Human Rights - catndocs.com

#Female Pleasure

by Barbara Miller
Mons Veneris Films GmbH, Das Kollektiv für audiovisuelle Werke GmbH, INDI FILM GmbH
| 97' | Switzerland, Germany | 2018 | DCP |
#FEMALE PLEASURE embarks on a journey to discover the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of female sexuality in the 21st century.

#Schoolyard

by Nurit Kedar
Nurit Kedar
| 70’ & 54' | Israel | 2021 | 4K |
In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. A company of Israeli paratroopers got an order to guard 1,000 Palestinians detained in a Sidon schoolyard. The company commander, Idan Harpaz, was named officer in charge. Harpaz gave the order to beat, and a good number of soldiers — himself included — carried it out. When buses arrived to transport the detainees elsewhere, Harpaz and the soldiers under his command discovered that at least seven of the detainees were dead.

5 BROKEN CAMERAS

Palestinian farm laborer Emad has five video cameras, and each of them tells a different part of the story of his village's resistance to Israeli oppression. Emad lives in Bil'in, just west of the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. Using the first camera, he recorded how the bulldozers came to rip the olive trees out of the ground in 2005. Here, a wall was built directly through his fellow villagers' land to separate the advancing Jewish settlements from the Palestinians.

A MOTHER BRINGS HER SON TO BE SHOT

by Sinead O'Shea
Blinder Films Limited, Spring Films, SOS Productions
| 82’ | Ireland | 2017 | HD |
Filmed over five years, this unflinching darkly humorous documentary examines violence committed by groups opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland, long after the Troubles came to an end. The title is no exaggeration.

A RIVER CHANGES COURSE

by Kalyanee Mam |
Migrant Films, Documentation Center of Cambodia
| 83’ | Cambodia - USA | 2013

Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while the river of life flows in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction. Working in an intimate, verite style, Kalyanee Mam, spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians struggling to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt.

A Syrian Love Story

by Sean McAllister

| 80’ | UK | 2015 | |
Filmed over 5 years, A Syrian Love Story charts an incredible odyssey to political freedom in the West. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

Before the Last Curtain Falls

by Thomas Wallner
Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion Köln GmbH & Co.KG , Savage Film
| 86’&52’ | Germany/Belgium | 2014 | HD |
The film dives deeply into the exceptional and heart-warmingstories of a group of transsexuals and drag queens in their sixties and seventies, who summon up their bravery to take the stage once again – perhaps for the last time.

Belly of the Beast

by Erika Cohn
Belly of the Beast LLC
| 81' | USA | 2020 | HD |
The pastoral farmlands surrounding the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison, help conceal the reproductive and human rights violations transpiring inside its walls. A powerful exposé of human rights abuses of women en the criminal justice system.

CALL ME KUCHU

by Malika Zouhali-Worrall & Katherine Fairfax Wright
| 87’ - 58’ | USA | 2012 | HD

In Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. David Kato - Uganda’s first openly gay man - and his fellow activists work against the clock to defeat the legislation while combatting vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one is prepared for the brutal murder that shakes their movement to its core and sends shockwaves around the world.

Citizenfour

ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER - DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

by Laura Poitras
Praxis Films, Participant Media
| 114’ | USA/Germany | 2014 | HD |
CITIZENFOUR is a real life thriller of Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald’s encounters with Edward Snowden as he hands over classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA).

EMPIRE OF DUST

by Bram Van Paesschen
Savage Film
| 77’ | Belgium | 2011 | HD Loa Yang and Eddy both work for the Chinese Railway Engineering Company in charge of rebuilding the 300km-long road that connects Kolwezi to the capital of the province Lubumbashi. Loa Yang is head of logistics for the group but when he sees that none of the necessary material arrives, he has no option but to leave the camp with Eddy, a Congolese man who speaks fluent Mandarin, and head out to deal with local Congolese entrepreneurs. The result is an endless, harsh but absurdly funny roller coaster of negotiations and misunderstandings, as Lao Yang learns about the Congolese ways.

Fly so Far

by Celina Escher
Pramfilm AB, Sugar Rush Productions, Chimbolo Films
| 88' | Sweden | 2020 | 2K & 4K |
‘Fly So Far’ follows Teodora Vásquez, the spokesperson of the women accused of aggravated homicide and imprisoned in El Salvador for having had a miscarriage. Teodora’s case has become a symbol of the extremism in the criminalization of abortion and the cruelty against women within the Salvadoran system. But also, of empowerment, resilience and solidarity.

Grand Me

by Atiye Zare Arandi
Associate Directors, Atam Film
| 80’- 52’ | Belgium, Iran, Qatar | 2024 | 2K |
The young Iranian Melina lives with her grandparents because neither of her divorced parents is willing to take her in. Turning nine, Melina is legally coming of age and considers opening her custody case in court.

Immortals

by Maja Tschumi
Filmgerberei GmbH, Rola Productions
| 94’ | Switzerland, Iraq | 2024 | 2K |
IMMORTALS is an insight into the hopes and broken dreams of a new generation that has known nothing but war since the US-led occupation.

IN BED WITH THE ARAB SPRING

by Paul Moreira
Premières Lignes
| 54’ | France | 2012 | HD
The Arab revolutions swept away the old regimes and were led by young modern people, invested with a global culture, internet, huge frustration, and a need for freedom and emancipation. Women played a major role in the revolutions. Some even became icons.

In God’s Hand (In der Hand Gottes)

by Peter Woditsch
Sophimages, Artisan Filme, Germany, Hamburg
| 67’ - 56’ | Belgium | 2014 | HD |
One day they followed their vocation. As priests, they preached love relentlessly, sacrificing body and soul. But slowly, doubts started to grow. In order to keep their faith alive, they decided to leave the church, without looking back. The story of three former priests, a Belgian, an Austrian and a German; Three intimate confessions confronted with the personal view of the film director.

ININNAWA:AN ISLAND CALLING

by Arfan Sabran
Two Islands Digital (PT Dua Pulau Digital)
| 73’- 52’ | Indonesia | 2022 | 2K |
"Ininnawa: An Island Calling" explores the difficulties the world’s largest archipelago faces in providing health care. An out of sight, out of mind approach has failed her people. It is a story of obligation and sacrifice, told through a family dedicating their lives to this pursuit in the remote islands of the Flores Sea.

IRON CROWS

by Bong-Nam Park
Frontline News Service
| South Korea | 90' - 59' | 2009 | HD |
PHP is the best conditioned ship breaking site in Chittagong, a home to the world renowned ship breaking industry. However, the workers risk their lives while wrestling with thousands tons of iron pieces at the yards full of asbestos and toxic gases. There is always a chance for explosion while burning the waste oils trapped in stacks of iron. The workers could easily get crushed and killed while cutting or moving iron plates.

Johatsu – Into Thin Air

by Andreas Hartmann, Arata Mori
Ossa Film Andreas Hartmann, Mori Film
| 85’ - 52’ | Germany, Japan | 2024 | |
In Japan, people vanish without a trace with the support of so-called 'night moving' companies, which help people to disappear from their current life, leaving behind everything to start a new life somewhere else.

Kamay

by Shahrokh Bikaran, Ilyas Yourish
Clin d’oeil films BVBA, ROW, Temps Noir Pictures
| 106’- 52’ | Afghanistan, Belgium, Germany,France | 2024 | |
A Hazara family from Afghanistan seeks justice after the death of their daughter at Kabul University.

LAST TRAIN HOME

by Lixin Fan
EyeSteelfilm
| Canada | 87’ - 52’ | 35mm | 2009 | HD |

Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important holiday in the lunar calendar. It remains the last stronghold of Chinese traditions that are withering rapidly with the invasion of new values. Each year, hundreds of millions of migrant workers return to their homes from the city to the rural countryside, throwing the transportation system into utter chaos. For many migrants, the cheapest and fastest route home is by train. People camp at railway station for tickets, climb through windows, stand for days and nights, wear diapers to avoid using the lavatory, and struggle to stay in sanity to survive the ride. They are determined to return home at any cost for the solemn purpose of getting back to see their families.

Life Sentences

by Nurit Kedar, Yaron Shani
Nurit Kedar
| 92’ & 52’ | Israel | 2013 | HD |
An Arab man marries a Jewish woman and they live in quiet harmony within the Arab-Jewish community with their son and daughter. The family unit is broken when they discover that their Arab father is behind dozens of terror attacks.

Little People Big Dreams

by Mak CK
MCN International Pte. Ltd, Wonderland Pictures
| 89’ | Singapore | 2014 | HD |
Travel to the most unlikely kingdom on earth. This is china’s dwarves empire, where little people stand tall. Or do they? This feature documentary chronicles their journey in the pursuit of of happiness and explores the shades of modern-day morality.

Make People Better

by Cody Sheehy
Rhumbline Media, LLC, Random Good Films
| 83’ & 52' | USA | 2022 | |
In 2018, the Chinese scientist Dr. He Jiankui crossed a Rubicon in human evolution by altering the genetic structure of embryos to produce the world’s first genome-edited babies.

My Barefoot Friend

by Seong-Gyou Lee
Sigong Tech Co., Ltd, SigongTech
| 52’ - 81’ | South Korea | 2010 | HD |
In Calcutta, 20 thousand feet are running tangled up, all barefoot. They are rickshaw pullers. Among them is Shallim, an ordinary man whose old and tired rickshaw has been the only means of hope. He’s run endless miles with it to save up money to buy an auto rickshaw, that will realize his dream: a house for his family. However, despair comes to the weakest first. Shallim’s wife is found to be seriously ill. His son catches a swine flu. Hospital charges are mounting and Shalim’s dream is on the verge of collapsing.

My Stolen Planet

by Farahnaz Sharifi
JYOTI Film GmbH, Pak Film, Farzad Pak
| 82’ | Iran, Germany | 2024 | |
Farah, an Iranian woman is forced to migrate to her private planet to be free. She buys other people's memories in form of super 8mm films and records and archives her own, to create an alternative history of Iran.

No Visible Trauma

by Marc Serpa Francoeur, Robinder Uppal
Lost Time Media, Big Cedar Films
| 44'&52'&97’ | Canada | 2020 | 4K |

The lives of three men and their families in Calgary, Canada are torn apart by the violent actions of police officers and a justice system that refuses to hold them accountable.

Only the Devil Lives Without Hope

by Magnus Gertten
Auto Images AB, Upnorth Film
| 95’&58’ | Sweden, Norway | 2020 | |
Her Muslim brother is imprisoned on false charges of terrorism, but in an unforeseen twist, Dilya's fight for his freedom takes on an entirely new and greater significance.

OSCAR NOMINEE OPEN HEART

OPEN HEART

by Kief Davidson
Urban Landscapes | 40’ - 52' | USA | 2012 | HD
An HBO Documentary Film In Co-Production with ARTE
Eight Rwandan children leave their families behind to embark on a life or death journey seeking high-risk heart surgery in Sudan. Their hearts ravaged by a treatable disease from childhood strep throat, the kids have only months to live. Open Heart reveals the intertwined endeavors of Dr. Emmanuel, Rwanda's lone government cardiologist as he fights to save the lives of his young patients and Italian Dr. Gino Strada, the Salam Center’s head surgeon, who must also fight to save his hospital, Africa's only link to life-saving free cardiac surgery for the millions who need it.

Overseas

by Sung-a Yoon
IOTA Production, Films de l’Oeil Sauvage, Clin d’Oeil Film
| 90’ | Belgium/France | 2019 | HD |

Within the threshold of fiction, Overseas bring to light the question of domestic slavery in our globalized world, while emphasizing those women’s determination, their sisterhood, and the strategies they find to face the obstacles that awaits them in the near future.

Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution

by Yony Leyser
Desire Productions GmbH, Totho Productions CpH
| 83’ & 56’ | USA | 2017 | HD |
In the mid 1980s, two 20-year-old punks, Bruce LaBruce and GB Jones created a movement known as Homocore, later known as Queercore. Unhappy with the Gay Rights Movement’s conformist thrust and the macho aggressiveness of the Punk scene, they decided to create their own revolution from their bedrooms. Before internet fact-checking, when punk was a way of life, and Kurt Cobain was spray painting “God Is Gay”

Scarlet Road. A Sex Worker's Journey

by Pat Fiske, Catherine Scott, Catherine Scott
Paradigm Pictures
| 70’ - 54’ | Australia | 2011 | HDCAM |
Scarlet Road follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele - people with disability.

- ONE WORLD 2016 - AUDIENCE AWARD
- SUNDANCE WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY GRAND JURY PRIZE
- SUNDANCE WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY AUDIENCE AWARD
- IDFA AUDIENCE AWARD
- IDFA 2015 DOC U AWARD FOR THE YOUTH JURY'S FAVOURITE FILM

Sonita

by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami
TAG/TRAUM Filmproduktion, Intermezzo Films Switzerland + Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami Iran
| 91’ - 52’ | Germany, Switzerland, Iran | 2015 | HD |
Sonita's family moved to Iran when she was eight, fleeing the war in Afghanistan. Whithout a legal ID, Sonita couldn't go to school, an NGO taught her how to read and write. Listening to hip hop even though she didn't understand his lyrics, Sonita realized she could tell her own story— and started writing songs of her own. In Iran, it is illegal for a woman to sing without special permission from the government. But with the help of a few rebellious producers, she started recording.

South to North

by Antoine Boutet
Les Films du Présent, Sister Productions
| 109' | France | 2014 | DCP, dvd blu ray, video, hd, quicktime |
The Nan Shui Bei Diao (South Water North Move), designed to move water from the south to the north of China, is the biggest water transfer project the world has ever seen. Charting the path of this national construction project, the film maps the turbulent cartography of a territory where cement defeats the plains, rivers are deviated from their natural course, deserts become forests and where gradually people are becoming vocal, demanding justice and the right to speak out. While matter decomposes and individuals are becoming alarmed, a science-fiction landscape, against nature, is reconstituted.

SWEET DREAMS

2014: 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide

by Lisa Fruchtman & Rob Fruchtman
| Liro Films | 89’ - 52’ | USA | 2012 | HD
Ingoma Nshya is Rwanda’s first and only all women’s drumming troupe. Made up of women from both sides of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the troupe offers a place of support, healing and reconciliation. When the group decides to partner with two young American entrepreneurs to open Rwanda’s first ever ice cream shop, these remarkable women embark on a journey of independence, peace and possibility. Sweet Dreams interweaves intimate, sometimes heart-wrenching stories, with joyous and powerful music to present a moving portrait of a country in transition.

The Oath

by Laura Poitras
Praxis Films
| 96’44” | USA | 2010 | HD 16:9 |
An extraordinary inside view of militant Islamism. A quietly disturbing, often complex portrait of an Al Qaeda insider and a Guantanamo Bay detainee, The Oath offers a chilling preview of emerging Middle East battleground Yemen and poignantly questions American policies over the past decade in the Middle East. The Oath tells the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison and the first man to face the controversial military tribunals.

The Pawn

by Jean-Cosme Delaloye
TIPI'MAGES Productions
| 78’ - 52’ | Switzerland | 2015 | HD |
Karin Gramajo’s life drastically changed when her teenage cousin Kelly was brutally kidnapped and murdered. Despite death threats, the single mother then decided to study to become a lawyer to make sure her cousin’s death wouldn’t remain unpunished, thus also helping other victims fight for justice. Astrid Elias was kidnapped and raped at the age of 14. She fled to the U.S. where she is facing deportation. LA PRENDA is a feature length documentary film about two women fighting to end the climate of impunity in Guatemala, one of the world’s most violent countries.

The Poetess

by Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff
Brockhaus/Wolff Films GbR
| 88’ & 52’ | Germany, Saudi Arabia | 2017 | HD |
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 Shelter

by Fernand Melgar
Climage
| 101’ & 52' | Suisse | 2014 | 16/9 | DCP |
Every night dozens of people are forced to sleep on the streets of my town. As the population of the excluded grows each day, silence and ignorance of their condition continues to reign. In our current climate of xenophobia I would like my film to help lift the veil on their existence and plight.

Special Flight

by Fernand Melgar
Climage
| 103' - 52' | Switzerland | 2011 | HDCAM-35mm |
For the first time in Europe, a film crew gained authorisations to a detention centre for illegal migrants. Behind the closed prison doors, tension builds day by day awaiting for their deportation.

Wake up on Mars

by Dea Gjinovci
Mélisande Films , Alva Film, Amok Films
| 74’ | France, Switzerland | 2020 | 4K |
A 10-year-old Roma boy living in Sweden attempts to come to terms with the mysterious Resignation Syndrome that has put his two sisters in a coma. The tight-knit family is trying to rebuild a normal life far from their native Kosovo where they were victims of persecution. While their entire future hangs in the balance of a pending asylum request, the little boy dreams of building a spaceship to leave it all behind.

When Harmattan Blows

by Edyta Wroblewska
Szymon Kudła - Inspiration and Energy, Pinot Films
| 81’- 52’ | Poland | 2024 | 4K |
Barbara from Ghana, despite traumatic experiences from her childhood, didn’t give up on her dreams. In order to move forward, she has to face demons of the past.

Who I Am Not

by Tünde Skovran
Double 4 Studios, Filmoption International
| 105’ & 52’ & 13x10’ | Romania, Canada | 2023 | |
Who I Am Not gives voice to the long ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world's population:the intersex community. And it is an intimate lookat the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are born in-between. A personal exploration of truth, faith, and belonging.