Mild Madness, Lasting Lunacy

This walk in the daily life of several psychiatric institutions, allows us to meet extraordinary people who let us enter their privacy.

A Portrait of N. B.

Through his own photographs, the Basque artist Néstor Basterretxea (1924-2014) is portrayed by the art critic and exhibition curator Peio Aguirre, a great connoisseur of his work and personal archives.

High Cities of Bone

Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum in the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated.

Libre

For detained immigrants who can’t pay their bond, for-profit companies like Libre by Nexus offer a path to reunite with their families. But for many, the reality is much more complicated. “Libre” sheds light on one of many hidden costs of reunification for immigrant families.

June

A letter of love to my past self who discovered himself.

Journey Around My Room

The camera slowly pans through a room as Smolders offers various observations and memories.

The Text Allows No Interpretation

The Text Allows No Interpretation is a personal essay documentary displaying the director’s conversation with his trauma in a stream of consciousness. The moments in photographs and videos are set in temporal disarray, meeting the superimposed phone calls speaking to and around the trauma from the past. The ever-present noise of repetition is created through jumps between memories of fear and death during the decade-old Arab Spring to insomnia and anxiety emerging through the footage of NATO military exercises on the borders of Russia.

Chinese Viola

The rare short film presents a curious dialogue between filmmaker Julio Bressane and actor Grande Otelo, where, in a mixture of decorated and improvised text, we discover a little manifesto to the Brazilian experimental cinema. Also called "Belair's last film," Chinese Viola reveals the first partnership between photographer Walter Carvalho and Bressane.

Despejadas

The Bomb

Filmmakers use archival footage and animation to explore the culture surrounding nuclear weapons, the fascination they inspire and the perverse appeal they still exert.

Shake Hands with Danger

This short cautionary training film examines dangers associated with earthmoving equipment operation, showing many simulated accidents on construction sites.

NOISE

Set in 2022, NOISE follows a young man as he quickly becomes engulfed by notifications from work, life, and anything else that is downloaded on his phone. Whenever he finds some quiet, the noise follows. It isn't until he finally realizes what brings him peace that the noise is quieted.

Fires of Kuwait

After Saddam Hussein had the Kuwait Oil wells lit up, teams from all over the world fought those fires for months. They had to save the oil resources, as well as reduce air pollution. The different teams developed different techniques of extinguishing the fires. Man's emergency creativity can be seen at it's best.

Initial

A highly secure conference centre, nestled in the mountains. Hugo Radi combines a creative way of filming this locus of power with two fictional voice-over accounts to construct a dystopian world with real contours. This speculative film seems to draw inspiration from the most frightening elements of our contemporary societies.

Carl och spelreklamshelvetet

A young man's journey from gambling addict to YouTube star.

Round About Hollywood

This short travelogue depicts snippets of locations in Hollywood, California, most of them as seen from the streets. Considerable time is taken showing the kinds of architecture of private homes. There are images of various important buildings, and a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl. Finally, there is a sequence revolving around the premiere of the film “Dirigible” (1931) at the famed Chinese Theatre.