Social & External
The people behind it
Lebanon is a country hijacked by sects, money, and power. While citizens long for a collective identity to thrive as a community, politicians use the sectarianism for their corrupt ambitions. Unless there is a change, Lebanon will be lost forever.
Cameras follow four British men who have collectively helped to conceive more than 175 babies by donating their sperm to women who contact them via unregulated websites.
CHOOSING CHILDREN is a pioneering film about parenting in non-traditional families and helped to open dialogue about the meaning and reality of the "modern family." This film takes an intimate look at the issues faced by lesbians and gay men who decide to become parents after coming out.
In an effort to understand where she came from, Fabiola asked a question that became the central phrase of the film: what would my life have been like if I'd stayed in Haiti? Taking as her starting point her biological mother's precarious economic situation, she had no choice but to entrust her daughter to her care. Fabiola could have ended up restavek, or in a loving foster family, or on the streets abandoned to her fate, or adopted abroad.
Following in the footsteps of two women in search of their origins, this documentary lifts the veil on a little-known page of the post-war era: the adoption, as part of a cross-border program, of thousands of children born during the French occupation of Germany.
Three groups of adolescent girl friends from Quebec are going through tough changes. The process of inventing their own bodies and identity are being recorded on the move by their smartphones and shared with their peers from other parts of the networked world. Due to their strong need of external confirmation, they alter their lives into a series of retouched pictures and videos. The film camera, however, captures their feelings of void, loneliness and deep inner insecurities that are not so attractive for Periscope, TikTok or Instagram. An intimate portrait of adolescence is made with full comprehension of experiencing and self-presentation in a generation growing up on the brink of the real and virtual worlds.
ROB, a young LA native, moves to Portland for school, only to drop out almost immediately and settle into a comfortable routine of doing absolutely nothing. What follows is a mostly self-inflicted journey through failure, small awakenings, and the long road to becoming a barely functional adult.
Edu, is a young Brazilian Drag Queen in Buenos Aires' underground nightlife. He dreams of a grander life: Europe, romance, and transitioning into the woman he sometimes sees in the mirror. A marriage of convenience with a Dutch man offers him hope, but in the Netherlands his dreams crumble. Returning to Buenos Aires he finds his old life unrecognizable. Struggling with identity and love, Edu questions his place in drag and whether the roles he’s played reflect who he truly is.
Thanks to DNA, this documentary establishes the identity of Marilyn's biological father, thus revealing her new paternal family, 60 years after the icon's death.
Min Mors Hemmelighet (Suddenly Sami) is a personal film about identity. During the director’s childhood and youth in Oslo her mother never told her about her indigenous Sami background in the Arctic area of Norway. Why didn’t she? And how can the director suddenly become Sami in the middle of life? And does she really want to?
Three men enter the new wild west of baby making, online forums where sperm donors connect with hopeful parents, but find themselves exchanging more than just genetic material.
We admire beauty; we recoil from bodies that are marred, disfigured, different. Didier Cros’ moving, intimate film forces us to question what underlies our notions of beauty as we join a talented photographer taking stunning portraits of several people with profound visible scars which have dictated certain elements of their lives but have not come to define their humanity. The subjects' perceptions of themselves are dynamic, unexpected, and even heartwarming. This is an unforgettable journey to be shared with the world.
An experimental documentary/animation hybrid exploring likeness scanning, AI, and what that means for identity.
How much of your identity can you outsource? In an attempt to escape her workaholism, visual artist Karina Beumer hires multiple substitutes for herself. What do the substitutes gain from assuming someone else's identity? And what does it cost Karina? It's about losing control and finding yourself.
As she goes through hills and rivers looking for Melusina, a mutant and legendary mermaid from the city of Luxembourg, where she grew up, the director talks to four women about their uncertain identities: what it is like to be an immigrant without being one, and to be a Luxembourgish without being one. A journey through memory in rainy weather. A search for ever-fragmented identities. An uncertain attempt at reconciliation. The memory of emigration from a contemporary perspective of a generation with a radically different relation to territories and displacements.
At age 29, documentary filmmaker Sara Lamm discovered that she was conceived via sperm donor. Using her skills as an investigator she decides to dig ever deeper to uncover where half of her DNA comes from.
In the collective imagination, international adoption evokes images of children being saved from a life of destitution in poorer countries by being adopted by families in Europe or America. But the reality that has emerged is one of child trafficking, falsified documents and governments around the world turning a blind eye.
After a woman's at-home DNA test reveals multiple half-siblings, she discovers a shocking scheme involving donor sperm and a popular fertility doctor.
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.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
In the heart of the tranquil Vosges forests, where lynxes, bears and deer roam freely, Vincent Munier accompanies his father on his expeditions. He not only seeks to capture the visual wonders of this forest kingdom, but also aims to make its sounds audible. Every whisper of the forest is a reminder of the knowledge of nature that his father once imbued in him – knowledge that Vincent now passes on to his own son. Vincent Munier combines breathtaking footage of nature and its sounds to create a fairytale-like cinematic experience that slows time down.
A documentary about the making of David Fincher's 2008 film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Virtually every element in the evolution of the Fincher's film is documented here, from the project's attachment to numerous other directors during the 1990s, to its shoot in 2006 and 2007 in New Orleans, to its complex, CGI-intensive postproduction process.
A special celebrating the origins and legacy of Star Wars' legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett.
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
The film is based on interviews with 2,000 women from 50 countries, and covers the status of women all over the world. The topics covered include forced marriages, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, acid attacks, motherhood, sexuality, menstruation, education and the professional success of women.
A portrait of the life and career of Robert Downey Sr. (1936-2021), the visionary and fearless US filmmaker — father of actor Robert Downey Jr. — who in the sixties and seventies laid the foundations for countercultural comedy.
Vulgar, taunting texts blow up the phones of a teen and her boyfriend. Who's sending them — and why? This twisty documentary reveals the shocking answer.
A collection of stories about and images of our world, offering an immersion to the core of what it means to be human. Through these stories full of love and happiness, as well as hatred and violence, it brings us face to face with the Other, making us reflect on our lives. From stories of everyday experiences to accounts of the most unbelievable lives, these poignant encounters share a rare sincerity and underline who we are – our darker side, but also what is most noble in us, and what is universal. Our Earth is shown at its most sublime through never-before-seen aerial images accompanied by soaring music, resulting in an ode to the beauty of the world, providing a moment to draw breath and for introspection. This film is a politically engaged work which allows us to embrace the human condition and to reflect on the meaning of our existence.
In a crime-plagued neighborhood near Miami, brutal, bare-knuckled backyard fights give young men a chance to earn money -- and self-respect.
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.
Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.
Explore the evolution of Buzz Lightyear from toy to human in the making of Pixar’s Lightyear. Dive into the origin and cultural impact of everyone’s favorite Space Ranger, the art of designing a new “human Buzz,” and the challenges faced by the Lightyear crew along the way.
A homemade flying saucer lifts off, and a 6-year-old boy might be inside. National panic ensues — but what truly happened? This documentary investigates.
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.
