Against the Current

Trash River

Invalid date •Portuguese

River Lis runs polluted through Leiria. It's been 50 years since the first pig farm was installed in the region. Since then, people have lived with the consequences of countless crimes against the environment and a shocking lack of justice. The children that remember when the water was clean, now grandparents, share their story of resistance and fight against pollution.

2008 Olympics: Michael Phelps: Inside Story of the Beijing Games

September 2008 •English

Having stood on the gold medal podium a record 8 times during one Olympic Games, Michael Phelps now stands alone as the the greatest Olympic champion in history. With exclusive interviews and commentary, Michael takes us on his personal journey to Olympic stardom. Includes all his races and special behind-the-scenes footage.

Sports

July 1932 •Japanese

The film is about a protest provoked when the university decided to restrict access to sports facilities to athletes, cutting out all other students. This is, strictly speaking, not a Prokino film. It was produced by the Waseda University Film Circle, which was organized by Kawazoe Shiro. Feature film directors Yamamoto Satsuo and Taniguchi Senkichi were apparently students at Waseda at the time and participated in the production.

First Daughter and the Black Snake

April 2017 •English

The “Prophecy of the 7th Fire” says a “black snake” will bring destruction to the earth. For Winona LaDuke, the “black snake” is oil trains and pipelines. When she learns that Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a new pipeline through her tribe’s 1855 Treaty land, she and her community spring into action to save the sacred wild rice lakes and preserve their traditional indigenous way of life. Launching an annual spiritual horse ride along the proposed pipeline route, speaking at community meetings and regulatory hearings. Winona testifies that the pipeline route follows one of historical and present-day trauma. The tribe participates in the pipeline permitting process, asserting their treaty rights to protect their natural resources. LaDuke joins with her tribe and others to demand that the pipelines’ impact on tribal people’s resources be considered in the permitting process.

No Defense

February 2020 •English

The story of the Americans who are fighting against one of the largest- known polluters in the country - the United States military.

The Current: Explore the Healing Powers of the Ocean

February 2014 •English

The Current tells the story of individuals from all walks of life that have faced incredible obstacles, found the drive to overcome their disabilities, and have through water sports become real everyday heroes. - Bethany Hamilton, Missy Franklin, Mallory Weggemann, Anthony Robles, Jesse Murphree

Buried at Sea

September 2006 •English

This documentary chronicles ocean disposal of surplus World War II chemical weapons by Canada, Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States. Through a well edited combination of interview footage and still photographs this film outlines the serious problem that awaits us now that hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical weapons have been disposed of off our coastlines. The exact location of dumps was not always recorded on navigation charts. Sixty years later, containers that were designed to last for fifty years have started to disintegrate, posing substantial danger to both marine life and coastal communities.

There's Something in the Water

September 2019 •English

Elliot Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in his home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.

Faire des vagues

September 2016 •French

Lane 0

January 2017 •English

A feature length documentary about the struggle of a group of swimmers from developing nations trying to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time. A story about pursuing your dreams and overcoming adversity.

MINIMUM

October 2024 •Polish

Two weeks to go until the qualification race for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. A young Polish swimmer (Jan Kałusowski) prepares for a chance to compete at the most prestigious sports event in the world.

Broken Rainbow

May 1985 •English

Documentary chronicling the government relocation of 10,000 Navajo Indians in Arizona.

Out of Plain Sight

February 2025 •English

From Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia and Academy Award®-winning L.A. Times Studios, OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Los Angeles Times journalist Rosanna Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.

Cold Refuge

Invalid date •English

Cold Refuge is about the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of full immersion in the natural world: how, though it may seem counter-intuitive, swimming in cold water helps mitigate some of life’s most serious challenges. The film’s diverse film subjects include a wheelchair-bound, paralyzed swimmer who faces fear by diving off a high pier; a Black man who was told by whites when he was 13 that “Black people don’t swim” (it took him 30 years to try); a blind man who tethers himself to a sighted swimmer; a woman with aggressive breast cancer who “swims to chemo;” a lawyer who reduces courtroom stress in the open water; and a young woman who communes with her late mother in San Francisco Bay, where they both swam together. Along with swimmers’ stories of adversity and resilience, the film’s marine mammals, birds, artwork, and a variety of open-water locations create a visual meditation on what it means to escape our abstract digital world in favor of what’s real.

Einsame Atolle, geheime Welten

October 2023 •German

The endless expanses of the Indian Ocean are home to the last natural paradises: Remote atolls surrounded by coral reefs in crystal clear water. Whole regions of this ocean are still unexplored, many reefs are not marked on any map. The departure of the research vessel Agulhas II from the island of La Réunion marks the beginning of one of the greatest scientific adventures of our time. The expedition, initiated by Monaco Explorations with the support of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, lasted six weeks and led into the Western Indian Ocean along the Mascarene Plateau.

Amazônia, A Nova Minamata?

October 2022 •Portuguese

Joe Lycett vs Sewage

February 2024 •English

Joe Lycett investigates the mind-boggling quantities of untreated sewage discharged into our waterways every day, and takes the fight to the water companies in the most Joe Lycett way possible.

The best kid you'll ever meet. : A tribute to Mac Miller

July 2022 •English

A 3-minute tribute to the late Mac Miller.

Swimming, Dancing

September 2023 •English

Swimming, Dancing examines audiovisual representations of the Yangtze (1934–present), from silent film to video art to the contemporary vlog. Inspired by the city symphonies of the 1920s, Swimming, Dancing pieces together a “river symphony”, evoking the images, sounds and contradictions that make up the river’s turbulent history.

Swimming with Butterflies

October 2024 •English

After missing bronze by 1/100th of a second at the 2016 Paralympic Games, Austin-based swimmer Lizzi Smith shares an intimate story of how changing her self-perception didn’t just bring her back to the pool: it’s bringing hope to the next generation.