...WHEN YOU LOOK AWAY

Where are the limits of consciousness and are we connected in ways we never knew? Phie Ambo asks these big questions in a filmic experiment with surprising answers. Could a new way of understanding our human consciousness come from an entirely unexpected place?

ARMED WITH FAITH

At the Afghan-Pakistani border of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where landmines and suicide bombings are frightfully commonplace, Award winning filmmakers Asad Faruqi and Geeta Gandbhir show that that real war is still fought at home.

CHINA'S VAN GOGHS

Over the past twenty years Zhao Xiaoyong and his family have produced over 90,000 copies of Vincent van Gogh's paintings .An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making copies of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic works of art.

COMMUNION

A teenage girl prepares her autistic brother for the holy sacrament of church confirmation, while juggling taking care of her father and house that is falling apart. She dreams of picture perfect family with her mom coming back home for good, but instead she learns her first lesson of mature life - sometimes the hardest thing to do, is to let go of your own dreams.

HOW TO MEET A MERMAID

"How remarkably little we know about anyone." Director Coco Schrijber seeks an explanation for the disappearance of her brother Lex, demonstrating how the willpower required to die can at times rival the sheer force of the will to live. Although the sea refuses to disclose all of its secrets to Coco, its message is clear enough: "Now get out, and live!""

LA CHANA

An intimate portrait of Gypsy flamenco dancer La Chana as she returns to the stage after a 23-year break and uncovers the secret why she disappeared at the peak of her career.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

In the south of France, scientists from 37 countries are building the most complex machine ever attempted: an artificial sun. If they get it right, it will illuminate the way to produce clean, cheap, abundant energy for millions of years. If they fail, it will be one of the biggest scientific failures of all time

OLD MARINE BOY

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Myongho Park (51 yrs old) was born in North Korea and was a soldier for 20 years there. 10 years ago, Myongho sailed in the darkness of the west sea and crossed the border with his family. In South Korea, he makes a living as a meoguri (diver) at a small fishing village in the east coast of Korea, Myongho is a hard worker and now branded as a successful “North Korea defector” by South Korean government.

QUEERCORE: HOW TO PUNK A REVOLUTION

Come, join us on a wild, excessive ride with some queer rebels, through the 1980s and 1990s – alongside handmade magazines, teenage angst, raunchy rock shows and experimental porn. Before internet fact-checking, when punk was a way of life, and Kurt Cobain was spray painting “God Is Gay”

STRANGER IN PARADISE

Being unwanted is a reality that the thousands of refugees flowing into Europe have to face. Three different scenarios of welcoming are presented to three groups of refugees: a dismissive, an empathetic and the actual European migration policy. Is it human to categorize someone else’s life ?

THE GOOD POSTMAN

Ivan, the local postman, has a vision. He decides to run for mayor and turn the dying village alive by welcoming refugees. His opponents want to close their eyes, close down the border and reintroduce communism. As the campaign goes on, Ivan soon learns that while good intentions are not enough, even the smallest deeds matter.

THE POETESS

Hissa Hilal, a 43-year-old housewife from Saudi Arabia, tests her boundaries in the daily struggle for change. Veiled in a burqa, she gains international fame at Abu Dhabi’s prestigious contest “Million’s Poet” with her poems critical of terrorism and the ideologies of fanatic islamists.

THE UNFORGIVEN

In 1992 Esad was 19 years old Muslim boy when he radicalized and became a part of the Civil War of the former Yugoslavia. He became a guard in the prison camp of Celibici in Bosnia where they kept Serbs imprisoned. Esad became an executioner and he tortured and killed prisoners.b He was arrested in 1996, judged by the International Criminal Court ,and convicted to 15 years of prison. He needs to seek forgiveness among those he betrayed, those he hurt the most and for himself, because without forgiveness Esad will never be able to find his way back to life.

TO STAY ALIVE - A METHOD

Iggy Pop presents us a method to stay alive as a willful individual in an underground world. The manifesto TO STAY ALIVE - a method by Michel Houelbecq, and Iggy Pop's personal experience as a starting rock artist, are the starting points. Did Michel and Iggy help eachother to stay alive ?

TONGUE CUTTERS

When the Atlantic cod heads for the Northern Norwegian coast to spawn, the children in the fishing village Myre sharpen their knives and get ready for work. Cod tongue cutting is a tradition spanning generations back, and kids as young as five take part in the process of producing this delicacy. With an almost frightening pace, their knives slice and cut, and a highlight of the season is the World Championship of cod tongue cutting.

WAITING FOR GIRAFFES

Dr. Sami is the veterinarian of Qalqilya Zoo (Palestine), the only zoo in the world in occupied territory. He loves his animals and to improve their situation he needs to collaborate with the Israeli’s and he is seeking international recognition. So that one day he can replace the giraffes that were lost in the last intifada.

WOMEN OF THE VENZUELAN CHAOS

 

Five Venezuelan women, from different backgrounds and generations, draw a portrait of their collapsing country that faces possibly its worst social, economic, power and political crisis in its 200-year-history