Marcela, Anabella and Estrella are three trans women who have defied the lifespan expected for a trans person. Through their recollections, one explores the memory’s strength, resistance and love for life of these three women.
Social & External
The people behind it
Estrella Ríos
Marcela Tobaldi
Anabella Blanco
When the Nuxalk trace their vanished ooligan alongside a land claim filed the day smallpox arrived, their radio station becomes courtroom, confessional and conjuring ground, where an older law insists: the fish and the people return together or not at all.
A feature-length documentary film by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi. After 43 horrific days working round the clock under constant bombardment in the emergency rooms of Gaza’s Al Shifa and Al Ahli hospitals, British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, emerged to find himself as a face of Palestinian resistance.
Through first person narration, Tari reveals personal stories related to her decision to work in Taiwan, her strained family relationships, the risks involved in working abroad and the traps she has fallen into.
Four stories set between the 60s and the 70s in Italy. Four personal female adventures crossing the path of Italian history, the struggle for women rights, the liberation of the body, in a country without memory.
The Alexander Ball is an observational documentary extravaganza celebrating Samoan-Māori-Australian trans woman of colour, Ella Ganza, and the Meanjin (Brisbane) ballroom scene, as she and her ballroom family prepare for one of the biggest pride events of the year: The Alexander Ball.
Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.
Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.
Edward Said's book Orientalism has been profoundly influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this engaging and lavishly illustrated interview he talks about the context within which the book was conceived, its main themes, and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of "the Orient" as represented in the mass media. "That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the world, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." -Edward Said
Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.
After opening a chest of memories, a girl narrates events from chilean dictatorship and the murder of Nadia Fuentes Concha through the figure of bread, which is present in chilean everyday life.
In this intimate portrait addressed directly to Hélène Hazera, filmmaker Judith Abitbol revisits a key figure of France’s countercultures from the late 1960s to the 1990s. A member of the Gazolines and the FHAR (Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action), Hazera was a tireless LGBTQ activist who founded Act Up’s Trans and AIDS commissions—one of her proudest achievements. Her true victory, however, was becoming the first transgender journalist at a major national newspaper (Libération), and later a producer at Radio France and France TV. Through her story, Abitbol reconnects with the insurrectionary spirit and creative chaos of those decades—an era when French culture was shaken by radical imagination, humor, and defiance. The film celebrates these modern Antigones who dared to live their desires beyond the reach of any law.
Oxana is a woman, a fighter, an artist. As a teenager, her passion for iconography almost inspires her to join a convent, but in the end she decides to devote her talents to the Femen movement. With Anna, Inna and Sasha, she founds the famous feminist group which protests against the regime and which will see her leave her homeland, Ukraine, and travel all over Europe. Driven by a creative zeal and a desire to change the world, Oxana allows us a glimpse into her world and her personality, which is as unassuming, mesmerising and vibrant as her passionate artworks.
The most crude and atrocious institutional violence of the Spanish State hides behind a true dark figure, an abyss into which this documentary peers through 30 firsthand accounts.
Oil extraction in the Amazon region is contaminating the land and water of a natural paradise. A slow process that threatens the health and traditional culture of local communities. Thirteen women raise their voices against the destruction of their land. Through protests and silent resistance, they confront an opaque global power structure.
"Kartli" refers both to Georgia’s medieval kingdom and a Tbilisi sanatorium sheltering refugees from the 1990s war in Abkhazia, meant as temporary but lasting 30 years. The crumbling building became a recreated “country”, with a farm, gardens, terraces and rooms where old VHS tapes revive memories of a lost paradise. Through Tamuna, Irma, and others, the film explores exile, trauma, and shared resilience, showing that nothing stays the same inside Kartli.
This poetic film follows director Marialuisa's journey with Anita and Leticia, Central American women traveling with the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants.
A Woman's Soul unveils the world of Rio de Janeiro's travestites - these mythological figures who have opt for sexual ambiguity. Caricatures of women who live in marginality. The documentary shows that behind the stereotypes, exoticism and flamboyancy that involve the travestites, there are human beings with dreams, rights, ambitions and frustrations - as everybody else. The film recieved the Honorable Mention at the XXV Jornada Internacional de Cinema da Bahia in 1998. It was also exhibited in New York and at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Cintia is currently 30 years old. On January 6, 2022, she decided to publish on her social networks, a story she lived in her childhood. When she was 6 or 7 years old, she wrote an unusual letter to the Three Wise Men.
An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia.
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
When a feminist filmmaker sets out to document the mysterious and polarizing world of the Men’s Rights Movement, she begins to question her own beliefs. Chronicling Cassie Jaye’s journey exploring an alternate perspective on gender equality, power and privilege.
Police pull over a woman who claims she just gave birth. But the baby — and the blood — aren't hers. Twisted lies unravel in this true-crime documentary.
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
An investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry.
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
Nine filmmakers each profile a young girl from a different part of the world to weave a global tapestry of youth in the 21st century.
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Matt Walsh's controversial doc challenges radical gender ideology through provocative interviews and humor.
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
This special explores the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to the screen, as well as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their classic roles. Director Deborah Chow leads the cast and crew as they create new heroes and villains that live alongside new incarnations of beloved Star Wars characters, and an epic story that dramatically bridges the saga films.
14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone.
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
A feature length documentary about the all-women team at the helm of Pixar's original feature, Turning Red. With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Director Domee Shi and her core leadership crew, this story shines a light on the powerful professional and personal journeys that brought this incredibly comical, utterly relatable, and deeply heartfelt story to the screen.