The Last Tear
Director Christopher H.K. Lee
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United States
Sexual violence against women has accompanied almost every large-scale conflict, yet most of its victims are silenced. One such sad episode is that of the “comfort women,” or more accurately, the estimated 200,000 women who were recruited to sexually serve the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. As part of this immense system, many young women from all over Japan’s occupied territories in Asia were forced into service where they faced rape, torture and extreme violence at military camps, euphemistically termed “comfort stations."
Since the early 1990s, the testimonies of these women shocked the world, and were eventually taken up as a serious human rights issue by the United Nations, a host of governments, and numerous independent NGOs. Taking a different, we aimed to listen to and gauge the true feelings of some of the few remaining survivors, believing that the sea of mass media and politics is largely drowning their voices out. We sought to hear their true wishes.
Rabbi Hood
Director: Joël Gozlan
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France
Rabbi Hood is a Parisian-North African Road Movie, which try to capture the unusual career of my father Max, Rabbi and outlaw. It brings us into a world of colourful characters: rabbis, lawyers, beggars, crooks, men and women of compassion and character.
This movie is also a journey within, confronting me with my relationship with this man, who transmitted in a same move law and transgression.
Cape Espichel - In Land of a Lost World
Director: Carlos Sargedas
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Portugal
a journey through time and history of one of the most important religious sites in the time of the Portuguese monarchy, now almost left abandoned by the Republicans.
16 experts talk about all aspects since millions of years to the present day.
Eva, Ruda, Leo and I
DIRECTOR Jo Légaré
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Canada
Eva and Ruda tells the story of two singular characters, born in Prague at the dawn of the twentieth century who realize, in spite of themselves, that they are Jews. What was previously a question of mere social convention suddenly becomes a matter of life and death. As lovers, they face fear and danger, miraculously escape the death camps to build a new life of togetherness in Canada.
A reader, also the film’s narrator, discovers their incredible lives. How did their love for each other last a whole life-time? How could they love so deeply, given their intimate knowledge of “evil”?
It is the beginning of an extensive quest for the reader who, as we discover, is haunted by a painful love story of her own, suffered in the flower of youth.
Intertwining the auteur’s original voice with the powerful story of Eva and Ruda, the film deals with crucial themes such as love, war and resilience.
Waiting for the Show
Director: Dmitrii Kalashnikov
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Russian Federation
In Siberia in the town named Tomsk there is a model school for disabled people. Twice a year the students of this school present themselves and designers' clothes on the catwalk. But this time it would be more than just a fashion show. It would be a big show with music, songs, choreography and fashion as well.
The main character is a local celebrity Yevgeny Rabotkin – designer, song writer, and singer. The director of the show and the author of the idea, for three month he is working with models, designing costumes, writing songs, inventing scenography. He faces self-doubts, insecurities, and fears in attempt to create a masterpiece, sometimes demonstrating less abilities than his disabled models.
Changezi , Dancer Among Shadows
Director: Zak Sisters
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Canada
He wasn't allowed to dance! With a zero budget and no crew, what was supposed to be a portfolio project has into a video diary of a dancer's life. Changu Changezi from the small conservative town in Pakistan. This film follows him on his journey of questioning his upbringing, how important his dreams are to him and how far will he go to attain them.
Romanian Wooden Churches
Director Kiki (Cristian) Vasilescu
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Romania
The documentary intends to show wooden churches in Romania - buildings with a high value in terms of national and European architecture and history. The documentary focuses less on religious aspects, but mainly on churches’ history, architectural types, their liaison with the community and eco-system.
To connect the old and sometimes forgotten churches with the present, the documentary also presents the surroundings and the communities living around these churches.
Colours Of Edziza
Directors Matt Miles, Mike Schauch, Chantal Schauch
Canada
This extraordinary journey begins with two leaders from different worlds—a member of the Tahltan Nation and leader among his people looking to pass his teachings on to his kin, and a West Coast mountaineer and investment professional seeking new adventure while exploring his own connection to the land. Brought together by their passion for learning from the land, they are joined by two younger Tahltans, an artist and an 18 year old youth, to traverse one of the last, great untamed places on earth. Venturing deep into the remote and rugged mountains of the Tahltan territory in northern British Columbia, the two leaders discover a new shared connection, one that would allow them to put their differences aside and accomplish this incredible traverse together.
The ship that never passed
Director Aleksandar Spasoski
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Macedonia
“The ship that never passed” is a documentary film, which accompanies the artist Aleksander Spasoski during the preparation and realization of a powerful 12,000Watt sound installation in Munich under the Reichenbachbrücke on the banks of the River Isar in 2013. Choosing a location, which has no shipping, Spasoski reproduces the sound of a ships horn in order to stimulate the audienceʼs imagination. Transforming an audio sensation into a visual picture.
The Film dramatically and with a great humour documents all the obstacles encountered, including the bureaucratic difficulties, technical challenges and the unpredictability of the weather.
Future Dreaming
Director: Kaya Finlayson
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Australia
In January 2015, film director Kaya Finlayson recorded a conversation with the renowned thinker Dr David E Martin, to explore the past, present and future of humanity.
Future Dreaming discusses the narratives that drive our economic, social and political thinking and unpacks the assumptions that underlie those conditions. The industrial age for example, did not simply bring us new technology, it bought a new way of thinking. It was the first time in the human narrative that nature was classified as having zero value and that human beings were defined as a resource.
The film critiques the models that we are working with and then offers a new model, one that has existed for billions of years. David likes to call this model the Genius of the Universe; it is the intelligence that underlies the natural world creating a sustainable and successful eco system. David asks a very simple question - what would humanity look like if we stopped imposing our models upon nature, and instead, chose to follow the same playbook as the ecosystem we find ourselves in?
Closer to Maarten
Director Raymond Grimbergen
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Netherlands
15 years after his brother Maarten went missing during a holiday in India, Hein Piller de Bruijn decides to make the same journey as his brother did, to finally find a closure to this tragic event. But only weeks before he goes, someone contacts him with new information about Maarten's last whereabouts. So once in India, Hein's feelings are turned upside down when he tries to come to terms with all that could have happened to his beloved brother.
DRAW NOT WAR
Director Matteo Valenti
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Italy
DRAW NOT WAR is the story of the different stages of a long and difficult project. From birth to the presentation. Three short cartoon films, on the topic of dialogue and peace, are made by students, from countries which are subject to conflicts, like Israel/Palestine, Bosnia and North Ireland. These students were asked to produce three short films, created and screenplayed by themselves.
On Aggregate: Champions Without A Home
Director Thomas Goltz
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U S A
‘ON AGGREGATE: Champions Without A Home' is the saga of the Qarabag-Agdam Horsemen, a ‘refugee’ football club from Azerbaijan. The team has not played a ‘home’ game since its home city of Agdam was destroyed and occupied during the vicious Karabakh War with neighboring Armenia in 1993.
Despite this trauma, in 2014/15, ‘The Horsemen’ clawed their way to the heights of the Group Stage in the Europa League, playing against giants such as the Ukrainian Dnipro, the French St Etienne and the legendary InterMilan of football-obsessed Italy before having further glory snatched away by a blatantly bad call in overtime in their last match.
But the 53-minute film by director and narrator Thomas Goltz is about far more than just ‘football;’ it is about gritty determination and resilience in the face of loss, and ultimately about conviction.
The Inner Life
Director: Holger Klussmann
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Germany
'The Inner Life' is a journey into biblical and today's Israel and
Rome. We follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ from His Place of Birth in Bethlehem to the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. And we take a look at the Life of Saint Peter in Capernaum and Rome.
'The Inner Life' is a new filmed version of the movie 'Kyrie' from 2014, with an additional part acting in Rome. St. Peter lived also in this ancient city and at this site the real meaning of St. Peter for today's world began.
In this film also words of Jesus are quoted, that Jesus that time had revealed the abbess Maria C. Baij about St. Peter. Title of the book: The Inner Life of Jesus.
Guardians of Eternity
Director France Benoit
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Canada
Giant Mine, located near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, is still an unhealed, open wound for Mary Rose Sundberg, a grand-mother from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. On behalf of her grand-children and her people, she is anxiously following the remediation of the 237,000 tons of arsenic buried underground, enough arsenic to kill the world a few times over if it gets in contact with water. The mine happens to be located under the source of water for Yellowknife, Great Slave Lake, which eventually makes its way to the Arctic Ocean. The permafrost is melting underground, water is infiltrating the tunnels and we will need to pump that water to the surface.... forever! Mary Rose is worried. How do we communicate the toxicity lying under Giant Mine to future generations, those who will follow us in 100 years, 1000 year or 100,000 years? We must warn them of the danger lurking down under, the monster under Giant Mine. Her people have communicated their knowledge since time immemorial through legends and stories....must they now create a modern legend about this man-made toxic waste ? Mary Rose pleads for future generations, the guardians of eternity
Bhagyale Bachekaharu( Nepal Earthquake: Heroes, Survivors and Miracles)
Director Ganesh Panday
Nepal
On 25 April 2015 at 11:56 local time, a devastating (7.8) earthquake struck Nepal with an epicenter in Barpak, a village of Gorkha district (144 km northwest) of Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal left 9,000 (More than half were female) dead, many injured, hundreds of people are still missing, internally displaced and homeless (hundreds of thousand) due to deadly quake and more than half million houses were destroyed. The earthquake severely affected 14 districts, out of 75 districts of Nepal, in the central and western regions of Nepal which includes hilly and mountainous regions and the Kathmandu valley. On May 12 another powerful earthquake (7.3) magnitude struck Nepal again with an epicenter in Dolakha district (75 km east from Kathmandu) in which many (historic) buildings collapsed, temples ruined, roads destroyed and transportation halted and life of people completely paralyzed.
Teacher and Mayor, Don Pablo
Director: Nieves Fernandez Garcia
- Spain
Este relato nos cuenta la historia de un hombre y un pueblo entroncados por la casualidad. El siglo XX español despierta en la nostálgia de las últimas colonias perdidas. La desamortización ha condenando a miseria a la población rural. Un joven estudiante de leyes da con sus huesos en la escuela de
Sea With No Name
Director: Emilia Linnakoski
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Finland
Desert. Sand blowing in eyes, back bent down, limps heavy of waiting. Wallpapers reflecting the light beams from cars outside on the streets. Hands reaching warmth under the blanket or resting on thermostat.
When rejection and abandoning has beaten you repeatedly they sculpt themselves in human memory, all the way through your body.
Landscape in Tuula`s eyes is silent, days resemble one another, then suddenly a song blossoms in this desert, like a flower waking up at night. In that song she reveals herself to us.
What kind of a prison has she built with only one feel - fear of abandoning?
Shell shock
Director Elena Starodubtseva
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Germany
An incisive examination of the daily lives of people living in the combat zone in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
A variety of sequences depicts how the cruelty and suffering of war are not just becoming customary for the separatists and the Ukrainian army soldiers but for the civilian population too.
The film crew got so close to the parties involved that they were able to capture the boyish thrill of war felt by civilian men who have taken up arms under the influence of propaganda and gone off to fight their neighbours and brothers. Ukrainian women bear all the hardships of this senseless conflict with resignation and do not say a word in protest. Children and the elderly have become accustomed to a life lived in cellars and ruins. You get the impression that all these people are shell-shocked from the war and can’t come to their senses and ask themselves what they are killing others and dying themselves for
Rebellion Bejeweled
Director: Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta
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India
‘Rebellion Bejeweled’ is a documentary on the saga of grit, determination and integrity of Shri Manimanik Gogoi, who was once a leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the dreaded armed outfit trying to secede from India. He chose to abandon the path of violence and embraced another path to realise the dream of a better society through community organization, drives for gainful employment of the youth and women and projects for amity among social groups. In all his effort the Administration and the Oil India Limited reposed total trust in him in implementing community welfare projects. All along, his USP has been an unwavering commitment to honesty and integrity of self and a rare unity of behaviour, thought, and actions.
The literal meaning of the term Manimanik in Assamese is gems and jewels. Our subject have adorned a rebellious journey with jewels of positivity and hope.
OUR HEALING JOURNEY
Director: Anthony J. Perzel
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Canada
Lutsel K'e is a Chipweyan Dene First Nation community of 300, on the east arm of Great Slave Lake, in Canada's Northwest Territories. It can be reached only by air or water.
In 1989, following an increasing number of deaths involving drugs and alcohol particularly among youths, the community reached a turning point. A Band Council Resolution was passed making it mandatory for anyone elected to sit on council to enter treatment, if he or she had a substance abuse problem.
Consequently, the same chief and councillors that created the bylaw entered treatment. Their innovative resolution was a first in North America and perhaps anywhere.
OUR HEALING JOURNEY documents the result of the Lutsel K'e Chief and Council’s decision over a period of twenty-five years. The challenge of reconnecting with their true selves and their community, is marked with personal difficulties and struggles.
DIGNITY
Director MONICA MAZZITELL
IItaly
Twenty girls grow up in an orphanage called "O Viveiro" ("the nursery", in Portuguese), building their lives one millimeter per day, in the miserable and unhealthy town of Chitima, in Mozambique. Orphan or poor, or both, they get an opportunity to invest in themselves, learn knowledge or professions, re-educate to receiving affection, set fractures of what past experiences have shattered. Not all of them succeed. “Dignity†narrates without rhetoric these girls and young women’s stories, their epic, their poetry, their falls, their success. But above all their splendor. Elegant and powerful photography to show the inner beauty of the girls. Their ability to grow strongly from nothing, like flowers in the desert; stories are narrated mostly through their words, their need to pass on the story of themselves, create their own myth-making. A documentary about the possibility of dignity for women, for all women, in Africa and elsewhere.
The Liberators - Why We Fought
Director: Emanuel Rotstein
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Germany
HISTORY Germany's documentary THE LIBERATORS – WHY WE FOUGHT features the personal memories of some of the last living veterans. Emanuel Rotstein, producer for HISTORY, takes viewers on a journey from these veterans' quaint hometowns in the US to the shores of Europe and their final march through Nazi Germany. These stories are interwoven with the accounts of some of the few remaining survivors of Dachau who owe their life to the American soldiers. It’s almost 70 years since the fateful day April 29, 1945 but the life-altering experience has stayed with them to this very day. Until today both liberators and survivors suffer from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder and still experience Holocaust-related nightmares. Until today both liberators and survivors share the determination that the world must never forget and understand General Eisenhower’s words, when he saw the stacked bodies inside a liberated camp: „We are told that the American soldier does not know what he was fighting for. Now, at least he will know what he is fighting against“.
God is American
Director: RICHARD MARTIN JORDAN
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France
Since the end of World War II, the people of Tanna, a remote island in the South Pacific in the archepelago of Vanuatu, idolize an American prophet. His name is John Frum. The islanders believe he is an American pilot that returned to the United States after the war, and will come back to Tanna with riches from the US that they call « the Cargo ». They pray to an American flag, awaiting his return. One man, Isaac the Last One, chief of the « Cargo cult », claims he is Frum’s son. He has formed an army of GI’s to celebrate the return of the prophet John Frum.
The Unwanted Nation
Director Ekaterina Kretova
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United Kingdom
The ongoing conflict in Syria forced thousands of locals to flee from their country to the neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, due to protracted humanitarian catastrophe. At the same time, the flow of illegal immigrants from Syria has been flooding Europe. Despite dozens of people found dead during their attempts to reach “peace”, and some restrictions the European countries tried to apply on illegal immigrants, Syrians do not give up and open new ways to fight for their presence and future.
Our team follow three different cases of the Syrian illegal immigration: from Turkey to final destinations, like Germany and Scotland. It describes how difficult was each attempt to reach a dream, and how the dream became a nightmare. The film shows daily struggle and hopelessness of the Syrian refugees and response from smugglers, who
black skins, white masks
Directors Lise Bellynck Frédéric Aspisi
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France
Images of life in West Africa : furtive visions from the depths of the bush, women, men, children, the power of a gaze, of daily gestures, of time. And words to testify to this world suspended between archaism and modernity.
Between Memories
Director: Martha-Cecilia Dietrich
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Switzerland
This film explores the complex legacies of twenty years of violence and war in Peru through practices of remembering. In three audio-visual pieces made in collaboration with relatives of the disappeared, insurgents of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) and members of the Armed Forces, this documentary aims for creating an on-screen dialogue between memories, which in practice remains elusive.
