Documentary

During a five year period an Italian filmmaker documents the world of down-on-their-luck individuals who live in a Californian desert trying to get by one day at a time. None of them has more than a vehicle, a dog and some clothes.Read More »

Synopsis
Ivanna, a 26-year-young Nenets mother of five children, is living in the Arctic region in the northwest Siberia. She lives a traditional nomadic life, driving her herd of reindeer at the tundra like her family did for centuries. But due to the environmental side effects of the climate change most of her reindeers are dying and she know that she will soon be ruined and forced to make a dramatic decision. Her husband, Gena, has already left the family. He moved to the city, hoping to find a job as an oilworker in the Russian oil fields but didn’t succeed and spend his time drinking and fighting. Ivanna is willing to give her marriage a last chance. She will give up her traditional life, leave the tundra, move to the city and get a job at Gazprom. But time has changed, Gena became violent and alcoholic and Ivanna realizes that the civilized city life is not what she expected. But there are no way back, Ivanna will have to take life in her own hands and secure a future for her and her five children. The film follows Ivanna and her family closely for four years through her dramatic lifechanges, from the harsh life at the tundra to the modern life in the Siberian city of Norilsk.Read More »

Synopsis
Hoiami Nguyen never imagined that he will end up so far from his home village of Bong Son in central Vietnam. Political circumstances and the roulette of life have washed him to the shores of Israel. The penniless Vietnamese refugee became a father of 5 Hebrew speaking Israeli daughters. His daughter – Vaan, describes her parents’ ordeal using a razor sharp language in her blog. She feels trapped in circles of identity which will never meet. Caught between her wild and stormy Israeli spirit and the expectations to be modest and obedient Vietnamese at home, there is unbridgeable abyss. When her father returns to his family in Vietnam, Van finds herself absorbed into his tragic story – a cruel tale of loss and survival. Hoimai’s dream of return sends Vaan to look for a brighter future in the new-old country. She joins him in trying to reclaim the lands of the family, in the remote village at the heart of the Vietnamese jungle..Read More »

Director Robert Gardner and legendary filmmaker Stan Brakhage share an in-depth viewing of Gardner’s ethnographic masterwork, Forest of Bliss. The film is shown in its entirety, with Gardner occasionally pausing to elucidate, and Brakhage brilliantly observing tonality, poetic imagery, life, death, the unconscious, and, well, just being damned insightful.Read More »

In this labor-of-love documentary, director-writer-producer Mark Moskowitz tackles a project he had been wanting to pursue since he was 18 years old. In 1972 he read a New York Times book review of THE STONES OF SUMMER by Dow Mossman, a title which would later became an object of obsession for Moskowitz. Though he shelved the book for 25 years, Moskowitz finally did read it and was amazed at its ingenuity. He was shocked that its onetime author never penned another book. Determined to solve this mystery, Moskowitz made THE STONE READER, documenting his research project in finding the forgotten author and getting to the bottom of the publishing mystery of how so many great works of literature, and great authors, just disappear.Read More »

The Himalayan region of Nepal is one of the most fragile environments in the world and is characterized by extreme uncertainty and great complexity. The adverse impacts of climate change are further worsening the situation of local system/societies by increasing their vulnerability. Through a visual representation of how some communities from Lo Mustang region of Nepal perceive climate change, this film explores their cultural models and their attempts at adaptation, both individual and collective.Read More »

Synopsis
Equal parts personal essay, intense rumination, and playful satire, this movie laments the death of the American Video Store while it searches for the missing human element in today’s digital landscape.Read More »

A look at the life and work of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneer of the African-American film industry.Read More »

Jan Švankmajer at 85 years of age is one of the most prominent artists of European cinema. His work has inspired and guided generations of directors, and his work represents a sharp and merciless exploration of human nature which is entirely unique. When Švankmajer decided to stop filming after Insect (2018), his producer suggested that the creative processes which ferment within their film company Athanor should be preserved on film.Read More »