And So It Begins

My Makhzen and Me

February 2012 •English

In the summer of 2011, Nadir Bouhmouch, a Moroccan student studying abroad in California returns to his home country and finds it in a state of turmoil. The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt had spread to Morocco. Organized by a group of students called the February 20th movement through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and a website called Mamfakinch; People were flooding the streets and demanding change. But the Makhzen (the ruling elite) refuses to abandon it's grasp. This film investigates what gave birth to the revolt and the obstacles it encounters on it's struggle for freedom, democracy, human rights and an end to corruption and poverty.

Girls State

January 2024 •English

What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? In this documentary, young female leaders from wildly different backgrounds in Missouri navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up.

God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

February 2024 •English

Examines the implications of Christian Nationalism, how it distorts not only our constitutional republic, but Christianity itself, and asks the question: What happens when a faith built on love, sacrifice, and forgiveness grows political tentacles, conflating power, money, and belief into hyper-nationalism?

Freedom Isn't Free — The Freedom Charter Today

June 2018 •English

Since its adoption in June 1955 by the Congress movement, the Freedom Charter has been the key political document that acted as a beacon and source of inspiration in the liberation struggle against Apartheid. It was reputedly the main source that informed democratic South Africa’s liberal constitution and a constant reference point for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and rival political parties that it spawned since 1994, all claiming the Freedom Charter’s legacy. Freedom Isn’t Free assesses the history and role of the charter, especially in relation to key political and socio-economic aspects of developments in South Africa up to the present period. It includes rare archival footage with interviews of a cross-section of outspoken influential South Africans.

Democracy for $ale

October 2020 •French

In the United States of America, lobbyists, corporations and billionaires invest millions of dollars to ensure that a suitable candidate, one inclined to support their personal ambitions and economic projects, wins an election, which inevitably affects everything, from the selection of local officials to presidential elections, creates countless conflicts of interest and undermines what supposedly used to be a model democracy.

Karaoğlan: He Had Different Dreams

April 2003 •Turkish

How will history remember him? The honest politician who brought the left to power, the reliable plane tree of the state, the poet who adds elegance to politics? Or is it the stubborn, skeptical, lonely leader who hinders the unity of the left? How many people will remember the legend of Karaoğlan, which was written on the mountains and stones in the milestones of democracy? And how many of them will question the reasons for the rise from the top to the prison, from the prison to the top again, and then to be forgotten at the ballot box? How will Turkey remember a leader who left his mark in the last fifty years, a republican intellectual, the captain of the country's most critical days?

Karaoğlan: This Post Will Make You Fly

April 2003 •Turkish

Bülent Ecevit had dreams of a modest, serene life away from competition and politics. He imagined that he would write poems throughout his life and take refuge in that serene, purified world of art, poetry and aesthetics, against the harsh and harsh reality of daily life. While escaping the hazy atmosphere of politics, he could not even guess where his decision on the day he stepped into politics would take him...

Karaoğlan: Strawberry Blossom

May 2003 •Turkish

What Ecevit feared had happened to him. Someone blew the whistle and the game was over. The name of the game was democracy. Those who finished the game, that is, those who took on the role of referees, were soldiers... The September 12 administration started by blaming the administrators, that is, the politicians. According to the military, incompetent and uncompromising politicians were responsible for the crisis in the country. Now they would put new rules into the game and this time there would be no old actors on the field. Ecevit's political life, which lasted for 27 years, was ending on the morning of September 12...

Karaoglan: Farewell

May 2003 •Turkish

A political adventure that started with a modest membership ceremony in the Çankaya District Building of the CHP in 1954 and ended in 2004, covering exactly 50 years. Bülent Ecevit was the name that left his mark on Turkey's multi-party years. The politics he said goodbye to was his way of life. No politician has ever been written on the mountains and stones like him... No politician has ever been as critical of the future of the left as he was. His name was sometimes referred to as a "divisive" and sometimes "honest politician. Bülent Ecevit was engraved in history as the memory of the multi-party period and as an example of a politician's exit from the ballot box and his exhaustion...

We The People 2.0

June 2016 •English

American citizens who are normally marginalized, forgotten and left to fend against toxic dumps and other violations, come to understand that the only way to survive and save their communities is to challenge the system head-on.

Kampen om fjordane

Invalid date •Norwegian

They are fighting against the government and the electric power industry to leave Norwegian nature as it is. Documentary about the "Monster conductors" in Hardanger.

Primary

November 1960 •English

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

Freedom for the Wolf

June 2017 •English

The Real Story of Fake Democracy. Filmed over three years in five countries, FREEDOM FOR THE WOLF is an epic investigation into the new regime of illiberal democracy. From the young students of Hong Kong, to a rapper in post-Arab Spring Tunisia and the viral comedians of Bollywood, we discover how people from every corner of the globe are fighting the same struggle. They are fighting against elected leaders who trample on human rights, minorities, and their political opponents.

Leysi over media in Cuba

October 2023 •Dutch

Blueberry Soup

September 2013 •English

Following a national crisis, the citizens of Iceland rallied together to collectively write the first ever crowdsourced constitution. A deeply touching account of an eclectic group of individuals reinventing democracy through the rewriting of the nation's constitution, proving that Iceland is not a broken country but instead an intricate web of concerns, ideas, and ultimately creative solutions.

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

January 2017 •English

When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.

Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars

February 2024 •English

Fracking the System is a political thriller documentary from the front lines of climate justice activism in Colorado. When a fracking mega-site gets moved from a White neighborhood to a BIPOC neighborhood, a concerned mother fights to try and stop it. This is an investigative exposé about the harms of fracking, the lengths to which the government is complacent with industrial pollution, and the nefarious tactics that the oil and gas industry uses to undermine democratic elections.

États-Unis - La démocratie assiégée

October 2024 •French

Incomplete Sentences

June 2022 •Turkish

Aslı Erdoğan, world-renowned author and activist, has fallen into silence after she fled to Germany. Incomplete Sentences is a feature documentary on her literature and life, leading to exile in Frankfurt, after the Turkish regime’s oppression results in her unlawful imprisonment. Now, she struggles in exile while everybody is waiting for her to write again. Right after getting out of prison Aslı starts telling her story to the director, wandering in the streets of Istanbul she recites parts from her books and explains the stories behind. When Aslı goes to Germany to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Award she cannot return; thus her exile, which she likens to a semi-open prison, begins. As her health deteriorates and keeps her from writing, the tragedy in her books becomes her own reality.

Ms. President

October 2024 •Slovak

A time-lapse documentary about Zuzana Čaputová's tenure as President follows her political work, personal dilemmas and the difficult challenges facing Slovak society.