What Was Ours

Black Thoughts

August 2020 •English

A man that is a stranger, is an incredibly easy man to hate. However, walking in a stranger’s shoes, even for a short while, can transform a perceived adversary into an ally. Power is found in coming to know our neighbor’s hearts. For in the darkness of ignorance, enemies are made and wars are waged, but in the light of understanding, family extends beyond blood lines and legacies of hatred crumble.

Cracks in the Mask

June 1997 •English

A century ago the Torres Strait Island were the subjects of the famous Cambridge Anthropological Expedition - the resulting depletion of their cultural artifacts left them with nothing but a history of remembered loss. The only people in the Pacific to make elaborate turtleshell masks have none left - they are all in foreign museums. In a quest to reclaim the past, Ephraim Bani, a wise and knowledgeable Torres Strait Islander, travels with his wife to the great museums of Europe where his heritage lies. The film, an SBS Independent production, shows that the thickest of masks cracks when a descendant of the original owners enters a museum.

Reunion

January 1946 •French

Live footage from concentration camps after the liberation, and the complex transport and lodging of masses of prisoners of war and other deported people back to their home countries, at the end of World War II. A 45min 35mm print also exists (shown at Cinémathèque française in 2023).

Message from Mungo

September 2014 •English

Lake Mungo is an ancient Pleistocene lake-bed in south-western New South Wales, and is one of the world’s richest archaeological sites. Message from Mungo focuses on the interface over the last 40 years between the scientists on one hand, and, on the other, the Indigenous communities who identify with the land and with the human remains revealed at the site. This interface has often been deeply troubled and contentious, but within the conflict and its gradual resolution lies a moving story of the progressive empowerment of the traditional custodians of the area.

The Homecoming

September 2023 •Finnish

Sámi artefacts from the Finnish National Museum are returning home to Sápmi, while the holy drums of the Sámi people are still imprisoned in the basements of museums across Europe. The returning objects symbolise the dignity, identity, history, connection to ancestors and a whole world view that was taken from the Sámi people. Director Suvi West takes the viewer behind the scenes of the museum world to reflect on the spirit of the objects, the inequality of cultures and the colonialist burden of museums.

Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii

January 2004 •English

Filmmaker Kevin McMahon accompanies the Haida delegation on a repatriation trip to Chicago in 2003. His film reveals the whole repatriation process through the stories and experiences of the people who participated, both Museum staff and the Haida people.

Hard Bargaining: Museums Face Claims for Return of Artefacts

September 2011 •French

Four French museums, the Louvre, the Quai Branly, the French National Library, and the Rouen Museum, are faced with pressing demands for the return of works of art. The number of demands is multiplying. They come from all over the world, and in particular from Egypt, Mali and New Zealand. The question of returning works of art to their countries of origin is increasingly making news. Take for example the emotions aroused by President Sarkozy’s decision, on the 12th November 2010, to return 297 royal manuscripts to South Korea. The ensuing row involved diametrically opposed points of view. Was it a violation of the principle of inalienability of France’s national collections or was it a just reparation for the victims of colonization? The rich countries’ great museums and the countries of origin have completely different visions of the issue. The museums defend the idea of a universal museum whose works belong to the whole of humanity.

Home from School: The Children of Carlisle

November 2021 •English

“Kill the Indian to save the man” was the catchphrase of The Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a boarding school opened in Pennsylvania in 1879. It became a grim epitaph for numerous native children who died there. In 2017, a delegation from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming attempts to retrieve the remains of three Northern Arapaho children buried far from home in the school cemetery, on a journey to recast the troubled legacy of Indian boarding schools, and heal historic wounds. This documentary film is produced by The Content Lab LLC, with support from The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, The Wyoming Humanities Council, and Wyoming PBS.

Etched in Bone

October 2018 •English

Drawing on original footage from National Geographic, Etched in Bone explores the impact of one notorious bone theft by a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Hundred of bones were stolen and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, until it became known to Arnhem elders in the late 1990s. The return of the sacred artefacts was called for, resulting in a tense standoff between indigenous tribespeople and the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.

Album polski

May 1970 •Polish

University student Anna and her boyfriend Tomek use a precious photograph to trace and unveil the complex wartime and post-war past of their parents.

Repatriados

May 2024 •Spanish

Delivery drivers Saul, Cesar and Adrian must work together to raise money and repatriate the body of a colleague back to Puebla, Mexico.

Κατερίνα Γώγου: Για την Αποκατάσταση του Μαύρου

March 2013 •Greek

Straight

September 2015 •Chinese

On May 12, 2008, Sichuan province suffered a devastating earthquake with thousands of deaths and many more injured and displaced. School buildings constructed from substandard materials, by corrupt government officials and contractors, collapsed, causing thousands of children to lose their lives. The buildings were described as tofu-dregs buildings because of the ease in which they structurally collapsed. Ai Weiwei and a team of volunteers traveled extensively throughout the areas of devastation, researching and documenting all the student deaths. In the aftermath of the quake, the collapsed school buildings were cleared out, the twisted steel rebar pulled out and sent to scrapyards. Ai acquired many tons of the twisted rebar, sending the material to his studio in Beijing where craftsmen meticulously straightened each piece of rebar.

You Know What I Mean

August 2014 •Chinese

The Bazhou police wrongfully arrested seven people without any evidence around September 16, 2001, for their involvement in the murders of two families. The police have long been suspected of abusing their authority, using “Third Degree” techniques and fabricating false evidence, among other illegal acts. In the years since their arrests, the wrongfully convicted have been put on death sentence, death sentence with reprieve, and life imprisonment.

PRISM: Whistleblower

June 2013 •English

The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows. The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

I Trust in You

June 2016 •Polish

"Ufam Tobie" (Polish for "I Trust in You") is a film about God's mercy being poured out on the whole world because He is a loving God who seeks and wants to save every human being." From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls. The flames of compassion burn Me. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls. Speak to the whole world about My mercy." (Paragraph 1190 of the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska)

Cypher

November 2023 •English

Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.

Sartana Shoots First

October 2019 •English

Interview with George Hilton

Hommage à Michel Legrand et Jacques Demy au festival Sœurs Jumelles

August 2021 •French

Alain Jessua, le franc-tireur du cinéma français

November 2021 •French

The director Alain Jessua evokes his beginnings, his career and recalls with passion his experience with the greatest filmmakers.