Beyond Utopia

Hotel Rwanda

December 2004 •English

Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

The Kidnapped Filmmakers of North Korea

September 2022 •English

In 1978, two South Korean filmmakers--Director Shin Sang-ok and his star actress and ex-wife, Choi Eun-hee--were abducted and smuggled into North Korea in order to revolutionize the country's dying film industry.

Fahrenheit 9/11

June 2004 •English

Michael Moore's view on how the Bush administration allegedly used the tragic events on 9/11 to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An Inconvenient Truth

May 2006 •English

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Pastor Lothar Stops

October 2022 •German

Lothar König is an original. The long-term youth pastor from Jena doesn’t fit into any system. In the GDR he was under state surveillance, after reunification he was one of the most tireless warning voices against the growing right-wing radicalism. To this day, he takes to the barricades against the extreme right, often on the frontline. Nevertheless, this film portrait by his son Tilman is not an homage but a critical tribute to an outspoken character forced by retirement to re-invent himself.

Die Dichter und die Räterepublik

January 1990 •German

Documentary film with play scenes about the rise and fall of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 from the perspective of various well-known poets and writers who experienced the events as contemporary witnesses.

The Commune

November 2020 •Slovak

The desire for freedom during the period of “normalisation” in Czechoslovakia led to the creation of a group of individuals who professed a deep inclination towards the principles of the underground movement. After many years they are unable to face their mutual suspicions of betrayal in the form of cooperation with the state-security police. The memory of their tragically departed guru, philosopher and poet, Marcel Strýko, drifts throughout their story. In an effort to come to terms with the past, an old companion from Prague organises a revival concert in a Gothic cathedral. Will these freethinking members manage to achieve a truce?

JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass

November 2021 •English

Thirty years after the release of his film JFK (1991), filmmaker Oliver Stone reviews recently declassified evidence related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which took place in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

1994: The Bloody Miracle

January 2014 •English

As South Africa celebrates its 20th anniversary of the advent of democracy in 1994, it is difficult to believe the ‘Mandela miracle’ nearly didn’t happen. In an orgy of countrywide violence, some were intent on derailing the first free elections. Now, for the first time, those responsible for countless deaths and widespread mayhem explain how they nearly brought South Africa to its knees. 1994: The Bloody Miracle is a chilling look at what these hard men did to thwart democracy, and at how they have now made an uneasy peace with the ‘Rainbow Nation’ in their own different ways.

Ady Steg, un parcours juif, une histoire française

January 2024 •French

The Society of the Spectacle

May 1974 •French

Guy Debord's analysis of a consumer society.

Warehoused

September 2017 •English

An estimated 12 million people live in refugee camps worldwide and only 0.1% are resettled, repatriated, or integrated into normal society each year. The feature-length documentary.

Shadow Flowers

October 2021 •Korean

Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean housewife, was forced to come to South Korea and became its citizen against her will. As her seven years of struggle to go back to her family in North Korea continues, the political absurdity hinders her journey back to her loved ones. The life of her family in the North goes on in emptiness, and she fears that she might become someone, like a shadow, who exists only in the fading memory of her family.​

It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks

September 2008 •French

The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, followed by the publishing of twelve satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that was commissioned for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, provides the incendiary framework for Daniel Leconte's provocative documentary, It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks.

From Atatürk to Erdoğan: Building a Nation

October 2019 •French

Turkey's history has been shaped by two major political figures: Mustafa Kemal (1881-1934), known as Atatürk, the Father of the Turks, founder of the modern state, and the current president Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, who apparently wants Turkey to regain the political and military pre-eminence it had as an empire under the Ottoman dynasty.

Birds Are Singing in Kigali

September 2017 •Polish

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

Ukrainians in Exile

October 2022 •Ukrainian

A documentary that follows Anya, a woman residing in Ukraine during the early stages of the war, who tells her story and contemplates how countries will treat her fellow Ukrainians who were forced to flee.

Revolution of Our Times

November 2021 •

Throughout Hong Kong’s history, Hongkongers have fought for freedom and democracy but have yet to succeed. In 2019, a controversial extradition bill was introduced that would allow Hongkongers to be tried in mainland China. This decision spurred massive protests, riots, and resistance against heavy-handed Chinese rule over the City-State. Award-winning director Kiwi Chow documents the events to tell the story of the movement, with both a macro view of its historical context and footage and interviews from protestors on the front lines.

Ryeohaeng

August 2019 •Korean

A group of women climbs a summer mountain situated in South Korea. They are refugees who have settled into South Korean society after fleeing from North Korea. For them, climbing the mountains has been an unavoidable journey for survival - a matter of life and death.

Service public

November 2022 •French

Salhia Brakhlia has filmed the set and behind the scenes of Franceinfo's breakfast show during a year. How to inform at the time of social media and fake news ? How careful are journalist with those news ? How do they connect to politicians during an presidential election campaign ? This unique immersion gives us a part of the answer.