Filmed during the battle of Kobani, this film reveals the women at the heart of the fight against IS. With stoical perseverance and the aid of American airstrikes, these women are leading the fight for freedom.
Social & External
Turkey's history has been shaped by two major political figures: Mustafa Kemal (1881-1934), known as Atatürk, the Father of the Turks, founder of the modern state, and the current president Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, who apparently wants Turkey to regain the political and military pre-eminence it had as an empire under the Ottoman dynasty.
A unique interview with Tooba Gondal, the woman who groomed and lured scores of Western women to join ISIS. Using social media, she became a deadly matchmaker, recruiting a number of high-profile “jihadi brides” for ISIS militants in Syria: she allegedly helped organise the transporting of three British schoolgirls, including Shamima Begum, to Syria.
When artist Janet Biehl fell in love with radical American philosopher Murray Bookchin in the 1980s whilst editing his ground-breaking opus “The Ecology of Freedom”, she could never have imagined that it would one day take her halfway across the globe. Now, over 40 years later, Janet travels from America to the Middle East to witness something remarkable - how Murray’s ideas have ignited a female-led revolution in North-East Syria, where society is being rebuilt in the wake of victory over ISIS. Janet meets the women who are turning her late partner’s political theories into a modern reality, creating a grassroots communal democracy. Janet draws what she sees, and her illustrations capture the humanity of ordinary people in their struggle to self-govern. Now, at this critical moment for Syria and with this revolutionary project under renewed threat, "Threads of a Revolution" reveals a possible way forward for those prepared to fight for a new way to live.
When a British-born actor abandons his Hollywood career to volunteer to Join the Kurdish YPG to fight ISIS in Syria, many see him as a selfless hero battling America's most insidious enemy. But others think he's a hot-tempered narcissist, staging a publicity stunt to further his career - and when his service ends, neither the UK nor the US welcome him back. Through incisive interviews with the actor, his supporters, his detractors, and top-tier experts - and featuring the actor's own jaw-dropping helmet-cam video of deadly battles with and interrogations of ISIS fighters - Heval gives viewers unprecedented access into a war against evil and one man's controversial role in it.
Kurdistan, partitioned between Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, could play a major role in a torn Middle East. But who are the Kurds? What influence do they have? Who exactly is Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party? An enlightening investigation by Luis Miranda.
As the forces of ISIS and Assad tear through villages and society in Syria and Northern Iraq, a group of brave and idealistic women are taking up arms against them—and winning inspiring victories. Members of “The Free Women’s Party” come from Paris, Turkish Kurdistan, and other parts of the world. Their dream: To create a Democratic Syria, and a society based on gender equality. Guns in hand, these women are carrying on a movement with roots that run 40 years deep in the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey. GIRL’S WAR honors the legacy of Sakine Cansiz, co-founder of the PKK who was assassinated in Paris in 2013, and reflects on the sacrifices made by all of the women in the movement, who have endured jail, rape, war, and persecution in their quest to liberate their lives and sisters from male dominance. With scenes of solidarity, strength, and love amongst these brave women soldiers, GIRL'S WAR is a surprising story of Middle Eastern feminism on the front lines.
A look back over nine years of the Syrian Civil War, an inextricable conflict, like a black box, due to the competing interests of the many factions in presence and those of the foreign powers.
This Rain Will Never Stop takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of life and death.
American Herro is the remarkable story of a young Kurdish girl who comes to America as a refugee from Iraq and lives out the American dream. 30-years later, traveling the globe working for Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Diplomat Herro Mustafa invites her first American friend, filmmaker Kirk Roos, to visit Iraq and retrace her steps to freedom.
“Binxet – Under the border” is a journey between life and death, dignity and pain, struggle and freedom. It takes place along the 911 km of the turkish-Syrian border. On the one hand the ISIS, in the other Erdogan’s Turkey. In the middle the borders and one hope. This hope is called Rojava, only one point on the chart of a troubled region, a region of resistance and an example of grassroots democracy that speaks about gender equality, self-determination of peoples and peaceful coexistence.
Sivan Encü, a young Kurdish man, provided for his family by "smuggling" through the Turkish-Iraqi border. When he was murdered in the 2011 Robozik (Roboski) Massacre, the responsibility of family's welfare was taken over by his younger brother Sinan, who lost his life in an unfortunate accident. This is the story of their grief-stricken mother Heyam and her resilience. Alongside Heyam's struggle, the film brings the voices of Robozik elders and notables to the forefront, who have experienced first-hand the social, political and economic dimensions of smuggling, which has been the backbone of survival for the locals for many generations.
Aslı Erdoğan, world-renowned author and activist, has fallen into silence after she fled to Germany. Incomplete Sentences is a feature documentary on her literature and life, leading to exile in Frankfurt, after the Turkish regime’s oppression results in her unlawful imprisonment. Now, she struggles in exile while everybody is waiting for her to write again. Right after getting out of prison Aslı starts telling her story to the director, wandering in the streets of Istanbul she recites parts from her books and explains the stories behind. When Aslı goes to Germany to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Award she cannot return; thus her exile, which she likens to a semi-open prison, begins. As her health deteriorates and keeps her from writing, the tragedy in her books becomes her own reality.
An old Kurdish man Hussein Mahmood who is a carpenter tries to make artificial legs for people who have lost their legs.
Bakur (North) is a documentary that invites its audience to reflect on a war that has been continuing for decades and gives an insightful look on its main subject, the PKK. The film follows the lives of the guerilla in three different camps on the Kurdish region (north) that lies within Turkish borders.
The educational documentary film Music of Yarsan: A Living Tradition is an investigation into the variety of muscial practices in the life of the Kurdish Ahl-e Haqq people of the Guran region, in the Kermanshah province of Iran.
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.
Journey to the heart of the conflict between Kurdistan and the armed group Islamic State. This region that has been neglected and ignored for ages is now one of the key destinations for refugees in the region. This medium-length documentary show the spectator the different groups and communities that are either fighting or residing in the Kurd area.
The film tells about the experience of Mother Besna who wants to reach her son just like other mothers whose sons are involved in the war that has lasted for many years in Turkey. So, this is a period documentary that describes Mother Besna's struggle for finding her son Enes in her mortally dangerous and trans-border journey.
The story puts İlhan Çomak at the center, even though he is not physically present in the film. It focuses on the 21 years that İlhan spent in prison and his family’s experience of those years without him. The narrative is constructed through the letters İlhan wrote and aims to describe his life, his emotions and longings. The film constructs İlhan’s history through a chronology in the prison but refrains from restricting it only to a “prisoner’s quest for justice”, and rather tells a story of the situations he finds himself in over the years and his emotions and their equivalents in life.
The story of this film is an aesthetic narration of the death of a Kurdish Family, along the 20th century.
I was somewhere between the beggining and the end of life. After winter became spring, and summer became fall, and fall winter again. I always knew change would be constant.
As a part of a tribute night to broadcaster and television executive Alan Yentob, he interviews leading British artist Jenny Saville. One of the most successful figurative painters working today, she came to prominence as part of the YBA movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She has been reluctant to discuss her work for many years on television, until now. Alan Yentob was working with her on a film for Imagine and caught up with her in Vienna on the eve of two major 2025 exhibitions she is mounting. This was the last interview Alan Yentob conducted in a career spanning six decades at the BBC, bringing many of the world’s leading artists and creatives to the screen. Alan also persuaded Jenny to allow cameras into her painting studio for the first time in almost three decades.
We can easily say that our life is a game, not an ordinary one where you can determine the story, the space and the characters, but a game which comes with opportunities and traps, with gains and losses, a game we have to play every second, a game in which we are rooted. Sometimes we choose the virtual space in order to escape reality, but in the end it turns out to be just a way to avoid the real game, our everyday life. We see the big changes as new levels in our lives and we don't have the option to skip, our only choice is to play. So, the "Call of Pink" comes with the positive point of view that the world needs to overcome the real life levels, which we all know are the hardest to pass. Anyway, some details as creativity and fun are the things we should keep as weapons for the reality.
In 1981 Cheryl Baker, Jay Aston and Mike Nolan became part of one of the biggest and most loved pop bands of the 80's, Bucks Fizz. They went on to sell over 15 million records worldwide with 3 UK number one singles. But behind the glamour and the smiles lay deep seated feuds that would ultimately tear the band apart. Over 30 years later they are about to embark on a new and exciting journey together. With stories from their days in Bucks Fizz along with their hopes for the future and exclusive full length live recordings from the acclaimed 'Splash Tour
In the last "Big Boss" (AKA "Fists of Fury"), Cheng Chao-On was arrested after killing Hsiao Mi, "The Big Boss." In this unofficial sequel, his brother, Cheng Chao-Chun, visits his brother in Thailand, finds a job at the same ice factory that his brother worked at and avenges the death of their father.
Spectator is one of the early masterpieces by Zwartjes. The film explicitly shows one of Frans Zwartjes’ main themes: the relationship between husband and wife. It is a relationship that is strongly marked by power and domination, sexual attraction and repulsion. It manifests itself in humiliation and abuse (such Pentimento), but also in cool eroticism or natural physicality. Zwartjes’ goal is not to explain or designate this relationship. Rather it is the subject that Zwartjes uses to describe his world. In an article on Zwartjes, filmmaker and student George Schouten compares Zwartjes to the Italian writer Alberto Moravia. For both, sex is their way of dealing with reality. It is the subject by which they define their world. And for Zwartjes, it is also the subject with which he can display and develop his cinematic talent. (eyefilm.nl)
It's the year 2378. 30 Years ago the planet earth was deemed unlivable. Following all humans were shuttled off to bases on Mars. Yet some remain on the planet earth, living with gas masks, preserving what is left of the forgotten planet. When an Astronaut crash lands back on earth, he must work together with these people to repair his ship...
Lucy works for the Grouch family, and is used to being overworked and abused. But when Mr. Grouch punches her sweetheart, Bill, she has had enough. She grabs a knife and chases Mr. Grouch until he apologizes to Bill.
A journalist (Alekos Alexandrakis), working together with a young director (Peris Michailidis), tries to gather information about a family that was separated due to political turmoil. They locate some of its members, who tell their dramatic stories that began with the Civil War. The two men’s search is interrupted when a key person refuses to speak
A spokesman rises to the top of the Greater Boston area spokesperson game.
At the beginning of the summer of 2018, filmmaker Eli Hayes, who has been struggling with depression for his entire life, fell deep into the inky chasms of the disease. Days later, Hayes was called down to Tallahassee, Florida for a job opportunity. While in Florida, the despondency grew more severe and eventually took complete control of his psychological well-being. Over the course of the summer, good days would occur sparsely and sporadically; on these days, Hayes would bring his camera outside to film the beauty of his environment, despite knowing full well that the dejection would soon return. “A Florida Melancholy” is a landscape film of emotional survival, comprised of the footage that Hayes shot while in Florida throughout the darkest season of his life, during which all that he could rely on for hope & direction were his camera, and his surroundings.
Madhuri was thrilled when her brother Jimmy accepted her invitation for a holiday in the USA. Jimmy boarded a Jet Airways flight and landed at Dulles International Airport, where Madhuri greeted him with open arms. Joining them were her friends Katrina and Priyanka, ready to make the trip unforgettable. Their adventure began at the breathtaking Niagara Falls, where the misty spray left them laughing and drenched. In New York, they marveled at the city lights and strolled across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Washington, D.C., offered monuments and history, while Las Vegas dazzled them with its neon nightlife. The journey ended with a serene hike through the stunning Valley of Fire State Park. Every moment was filled with laughter, pictures, and stories that turned into lifelong memories. As they sat under the stars on their final evening, Jimmy smiled and said, "Life is a journey, and this one has been incredible. But the journey never stops.