Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive

How the inventor of the detective story became his own greatest mystery.

Merton: A Film Biography

In his lifetime, Thomas Merton was hailed as a prophet and censured for his outspoken social criticism. For nearly 27 years he was a monk of the austere Trappist order, where he became an eloquent spiritual writer and mystic as well as an anti-war advocate and witness to peace. Merton: A Film Biography provides the first comprehensive look at this remarkable 20th century religious philosopher who wrote, in addition to his immensely popular autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, over 60 books on some of the most pressing social issues of our time, some of which are excerpted here. Merton offers an engaging profile of a man whose presence in the world touched millions of people and whose words and thoughts continue to have a profound impact and relevance today.

A Night of Knowing Nothing

L, a student in India witness to the government's violent response to university protests, writes letters to her estranged lover while he is away.

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

Raised in the small all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore.

Tuktu and the Trials of Strength

In this short docu-fiction film, strong and hardy Inuit hunters demonstrate and test their strength in boxing, tug-of-war, and other strenuous activities. We see and hear the drum dance, a demonstration of Inuit poetry and rhythm.

Create or Die

In an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive, what drives indie filmmakers to keep creating their art, even when there is no promise of money or fame? CREATE OR DIE explores the insatiable passion to create despite the overwhelming odds through the lens of South Carolina writer and filmmaker David Axe, as he and his band of cast and crew head out into the backwoods of Georgia to shoot his low budget passion project ACORN. But when tragedy strikes on set, doubt and tension threaten to bring an end to their production and their dreams.

Aya

Aya grows up with her mother on the island of Lahou. Joyful and carefree, she likes to pick coconuts and sleep on the sand. However, her paradise is doomed to disappear under the waters. As the waves threaten her house, Aya makes a choice: the sea can rise, but she will not leave her island.

Moa Martinson - Mother of the Country

Documentary about Moa Martinson.

On sourira de nous

Four friends tired of protests are thinking about another way to shake up capitalist society. Driven by fiction, they decide to blow up a Brussels shopping center. How to think the attack? What roles do they need to play in order to imagine taking action? Is their friendship reconcilable with such a radical act?

Jack Kerouac's Road: A Franco-American Odyssey

Part documentary, part drama, this film presents the life and work of Jack Kerouac, an American writer with Québec roots who became one of the most important spokesmen for his generation. Intercut with archival footage, photographs and interviews, this film takes apart the heroic myth and even returns to the childhood of the author whose life and work contributed greatly to the cultural, sexual and social revolution of the 1960s.

The Hugo's Brain

The Hugo's Brain is a French documentary-drama about autism. The documentary crosses authentic autistic stories with a fiction story about the life of an autistic (Hugo), from childhood to adulthood, portraying his difficulties and his handicap.

Raul Brandão was a Great Writer...

This film is an attempt to disclose if Raul Brandão has left any trace, in Nespereira, Gumarães.

Refugee Poetry

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

The Last Years

This biographical film examines the multitalented personality of Karel Čapek and the context behind the creation of his works such as Krakatit, The White Disease, R-U-R, War with the Newts, or the “pocket stories”.

Pod hasprunskou slivkou

Man with a Movie Camera

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

Ernest Hemingway: Wrestling with Life

A&E's long-running biography series takes a look at one of the 20th century's most emblematic figures, Ernest Hemingway. Through a collection of still photography, narration by granddaughter Mariel Hemingway, commentary from author A.E. Hotchner and publisher Charles Scribner, and readings from Hemingway's writing (including personal letters and unpublished works) by Scott Glenn, the film takes us from the man's Midwestern childhood roots up through the tragic suicide that serves as a bittersweet exclamation on what is otherwise considered to be a life of profound accomplishment.

Viva Stalin

A village meeting in communist Russia to pay homage to Stalin leads to a gossip marathon, which develops into an endurance test for the participants.

Personal Documentary

During the summer semester at a New York City arts school, boundaries begin to blur between an adjunct professor and the students in her Personal Documentary filmmaking class.

All Five Millions of Us

"All Five Millions of Us" is a hybrid of documentary and fiction feature film about father absence, based on data released by the National Council of Justice: there are 5.5 million children without paternal recognition in Brazil.