Ms. President

The Last Republican

September 2024 •English

A fan of Hot Tub Time Machine, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger invites the left-wing Hollywood director Steve Pink to follow his efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6 insurrection.

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.

The Corporation

September 2003 •English

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

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...

Karaoğlan: The Man whose Name Was Written on the Mountains

May 2003 •Turkish

A political amateur who was kneaded with art in the first half of the 1950s and was enthused with the idealism of politics in the second half, was now a person who was dealing with politics and state affairs 24 hours a day, gradually getting hotter and broadening his goals and horizons. In this section, you will follow the milestones of the poet's hopeful arrival in the 1970s, not a dream that the poet remembers with longing, but is no longer left behind. Contrary to the poem, you will recognize the struggle of a stubborn, belligerent missionary who is incompatible with the world. You will witness how it changed in that struggle and how this change affected a country...

Reality Winner

March 2021 •English

A state of secrets and a ruthless hunt for whistleblowers – this is the story of 25-year-old Reality Winner who disclosed a document about Russian election interference to the media and became the number one leak target of the Trump administration.

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?

The Take

September 2004 •English

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed ceramics workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

The Dark Figure

March 2018 •Spanish

Orange Revolution

April 2007 •English

Filmmaker Steve York explores the controversial 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, during which candidate Viktor Yushchenko suffered a near-fatal poisoning and his unpopular opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, was declared the winner. In the aftermath, more than a million people -- including the ailing Yushchenko -- took to the streets of Kiev, protesting the results that contradicted exit polls showing Yushchenko with an impressive lead.

Beijing Spring

March 2021 •English

The documentary film of the brief window of artistic freedom and democracy movement 1978 - 1982 following China's brutal cultural revolution.

Hong Kong: Retrocession Generation

July 2017 •French

In 2017, twenty years after the British handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, young people, more politicized than any previous generation and proud of their land, do not feel Chinese and actively fight against the oligarchs who want to subdue them to China's authoritarian power.

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.

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.

Meeting Snowden

April 2017 •English

Moscow, Russia, December 2016. Edward Snowden, Larry Lessig and Birgitta Jónsdóttir meet for the first time in a secret place. Apparently, Russia is interfering in the US presidential elections while it mourns the death of its ambassador to Turkey. Snowden carefully chooses his interviews, so nobody really knows something about him. As the world prepares for Christmas, they gather to discuss the only issue that matters, their common struggle: how to save democracy.

Dogs of Democracy

July 2017 •English

Dogs of Democracy is an essay-style documentary about the stray dogs of Athens and the people who take care of them. Author and first-time filmmaker Mary Zournazi explores life on the streets through the eyes of the dogs and peoples' experience. Shot in location in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the documentary is about how Greece has become the 'stray dogs of Europe', and how the dogs have become a symbol of hope for the people and for the anti- austerity movement. A universal story about love and loyalty and what we might learn from animals and peoples' timeless quest for democracy.

Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout !

November 2020 •French

États-Unis - La démocratie assiégée

October 2024 •French

Mandela

October 1996 •English

A documentary that chronicles the life of South African leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela is probably best known for his 27 years of imprisonment, and for bringing an end to apartheid. But this film also sheds light on the little-known early period of Mandela's life.

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.