A cruise ship and 3,000 men – it is a universe without heteros and women that usually remains a mystery to the outside world. Once a year the Dream Boat sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men where most passengers are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place.
A group of Kuchi children are living in a minefield around Bagram airfield, Afghanistan. They dig out anti-personal mines in order to sell the explosives to child workers mining in a Lappis Lazulli mine. The trajectory of the blue precious stones goes towards Tajikistan and China, through an area controlled by child soldiers. When they are not waging their own mini-wars in the daily madness of life in Afghanistan, the children are fleeing away in their personal fantasies and dreams, while the American soldiers are planning their retreat...
In times of rampant populism and increasing distrust of the elite, the filmmaker accompanies the 81-year-old founder of the controversial World Economic Forum over the period of one year in his efforts to implement his leitmotif: to improve the state of the world. Can the WEF contribute to solving global problems? Or is it rather an integral part of the problem?
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition headed for the South Pole and disaster. Shackleton's Captain reveals the truth behind the spectacular survival of all the crew and shows how one man's extraordinary skill and unsung heroism made it possible: Frank Worsley, Captain of the expedition ship, Endurance.
A documentary detective film about the construction of a 870 kilometres long highspeed railway line that started with a dream to connect the Baltic States to rest of the Europe when in 1991 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence from Soviet Union. Filmmaker Kārlis Lesiņš becomes a ‘citizen-investigator’ and goes on the road to find out why after 30 years and with only few years before the intended launch of the Rail Baltica railway line, the construction of this EU-funded project is significantly behind the schedule, over the budget and may never be finished at all. Kārlis follows the trail of Rail Baltica project, trying to get the answers - what has happened and what is happening? Traveling through all the involved countries, he meets officials, military personnel, investigative journalists, people whose land will be expropriated, employees implementing the project and potentially benefiting entrepreneurs, who open up to him with their versions of the story.
GAZA brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict. Throughout its entire history the Gaza Strip has been witness to conflict and upheaval. From ancient times this tiny coastal territory, located at a crossroads between continents, has been a pawn whose fate rested in the hands of powerful neighbours.
Startups are using AI to create avatars that allow relatives to talk with their loved ones after they have died. An exploration of a profound human desire and the consequences of turning the dream of immortality into a product.
The production of phones has a dark, bloody side. The main part of minerals used to produce phones is coming from the mines in the Eastern DR Congo. The Western World is buying these so-called conflict minerals and thereby finances a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest conflict since World War II: During the last 15 years the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300,000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals. The Documentary Blood in the Mobile shows the connection between our phones and the civil war in the Congo. Director Frank Poulsen travels to DR Congo to see the illegal mine industry with his own eyes. He gets access to Congo s largest tin-mine, which is being controlled by different armed groups, and where children work for days in narrow mine tunnels to dig out the minerals that end up in our phones.
The Sabra and Shatila quarters are part of the Lebanese capital Beirut, which was rocked by a violent explosion in 2020, plunging Lebanon into the worst economic crisis in its history. In the poor districts, once provisionally built for Palestinian refugees, the residents live at a subsistence level without papers, without civil rights, without prospects. The documentary weaves the stories of the three families Kujeyje, Daher, Abeed and that of the young father Aboodi Ziani into a searing portrait of life in a city on the brink. The filmmakers accompanied their protagonists over a four-year period between 2018 and 2022 and show how the poorest of the poor firsthand felt the consequences of the gigantic port explosion, Lebanon's historic economic crisis, the corona pandemic and the ever-growing refugee quota. But unmistakable qualities like resilience and hope allow them to survive.
A deep dive into the hidden industry of digital cleaning, which rids the Internet of unwanted violence, porn and political content.
After 30 years of conspiracy theories and myth making, this film uncovers the story of the CIA's most extensive clandestine operation in the history of modern warfare: The Secret War in Laos, which was conducted alongside the Vietnam War from 1964 -1973. While the world's attention was caught by the conflict in Vietnam, the CIA built the busiest military airport in the world in neighboring and neutral Laos and recruited humanitarian aid personnel, Special Forces agents and civilian pilots to undertake what would become the most effective operation of counterinsurgency warfare. As the conflict in Vietnam grew, the objective in Laos changed from a cost effective low-key involvement to save the country from becoming communist into an all-out air war to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and bomb Laos back into the Stone Age that it had never really left in the first place. Conventional bombs equivalent to the destructive power of 20 Hiroshima-type weapons fell on Laos each year - 2 million tons
April 1945. In a dramatic operation the SS transports 139 special prisoners, and kin of the prisoners, into the Alps. The plan: to use the prisoners as bargaining chips in possible negotiations with the Allies. During the journey a number of prisoners plan their escape and experience six days between liberty and death, their fates in the hands of ruthless and increasingly nervous criminals. But the hostages band together and turn the tables with a clever ploy: they call in the Wehrmacht to aid them…
The Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements postulates that everything in our universe is based on wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. While traveling through China’s stunning landscapes and witnessing the seasons, this documentary seeks not only the roots of this ancient theory but also the continuing impacts on modern China.
Documentary following the new board of FC Barcelona as they attempt to turn around the club's business performance.
Khalo Matabane spent two years making the film, interviewing those who knew and loved Mandela, and also those who criticised him. Global thinkers, politicians and artists including the Dalai Lama, Henry Kissinger and Ariel Dorfman talk about the effect of his policies and his decision making. Their thoughts are weighed equally with ordinary South Africans like Charity Kondile, who refuses to forgive her son's apartheid operative murderer. Through these interviews, completed in the last months of Mandela's life, Matabane interrogates for himself the meaning of freedom, reconciliation and forgiveness. By doing so he challenges Mandela's enduring impact in today's world of conflict and inequality. Thought-provoking and reflective, Mandela, the Myth and Me is a moving film which frames Mandela from a fresh, deeply personal perspective. (Storyville)
Every year during summer one of the biggest battles of mankind takes place amidst the hillsides of middle earth. Knights, elves and magicians are fighting orcs and the dark powers. What looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings actually takes place in a field in Germany, where thousands of role players meet to plunge into a fantasy world of their own. More than 250.000 people in Germany regularly make this transition. The documentary accompanies five role players in their daily lives and their parallel ones. Where does their yearning for a shared world of fantasy come from? What does this reveal about our hectic, technological life? Sunday warriors is a film about the passion for playing and the ambition to exceed your limits.
The story of how Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94), a survivor of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire (1915-17), became a Hollywood silent film star.
This documentary tells the story of great love, bitter disappointments and self-doubts - but most of all of courage. The courage to take risks, try something new and be yourself - no matter what age. The film dives deeply into the exceptional and heart-warming stories of a group of transsexuals and drag queens in their sixties and seventies, who summon up their bravery to take to the stage one last time. For two years they have been touring in five continents, basking in the success of a spectacular show called "Gardenia", directed by Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke. Now, as the show comes to a close, the glamorous aging performers must leave the limelight and go home to the quiet lives they left behind.
With "Emil and the Detectives" Erich Kästner is revolutionizing children's book literature. In the Weimar Republic, he quickly rose as an editor, writer and screenwriter. His books were burned in 1933. Nevertheless, he does not emigrate, published under a pseudonym and abroad. In the post-war period, Kästner was a moral authority. But he can no longer build on his previous success, gets caught up in love affairs and fights his frustration with alcohol. Until his death in 1974, he struggled with the decision not to go into exile. The documentary drama takes a new look at Kästner's picture.
