Land of Tears

Koyaanisqatsi

April 1983 •English

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Silence

May 1998 •Polish

A portrait of a family living in a village in Masuria.

Der lange Weg ans Licht

February 2008 •German

Edeltraut Hertel - a midwife caught between two worlds. She has been working as a midwife in a small village near Chemnitz for almost 20 years, supporting expectant mothers before, during and after the birth of their offspring. However, working as a midwife brings with it social problems such as a decline in birth rates and migration from the provinces. Competition for babies between birthing centers has become fierce, particularly in financial terms. Obstetrics in Tanzania, Africa, Edeltraud's second place of work, is completely different. Here, the midwife not only delivers babies, she also trains successors, carries out educational and development work and struggles with the country's cultural and social problems.

The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism

March 2017 •English

Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerising film is a feast for the eyes. The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism features the sell-out exhibition The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Reflexiones de un salvaje

January 1978 •Spanish

That Kid

January 1976 •French

A group of educators led by Fernand Deligny are working to create contact with autistic children in a hamlet of the Cevennes.

America's Hate Preachers

November 2016 •English

Director Hannah Livingston spends 6 months tracking two of America's most radical Christian hate groups - a notorious pastor from Arizona and a network of extremist preachers.

Coombs

September 2017 •English

Routine Pleasures, Slow Cinema.

Small Happiness

August 1987 •Chinese

Part Two: SMALL HAPPINESS - Despite the tremendous advances women in China have made, serious problems continue. Long Bow women talk about love, marriage, work, birth control, birth customs and the now outlawed custom of foot binding. Truly moving interviews with Lingqiao and her mother-in-law draw us into their lives.

Ayotzinapa

June 2015 •Spanish

This film is a story, testimony and documentation of the forced disappearance of 43 student teachers, which exposes the criminal complicity between the police and military authorities, between the political and economic elites and criminal organizations in Mexico, which appear to be different forces, but respond to similar interests.

Buffalo Girls

November 2012 •English

Buffalo Girls tells the story of two 8-year-old-girls, Stam and Pet, both professional Muay Thai prizefighters. Set in small villages throughout rural Thailand, the film chronicles these young girls' emotional and sometimes heartbreaking journey as they fight in small underground arenas to win prize-money to help provide for their families. After many months of rigorous training and a long schedule of fights, Stam and Pet fight each other for the 20 Kilo championship belt of Thailand and a cash prize that will change the winner's life forever.

Prairie Women

January 1987 •English

This film illustrates the struggles of Canadian prairies women to achieve a more just and humane society within the farm movement and at large. During the early 1900s, women on the prairies looked for ways to overcome their isolation. Out of the resulting farm women's organizations grew a group of women possessing remarkable intellectual abilities, social and cultural awareness, and advanced worldviews.

North by Current

March 2021 •English

Filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and the subsequent arrest of his brother-in-law as the culprit. Using the audio-visual approaches of essay film, first-person cinema vérité, staged actions, and decades of home movies, Madsen navigates a town steeped in opioid addiction, economic depression, and religious fervor, while using the act of filmmaking to rebuild familial bonds and reimagine justice. Posing empathy as a tool for creating a more just world, North By Current does not seek to investigate a crime, but creates a relentless portrait of an enduring pastoral family, poised to reframe and reimagine narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans embodiment, and ruralness.

Horse Wrangler

November 2018 •Spanish

Nando, a young horse wrangler in a rural Mexican village, has taken his own life following a disagreement with his father. Caballerango shows the boy’s family members and townspeople as they reckon with the new realities borne out of this inexplicable tragedy. Each account of Nando’s story reveals a different aspect of this rural town, which is deeply affected by modernization. The confrontation between the centuries-old ways of life and the modern-day world seems to be creating serious identity crises among the younger generation. The story is told in a patient, observational style with methodical shots of the landscape, ranches, and of the two white horses, whom Nando and his father tended to. Those horses, the last to see Nando alive, connect us to an ethereal sensation of almost otherworldly mystical beings.

Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry

March 2016 •English

A cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path.

Harvest and Seed

August 1965 •Persian

The banned and unseen Harvest and Seed is a sardonic look at the conditions of a poverty-stricken Iranian village after the so-called agrarian reforms of the early 1960s, which amounted to a corrupt land grab rather than an equitable redistribution of wealth. This film recorded in village in south of fars, Shiraz, Esmaeel abad

Drought

November 2011 •English

In northern Mexico, residents of a cattle-ranching community struggle to survive amid harsh conditions caused by an ongoing drought.

Werner We Love You

October 2017 •German

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

Inori

August 2012 •Japanese

Director Pedro came to Japan in April 2011, started shooting in the village Totsukawa of Nara Prefecture. He, as Himotoku, began to spin the story with his camera instead of a brush…

Black Earth

January 1961 •French

Pseudo-ethnological documents about two villages which, without roads and electricity, "stopped existing".