[Emptiness crossing us]

Crossed by greed, two hundred and seventy-two people were buried by tailings from the Vale mining company in Brumadinho (MG), Brazil. The emptiness that now crosses those who try to carry on will never be filled. This tribute film is dedicated to the victims of the irresponsible mining tragedy that continues to take its toll with blood and devastation.

Sable Island

This short documentary profiles the uniquely cloistered wildlife of Sable Island, known as the “Atlantic graveyard” due to its inhospitable conditions. Barren sands and endless gales proved too much for human settlement on this island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Only a small group of researchers and maintenance people occupy the island; horses run wild, seals and birds multiply profusely, and the Ipswich sparrow has found a fruitful breeding ground for itself. Sable Island provides a perfect opportunity to observe nature in an untouched, organic laboratory.

Junichiro Hayashi: Creepy Images

An interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi speaking about his work with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa

The Militiaman

In the hills of rural Pennsylvania, the leader of a local militia must prepare his men for the turbulent political landscape of 2020 while at war with his own conscience. For over ten years, 48-year-old Iraqi War Veteran and machinist Christian Yingling has commanded a troop of private militiamen and women concerned with the government’s infringement on their constitutional rights. The group practices paramilitary drills, stockpiles food and ammo, and attends gun rights rallies in preparation for a doomsday scenario. Now that a worldwide pandemic has hit, followed by a summer of racial injustice protests and a Presidential election like no other, Christian—out of work and nearly out of money—must confront his allegiance and choose to act or not.

Soufism

Presents the various stages in the production of wool and its transformation into yarn to make clothes, against the rhythm of the sound of the machines.

Generation One

Generation One is a short documentary that explores the perspectives of the American-born children of Arab Muslim immigrants as they navigate their two identities. The film follows the life of a Palestinian-American named Hamoody as he decides to leave his tight-knit Arab community and pursue his independence. With vignette interviews from five other Arab-Americans to supplement Hamoody's story and expound upon certain themes, Generation One sheds light on a range of unique challenges found between the hyphens.

The Wall

Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.

Our New President

Donald Trump has become a beloved cult figure for many Russians. The short film uses found footage, fake news and state-controlled political programming to reveal the variety of ways Trump's newfound Russian supporters express their devotion.

This quiet morning light

In the municipality of Cortazar, Salvador Juárez seeks to rescue and share the memory of what it was once like to live there.

The Meaning of 1/24 Second

The Meaning of 1/24 Second is Korea's first experimental film and was filmed in 1969. This 16mm film in color and black and white is composed of hundreds of inconsistent scenes. Taking the basic structure of the film, which consists of 24 frames per second, The Meaning of 1/24 Second expresses the steep reality faced by modern man, and the sense of alienation that comes from uncontrollable speed. The video file that remained only in digital format since it went missing in 2001 was restored to 16mm film for screening for his retrospective exhibition , which has been held at Seoul Museum of Art, Republic of Korea in 2013, thus providing an opportunity to look back on its meaning.

Dreams about Putin

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many Russians have started having dreams about their president and sharing them on social media. More than a thousand dreams about Putin have now been recorded and posted on public platforms. In Dreams About Putin, a selection of these dreams have been brought to life using Unreal Engine, a 3D graphics program for creating scenes for computer games. In this exciting experiment with form, the animations are complemented by rare archival footage of the Russian president. The dreams are related by a narrator, and their “translation” into 3D scenes is not literal; likewise, the archival footage has been lightly edited. The result is sometimes dryly comic, sometimes absurdist, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes even hopeful. A series of bizarre but therefore oddly familiar nightmares as a vision of Putin’s Russia.

Learning Disabilities in Primary Care

People with learning disabilities often experience worse physical and mental health. This film is a starting point to address these inequalities.

Extremis

A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.

Replika

El cielo es muy bonito

Mothers and daughters flee their country of origin and travel through Mexico carrying their fears, dreams and a hopeful future.

By the Lake

Bokanowski returns to the complex - and mind-bending - optical array of pinholes, mirrors, prisms, and refractive substrates of his earlier film, La Plage to create the whimsical and playful Au bord du lac. The film is composed of mundane, everyday scenes of recreation and leisure on an idyllic, sunny day at a park that overlooks a lake - rowing a boat, playing a game of volleyball, rollerskating, bicycling, reading a newspaper, sunbathing, riding on horseback, or strolling on the promenade - shot through optical distortions to create fractured and knotted images that resemble embellished, gothic fairytale illustrations or appear to resolve into morphing, geometric patterns of fluid motion. Evoking the vibrant colors and sun-soaked palette of an invigorated Vincent van Gogh in Arles, Bokanowski transforms the quotidian into an infinitely mesmerizing dynamic kaleidoscope of shape-shifting textures and self-reconstituting objects of organic, abstract art.