A Conversation Between Parents

Batatinha, Poeta do Samba

March 2009 •Portuguese

A portrayal of the life of one of the most important samba musicians in Brazil, Bahian sambista Oscar da Penha, popularly known as Batatinha (1924 -1997). Through memories of their father, his nine children share their perspectives, as well as interviews with family, friends and musicians, to tell the story of Batatinha’s life, history and work.

About Love

June 2020 •Marathi

Three generations of the Phadke family live and work together in South Bombay. As they prepare for a family wedding, director Archana Atul Phadke, who is not in any hurry to marry, observes the shifting, often very funny household dynamics, as both her mother and grandmother wonder how they have tolerated their husbands for so long.

Memory Books

May 2008 •English

In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing what they call Memory Books for their children. Aware of the illness, it is a way for the family to come to terms with the inevitable death that it faces. Hopelessness and desperation are confronted through the collaborative effort of remembering and recording, a process that inspires unexpected strength and even solace in the face of death.

Fluid

December 2023 •English

A low budget, comedic documentary following a young man trying to take a deeper look into water, its purpose, and how we, as a society have chosen to use it.

Ich hätte am Kronleuchter hängen bleiben müssen

October 2020 •German

I'll be your mirror

April 2021 •German

The artist Johanna Faust is about to leave her children to finally devote herself to her art again. A vague memory comes to her mind: Didn't her grandmother do the same thing, with terrible consequences? The intimate road movie tells of lost mothers and abandoned children, of the temptations and the price of self-fulfilment, of the abysses of motherhood and of the deep longing for another life.

Time

July 1984 •Dutch

The point of departure for this film is the 1981 composition De Tijd by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. Van der Keuken leaves the music undisturbed as an autonomous soundtrack and has the images engage in a sort of battle with it. These images are associations, fragments of events, scenes and situations. The film is preceded by a text by Bert Schierbeek.

La memoria inmortal

August 2023 •Spanish

Filomena

June 2023 •Spanish

I Crossed Earth for Animation Trivia

October 2024 •English

Follow along as “budding YouTuber” Jack Carlin makes the hilariously unnecessary trip to the UK (over 3,000 miles) for a single day in order to compete in an animation quiz.

Renée R. : Lettres retrouvées

January 2014 •French

School of Hope

December 2020 •Arabic

In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a "school of hope" built of clay. Following both the students and the teachers in the Oulad Boukais Tribe's community school for over three years, SCHOOL OF HOPE shows students Mohamed, Miloud, Fatima, and their classmates, responding with childish glee to the school's altruistic young teacher, Mohamed. Each child faces individual obstacles - supporting their aging parents; avoiding restrictions from relatives based on traditional gender roles - while their young teacher makes do in a house with no electricity or water.

The Spider and the Fly

July 1938 •English

Few amateur films with sound were produced in the 1930s and fewer remain extant. A charming artifact that demonstrates the expressive possibilities and technical limitations of amateur talkies, "The Spider and the Fly" includes a backyard Labor Day gathering, a trip to the Riverview Amusement Park, and a homemade Halloween parade of witches and ghouls.

The Story of a Butcher Shop

November 2013 •Japanese

The Kitades run a butcher shop in Kaizuka City outside Osaka, raising and slaughtering cattle to sell the meat in their store. The seventh generation of their family's business, they are descendants of the buraku people, a social minority held over from the caste system abolished in the 19th century that is still subject to discrimination. As the Kitades are forced to make the difficult decision to shut down their slaughterhouse, the question posed by the film is whether doing this will also result in the deconstruction of the prejudices imposed on them. Though primarily documenting the process of their work with meticulous detail, Aya Hanabusa also touches on the Kitades' participation in the buraku liberation movement. Hanabusa's heartfelt portrait expands from the story of an old-fashioned family business competing with corporate supermarkets, toward a subtle and sophisticated critique of social exclusion and the persistence of ancient prejudices.

It Is Not the Brazilian Homosexuals Who Are Perverse, But the Situation in Which They Live

June 2021 •Portuguese

Two queer Brazilians go skinny dipping in a lake where they talk about love, sex, colonialism and migration, on a pandemic summer afternoon in Berlin.

Los Felices

Invalid date •Spanish

A love letter to Mar del Plata made of images, times and a road trip. "The Happy Ones" is an experimental short documentary composed of past and present family footage. It portrays a place in the summer, the city of Mar del Plata, with a span of 20 years between past and present images (January 2000 and 2020). Despite the time that passed by, it's beaches, essence and people remain, always willing to keep dancing.

The mother of the disabled

October 2024 •French

Petrouchka is a young Gabonese woman who takes care of her brother who is a victim of a disability. Her love for her brother leads her to create an association that aims to help all young people who live in this situation and is now called the mother of the disabled. She proudly shares her career with her followers on social networks.

Whitney: Can I Be Me

January 2017 •English

The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.

Blade Rollers

August 2024 •English

Honour West and Joan Camuglia-May share their experiences in this upbeat roller-skating documentary.

Our Baby: A Modern Miracle

July 2020 •English

What's it like starting a family when you're both transgender? This intimate film follows Hannah and Jake Graf on a journey through prejudice and surrogacy to birth during lockdown.