room, from acute cocaine poisoning. He had been an addict for five years. This is the story of the tragic battles fought by the most important Italian cyclist of his generation; man verses mountain, athlete verses addiction, Marco Pantani verses himself.

Cinematographer

The life of Donald M. Morgan, one of Hollywood’s most prolific artists, is a unique, rags-to-riches story about a man who’s had a life-changing effect on the people around him, both personally and professionally. By sharing stories of his lengthy career, working with filmmakers like Robert Zemeckis, John Carpenter and Joseph Sargent, Morgan recounts pivotal moments in the art of filmmaking for over four decades, through interviews with fellow greats Owen Roizman (The Exorcist) and Jack N. Green (Unforgiven). But at the heart of the film is an emotional journey along the road to recovery in an industry that is ripe with dysfunction and addiction. Inspiring, heartbreaking, and funny, “Cinematographer” shares the story of one of the film industry's finest human beings.

Who are we? Psychoanalysis of Ukrainians

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Dig!

A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.

Century of Smoke

Laosan, a young family man, spends all his time smoking opium. For his community, lost in the heart of the Laotian jungle, opium farming is the only way to survive. But opium is also the poison that puts men to sleep and kills their desires.

Whitney: Can I Be Me

The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.

Stopping the Next Pandemic

How can we prevent epidemics? Why do viruses and bacteria move? Rather than trying to contain epidemics one after another, why not stop the processes that encourage their emergence? The challenges are enormous, but scientists argue that solutions exist. Because if emerging diseases are the collateral consequences of our lifestyles, our lifestyles are under our control.

Matthew Perry: Not just Friends

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But Beautiful

In his new film, Erwin Wagenhofer is looking for the good and beautiful in this world.

Dr. Delirium and the Edgewood Experiments

From 1955 to 1975, the US Army used its own soldiers as human guinea pigs in research involving powerful, mind-altering drugs. Told through exclusive footage and first-hand accounts, this is the true story of one of the darkest chapters in US history.

The CEO of Sinaloa

The CEO of Sinaloa takes an objective, in-depth, and original approach to the story of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the head of a violent, criminal drug empire known as the Sinaloa Cartel. We tell the story through a business lens, breaking down the business models used by the Sinaloa Cartel to become one of the wealthiest organizations on the planet. Our film will focus on cartel strategies in terms of distribution, accounting, branding, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, termination, and of course - product. But we will never lose sight of the terrible violence this organization employed to reach its success.

Addicted to Porn: Chasing the Cardboard Butterfly

Like it or not, porn is here and it is harmful. In this controversial film, award-winning filmmaker Justin Hunt dissects the impact of pornography on societies around the globe, from how it affects the brain of the individual, to how modern technology leads to greater exposure to youth, to watching it literally tear a family apart. In what may well be one of the most devastating issues in modern culture, this film will break down the damage that porn is doing to us a human race and leave you thinking that it's clearly time that we start taking porn addiction a bit more seriously.

Cambio de sentido

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Heavy Agger

A portrait of a group of youngsters in Agger at the west coast of Jutland. They listen to the raw metalrock. They dress in leather and rivets. And that doesn't exactly lessen the generational divide.

Germany in Autumn

Germany in Autumn does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped, and later murdered, by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the orginal leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.

The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down

Tongue-in-cheek look at 20-something singles clubbing and partying in L.A. Voice-over narration, charts and graphs, and visits to a research laboratory punctuate the story of a single night when groups of friends go out, drink alcohol, take drugs, dance and talk, and look for someone to go home with.

Elton John: Never Too Late

Sir Elton John looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts his struggles with adversity, abuse, and addiction, and how he overcame them to become the icon he is today.

Albert Hofmann - Wahrnehmungen

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Cocaine: History Between the Lines

Cocaine has always gotten a bad rap, and for a reason. It is a drug used by the rich and the poor legally and illegally, Mexican cartels fought over it with Colombia once associated with the brutal cocaine wars, and a source of tension between the American and Mexican borders on the people who are illicitly bringing in cocaine from one side of the border to another and will do anything to do it. So it can be surprising at times to the viewer throughout the course of the documentary special, that it was never always like this.

Pas assez de volume

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