Concrete Pharaohs

Zen & the Art of Dying

March 2015 •English

Zenith Virago is an activist and educator who for over 20 years has been returning the coastal region of Byron Bay, Australia to a more communal, celebratory, and creative engagement with death and dying.

As Seen on TV: The K-Tel Story

January 2006 •English

Documentary about K-Tel - the "As Seen on TV!" company that was hugely successful in the 1970s and 80s.

L'absent, dans le cœur de Piche

August 2025 •French

Piche, a bearded drag queen and rapper from a Gypsy community in Arles, rises from the rupture of her father cutting ties in adolescence to the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony. With her mother Nadia and twin brother Morgan by her side, she dares to defy norms and becomes a leading voice of the queer revolution.

The Shutka Book of Records

November 2005 •Serbian

A documentary about bizarre residents of Shutka, a Macedonian village built on the former city dump area. Shutka, where everyone is the champion of something. This film is a celebration of the culture, humor, spirit, oddities and idiosyncrasies of the Roma, one of the world's poorest and most persecuted peoples. Ultimately we are instructed in the celebration of life despite any and all circumstances - everyone is of value here.

Secrets of the Unknown: Life After Death

January 1987 •English

Life After Death explores the ultimate unknown through the beliefs of various cultures. Hear what people have to say who have had near-death experiences. Peer into the next life for answers to this age-old mystery.

Wildgnorance 2: Time Paradox

March 2016 •Italian

Kenedi Goes Back Home

January 2003 •Serbian

The first film in what would ultimately become Zilnik’s famed Kenedi trilogy follows street hustler Kenedi Hasani and his friend as they roam the streets of Serbia seeking Kenedi’s parents. Kenedi Goes Back Home is Zilnik’s account of the Roma people who were forced to flee from the war in the Balkans to Germany in the 1990s and who, ten years later, are forced against their will to return to Serbia. Zilnik shows the immigrants' lives in relation to the prevailing ideology shaped today by the borders between rich and poor and by the often-racist selection process that determines who will be accepted into Western Europe. In presenting the dilemmas and identifying the crises these people face, he appeals for a solution.

The Place of Chimeras

Invalid date •Portuguese

An elegy about ‘José Ð Almeida’s life and work. Along an intimate metamorphosis, this dreamlike and visually expressive world created by the visionary and insane dreamer is recreated and performed between a symbiosis of moving image, photography and painting- in a scenic, dramatic, symbolic and mystical tone.

After Death

October 2023 •English

Based on real near-death experiences, the afterlife is explored with the guidance of New York Times bestselling authors, medical experts, scientists and survivors who shed a light on what awaits us.

By the River

March 2021 •English

Varanasi is the Indian city where Hindus go to die. Stretching along the Ganges, Varanasi holds great spiritual significance because Hindu scriptutres say that anyone who dies there will attain moksha—liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Berlin-based director Dan Braga Ulvestad captures life and death in India’s heartland in this moving documentary filled with exquisite cinematic moments. By the River starts its narrative journey with the city’s “death hotels,” dedicated apartments where people wait to die, sometimes for decades, so they can be cremated on the banks of the Ganges.

The Band

October 2018 •Slovak

The seven members of the gypsy band Lomnické Čháve come from a Roma settlement and dream of making it big. Sensitively observed and with uplifting music the film tells the story of their journey, struggles, enthusiasm, failures and perseverance.

Macht und Armut: Die Mönche von Cluny

June 2022 •German

Con Traje y Sin Zapatos

Invalid date •Spanish

The Life After Death Project

May 2013 •English

A fascinating quest for proof of life after death -- a true-life enigma that begins with one small, odd incident and mushrooms into a huge scientific inquiry into apparent messages from the 'Other Side.'

Loli Kali Shuba

July 2013 •Ukrainian

Prominent Ukrainian/Italian documentary film director Oleksandr Balahura (most known for link) visits Roma neighborhoods and social events in Zakarpattia (Western Ukraine) and re-visits his earlier work, "Widow-Street", shot on same locations in 1991. He also screens "Widow-Street" to its characters, whom he meets again in 2013.

tititá

March 2015 •Hungarian

Anti is an 18-year-old gypsy boy with a passion for playing the guitar. He lives in a gypsy slum in a remote corner of Hungary. By an unexpected opportunity he has a chance to break out now from his hopeless situation. He gets selected to the Snétberger Music Talent Center among sixty other young talents. He is mesmerized by the chance of a better life and hopes for a miracle. Although it turns out soon that he has a huge disadvantage compared to the others, even to the gypsy students. He can't read the music sheets and he is not used to regular practice. The sensitive and lovable boy's story is full of unexpected twists and turns. The viewer is carried with his honesty and special humor. Through Anti's story the feature-length documentary gives a glimpse into the work of the Snétberger Music Talent Center with great music and memorable moments from the life of the Talent Camp.

Ammen

February 2012 •English

A 2005 és 2011 között készült Ammen című dokumentumfilm egy kis szatmári falu cigány-sorának életébe nyújt betekintést. Az utca lakói egy ameriaki pásztor vezetésével hat évvel ezelőtt "bemerítkeztek" és felvették a baptista vallást. Hozott-e változást életükbe a hit? Segített-e a boldogulásban? Mennyire kitartó, mély az Istenhitük? Miért fontos a karizmatikusság? Lehet-e a vallás közösség-összetartó erő? A film - többek között - ezekre a kérdésekre keresi a választ.

Rromani Soul

September 2008 •English

RROMANI SOUL traces the true origin of the Rroma people. Through rituals, song and dance we follow emblematic figure and "Queen of the Gypsies" Esma Redzepova to Macedonia, south of France and finally to India. The film reveals for the first time ever that the true and unique origin of the Rroma is Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, India.

You Vs. Wildgnorance

August 2020 •Italian

By the River

October 2019 •Hindi

Stretching along the river Ganges rests Varanasi, the holiest of India’s seven sacred cities, and a place where devout Hindus go to die in hopes of achieving moksha - becoming liberated from the cycle of rebirth. Hindu scriptures say that a soul has to undergo 8.4 million rebirths before reaching the human form, the only form one can attain moksha, and dying in Varanasi and being cremated along the banks of the river is believed to be the ideal way of achieving this. Several so-called ‘death hotels’ exist to accommodate believers who abandon their lives and come here in wait for death - some for as long as 40 years.