All Things Ablaze

Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship

March 2018 •French

It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…

The Voice of Ljudmila

October 2001 •Swedish

Ljudmila Ignatenko tells the story of her and her husband Vasilij, a firefighter who was one of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

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Half blind and half deaf, ostraziced Cuban writer Rafael Alcides tries to finish his unpublished novels to discover that after several decades, the home made ink from the typewriter he used to write them has faded.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.

BORN ON 25TH OF JANUARY

December 2011 •Arabic

From January 25 to May 27, 2011, the film tracks four months of the Egyptian revolution as seen through the director's eyes. January 25 is the beginning, but May 27 is not the end - because the revolution continues.

Askania Reserve

April 2019 •Ukrainian

Askania-Nova is the largest steppe wildlife sanctuary in Europe. It is located in south part of Ukraine, not far from Crimea peninsula. In order to underline this unique beauty we created a documentary musical film about life of animals and people in wildlife sanctuary of Askania-Nova. The movie reveals stories of a three protagonists, whose destinies were entangled because of wildlife sanctuary.

Life and Death in Hutsulia

November 2016 •Ukrainian

The three Cheremiskyi brothers live in the mountains where they don't dream of owning an iPhone7, because to earn half of its price, they have to go to bed at midnight and get up at 3 a.m. all summer long, milk a hundred sheep, make cheese, wash cauldrons... This is the usual daily routine of 9-year-old Sashko Cheremiskyi, who earned as much as 3,000 hryvnias from his "old stall" this summer. But with this money he did not buy a bike or a tablet, but paid shepherds to graze his four sheep, bought a backpack and notebooks for September 1, and donated the rest... to repair the school. His brother Yurko, at 10 years old, bakes bread, cooks borscht and braids his younger sister's hair. The eldest, 12-year-old Vasya, dreams of becoming a reporter or cameraman, but first he wants to see the big city. The three boys don't go to school because they have to chop wood for the winter. Otherwise, their large family will freeze to death...

Long Echo

April 2020 •German

Dobropolye is a town located in Eastern Ukraine: 70 km from the border where conflicts with the breakaway republics are raging on and people feel always like being on the verge of total war. The sheer uncertainty about the future pushes folks to cling on to their daily habits while trying to get along with the ever-shifting political landscape. A wide array of wildly diversified characters try to cope as good as they can with the hardships in their town. A death metal band keeps rehearsing daily. A teacher guides visitors through the story of the city. The wonders of a vibrating armchair are tested as a tool against stress and anxiety. An elderly lady who has lost her son tries to talk some sense into her fellow citizens urging them to accept peace.

First Case, Second Case

February 1979 •Persian

First Case, Second Case is a documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

The Russian Revolution

June 2017 •English

Starting in 1881 this film shows the personal battle between Lenin's Ulyanov family and the royal Romanovs that eventually led to the Russian revolution.

Chernobyl 30 Years On: Nuclear Heritage

May 2015 •English

Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred on the night of April 26, 1986, its causes and consequences are examined. In addition, a report on efforts to strengthen the structures covering the core of the nuclear plant in order to better protect the population and the environment is offered.

The Naked King - 18 Fragments on Revolution

September 2019 •German

In 1979, a revolution in Iran. In 1980, a revolution in Poland. The fall of the Shah, the “King of Kings,” in Iran. Mass strikes and the foundation of Solidarność (Solidarity) in Poland. What was in the minds of the young women and men who fomented revolution in their own country? What did they think when their revolution was quelled, or – as in Iran – an authoritarian regime was instituted under the name of an “Islamic Republic”?

Morristown: Where America Survived

March 2009 •English

A thirty-minute High Definition documentary which revisits that winter of 1779-80 when Washington’s troops arrived at the densely-wooded area just south of Morristown known as Jockey Hollow, to build a log hut city for their winter camp. The film is an eye-opening look at how the camp saved the army – and the American Revolution – from the brink of disaster. Based on John T. Cunningham’s book The Uncertain Revolution and shot on location at Morristown National Historical Park, Morristown: Where America Survived is narrated by award-winning actor Edward Herrmann, who has voiced many history documentaries over his extensive career. The program was produced by New Jersey Network.

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.

Maidan

May 2014 •Ukrainian

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

1798 - Revolta dos Búzios

May 2024 •Portuguese

One of the most important events in Brazilian history, the Búzios Revolt of 1798 was led by dozens of black men who rose up to overthrow the colonial government, proclaim independence and establish a democratic Republic, free from slavery. The boldness of these men called on the people to make the Revolution and the conspiracy spread to the city of Bahia. The seizure of power is near. But the movement is denounced, the government sets up a Devassa against hundreds of people and four of them are hanged and quartered.

Steal This Film II

December 2007 •English

These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the 'battles' between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more?

Here and Elsewhere

September 1976 •French

Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the contrasting footage it shows of the fedayeen and of a French family watching television at home. Originally shot by the Dziga Vertov Group as a film on Palestinian freedom fighters, Godard later reworked the material alongside Anne-Marie Miéville.

The Last American Colony

October 2019 •English

Puerto Rico, the last relic of colonization in the western hemisphere, has been a dependent territory of the USA since 1917. Los Macheteros and one of its leaders Juan Segarra have been fighting for its full independence for many decades.

Atatürk, père de la Turquie moderne

October 2023 •French

The Singing Revolution

December 2006 •English

Most people don't think about singing when they think about revolutions. But song was the weapon of choice when, between 1986 and 1991, Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence. "The young people, without any political party, and without any politicians, just came together ... not only tens of thousands but hundreds of thousands ... to gather and to sing and to give this nation a new spirit," remarks Mart Laar, a Singing Revolution leader featured in the film and the first post-Soviet Prime Minister of Estonia. "This was the idea of the Singing Revolution." James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty's "The Singing Revolution" tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom--and helped topple an empire along the way.