Under Pressure: How Free Are Europe's Media?

Acorn and the Firestorm

April 2017 •English

For 40 years, the community-organizing group ACORN advocated for America’s poorest communities, while its detractors accused it of promoting the worst of liberal policies. Riding high on the momentum of Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2008, ACORN was at its political zenith when a hidden-camera video sparked a national scandal and brought it crashing down. The story involves voter fraud, a fake prostitute, and the rise of Breitbart.com.

Històries de Bruguera

April 2012 •Spanish

The history of Bruguera, the most important comic publisher in Spain between the 1940s and the 1980s. How the characters created by great writers and pencilers became Spanish archetypes and how their strips persist nowadays as a portrait of Spain and its people. The daily life of the creators and the founding family, the Brugueras. The world in which hundreds of vivid colorful paper beings lived and still live, in the memory of millions, in the smile of everyone.

Les Scandales de « La Religieuse »

November 2023 •French

Released in 1796 posthumously, The Nun, a novel that Diderot did not dream of publishing during his lifetime, as he knew it to be revolutionary, caused the same explosion in the 19th century France as in that of the 1960s, when Jacques Rivette decided to adapt it, with Anna Karina in the title role. “This film is banned and it will remain so!” said the General de Gaulle. Exploration of an indictment of incredible modernity which, through the tragedy of the young Suzanne, locked up in the convent against her will, denounces the inequity of a society denying women all moral, political and sexual freedom.

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.

America: The War Within

October 2022 •English

Is America's political system crumbling? ITV's Robert Moore explores the widespread fears for its sanctity.

Holocaust Denial vs. Freedom of Speech

January 1994 •English

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.

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela

March 2020 •Spanish

Once upon a time, the Venezuelan village of Congo Mirador was prosperous, alive with fisherman and poets. Now it is decaying and disintegrating—a small but prophetic reflection of Venezuela itself.

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.

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th

April 2010 •English

A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.

No Time to Fail

October 2022 •English

Amidst an onslaught of attacks from a sitting President and the deadly threat of a global pandemic, local election administrators work around the clock to secure the vote for their community. Rhode Island’s election teams take center stage in this unprecedented voting adventure.

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.

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.

Big House Blues

August 1990 •English

Ren and Stimpy, on the streets starving, are captured by the dog catcher. They end up in the pound and become frightened when one of the dogs tells them of the "big sleep".

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.

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.

Free Speech Fear Free

June 2017 •English

Can we really be fully human without Free Speech? Is free speech the oxygen of our society? Without it we crumble. Free Speech Fear Free get's to the core of what free speech really is, and the impact it has on our day to day lives. It compares the UK with Belarus and shows what life is really like without Free Speech. It tells chilling stories of a dictatorship that destroys people's standard of living.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

October 2023 •English

A secretive hedge fund is plundering America's newspapers, and the journalists are fighting back. Backed by the NewsGuild union, they go toe-to-toe with the faceless Alden Global Capital in a battle to save and rebuild local journalism across America.

Censored!

December 1999 •English

A documentary about the cultural effect of film censorship, focusing on the tumultuous times of the teens and early 1920s in America.

The Emma Bovary Trial

September 2021 •French

On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused, the real one, is, through him, Emma Bovary, heroine with a thousand faces and a thousand desires, guilty without doubt of an unforgivable desire to live.