2010s

Berlin-based filmmaker Jochen Hick explores the long shadow left by Paragraph 175 in his fascinating documentary My Wonderful West Berlin (Mein Wunderbares West-Berlin)…
“Many victims died before the rehabilitation process started,” Hicks notes. “That is a very sad feeling, that Germany waited until most of them had passed away.”
Drawing on rare archival footage predominantly focusing on West Berlin’s gay male community from the 50s until the late 80s, the film illuminates a vibrant socio-political network that thrived despite police and political harassment. https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/sexuality/mardigras/article/2018/02/22/subverting-paragraph-175-queer-life-my-wonderful-west-berlinRead More »

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On the streets of Lagos, it is not the police who wield power but gangs of fight-hardened young men known as Area Boys. Louis spends time with several outfits, joining them as they patrol their turf, clash with local rivals and keep the peace in a brutal and haphazard fashion. The main income for the Area Boys is an arbitrary and unofficial form of taxation, extracted from local businesses and commercial drivers. Louis gets to know the rich and glamorous Area Boy leader MC, a former street youth himself, who has now become a friend of the most powerful men in the city. Taken under MC’s wing, Louis experiences the top levels of the Area Boys’ world from the inside, complete with a tour of MC’s grand residence and extensive shoe collection, and ending in a chaotic mini-riot with gunshots, blood and mayhem.Read More »

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A startling new vision of genius teenage angst.

The exceptionally gifted 15-year-old Staszek is about to start studying physics at a university specializing in the theory of parallel worlds. He has an extraordinary mind and a wounded soul, which his mother, who steers his life, seems incapable of healing. Then a Man appears in their lives and, as the Boy passes from the hands of the Mother into his care, a new order is established. Their torturous road forms a bond between the three central characters, but their shared happiness is not to last long.Read More »

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If Walt Disney, Todd Solondz, and David Lynch were to collaborate on a film, it might resemble Kuba Czekaj’s Baby Bump, a gruesome coming-of-age story that is never afraid to test the limits of cinema. Completely disregarded traditional filmmaking rules, the film finds its deranged cast interacting with its sarcastic quasi-narrator for a unique result.

It takes around ten minutes for Baby Bump to venture into immensely inappropriate territory, as a pre-teen girl offers to show a boy her “tits” in exchange for some marshmallows. The film only gets weirder and wilder from there, with Mickey House (Kacper Olszewski) trying and failing to grow up without horribly embarrassing himself. There isn’t much of a narrative. Instead, Baby Bump is comprised of a collection of somewhat intertwining scenes dealing with adolescence, body image, sexual identity, and mental health.Read More »

Diana Serra Cary, a well-conserved lady of ninety, is one of the last living legends of the silent movie era. She was not even two when she endeared herself to the public as cute Baby Peggy. In Hollywood, she worked long days as an infant, earned millions and provided for the family. When she was six, the fairytale abruptly ended when her father, a stunt man and ex-cowboy, quarrelled with a producer and the saved fortune turned out to be squandered. In this documentary, with abundant historic footage, Diana looks back on her bizarre childhood and explains to her granddaughter she really does not know what it is like to be a child. As a teenager, she started loathing Baby Peggy and ran away from home to start a new life. She wrote a book about child stars and eventually became reconciled with Baby Peggy. Nowadays, she visits festivals that screen her films and enjoys the attention from often young fans..Read More »

Description from Tōei’s Website :
“Retirement is like holding your own funeral while you’re still alive…”
So goes the startling first line of Makiko Uchidate’s best-selling novel, which has now become a major motion picture!
Uchidate is perhaps best known as a prolific screenwriter of numerous hit television shows, including the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) epic period drama series “Mouri Motonari” (1997) and morning drama serial “Hirari” (1992-1993). For her 2015 novel “Owatta Hito,” she expressed the sorrow of a man who comes to the end of his elite corporate career, and captured the imaginations of countless readers.Read More »

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Radmilo lawyer who spent years in love with Ljiljana. Although the most eligible bachelor in Palanka, his small town. He refused all offers of marriage, and wants to marry Ljiljana, who plans to marry Momchila.Read More »

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Benning’s 18-minute study of moonfall in the morning sky– A close cousin to his film “two moons”. A lovely rendition of ‘Moon River’ accompanies the footage, filmed July 24th, 2019.Read More »

Two women spend a weekend together at the North Sea. Walks on the beach, fish buns at a snack stand, mobile weather forecasts. Sky, horizon, water. One of them will soon return to her family in Argentina while the other one will try to come a step closer to the ocean. She travels to the Caribbean and the foreign makes her vulnerable. Then, the land is out of sight. On a sailing vessel she crosses the Atlantic Ocean. One wave follows the other, they never resemble. Thoughts go astray, time leaves the beaten track and the swell lulls to deep sleep. The sea takes over the narration. And when the other one reappears in it, the wind is still in her hair while the ground beneath her feet is solid. She returns and the one of them could ask: “Have you changed?”Read More »