Reason for Seeing: Correspondence I

Lenin kam nur bis Lüdenscheid - Meine kleine deutsche Revolution

February 2008 •German

The free, almost naive view from the perspective of a child puts the "68ers" in a new, illuminating light in the anniversary year 2008. The film is a provocative reckoning with the ideological upbringing that seemed so progressive and yet was suffocated by the children's desire to finally grow up. With an ironic eye and a feuilletonistic style, author Richard David Precht and Cologne documentary film director André Schäfer trace a childhood in the West German provinces - and place the major events of those years in completely different, smaller and very private contexts.

By the Way, Woody Allen is Innocent

May 2020 •English

Cartoonist Rick Worley's in-depth and unapologetic analysis of the 1992 Woody Allen / Mia Farrow custody hearing and its (factually muddled) online reevaluation amidst the #MeToo movement.

Man on the Bus

August 2019 •English

Can a secret change who you are? Mysterious events unfold and reveal how Martha, a Polish holocaust survivor, managed to lead a double life in Australia. The vivacious Jewish artist and doting mother, died without ever revealing her secret. The film follows Martha’s daughter Eve, over a decade, as she unlocks the mystery behind the streets named Eve and Martha. Clues are found in old recordings and Martha’s home movies revealing a mystery man gazing into the lens. Eve’s investigation leads her to the Sobieski castle in the Ukraine, the site of a massacre where her grandmother died, and the Eichmann trial as she explores her parents’ holocaust survival and her father’s heroic escape from a concentration camp. When a ‘doppelgänger’ contacts Eve, her life is forever altered, as she uncovers lies, tracks down her mother’s young lover and reveals the family secret that led her to rewrite her entire life.

Maria and the Lost Movie

July 2023 •Catalan

The pianist Miguel Ángel Lozano embarks on a personal and artistic journey with the purpose of reconstructing the life of his grandmother, Maria Forteza (1910-60), singer and pioneer of Spanish sound films.

BORIS

Invalid date •English

Boris was a Ukrainian-Canadian mountaineer whose love for mountains was deeply spiritual. Now, his family must face their first expedition without him as they take his ashes to Patagonia – a place he considered Heaven on Earth. A contrast of laughter and tears, BORIS is a story about finding meaning after loss, and the power of nature to heal and unite us.

Island Home Country

August 2008 •English

A poetic cine-essay about race and Australia’s colonised history and how it impacts into the present offering insights into how various individuals deal with the traumatic legacies of British colonialism and its race-based policies. The film’s consultative process, with ‘Respecting Cultures’ (Tasmanian Aboriginal Protocols), offers an evolving shift in Australian historical narratives from the frontier wars, to one of diverse peoples working through historical trauma in a process of decolonisation.

504

August 2024 •French

Coming and Going

January 2024 •English

Abroad at the time of her death, a grandson returns to revisit the house of his late grandmother, now occupied by another family. A reflection on the love for a home where one grew up and yet made by a grandmother missing another life, in another house, in another country.

Because We Have Each Other

August 2022 •English

Janet Sharrock has two children and Brent “Buddha” Barnes has three; the pair has a meet-cute at the local RSL, marry and unite their families, Brady Bunch style. Now grown up, Becky (famous for being one of only 80 people in the world with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory), Jessica (a comedian living with depression), Brendan (who aspires to take over Buddha’s repair shop), and young Kylie and Dylan laugh, cry, contemplate existence and dream big with their parents, finding joy and stability in one another as they face immense change.

Marilyn, Her Final Secret

May 2022 •French

Thanks to DNA, this documentary establishes the identity of Marilyn's biological father, thus revealing her new paternal family, 60 years after the icon's death.

Florida, Man

Invalid date •English

Florida, Man is a "mostly real" faux documentary exploring filmmaker Evan Jordan's haunted past and future possibilities - shot on location in his hometown and featuring a roster of extended family, friends, and other colorful characters from the American South.

The Devil on Trial

October 2023 •English

Explore the first – and only – time “demonic possession” has officially been used as a defense in a U.S. murder trial. Including firsthand accounts of alleged devil possession and a shocking murder, this extraordinary story forces reflection on our fear of the unknown.

Up the Yangtze

September 2007 •Chinese

At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.

Man of War: A Journey With My Grandfather

May 2024 •English

A young filmmaker accompanies his grandfather– a veteran of the Vietnam War– to Fairbanks, to dedicate his unit flag to a new generation of helicopter pilots.

$avvy

April 2021 •English

$avy investigates the historical, cultural, and societal norms around women and money.

A Motorcycle Saved My Life

September 2022 •English

The open road presents a point of departure for director lori lozinski to process deep-seated grief. Revisiting the formative experiences that drove her ambition, lozinski examines the influence of her parents in the present light of day.

La Ermita del Socorro

January 1974 •Spanish

Lost in the Bewilderness

March 2014 •English

Lost in the Bewilderness is a feature-length documentary about the filmmaker’s cousin Lucas, kidnapped at age five from his native Greece, and found on the eve of his 16th birthday in the US. This story of international parental abduction, filmed for over twenty years, chronicles Lucas’s journey of growth and self-discovery, and culminates with Lucas becoming a father himself. Lost in the Bewilderness is not only a detective story but also a lyrical meditation on childhood, lost and found, and an exploration of how the themes of ancient Greek myth and tragedy, with the family at their center, are still very much alive in the modern world.

The Trouble with Merle

August 2002 •English

The director explores the birth origins of actress Merle Oberon, traveling to Tasmania and India in search of the truth, but her quest ultimately results in probably more questions than it answers.

Meeting David Wilson

June 2008 •English

African American filmmaker David A. Wilson decided to look into his family's history during the slave era. The result is this documentary, which provides a unique perspective on the long shadow cast by slavery in America. Wilson travels to North Carolina to visit the plantation where his ancestors once toiled and to meet its current owner -- a white man named David Wilson, whose slave-owning ancestors originally occupied the property.