The Democratic Revolutionary Handbook

Art as a Weapon

June 2014 •English

Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.

The Haunting Lodge

October 2023 •English

Filmmakers stay at a haunted lodge and find themselves in over their heads when they encounter something otherworldly.

3211

September 2023 •Serbian

The film 3211 is a true story about Stefan Đurić, a successful musician who one day loses everything and goes to prison, where only his songs remain from his former life.

Todxs somos López. Donde empieza la vida y termina la muerte

January 2017 •Spanish

A chronicle on the days without Jorge Julio López, key witness and complainant on the first trial on genocide in Argentina, dated in 2006. López, who had survived through concentration camps on the late seventies argentinian dictatorship, disappeared for the second time the day the court decision meant to condemn his kidnappers was about to be read.

The Dark Figure

March 2018 •Spanish

In the Lost City

February 2009 •Spanish

The city of Madrid as it appears in the Spanish films of the 1950s. A small tribute to all those who filmed and portrayed Madrid despite the dictatorship, censorship and the critical situation of industry and society.

Todo es ausencia

September 1984 •Spanish

Five Argentinian women, with missing relatives from the military dictatorship that ruled the country, explain their emotions and feelings about all that happened.

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.

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.

A Tale of Two Revolutions

November 2014 •English

Reflecting on his Father's experiences during the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots - Documentarian, Nadim Fetaih discovers his own story in the Egyptian 2011 Revolution and the endless unrest that grips the cradle of civilization.

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: 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...

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.

Point and Shoot

April 2014 •English

At first glance, Matthew VanDyke—a shy Baltimore native with a sheltered upbringing and a tormenting OCD diagnosis—is the last person you’d imagine on the front lines of the 2011 Libyan revolution. But after finishing grad school and escaping the U.S. for "a crash course in manhood," a winding path leads him just there. Motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East and spending time as an embedded journalist in Iraq, Matthew lands in Libya, forming an unexpected kinship with a group of young men who transform his life. Matthew joins his friends in the rebel army against Gaddafi, taking up arms (and a camera). Along the way, he is captured and held in solitary confinement for six terrifying months.

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.

In the Intense Now

November 2017 •Portuguese

A personal essay which analyses and compares images of the political upheavals of the 1960s. From the military coup in Brazil to China's Cultural Revolution, from the student uprisings in Paris to the end of the Prague Spring.

Nobody

January 2017 •Spanish

Half blind and half deaf, ostraziced Cuban writer Rafael Alcides tries to finish his unpublished novels to discover that after several decades, the home made ink from the typewriter he used to write them has faded. The Cuban revolution as a love story and eventual deception is seen through the eyes of a man who is living an inner exile.

Fascism in Colour

January 2006 •English

After the World War I, Mussolini's perspective on life is severely altered; once a willful socialist reformer, now obsessed with the idea of power, he founds the National Fascist Party in 1921 and assumes political power in 1922, becoming the Duce, dictator of Italy. His success encourages Hitler to take power in Germany in 1933, opening the dark road to World War II. (Originally released as a two-part miniseries. Includes colorized archival footage.)

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.

Bones of Contention

March 2018 •English

A history of the political and social repression carried out by the ruthless regime of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco between 1936 and 1975 that focuses on the lives of gays and lesbians during those dark years and the death of the Spanish gay poet Federico García Lorca.