61 Minutes to 120 Minutes

BLACK BOX DIARIES
BLACK BOX DIARIES
Black Box Diaries follows director and journalist Shiori Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Unfolding like a thriller and combining secret investigative recordings, vérité shooting and emotional first-person video, Shiori's quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s desperately outdated judicial and societal systems.
SUGARCANE
SUGARCANE
One of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year, Sugarcane is a stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities.
HOW TO HAVE AN AMERICAN BABY
HOW TO HAVE AN AMERICAN BABY
How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage into the booming shadow economy that caters to Chinese tourists who travel to the U.S. on “birthing vacations”—in order to obtain U.S. citizenship for their babies. Inside bedrooms, delivery rooms, and family meetings, the story of ahidden global economy emerges—depicting the aspirations and anxieties, fortunes and tragedies that befall the ordinary people caught in the web of its influence
NOCTURNES
NOCTURNES
An immersive viewing experience of sound and imagery, Nocturnes weaves together an intricate and poetic tapestry of our world. Ecologist Mansi sets out on a quest to study moths in one of the most vibrant places on earth. She teams up with Bicki, a young man from the indigenous Bugun community. By focusing on a small, ephemeral, nocturnal creature like the moth, Nocturnes seeks to question a human-centric view of the world.
INTERCEPTED
INTERCEPTED
2024 Gotham Award nominee for Best Documentary. After the February 2022 invasion, Ukrainian Security Services released intercepted phone calls from Russian soldiers to their families — sharing their innermost fears, contempt for Ukrainians, and hopes for a swift victory. Juxtaposing exceprts from these conversations with images of life in Ukraine, Intercepted evokes a vivid, haunting tableaux of war, and the psychological disconnect between oppressors and the lives they’ve destroyed.
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT
IN THE SHADOW OF BEIRUT
From the makers of Gaza, and executive produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, this documentary penetrates deep below the surface of Beirut, a still beautiful, yet deeply troubled city on the brink of financial collapse. Through intimate, character driven storytelling, the stark reality of life for the protagonists of the film is symbolic of the hundreds of thousands of others who fight for survival in the most diverse country in the Middle East.
AGAINST THE TIDE
AGAINST THE TIDE
Mumbai fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has embraced technology. A prize-winner at Sundance, Against the Tide is a tale of two men’s bond fractured by the weight of a changing world and a sea threatened by climate change
LOTUS SPORTS CLUB
LOTUS SPORTS CLUB
Shot in Cambodia over 5 years, Lotus Sports Club, is an inspiring coming-of-age story that centers around Leak, a teenage trans man who plays football in the under-21s women’s team of Kampong Chhnang, and Pa Vann, the coach and father-figure to Leak and other LGBTQ+ players on the team. This compelling, fascinating, and empowering story will take the viewers on a unique and emotional journey through a world of love and solidarity between individuals who have finally found a community they would only have dreamt before.
BACKSTAGE
BACKSTAGE
Aida (played by Co-director and dancer Afef Ben Mahmoud), a member of a Tunisian contemporary dance troupe touring Morocco, provokes during a representation in a small Middle Atlas town, her life and stage partner Hedi, who injures her onstage triggering a series of events through a long night across a forest, on the way to the next village’s doctor.
HOLDING BACK THE TIDE
HOLDING BACK THE TIDE
A "wondrous and wonderful documentary" (The New York Times) that traces the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world’s oyster capital. Now their specter haunts the city through queer characters embodying ancient myth, discovering the overlooked history and biology of the bivalve that built the city.
MOURNING IN LOD
MOURNING IN LOD
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict told through three people whose fates become inextricably linked in a vicious cycle of violence. The outpouring of love, anger, forgiveness and sorrow that follows in their wake offers a glimpse of morning light to offset a collective state of mourning with no end in sight. The film provides a first-hand account of the way our individual actions reverberate, amplify and shape the course of each other’s lives.
I’M “GEORGE LUCAS”: A CONNOR RATLIFF STORY
I’M “GEORGE LUCAS”: A CONNOR RATLIFF STORY
Five years into performing as renowned filmmaker George Lucas in the NY cult comedy show "The George Lucas Talk Show", comedian Connor Ratliff questions the need for its continuation and his own drive for success and fulfillment in show business. By following the live performances and behind the scenes for one year, the mysteries of Connor’s inner self are explored in this portrait of an artist, and his own feelings on his history, value, and legacy are revealed.
KNIT'S ISLAND
KNIT'S ISLAND
Shot entirely in a virtual environment, Knit’s Island is an exceptionally cinematic and contemplative documentary. The film is set in a rural game world that is both impressively realistic and uncannily not quite right. What is still “real” in this virtual existence, which will probably play an important role in the lives of more and more people in the future? With this question, the filmmakers set out to explore the sparsely populated 250 square kilometers of the game.This mysterious, post-apocalyptic rural landscape is revealed as a meeting place, where stories, ideas and friendships are shared.
A PICTURE TO REMEMBER
A PICTURE TO REMEMBER
A Picture to Remember is an essayistic account of a family's long journey through the war. It chronicles the search for a way to handle terrible and recurring losses experienced by three generations of Ukrainian women-those of the director, her mother, and that of her grandmother. The Kyiv-based filmmaker uses old family films in her attempt to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother in Donetsk.
MÁRIO
MÁRIO
From Billy Woodberry, acclaimed director of Bless Their Little Hearts and When I Die, I Won't Stay DeadMário follows the story and legacy of Mário Pinto de Andrade, founder of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Pan-African thinker and activist whose critical mission within the African liberation movements of the 60’s and 70’s laid the groundwork for the identity and representation of the newly formed African nations after European colonization.
HAPPY CAMPERS
HAPPY CAMPERS
Every summer, working-class families enjoy waterfront living in a scrappy trailer park off the coast of Virginia. When the relentless march of capitalism threatens their shabby Shangri-La, the denizens ofInlet View face the inevitable, and reveal the secrets to a rich lifeAs the familiar narrative of the “haves” displacing the “have-nots” plays out once again, the proletariats hold tight to their final days in the sun. The well-to-do crowd that moves in will never be as wealthy.
WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY
WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY
Written and directed by Ukranian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko, We Will Not Fade Away is a tender and emotional multi-portrait of five Ukrainian teenagers, trapped in the war zone in Donbas, who dream of freedom and discovering the world outside. Andriy, Lisa, Ruslan, Lera and Illia grew up in small coal mining towns, right on the front line. They fight against the boredom and the multiple frustrations of finding out who you are. 
BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS OR HOW THE SLOPPY BOYS MADE AN ALBUM ON A FARM IN WEST TEXAS
BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS OR HOW THE SLOPPY BOYS MADE AN ALBUM ON A FARM IN WEST TEXAS
In 2022, journalist and documentarian Robert Holguin reached out to the band The Sloppy Boys (Tim Kalpakis, Mike Hanford, Jefferson Dutton of IFC's The Birthday Boys sketch show) with a proposition— he would arrange for the boys to stay for a week at the legendary Sonic Ranch Studios in Texas if they’d allow him to film the making of their fourth album. Legendary producer Money Mark (Beastie Boys, Beck, David Byrne) joined them to create Sonic Ranch.
BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES: 25 YEARS LATER
BEYOND THE AGGRESSIVES: 25 YEARS LATER
Two decades ago, the groundbreaking film The Aggressives showcased the remarkable stories of Chin, Octavio, Trevon, and Kisha — a watershed moment of visibility for masc-presenting BIPOC individuals that gave voice to a community that hadn’t seen themselves authentically represented in cinema before. Now, nearly 20 years later, the same four protagonists reunite to reflect on their past and envision new futures.
FOREIGN PARTS
FOREIGN PARTS
In the shadow of baseball’s new Mets Stadium, the neighborhood of Willets Point, Queens is an industrial zone fated for demolition. Joe, the last original resident, roams the streets like a lost King Lear, while two lovers struggle for food and safety through the winter. In its scrap yards and auto salvage shops, Foreign Parts discovers a strange community where wrecks, refuse and recycling form a thriving commerce.


SOMNILOQUIES
SOMNILOQUIES
In their film Somniloquies, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel overcome the boundaries between inner dreamscapes and human bodies. Songwriter Dion McGregor became famous in the 1960’s for narrating his dreams in his sleep. His flatmate recorded him doing so. A roving camera that moves indiscernibly from one contour and orifice to another, one body to another, one gender to another, one ethnicity to another, one animal to another. Somniloquies is a descent into the dream-world of our unconscious.
WHEN SPRING CAME TO BUCHA
WHEN SPRING CAME TO BUCHA
In early 2022, after Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv region, the small town of Bucha, completely destroyed, became a symbol of the war and Russian war crimes. How do people live there now – after experiencing such trauma? This powerful documentary allows the survivors to share their stories  stories about destroyed lives, but also about humanity and hope  as the war in Ukraine continues to rage on.
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
2024 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Winner of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary Cinema, The Eternal Memory is directed by the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Academy Award, Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent). The documentary tells a profound and moving love story that balances vibrant individual and collective remembrance with the longevity of an unbreakable human bond. 
APOLONIA, APOLONIA
APOLONIA, APOLONIA
Lea Glob has followed French artist Apolonia Sokol over 13 years. The result is an extraordinarily up-close and personal film that is both a portrait of the life of a unique artist and of the budding friendship and intimacy between two women over a long and formative period in their lives. A look at art, love, motherhood, sexuality, representation, and how to succeed in a world dominated by patriarchy, capitalism and war, without losing oneself.
PICTURES OF GHOSTS
PICTURES OF GHOSTS
A wondrous ode to movies and movie-going, Pictures of Ghosts, from acclaimed director Kleber Mendonca Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius, Neighboring Sounds), is a multidimensional journey through time, sound, architecture and filmmaking, set in the urban landscape of Recife, Brazil: a historical and human territory, examined through the great movie theatres that served as spaces of conviviality during the 20th century.
LEVIATHAN
LEVIATHAN
A 10th anniversary re-release of one of the most acclaimed documentaries of the 21st century, Leviathan is a thrilling, immersive documentary that takes you deep inside the dangerous world of commercial fishing. Set aboard a hulking fishing vessel as it navigates the treacherous waves off the New England coast - the very waters that once inspired "Moby Dick" - it captures the harsh, unforgiving world of the fishermen in starkly haunting, yet beautiful detail.
HERBERT. BARBARIAN IN THE GARDEN​
HERBERT. BARBARIAN IN THE GARDEN​
Polish author Zbigniew Herbert is one of the most remarkable poets of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 40 languages, acclaimed and awarded around the world, mainly because of its timeless and universal dimension. However, behind the crystalline beauty of his poetry, there was a man struggling with everyday life. Featuring exclusive and intimate interviews with the poet and his wife, Katarzyna Herbert.
THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP
THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP
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 peace and violence.
INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE
INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE
From a personal experience of a pregnancy that had a diagnosis of fetal malformation incompatible with life, director Eliza Capai spoke with other women who had gone through a similar situation in Brazil - a place where abortion in these cases can lead to three years in prison -  creating a powerful and touching choir of voices that reflects on universal themes: motherhood, prenatal grief and abortion. 
OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI
OMOIYARI: A SONG FILM BY KISHI BASHI
In Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi, internationally acclaimed composer and songwriter K Ishibashi (professionally know as "Kishi Bashi") embarks on a personal quest by creating his music in locations relevant to the Japanese American Incarceration during WWIIOmoiyari is a genre breaking, artistic exploration that fuses history, music, and the complexities of the human condition.
PATH OF THE PANTHER
PATH OF THE PANTHER
Drawn in by the haunting specter of the Florida panther, wildlife photographer Carlton Ward unites a coalition of biologists, ranchers, conservationists, and Indigenous Peoples on the frontlines of an accelerating battle between forces of renewal and destruction that have pushed the Everglades to the brink of ecological collapse.
REALITY WINNER
REALITY WINNER
The incredible true story of Reality Winner in her own words. Filmed over five years, this is the only documentary about the young NSA whistleblower who exposed Russian interference in U.S.elections and went to jail for it. With exclusive access to Reality Winner and the media outlet involved in her arrest, this film also reveals FBI evidence never before released. Would you risk your freedom to protect democracy?
THE 50
THE 50
While serving life sentences in a dangerously overcrowded and drug-saturated prison system, 50 men embark on a radical journey to become some of the first incarcerated Substance Abuse Counselors in the country. The 50 is a powerful study on trauma and repair, a universal look at the long and winding road to heal, and an exploration into how the most discounted among us built one of the most powerful models of rehabilitation we have.  
DEAR THIRTEEN
DEAR THIRTEEN
An incisive and timely documentary, Dear Thirteen weaves together nine stories of thirteen-year-olds from across the globe. Video diaries and candid interviews reveal how global issues are shaping – and being shaped by – young people: gender identity, rising anti-Semitism, gun violence, and racial divisions. This empathetic portrait of a new generation goes beyond stereotypes of adolescence to capture the complexity of finding a way into adulthood today.
NAKED GARDENS
NAKED GARDENS
Naked Gardens immerses audiences in the complex, unseen world of a family nudist resort in the Florida Everglades. Filmed over one season at this lush tropical campsite, the film follows the stories of individuals – rebellious retirees, LGBTQ loners, exiles from conservative America, and families with young children – all drawn to an unusual community, which promises both non-conformist values, and for some, a cheap place to live. 


RAMONA
RAMONA
Feeling unprepared for her upcoming role as a 15-year-old pregnant girl from the outskirts of Santo Domingo, an actor from a more affluent background, Camila, decides to sit down with pregnant young girls to hear their stories. Ramona is a brilliant mix of telenovela pastiche, observational documentary, filmed rehearsals, cinéma vérité and theatre that constantly plays with the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, reality and artifice.
AFGHAN DREAMERS
AFGHAN DREAMERS
In Afghanistan, an all-girl robotics team risk everything to prove they can build a name for themselves in the world. Working in secret under the Taliban regime and in a male-dominated cultural environment, the girls encounter enormous challenges. With exceptional access, Afghan Dreamers tells an insprirational story about an extraodinarily brave group of young women.
THE COMPUTER ACCENT
THE COMPUTER ACCENT
While Artificial Intelligence has made in-roads in almost every area of human labor, the field of artistic creation was once regarded as relatively safe. The Computer Accent documents the fascinating, sometimes frustrating process when the pop group YACHT invites an AI program into their creative process to generate the band's seventh album. The Computer Accent offeres a window into a future that is already here.
BELLUM - THE DAEMON OF WAR
BELLUM - THE DAEMON OF WAR
Opening with Robert Oppenheimer’s immortal quoting of Hindu scripture following the first nuclear test bombings, this fascinating documentary explores the intersection of modern warfare and the development of AI, focusing on three seemingly disparate locations and lives; a scientist in Sweden, a private military contractor in the Nevada desert, and a world renowned war photographer in Afghanistan. 
MEMORY GAMES
MEMORY GAMES
Memory makes us human. Memory Games offers a thrilling insight into the lives of four athletes as they compete for the title of World Memory Champion. Their unique approaches to memorizing and recalling mind boggling amounts of information and their life stories form the basis for a visually stunning and thought-provoking documentary that also looks at how memory permeates every aspect of our lives.
ANHELL69
ANHELL69
After members of the queer scene in Medellín, Colombia are cast for a vampire movie, the film’s protagonist dies of a heroin overdose at age 21. As the youth in Colombia grapple with a disarmingly high rate of suicide and drug overdoses, the documentary Anhell69 explores this generation’s “no future” mindset while chronicling the making of a new film, a film without borders or genders: a “trans film” about all those people who don’t belong to anything or anyone.
DEVIL PUT THE COAL IN THE GROUND
DEVIL PUT THE COAL IN THE GROUND
A unique oral history of West Virginia, and meditation on the suffering and devastation brought on by the coal industry and its decline - a cautionary tale of unfettered corporate power and an elegy to a vanishing Appalachia. Consciously eschewing exploitative filmmaking around the opioid epidemic or poverty, the film focuses on its people – all linked by the love of their home state and desire to stay put against all odds.
PAY OR DIE
PAY OR DIE
Today, nearly 2 million Americans are being held for ransom. Without insulin, they wont surivePay or Die follows families on the receiving end of these ransom notes, revealing the harrowing reality of life with chronic illness in the richest country in the world. This enraging and enlightening film lays bare the human cost of the United States’ insulin affordability crisis, and serves as a call to action against the medical-industrial complex that monetizes our bodies and lives.
THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER
THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER
At age 31, mother-of-two Judy Malinowski was doused in petrol and set on fire by her crazed ex-boyfriend. She was also one of the first victims ever to testify from beyond the grave at the trial for her own murder. A story that lives at the intersection of true crime and #MeToo, The Fire That Took Her goes deep inside a landmark case to ask a timely question: How much must women suffer in order to be believed?
THE STRANGE MISTER VICTOR
THE STRANGE MISTER VICTOR
Setting its scene in the rowdy, wide-open port city of Toulon, Grémillon’s acclaimed drama stars legendary actor Raimu (“The greatest actor who ever lived.” - Orson Welles) as a well-respected shopkeeper who, unbeknownst to his neighbors, is running a front for a ruthless criminal gang. "Gremillon’s films are among the most innovative and expressive… and in many ways they look ahead to the rule breaking of the French New Wave." - The New York Times.  New 4K Restoration
GUEULE D'MOUR (LADY KILLER)
GUEULE D'MOUR (LADY KILLER)
The first collaboration between filmmaker Jean Grémillon and legendary actor Jean Gabin, this adaptation of a novel by André Boucler features the young Gabin as a foreign-legion Casanova – the “lady killer” of the title – who meets his match in the mysterious seductress Madeleine. "Not every rarity is a revelation, but Lady Killer strikes me as the real deal." The New YorkerNew 4K Restoration
EAT YOUR CATFISH
EAT YOUR CATFISH
Paralyzed by late-stage ALS and reliant on round-the-clock care, Kathryn clings to a mordant wit as she yearns to witness her daughter's wedding. Shot from her fixed point of view, Eat Your Catfish delivers a profoundly intimate, layered and wryly funny portrait of a family teetering on the brink, grappling with the daily demands of disability and in-home caretaking.
OUTSIDE
OUTSIDE
Ukrainian filmmaker Olha Zhurba’s debut feature tells the story of Roma, who at the age of 13 became the poster child of the Maidan revolution. A street kid who ran around the front lines of Kyiv throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, Roma’s face defined an uprising. But behind the camouflage uniform, sunglasses and fearlessness hid a lonely boy from an orphanage. When Roma turns 18, his only option is returning to the streets and the company of his loyal older brother, who has resorted to crime to survive.
ANAMNESIS
ANAMNESIS
How to portray a murderer? For many years filmmakers of this documentary were in intensive contact with Stefan S., who murdered a colleague 15 years ago. Now it’s his last year in jail, and he is being prepared for his return to society. This includes undergoing various types of therapy, including group sessions on “Masculinity and Identity.” An intriguing study on the elusiveness of truth and one of the most progressive programs for the treatment of violent criminals.
STAND UP MY BEAUTY
STAND UP MY BEAUTY
Nardos, an Azmari singer from Addis Ababa, dreams of telling stories about the lives of ordinary people through her music. In her search of stories for her songs, she meets Gennet, a poet who lives on the streets with her children. As Nardos puts the lives of Ethiopian women, their visions and power at the centre of her creation, we dive deeper and deeper into a rapidly changing country.
THIS TRAIN I RIDE
THIS TRAIN I RIDE
A freight train crosses the landscape like a giant steel snake ripping through the silence. One day, three women left everything behind to defy danger and cross the country on board freight trains. They wait for them, hiding in the bushes, sleeping under highway bridges. In this beautiful documentary, the director becomes these women’s traveling companion. Their trajectories cross and echo each other: a desire to live, a spiritual quest, eternal rebellion.
EVERYTHING WILL NOT BE FINE
EVERYTHING WILL NOT BE FINE
Adrian was born in the year of the Chernobyl accident and his mother always believed that his partial blindness was caused by her visit to Ukraine while she was six months pregnant. Upon learning this, Adrian and his friend, a woman from Kiev also affected by the disaster, set out to meet people dealing with the effects of what happened in 1986. They discover the immense scale of Chernobyl’s impact on a new generation.
ANGELS OF SINJAR
ANGELS OF SINJAR
Hanifa, a young Yezidi woman, miraculously survives the ISIS attack on the Yezidi religious and ethnic minority in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. Her five younger sisters are all trucked off and enslaved. Based on exclusive access to one of the most dangerous and underreported places on earth, Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Hanna Polak tracks Hanifa’s mission to find her sisters and bring them home.
BROTHERHOOD
BROTHERHOOD
Jabir, Usama and Useir, are three young Bosnian brothers, who grew up in the shadow of their father, a strict Islamist preacher. When he gets sentenced to two years in prison, for terrorism, the three brothers are suddenly left alone. They can explore the newly acquired freedom on the difficult journey to becoming men. Brotherhood is an exploration of youth, manhood and search for identity.
DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA
DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA
Five centuries ago, anatomist André Vésale opened up the human body to science for the first time in history. Today, De Humani Corporis Fabrica opens the human body to the cinema. In their thrilling new work of nonfiction exploration, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Leviathan) burrow deeper than ever, using microscopic cameras and specially designed recording devices to survey the wondrous landscape of the human body. 
LAST FLIGHT HOME
LAST FLIGHT HOME
Acclaimed filmmaker Ondi Timoner's (Dig!, We Live in Public) latest film is a deeply personal chronicling of the final days of her 92-year-old father, Eli, as he chooses to end his own life (legally, under California law). The family journeys back through Eli's remarkable yet painful life (Eli Timoner founded Air Florida, the fastest growing airline in the world in the 1970s) to discover what true love looks like. Last Flight Home is a transcendent celebration of life.
ART AND KRIMES BY KRIMES
ART AND KRIMES BY KRIMES
While locked-up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 40-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As Jesse's work captures the art world's attention, he struggles to adjust to life outside, living with the threat that any misstep will trigger a life sentence.
REWIND AND PLAY
REWIND AND PLAY
In 1969, at the end of a European tour, Thelonious Monk was invited to appear on a television program, where he would perform and answer questions in an intimate studio stage. Using newly discovered footage, filmmaker Alain Gomis reveals the troubling dynamic between Monk and his white interviewer. Gomis’s gripping film is a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary; a subtle yet searing exposé of casual racism; and, above all, a chance to see one of the monumental geniuses of 20th-century music at work.
STONEBREAKERS
STONEBREAKERS
Stonebreakers chronicles the conflicts around monuments that arose in the United States during the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election and continue to reverbate in towns and cities across the country. As statues of Columbus, Confederates and Founding Fathers fall from their pedestals and triumphalist myths are called into question, this film interrogates the link between history and political action in a nation that must confront its past now more urgently than ever.
AMERICAN RIVER
AMERICAN RIVER
The thrilling American River follows Mary Bruno, the noted environmental author, and guide Carl Alderson on a 4-day, 80 mile adventure down the Passaic River, from its pristine source in a wildlife refuge to its toxic mouth in Newark Bay.  Engaging residents, historians and advocates in candid conversations, the film asks how the Passaic became one of the most contaminated rivers in America? And can it be saved? The Passaic is an archetype for thousands of rivers facing similar reckonings. 
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
The meat industry is booming in Canada, where huge factories use standardized production methods to convert vast herds of livestock into meat. They hire asylum seekers, mainly from Latin America, so they can continue to produce at competitive rates. This observational film splits its focus between the workers and the animals, considering the living conditions of both, while providing a subtle yet critical look at a world driven by capitalism and the links in the chain that make this possible.
O SANGUE (BLOOD)
O SANGUE (BLOOD)
Admirers of Pedro Costa’s more recent work are often thrown for a thrilling loop by the glossy, liquid textures and lush atmospherics of the director’s first feature, a beguiling fairytale about the trials undergone by two brothers in the wake of their father’s violent death. “O Sangue,” Costa said in an interview, “was also the beginning of my love—maybe love is the wrong word—for domestic cinema. A kind of cinema that shows how people live.”
PARADISE
PARADISE
Michael Almereyda’s (Tesla, Hamlet, Marjorie Prime) Paradise is an astonishingly beautiful and poignant sketchbook, a collection of fragmentary episodes captured during ten years of travels. Shot in roughly two dozen cities in nine different countries, they are linked, the director writes, by “the idea that life is made up of brief paradisiacal moments—moments routinely taken for granted, and always slipping away."

TO THE MOON
TO THE MOON
A cinematic ode to the moon composed of numerous film clips (from over 25 countries, filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, F.W. Murnau, Carl Theodor Dreyer and many others), archival footage, literary fragments and original moonlit cinematography filmed across five continents, To The Moon travels through the ages and ideas that people have drawn from the moon to create a meditative work of timeless resonance. "Gorgeous, a beautifully succinct visual essay." – The Guardian
BUNKER
BUNKER
An investigation into the increasing number of American men who have decided to live in decommissioned military bunkers and nuclear missile silos out of fear of an imminent breakdown of society and the destruction of the United States. Considering toxic American myths, including self-reliance, masculinity, home safety and security, and family life in a time of climate crisis, economic upheaval, and political strife, filmmaker Jenny Perlin journeys by herself into the middle of America to meet such men, and the builders and salesmen who cater to them.
RED AFRICA
RED AFRICA
A fascinating and insightful documentary, Red Africa relates the history of the influence exerted by the USSR over many African states between 1960 and 1990. Incorporating extraordinary archival footage filmed by Soviet operators, excerpts from official speeches by Soviet and African leaders and audio recording made by Soviet filmmakers during their African expeditions, Red Africa reveals the hidden agenda of the USSR which, under the cloak of generosity, was aspiring to expand its socialist “paradise."
NAVIGATORS
NAVIGATORS
In 1924, the Buford, a large dormant ship, cost little to rent. Buster Keaton used it as a spacious set for his film The Navigator. And without realising it, by filming the vessel, he archived the scene of another story of crossing. A few years earlier, the Buford had served the forced exile of 249 political opponents of the United States government, including anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. 
IN THE BONES
IN THE BONES
An extraordinarily vital and urgent documentary, In The Bones provides searing insight into the culture that overturned Roe v. Wade. A cinematic journey through the ordinary lives of woman and children in Mississippi, the documentary interweavs their stories during a legislative session in which equal pay for equal work and abortion rights are being decided.
THE RETURN: LIFE AFTER ISIS
THE RETURN: LIFE AFTER ISIS
This moving documentary offers an intimate yet candid portrait of a group of Western women who devoted their young lives to ISIS, but who now want to be given the chance to rebuild their lives back at home, including Shamima Begum (UK) and Hoda Muthana (US), who made worldwide headlines when they left their countries as teenagers to join ISIS. These women now tell their stories for the very first time in this "stirring and vitally humane" (Variety) film.
SLOW RETURN
SLOW RETURN
Slow Return travels up the Rhône, from one end to the other. Between the fishermen of Salin-de-Giraud and the Rhône glacier, filmmaker Philip Cartelli has numerous encounters and examines the relationship the population maintains with the river. Blending archive images with new technologies, the film composes a sensitive archaeology of the natural environment, while also casting a delicate gaze over a time that seems long gone.
CONSIDERING THE ENDS
CONSIDERING THE ENDS
In 2016, videos showing the slaughter conditions 
of farm animals shocked the world of public opinion. With complicit gaze, Elsa Maury films 
a young shepherd’s relationship of co-dependence with her flock of ewes, which she must learn to euthanise under the best possible conditions.  Considering the Ends discusses and raises important questions about our connection to the planet and its animals.
FEATHERS
FEATHERS
When a magic trick goes awry at a children’s birthday party, the authoritative father of the family is suddenly turned into a chicken. Winner of the Critic's Week Grand Prize at Cannes, Feathers has been hailed as "a hidden gem, a comedic drama about a woman forced to deal with the aftermath of a magic trick gone awry that uses the surreal to peck away at deeper truths.” (Hollywood Reporter)

ASCENSION
ASCENSION
2022 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Nominated for Best Documentary by the Director's Guild, Producer's Guild, Independent Spirit Awards, and Gotham Awards, and winner of Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ascension explores the paradoxical pursuit of wealth and progress in China. This extraordinary documentary follows factory workers, middle class consumers and elites as they chase the elusive "Chinese Dream.”
76 DAYS
76 DAYS
On January 23rd, 2020, China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, to combat the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Set deep inside the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals, 76 Days tells indelible human stories at the center of this pandemic. These raw and intimate stories bear witness to the death and rebirth of a city under a 76-day lockdown, and to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy.
AMERICAN SELFIE: ONE NATION SHOOTS ITSELF
AMERICAN SELFIE: ONE NATION SHOOTS ITSELF
From celebrated filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi comes a visceral cross-country journey during one of the most tumultuous years in history. Placing viewers directly within the most consequential events of our era, American Selfie raises critical questions about the stark divisions in how Americans feel, and asks if it's possible to ever find a way to a more perfect union.
LIFT LIKE A GIRL
LIFT LIKE A GIRL
With the guidance of her relentless coach, a teen weightlifter emerges from a scrappy training camp in Egypt to compete at the championship level. Filmmaker Mayye Zayed intimately follows Zebiba and her coach in their challenging quest to win the next world championship over the course of four years while the stakes keep getting higher and their bonds deepen. Proving there is nothing that women can't do, the film observes the traditional gender dynamics that come into play with the male-dominated sport of weightlifting. 
FUTURA
FUTURA
"A kaleidoscopic, open-ended collective portrait… a film that will be examined in the future for clues about what’s happening now" (NYT), Futura is an extraordinary documentary by a collective of three filmmakers known for their politically acute cinema — Pietro Marcello (Martin Eden), Francesco Munzi (Black Souls), and Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) — who set out to interview a cross-section of their nation’s youth about their hopes, dreams, and fears for the future.
NORTH BY CURRENT
NORTH BY CURRENT
A visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains. After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, preparing to make a film about a broken criminal justice system. Instead, he pivots to excavate the depths of generational addiction, Christian fervor, and trans embodiment. 
LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE
LANDSCAPES OF RESISTANCE
97-year-old antifascist fighter Sonja was one of the first female partisans in Yugoslavia and a member of the resistance in Auschwitz. By listening to Sonja’s stories, we travel through the landscapes of her revolutionary past, as her memories start to intertwine with the filmmakers’ own confrontation with the rising fascism in Europe today.
1970
1970
1970. Striking workers in communist Poland demonstrate against price increases. In the dignitaries’ offices, tension and violent repression grow as the revolt intensifies. Using stop motion animation to bring the telephone recordings to life, Tomasz Wolski composes a highly precise and prodigious film that looks at labor and rebellion, but told from the perspective of the oppressors.
HORTON FOOTE: THE ROAD TO HOME
HORTON FOOTE: THE ROAD TO HOME
Chronicles the creative journey of acclaimed writer Horton Foote - a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and winner of two Academy Awards for screenwriting (Tender Mercies, To Kill a Mockingbird) - through his own eyes and voice at the end of his life. The documentary captures a personal and inside view of his life and work and it's connection his hometown.

GREY MATTER
GREY MATTER
A deeply human documentary dealing with personal aspects of the medical process, director Jan Louter follows two neurosurgeons during the treatments of various patients with brain disorders, a very intensive process for both surgeon and patient during which – besides life and death – personality, the essence of the patient, is at stake.
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS
Part absurdist comedy, part deep-seated satire of contemporary Australia as experienced by the young and affluent, Friends and Strangers follows twenty-somethings Ray and Alice as they navigate a series of increasingly awkward and comedic situations, from limp romantic encounters to bungled opportunities for professional growth.
LOS CONDUCTOS
LOS CONDUCTOS
Medellin, Colombia. Pinky is on the run. He has just freed himself from the grip of a religious sect. He finds a place to squat and a job in a t-shirt factory. Misled by his own faith, he questions everything. But as he tries to put back together the pieces of his broken life, violent memories return to haunt him, and ask for Revenge. Winner of the Best First Feature prize at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.
HEALERS
HEALERS
By examining bodies and exploring the corners of the human psyche, Healers draws the contours of tomorrow's medicine, and weaves a portrait of a rapidly changing healthcare system. At the intersection of generations and practices, the film questions the vocation and profound meaning of caring for others, and focuses on the human dimension of medicine in a system undergoing great change. 
BOREALIS
BOREALIS
A unique cinematic documentary that travels deep into the heart of Canada’s iconic wilderness to explore how the plants and animals that live there communicate and survive the destructive forces of fire, insects, and human encroachment. Borealis calls on the voices of scientists, Indigenous people, and environmentalists to make clear the urgent need for greater understanding and alliances with the natural world.
BULLETPROOF
BULLETPROOF
An urgent and vital documentary, Bulletproof explores the complexities of violence in our schools by looking at the ways we try to prevent it. The film travels across the United States, observing the longstanding rituals that take place in and around schools: homecoming parades, basketball practice, morning announcements. Unfolding alongside these scenes are a collection of newer traditions: lockdown drills, teacher firearms training, metal detector screenings, and school safety trade shows.
THE MAGNITUDE OF ALL THINGS
THE MAGNITUDE OF ALL THINGS
When Jennifer Abbott lost her sister to cancer, her sorrow opened her up to the profound gravity of climate breakdown. This cinematic journey by the Sundance award-winning director (The Corporation) takes us around the world to witness a planet in crisis: from Greta Thunberg's condemnation of world leaders to Australia’s catastrophic fires and dying Great Barrier Reef to the island nation of Kiribati, drowned by rising sea levels.
UNDER TOMORROW'S SKY
UNDER TOMORROW'S SKY
Under Tomorrow's Sky follows renowned architect Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV, whose work argues for transforming cities with “high rises on a human scale,” stacked structural volumes with open spaces and greenery around them that feel like vertical villages. This inspiring documentary shows Maas’ influence on contemporary architecture, and examines how his designs are offering innovative solutions for the city of the future.
HER SOCIALIST SMILE
HER SOCIALIST SMILE
Though her life generated voluminous literature, most people ignore the fact that iconic deaf-blind author Helen Keller (1880–1968) was one of the most passionate socialist advocates of her time. Continuing his work of patient and insightful political filmmaking, director John Gianvito (Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind) resurrects Keller's radical views, which have been largely suppressed or sanitized over the years. 
MAURICE HINES: BRING THEM BACK
MAURICE HINES: BRING THEM BACK
An intimate portrait of an outspoken showman who with humor and grace navigates the highs and lows of a seven-decade career, and a complex relationship with his superstar brother, Gregory Hines. Maurice and friends — Chita Rivera, Mercedes Ellington and Debbie Allen — tell tales from his seven-decade career, while reflecting on the ever-present challenges of being a gay, black man in show biz.
FRUITS OF LABOR
FRUITS OF LABOR
A Mexican-American teenage farmworker dreams of graduating high school, when ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become her family's breadwinner. Fruits of Labor is a lyrical, coming-of-age documentary feature about adolescence, nature and how ancestors paved the way. Director Emily Cohen Ibáñez documents life guided by the spirit world through her hardships and joys in modern America.
HAMTRAMCK, USA
HAMTRAMCK, USA
An incisive documentary exploring life and democracy in America's first Muslim majority city. The film follows Kamal Rahman, a Bangladeshi candidate for Mayor, Fadel al-Marsoumi, a 23 year old Iraqi immigrant for City Council, and the current mayor, Karen Majewski, Hamtramck’s first female mayor. Through the exploration of the city's rich history and this heated election, Hamtramck, USA wrestles with identity politics, power dynamics, and the immigrant experience in America.
WHERE DOES YOUR HIDDEN SMILE LIE?
WHERE DOES YOUR HIDDEN SMILE LIE?
Hailed by Jean-Luc Godard as "the best film ever made about editing and cinema," Pedro Costa's intimate documentary records with great sensitivity and insight the exacting process by which the iconoclastic filmmaking team of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet re-edit their film Sicilia!. They discuss (and argue) over each cut and its effect, and incorporate comments about the influence of figures as diverse as Chaplin and Eisenstein. Presented in a new digital restoration.
FORGET ME NOT
FORGET ME NOT
Forget Me Not follows three unwed mothers staying at a shelter in the countryside on Jeju Island-in South Korea. Each one has to decide if she wants to keep the baby or give it up for adoption. Engelstoft’s sensitive portrait brings us close to a forbidden world and through her own experience as a Korean adoptee, she gives a deeply personal and extraordinary insight into a culture in which women can't choose their own fate.
BAATO
BAATO
Every winter Mikma and her family travel by foot from their village deep in the Himalaya of Nepal to sell local medicinal plants in urban markets. This year, construction of a new highway to China has begun in their roadless valley, and things are never going to be the same. With the new road will come new challenges, new opportunities, and ultimately a new way of being to those who live along its path.
ANERCA, BREATH OF LIFE
ANERCA, BREATH OF LIFE
Anerca is a fascinating exploration into the breathing techniques of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. There are two types of breathing, life-sustaining breath, and that which expresses existence. The film composes a poetic ethnography inspired by the singing, dancing, forms of contemporary existence and, above all, the vital breath of these nomad communities mistreated by history. 
THE CASE YOU
THE CASE YOU
Just how far is it acceptable to push actors in the name of cinema? And at what point do you cross the boundary where acting becomes sexual assault? These are the questions raised by the testimony of six young women who were manipulated and sexually abused during an audition. They are currently fighting a legal battle and have banded together to tell their story on camera, in a sort of antidote to the toxic audition. 
INGRID CAVEN: MUSIC AND VOICE
INGRID CAVEN: MUSIC AND VOICE
Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, Saint Laurent) seized on the idea of making a cinematic tribute to Ingrid Caven (a former member of R.W. Fassbinder’s cinematic troupe) when he first heard her sing at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, but the portrait he eventually made finds her exploring a more expansive range of performance styles and moods. A showcase for a truly sui generis musician—a sort of cabaret singer for the 21st century—and a respectful tribute to one artist from another.
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF BIRDS
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF BIRDS
This extraordinarily beautiful and emotionally rich documentary finds filmmaker Catarina Vasconcelos sifting through the memories and dreams of her ancestors. In prismatic images, we get the sense of a family’s entire lineage, starting with her naval officer grandfather, who married her grandmother on her 21st birthday before spending extended periods at sea. It's the beginning of a generational saga, told in shards of memory and voiceover. 
THE AMERICAN SECTOR
THE AMERICAN SECTOR
Universal Studios in Florida, a Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Museum of World Treasures in Kansas, and private homes in the Hollywood Hills are just some of the places that slabs of the Berlin wall have ended up on display. From coast to coast, The American Sector documents the present remnants of the wall’s architecture while evoking the past with home video footage, offering a new perspective on history, what we ascribe to it, and how easily it is scattered.
THE POWER OF KANGWON PROVINCE
THE POWER OF KANGWON PROVINCE
Presented in a beautiful restoration and newly translated, Hong Sangsoo’s breakthrough second feature is an early masterwork from the prolific filmmaker. Playing with structure, perspective and time – elements that would become hallmarks of his later work – the film follows a young woman, Jisook, who, fresh off her relationship with a married man, joins two girlfriends for a vacation in the mountainous Kangwon region and quickly makes the same mistakes.
MALNI - TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE
MALNI - TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE
A poetic documentary circling the origin of the death myth from the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, Małni follows two people as they wander through their surrounding nature, the spirit world, and something much deeper inside. Hopinka takes us on a journey through language and belief, offering a beautiful lesson about humanity’s place on this and other worlds, deceptively small and profoundly deep.
PHYLLIS AND HAROLD
PHYLLIS AND HAROLD
An astoundingly frank journey through a disastrous 59-year marriage. Drawing on a lifetime of her family’s home movies and interviews made over 12 years, filmmaker Cindy Kliene mixes reportage, cinema verité and animation to uncover family secrets and tell a story that could not be shown publicly as long as her father was still alive.Phyllis and Harold delve into the mystery of time passing, the nature of living a life, and the challenges of losing those we love.
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF
A young film director returns to Venezuela, inspired to make a film based on his father's life in the Amazon jungle. He casts Father to play himself. What starts as an act of love and ambition — filmmaking to more deeply understand the self, and the other — spirals into a process which confronts Father’s struggles with addiction and his life devoid of his son. This documentary holds a steady lens to the way the act of cinema unearths, binds, heals and destroys.
FILMFARSI
FILMFARSI
Action, melodrama, car chases, lurid affairs, and flashy musical numbers! They all figured into Iran's pre-1979 cinema known as “filmfarsi.” Featuring a treasure trove of incredible movie clips (painstakingly sourced from surviving VHS tapes) and accompanied by fascinating social commentary, Filmfarsi explores this cinematic period as a mirror for the country during those turbulent times.
THE INHERITANCE
THE INHERITANCE
Pennsylvania-born filmmaker Ephraim Asili has been exploring different facets of the African diaspora—and his own place within it—for nearly a decade. His feature-length debut, The Inheritance, is a vibrant, engaging ensemble work, a re-enactment of his own experience, that takes place almost entirely within the walls of a West Philadelphia house where a community of young people have come together to form a collective of Black artists and activists. 
THE GRAND BIZARRE
THE GRAND BIZARRE
Filmed over five years, in fifteen countries, director Jodie Mack places textiles against surprising backgrounds, editing the imagery to a homemade pop soundtrack. Following components,systems, and samples in a collage of textiles, tourism, language, and music, the film investigates recurring motifs and how their metamorphoses function within a global economy.
NA CHINA
NA CHINA
The implantation of African trade 
in Guangzhou is a recent phenomenon, on which Marie Voignier reports through her interlinking portraits of Jackie, Julie, Shanny who have come to set up their business on site. Amidst the monstrous accumulation of merchandise on the endless markets of the megacity, the film follows these African business women grappling with the globalised Chinese economy.
ATLANTIS
ATLANTIS
A prize-winner at the Venice Film Festival and Ukraine’s official submission for the 93rd Academy Awards, Atlantis is a gorgeous and visionary sci-fi drama. In 2025, Eastern Ukraine is a desert unsuitable for human habitation, water a dear commodity brought by trucks. Sergiy, a former soldier, meets Katya while she’s on a humanitarian mission. Together, they try to return to some sort of normal life in which they are also allowed to fall in love again.
SLOW MACHINE
SLOW MACHINE
After her relationship with NYPD intelligence agent Gerard ends terribly, tired and disillusioned actress Stephanie hides in a house where a band is working on a record, which proves to be less of an escape than she imagined. Deftly lensed in 16mm and unfurling as a digressive, tantalizingly off-kilter mystery, Slow Machine is a fascinating work pitched at the intersection of American independent cinema and the avant-garde theater of Richard Foreman and the Wooster Group.
TRUE CONVICTION
TRUE CONVICTION
There's a new detective agency in Dallas, run by three exonerated men who all spent decades in prison. Their mission: to free other innocent people still behind bars.True Conviction follows these change-makers as they rebuild their lives and families, learn to investigate cases, work to support each other, and campaign to fix the criminal justice system.
SOMETHING, ANYTHING
SOMETHING, ANYTHING
From award-winning filmmaker Paul Harrill (Light From Light) Something, Anything is both a meditative character study and an unconventional romance. When a tragedy shatters her plans for domestic bliss, a seemingly typical Southern newlywed gradually transforms into a spiritual seeker, quietly threatening the closest relationships around her.
THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF
THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF
This haunting documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Pietro Marcello, director of Martin Eden and Lost and Beautiful is a sui generis love story, following the 20-year relationship between a Sicilian heavy named Vincenzo and a trans convict named Mary after their meet-cute in prison. But Marcello isn’t merely content to render their romance in all its love and complexity: The Mouth of the Wolf is also a lyrical, sensuous, and melancholy tribute to the port city of Genoa, capturing its singular aura and its intoxicating air of eternity. 
THE PAGEANT
THE PAGEANT
The Miss Holocaust Survivor Beauty Pageant takes place every year to the delight of its participants and audience. To take part in this unique contest, sponsored by an Evangelical Christian organization, the female survivors have to retell their traumatic stories one more time. The Pageant is a fascinating and important documentary about how memory, politics and spectacle are interconnected.
A SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
A SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Sundog lives out in the Sonora Desert on the Mexican border. He is an elderly gentleman, who lives off anything that the brutal nature gives him, be it a wild boar or the psychedelic poison of a toad. With the desert as the ultimate existential (and cinematic) setting, A Shape of Things to Come from directors Lisa Marie Malloy and J.P. Sniadecki shows the relationship between humanity and nature at a critical time, when civil disobedience is the provocative answer to the most pressing questions.
HENRY GLASSIE: FIELD WORK
HENRY GLASSIE: FIELD WORK
The worldwide travels and unique cultural finds of renowned American folklorist Henry Glassie are enthrallingly chronicled in this portrait. Field Work allows us to witness the walling up of a massive kiln in Piedmont, North California, and features archival recordings of Glassie's encounters with carpet weavers and ceramicists in Western Turkey, and storytellers in Collins and Hogan's home country of Ireland, where Glassie's subjects reflect on their troubled present by talking about the past.
SWEETGRASS
SWEETGRASS
NEW DIGITAL RESTORATION. An unsentimental elegy to the American West, Sweetgrass follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed. 
THE GREEN YEARS
THE GREEN YEARS
Never before released in the US, Paulo Rocha’s debut feature The Green Years, gloriously shot in black and white, is an extraordinary and haunting coming-of-age tale. Nineteen-year-old Julio heads to Lisbon from the provinces and gets a job as a shoemaker for his uncle Raul. But when he meets Ilda, a confident young housemaid who becomes a regular shop visitor, the two begin a tentative romance until the realities of the outside world come crashing through.
STEVENSON: LOST AND FOUND
STEVENSON: LOST AND FOUND
As one of the New Yorker’s most prolific cartoonists, James Stevenson’s body of work spans five decades, countless drawings and innumerable laughs. Featuring delightful animated interludes and interviews from colleagues, editors and his nine children, this wonderful look at Stevenson’s life - who also wrote a column for The New York Times and  is a noted writer of children's books - is a testament to observing the world from an original perspective.
PAJU
PAJU
“A masterpiece. With this film, Park Chan-ok revealed herself as one of Korean cinema’s smartest and most stylish talents. Complex and enigmatic.” (The Guardian) Delicately unveiled through an anachronistic period of eight years, director Park Chan-Ok (Jealousy is My Middle Name) leaves no controversial stone unturned by exploring the dialectical forces at work within of a community that simultaneously resists and accepts change.
SACAVÉM: THE FILMS OF PEDRO COSTA
SACAVÉM: THE FILMS OF PEDRO COSTA
A journey through the films of Pedro Costa, focusing on such works as Casa de Lava, Colossal Youth, In Vanda's Room and Horse Money. Incorporating clips from his films, and emphasizing the unique visual and aural landscapes he creates, along with his own reflections, Sacavem provides unique insight into one of the most powerful and singular bodies of work in contemporary cinema.
CINEMA, MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA AND ME
CINEMA, MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA AND ME
The great filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira lived for over a century, directing films like The Strange Case of Angelica, I'm Going Home, Francisca and many more. In this affectionate documentary, João Botelho guides us through the beloved filmmaker's career, exploring his ideas, methods and his extraordinary cinematographic inventions.
HERE FOR LIFE
HERE FOR LIFE
“A film of great compassion and political and aesthetic ambition in which the idea of a collective is prioritised for a change, but without sacrificing or downplaying the individual voices and idiosyncrasies that it comprises... Beautifully exuberant and optimistic" (Sight & Sound), Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Adrian Jackson's documentary, Here for Life, follows ten unruly Londoners as they navigate their wild and wayward way towards a co-existence far stronger than 'community'.
DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION
DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION
The greatest hoax in the history of Modern Art. Driven to Abstraction unravels an improbable tale of self-delusion, greed, and fraud – the $80 million forgery scandal that rocked the art world and brought down New York's oldest and most venerable gallery. Was the gallery’s esteemed director the victim of a con artist who showed up with an endless treasure trove of abstract expressionist masterpieces? Or did she suspect they were fakes yet continue to sell them for millions of dollars? 
THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL
THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL
Ada, just 19 years old, went to the house of a young man she knew. She didn’t fight back and it all happened very quickly, but the trauma remains. With humility and frankness, this powerful documentary tackles the delicate and intimate matter of rape. Through a diversity of experiences and perspectives, it examines stubborn prejudices without sanctimony or condescension, provoking the sort of collective introspection - and discussion - the #MeToo movement has necessitated. 
WILCOX
WILCOX
A man goes into the woods alone. We know nothing about him, apart from his military-style attire with a nametag indicating he might be called Wilcox. Is he a traumatized veteran, a survivalist, a desperate man or even a philosopher-hermit? A documentary style fictional film, a minimalist adventure yarn haunted by reality, Wilcox, from award-winning filmmaker Denis Cote, is both simple and mysterious, a non-judgmental perspective on people who decide to remove themselves from the world.
THOSE THAT, AT A DISTANCE, RESEMBLE ANOTHER
THOSE THAT, AT A DISTANCE, RESEMBLE ANOTHER
Extending from filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland's ongoing research into natural habitats and various forms of preservation, this exquisite documentary traces, with sinuosity and exactitude the production of a lab-engineered replica of an elephant tusk dating from the late 19th century. The film gradually opens up to reflections on ecological and museological conservation, fabrication materials, and authenticity. 
HAVANA, FROM ON HIGH
HAVANA, FROM ON HIGH
The chronic shortage of housing in Central Havana has pushed the city upwards forcing some to make their homes on building rooftops. This wondrous documentary tells the story of these remarkable and resilient rooftop dwellers - a secret village, hidden from the clamor of the streets below - who have a privileged point of view on a society in the process of major transformation.
JADDOLAND
JADDOLAND
A visit to her mother’s home art studio in Texas prompts the filmmaker to explore the meaning of home and the search for belonging across three generations of her Iraqi family. Winner of the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2020 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
MR. TOILET: The World's #2 Man
MR. TOILET: The World's #2 Man
To a stranger, he’s a guy obsessed with toilets, but to those who know him he's “Mr. Toilet,” a crusader in global sanitation. A former entrepreneur, Jack Sim uses humor to campaign for something no one dares talk about: shit. It's a crisis that impacts over 2 billion people. In India alone, 200,000 children die each year from lack of safe sanitation. Jack fought for and established UN World Toilet Day, but with recent corporate pushback and thinning resources, he is discovering there is a price to pay for being the world's #2 hero.
THE HOTTEST AUGUST
THE HOTTEST AUGUST
What does the future look like from where we are standing? The focus of this extraordinary documentary – filmmaker Brett Story’s follow-up to her critically-acclaimed The Prison in Twelve Landscapes – is one city over one month (New York during August 2017), a month heavy with the tension of a new President, growing anxiety over rising rents, marching white nationalists, and unrelenting news of wildfires and hurricanes. Empathetic and incisive, The Hottest August offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation at a unique moment in time.
ZIVA POSTEC: The Woman Who Edited Shoah
ZIVA POSTEC: The Woman Who Edited Shoah
In 1985, Claude Lanzmann debuted Shoah, one of the most monumental cinematic works of all time. Ziva Postec was an indispensable part of the project. In this fascinating documentary, Postec recalls this gargantuan, painful and necessary experience which consumed six years of her life. With previously unseen footage from the making of Shoah, it's a moving portrait of an artist who for a long time has largely gone unnoticed, eclipsed by the towering presence of her male colleague.
SEGUNDA VEZ
SEGUNDA VEZ
This vital, revolutionary documentary isn't merely a biopic of Oscar Masotta - a pivotal theorist in the Argentinian avant-garde from the 1950s to 1970s - but a treatise on the artistic and political climate of the nation preceding the Dirty War, eerily mirroring the world today. The title, Segunda Vez, originates from a homonymous story written by a contemporary of Masotta’s, Julio Cortázar.
BLUE NOTE RECORDS: Beyond the Notes
BLUE NOTE RECORDS: Beyond the Notes
One of the most important record labels in the history of jazz — and, by extension, that of American music — Blue Note Records has been home to such groundbreaking artists as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Art Blakey. Through rare archival footage, current recording sessions and conversations with jazz icons and today’s groundbreaking musicians, this thrilling documentary reveals a powerful mission and illuminates the vital connections between jazz and hip hop.

FLOAT
FLOAT
Beautifully photographed, Float follows the tumultuous journey of two American competitors as they prepare for and compete in the most elite model airplane contest in the world, the F1D World Championships, located 400 feet underground in the cathedral-like salt mines of Romania. The documentary brilliantly details the precise process and science by which these complicated machines—at once elegant and fragile—are constructed and flown.
SWARM SEASON
SWARM SEASON
The extinction of honey bees on a remote volcanic island of Hawaii, indigenous cosmology, and a secret NASA project intersect in this gorgeous, thought-provoking documentary. With an artist's eye for details and plenty of time for amazement, Swarm Season draws fascinating parallels between the micro- and macrocosm, and challenges our understanding of nature, the world and ourselves.
TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT
TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT
From performing in Jack Smith’s legendary Flaming Creatures to creating a series of groundbreaking experimental films to playing a pivotal role in the formation of The Velvet Underground, Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present, twenty-two years in the making, examines the pioneering life and work of artist, musician, and educator, Tony Conrad.
METEORS
METEORS
One night, meteors start to fall in a Kurdish village on Turkey’s southern border with Syria. Earlier that year, the villagers endured a sustained and brutal assault by Turkish military forces. Neither the incident nor the fatalities were ever covered by local media. Incorporating internet uploads, foreign news reports and intimate interviews, this poetic documentary attempts to correct the historical record during one night when the sky is lit up with meteors.
LETHEM
LETHEM
A multi-faceted portrait of the life and work of bestselling author Jonathan Lethem, whose acclaimed novels include The Fortress of Solitude, Gun With Occasional Music, and Motherless Brooklyn, Lethem considers the cultural influences that inform his writing and features interviews with family members, friends, and the author himself.
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS COLLECTION 2018
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS COLLECTION 2018
Five visionary short films selected from the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, widely considered to be the premier showcase for shorts, and the launchpad, for more than 30 years, of many now-prominent independent filmmakers.. Grasshopper is proud to present the 2018 collection, Fauve, winner of the Short Film Special Jury Award, and Matria, winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
THE LOAD
THE LOAD
During NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999, a truck driver is hired to undertake a treacherous journey across his war-torn country to deliver mysterious cargo. Brilliantly photographed and overwhelmingly atmospheric - recalling Clouzot's The Wages of Fear and Friedkin's SorcererThe Load is a taut suspense thriller about the choices we make in difficult times.
LIFE AND NOTHING MORE
LIFE AND NOTHING MORE
Winner of the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, Antonio Méndez Esparza's (Aquí y allá) powerful second feature presents another sensitive portrait of a struggling family - a single mother raising her two children when her 14-year-old son has a brush with the law. Life and Nothing More employs documentary-style realism in this snapshot of race, class and the bonds of family in contemporary America.
AND WITH HIM CAME THE WEST
AND WITH HIM CAME THE WEST
Filmmaker Mike Plante (Be Like an Ant) thoughtfully explores the relationship between the Wyatt Earp legend and the emergence of filmmaking as a popular medium. Featuring a wealth of clips from film adaptations of Earp’s life, alongside insightful interviews, Plante demonstrates the mutability of historical record and the power of moving images to shape our national mythology.
EVERY PULSE OF THE HEART IS WORK
EVERY PULSE OF THE HEART IS WORK
Filmed across India, the central theme of Paweł Wojtasik’s (End of Life) stunning new documentary is work. With a patient, unobtrusive approach, it consists of transcendent portraits of a broad spectrum of laborers, from a surgeon to a priest to a masseur, forming a composite vision of society, where each has a place in the tangled web of human endeavor.
LOS REYES
LOS REYES
A magical documentary, Los Reyes presents the world, or more specifically, a skate park in Santiago, Chile, from the perspective of two wise and adorable dogs, Chola and Fútbol. As the camera effortlessly follows them throughout the day and night, the conversations of young skaters are heard in the background; frank talk of drug use, sexuality, economic mobility and social marginalization. 
THE GRIEF OF OTHERS
THE GRIEF OF OTHERS
At once literary and gently cinematic, Patrick Wang's (A Bread Factory, In The Family) second feature is based on Leah Hager Cohen’s critically acclaimed novel. After suffering a tragic loss, a family welcomes an unexpected visitor into their lives and find themselves growing more alert to the hurt, humor, warmth, and grief of others.
LIGHT FROM LIGHT
LIGHT FROM LIGHT
Gifted with sometimes-prophetic dreams, Sheila (Marin Ireland) is asked to investigate a potential haunting. It’s there she meets Richard (Jim Gaffigan), a recent widower who believes his wife may still be with him. Beautifully shot in rural East Tennessee, Paul Harrill's acclaimed feature avoids jump-scare clichés of the ghost story in favor of a nuanced character study that focuses on buried traumas and unspoken emotions. 
BUDDY
BUDDY
Whether grabbing a sheet of paper from a printer, helping to push in a syringe, or comforting a veteran with PTSD while he sleeps, Buddy, the incredible new documentary from legendary filmmaker Heddy Honigmann is a beautifully composed, heartwarming portrait of six amazing service dogs and their heroic owners that explores the close bond between animal and human.
CABALLERANGO
CABALLERANGO
In the Mexican village of Milpillas, deteriorating economic and social conditions have led to a wave of suicides among its young people. The remarkable new documentary Cabellerango, from filmmaker Juan Pablo González, examines one such case, relying on conversations with family members and townspeople to piece together the factors that led to this tragic incident, and in the process, reflect upon the changes occurring across much of the country.
BISBEE '17
BISBEE '17
Named the best film of the year by The New York Times, Robert Greene’s extraordinary Bisbee ‘17 radically combines collaborative documentary, western, and musical elements to recreate a mass deportation of striking miners (mostly Mexican and Eastern European immigrants) that occurred in 1917. Greene confronts issues of immigration, unionization and environmental damage while linking a tragic moment in American history to our own turbulent times.
BLACK MOTHER
BLACK MOTHER
A visionary filmmaker and photographer, Khalik Allah exploded onto the scene with Field Niggas (2015), a grassroots production which went from a YouTube upload to a sensation on the festival circuit. In his celebrated follow-up, Black Mother, Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica, the land of his mother's birth, informed by the island's turbulent history yet existing in the urgent present.
ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT
ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT
A stirring and beautiful documentary from Academy Award nominated director James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), Angels Are Made of Light traces the lives of young students and their teachers at a school in the old city of Kabul. Interweaving the modern history of Afghanistan with present-day portraits, the film offers an intimate and nuanced vision of a society living in the shadow of war.
TRIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS: Films by Akosua Adoma Owusu
TRIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS: Films by Akosua Adoma Owusu
Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker, producer and cinematographer whose award-winning work addresses the collision of identities, and themes such as feminism, queerness and African immigrants interacting in African, white American, and black American culture. This edition presents thirteen of her short films.
DISTANT CONSTELLATION
DISTANT CONSTELLATION
A beautifully composed and magical documentary, Distant Constellation introduces us to the colorful residents of a Turkish retirement home, a community made up of pranksters, historians, artists and would-be Casanovas. An Independent Spirit Award nominee, this playful, dreamy film is one of the most unforgettable cinematic experiences of the year.
ASAKO I & II
ASAKO I & II
From the Academy Award nominated director of DRIVE MY CAR. A truly original Vertigo riff, based on a novel by Tomoka Shibasaki, Asako I & II is a mysterious and intoxicating pop romance. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's beguiling film traces the trajectory of a love—or, to be accurate, two loves—found, lost, displaced, and regained.
WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD
WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD
A new edition of the landmark documentary, William Eggleston in the Real World – from Michael Almereyda, director of Escapes, Marjorie Prime, Experimenter, and Hamlet, among others – is a brilliant and intimate look at the renowned photographer, whose hallucinatory Faulknerian images were featured in the Museum of Modern Art's first one-man exhibition of color photographs.
AMÉRICA
AMÉRICA
Three brothers confront the chasm between adolescent yearning and adult responsibilities when brought together to care for their charismatic ninety-three year old grandmother in this critically-acclaimed documentary, “a sublime, magical masterpiece.” (Joshua Oppenheimer, director, The Act of Killing)
WALDEN
WALDEN
Deep inside a pristine forest, we hear the sudden sound of a chainsaw felling a fir tree. So begins this breathtakingly photographed, puzzle-like documentary which follows the mysterious journey of the tree’s lumber entirely through thirteen 360° panning shots; a wide-angle picture of the role nature plays in a world defined by globalization.
IN MY ROOM
IN MY ROOM
Sometimes the end of the word can be a new beginning. In this boldly original take on the last man on earth genre, filmmaker Ulrich Kohler – part of the acclaimed Berlin School, a loosely defined group that includes Christian Petzold and Maren Ade – tells the story of a man adrift who awakens one morning to discover that seemingly all of humanity has disappeared.
WORLDS OF URSULA K. LE GUIN
WORLDS OF URSULA K. LE GUIN
An essential documentary exploring the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin, best known for her classic Earthsea series and masterworks of science fiction such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed; with reflections from literary luminaries including Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, and more. 
MR. FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END
MR. FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END
A political cartoonist known for his subversive and often controversial art, Mr. Fish’s work can be seen in publications like Harper’s, The Nation and the LA Times. In this revealing documentary, we are introduced to the dangerously funny cartoonist as he struggles to stay true to his creativity in a quickly changing political and economic climate.
WOMEN OF THE VENEZUELAN CHAOS
WOMEN OF THE VENEZUELAN CHAOS
Embodying strength and stoicism, five Venezuelan women from diverse backgrounds and generations each draw a portrait of their country as it suffers under the worst crisis in its history amid extreme food and medicine shortages, a broken justice system, and widespread fear, in this powerful and timely documentary.
TOWARDS MATHILDE
TOWARDS MATHILDE
Presented in the US for the first time, from filmmaker director Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, Let the Sunshine In), Towards Mathilde utilizes sumptuous 8mm and 16mm cinematography, striking performances and the music by PJ Harvey to craft a singular documentary portrait of choreographer and dancer Mathilde Monnier.
THE ORGANIZER
THE ORGANIZER
Before its infamous demise, ACORN had been the largest community organization in the US, a national political powerhouse for the poor that transformed lives and communities. Featuring a wealth of archival footage, this is a comprehensive portrait of the organization and its founder, Wade Rathke, as well as an exploration of that much maligned & misunderstood occupation -- community organizing.
INFINITE FOOTBALL
INFINITE FOOTBALL
In his masterful new documentary, Corneliu Porumboiu, a leading figure in the Romanian New Wave, introduces us to a former soccer star and current local bureaucrat whose dream of radically revolutionizing his beloved sport masks an attempt to understand far greater issues: functioning societies, social systems, fate, freedom, individual responsibility and utopianism.   
RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE
RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE
Louisiana has suffered from hurricanes, flooding and oil spills, but nothing has been as insidious as the nutria. This giant swamp rat, known for its orange buckteeth, is prone to tunneling and eating plant roots, threatening the fragile wetlands. Rodents  follows the sometimes peculiar efforts of Gulf residents as they try to defend their imperiled land from this invasive species. 
A WHALE OF A TALE
A WHALE OF A TALE
In 2010, the sleepy fishing town of Taiji found itself in the world’s spotlight when The Cove, a documentary denouncing its whaling traditions, won an Academy Award. Fascinating and thought-provoking, A Whale of Tale revisits this story and discovers a different perspective as it unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature, wildlife and cultural sensitivity.
ERIE
ERIE
In this landmark documentary, celebrated filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson presents a series of single-take, black-and-white sequences filmed in and around Lake Erie to draw a profound connection between Black migration from the South to the North and the economic hardships currently facing working class communities.
THE DEAD NATION
THE DEAD NATION
A work of startling power and originality, acclaimed director Radu Jude’s documentary-essay examines the rise of anti-Semitism in Romania prior to and during World War II almost entirely through the diary of a Jewish doctor in Bucharest juxtaposed with recently unearthed photographs of provincial life in Romania between the years of 1937 and 1944.
IN THE STILLNESS OF SOUNDS
IN THE STILLNESS OF SOUNDS
A magical documentary that asks us to reconsider how we see – and hear – our world, In The Stillness of Sounds follows the work of a renowned sound engineer and biologist who ventures deep into the forest to capture sounds no one’s heard before: a bee rubbing its legs together, the drumbeat of marching ants, the songs of nocturnal animals, for a wondrous appreciation of nature’s ecosystem.
COCOTE
COCOTE
Questions of faith, tradition and honor course through de Los Santos Arias’ rapturous crime fable. Set in the Dominican Republic, Cocote follows a kind-hearted gardener, an Evangelical Christian, who has returned home to take part in traditional mourning rituals for his father's death, only to discover that he is expected to commit an unthinkable act.
THE AREA
THE AREA
Filmed over the course of five years, The Area is a panoramic documentary about a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, home to more than 400 African-American families, that is being displaced by the Norfolk Southern railroad company. It is a complex story of economic revitalization, commercial interests, and community rights.
LIGHT YEARS
LIGHT YEARS
An intimate portrait of the great Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, the director of landmark films like La Cienaga and A Headless Woman, during the making of her fourth feature, Zama. Far more than a behind-the-scenes look, it is an attempt to evoke the oblique, transcendental tendencies that pervade Martel’s haunting films.
THE BROKER
THE BROKER
A tragicomic glimpse inside a traditional Iranian dating agency, The Broker introduces us to Mrs. Sadri and her cadre of female employees who are determined to find their clients a husband, at all costs. The documentary offers an acute reminder that the fiercest agents of the patriarchy aren't always men.
DIESTE [URUGUAY]
DIESTE [URUGUAY]
Born in 1917 in Uruguay, Eladio Dieste created industrial and agrarian works, public infrastructure and commercial buildings whose unique and innovative design, a melding of architecture and engineering, elevated these often humble buildings to masterworks of art. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, this audacious documentary presents twenty-nine of Dieste's buildings.
PARABETON: PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE
PARABETON: PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE
Considered the Architect‘s Architect of the 20th century, Nervi is the creator of style-forming constructions and a grand master of concrete buildings. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Parabeton presents seventeen of his buildings punctuated by Ancient Roman constructions, suggesting, with its gorgeous compositions, a relationship between the two.
PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA
PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA
Both biography and cultural commentary, Perret tells the story of architectural pioneer Auguste Perret, whose groundbreaking works in two countries are mired in their volatile histories, including Parisian buildings destroyed (and later rebuilt) during WWII. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, this visually stunning documentary presents thirty of Perret's buildings.
GOFF IN THE DESERT
GOFF IN THE DESERT
One of the most inventive and iconoclastic American architects, Bruce Goff’s work, which comprised mostly churches and private homes, combined the harmony of nature with the innovation of modern construction. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Goff in the Desert presents sixty-two buildings by Goff, who was never formally educated as an architect.
ARABY
ARABY
A fable-like road movie, Araby is a beautifully written and photographed story about a young boy who discovers an old notebook and is soon swept up in the writer's wanderings, adventures and loves; a twenty-year journey across the Brazilian countryside in search of a better life.
CANIBA
CANIBA
A new documentary from the groundbreaking filmmakers behind Leviathan, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Caniba reflects on the discomfiting significance of cannibalistic desire in human existence through the prism of one Japanese man, Issei Sagawa, and his mysterious relationship with his brother, Jun Sagawa.
FOOD EVOLUTION
FOOD EVOLUTION
Amidst a polarized debate marked by passion, suspicion and confusion, this fascinating documentary – narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson and directed by Oscar-nominee Scott Hamilton Kennedy – explores the controversy surrounding GMOs and food. Travelling from the cornfields of Iowa to banana farms in Uganda, Food Evolution brings a fresh perspective to one of the most critical issues facing global society today.
AVA
AVA
When her overprotective mother questions her relationship with a boy — going so far as to visit a gynecologist — Ava, fomery a model student, begins to rebel against her parents, her school, and the society at large. Based on her own experiences, Sadaf Foroughi’s gripping debut explores what its like for a young girl’s coming of age in a strict, traditional society.
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS COLLECTION 2017
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS COLLECTION 2017
Six innovative, surprising short films selected from the Sundance Film Festival, widely considered to be the premier showcase for shorts, and the launchpad of many now-prominent independent filmmakers. Grasshopper is proud to present the 2017 collection, which includes two Jury Award winners and Come Swim, the directorial debut of actress Kristen Stewart.
DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN?
DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN?
“In 1946, my great-grandfather murdered a black man named Bill Spann and got away with it.” So begins this acclaimed documentary which takes us on a journey through the American South – interweaving scenes from To Kill a Mockingbird and Rosa Parks’ investigation into the Recy Taylor case – to uncover the truth behind a horrific incident and the societal mores that empowered it.
ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH
ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH
Charting the languorous, mysterious existence of two men who seem to share a deep, liminal understanding beyond words, until a third man enters their secluded space, Dane Komljen's debut feature, All the Cities of the North, is a radically open-ended but ravishingly beautiful work that’s animated by rhythms and ideas entirely its own.
END OF LIFE
END OF LIFE
“In our culture, almost everyone fears death,” says Ram Dass, the noted spiritual guru and author, and one of the subjects in this extraordinary documentary. Directed by John Bruce and Paweł Wojtasik, who underwent training as doulas in order to accompany people nearing death, End of Life is a deeply moving, revelatory work that captures the last years of five individuals in the process of dying.
GRAY HOUSE
GRAY HOUSE
From a women's correctional facility in the Pacific Northwest to a North Dakota oil field, Gray House deftly blends vérité footage, stunning landscapes, interviews with workers, and fictional elements – some of which involve actors like Denis Lavant (Holy Motors, Beau Travail) – for a prescient vision of modern-day America.
A RIVER BELOW
A RIVER BELOW
A captivating documentary about the ethics of activism in the modern media age, A River Below examines the efforts of two conservationists in the Amazon – one, a marine biologist, the other, an animal activist and host of a popular National Geographic TV show – whose methods to save the mythical pink river dolphin from extinction trigger unforeseen consequences.
PROTOTYPE (3D)
PROTOTYPE (3D)
Hailed as "the most significant 3-D film since Godard’s Goodbye to Language" (Village Voice), Blake Williams' experimental sci-fi masterwork immerses us in the aftermath of the deadly hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas in 1900 to create something entirely new; a haunting treatise on technology, cinema, and the medium’s future.
MY COFFEE WITH JEWISH FRIENDS
MY COFFEE WITH JEWISH FRIENDS
A new film from veteran filmmaker Manfred Kirchheimer is always a cause for celebration; with My Coffee, Kirchheimer uses a simple, humorous title as a screen to ask serious questions, from gender inequality to secularism to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, for a deeply thoughtful exploration of contemporary Jewish identity.
CANNERS
CANNERS
Manfred Kirchheimer, director of award-winning films such as Stations of the Elevated and Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan, whom the New York Times recently called "an indispensable New York filmmaker," takes to the streets in an ode to the men and women who earn their daily bread by diligently collecting New York City’s bottles and cans.
AND WHEN I DIE, I WON'T STAY DEAD
AND WHEN I DIE, I WON'T STAY DEAD
Embodying the spirit of his poems, the new film from Billy Woodberry, director of Bless Their Little Hearts, is a vivid appreciation of Bob Kaufman, the legendary Beat figure, featuring interviews with his contemporaries, readings, rare photos and footage, and a soundtrack with the likes of Billie Holiday and Ornette Coleman.
CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH
CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH
Using letters Anna Magdalena Bach wrote to her husband, Johann Sebastian, filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet created one of the most precise, rewarding biopics ever put to screen. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, this masterpiece has been immaculately restored.
EYES DO NOT WANT TO CLOSE AT ALL TIMES
EYES DO NOT WANT TO CLOSE AT ALL TIMES
A faithful adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s Othon, the classic tragedy that premiered at the court of Louis XIV at Fontainebleau in 1664 and today is more hallowed than actually performed, Eyes do not want to close… depicts the power vacuum that followed Emperor Nero’s death.
HISTORY LESSONS
HISTORY LESSONS
This complex interpretation of Brecht’s unfinished novel The Business Affairs of Mr. Julius Caesar explores history as it has been written by the victors, with their hero worship of tyrannical leaders (whether Caesar or Hitler), and offers an alternate view of history writing as fractured and potentially revolutionary.
MOSES AND AARON
MOSES AND AARON
One of Straub-Huillet's major films, this adaptation of Schoenberg’s unfinished opera is a thrilling and rigorous consideration of Biblical and archaeological history; set almost entirely within a Roman amphitheater whose history lends every precise line-reading and gesture, every startling camera move and cut, a totalizing force.
FORTINI/CANI
FORTINI/CANI
An elegiac and damning meditation on abuses of power and historical amnesia, this film records communist critic Franco Fortini reading excerpts of his book The Dogs of Sinai, which condemns capitalism and the state of Israel in the aftermath of the Six Day War while reflecting on his own Jewish heritage.
FROM THE CLOUD TO THE RESISTANCE
FROM THE CLOUD TO THE RESISTANCE
Based on six mythological encounters in Cesar Pavese’s Dialogues with Leucò, and on Pavese’s last novel, The Moon and the Bonfires, about the savage murders of Italian anti-Fascist resistance fighters during World War II, this film bridges history and myth, modernity and antiquity.
TOO EARLY/TOO LATE
TOO EARLY/TOO LATE
A major influence on contemporary filmmakers, consisting entirely of a sequence of landscape shots, Straub-Huillet's Too Early / Too Late reflects on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, linking it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789. 
ANTIGONE
ANTIGONE
The tragedy of Antigone loses none of its dramatic force across the centuries in this classic retelling by Straub-Huillet; its themes of bloodlust and blindness, wisdom and sacrifice, resonating ever more intensely after war and genocide.
FROM TODAY UNTIL TOMORROW
FROM TODAY UNTIL TOMORROW
Schoenberg’s rarely performed one-act opera, a withering portrait of a suffocating bourgeois marriage, gets the Weimar treatment in Straub-Huillet’s staged film.
SICILIA!
SICILIA!
Something as simple as a herring roasting on a hearth, or a meal of bread, wine and winter melon, takes on the humble aura of a Caravaggio painting in Straub-Huillet's masterful tragicomedy about Sicilians who are poor of means but rich in spirit. “A passionate and wide-ranging masterwork by Straub and Huillet." (The New Yorker). New 20th anniversary digital restoration. 
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON/HUMILIATED
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON/HUMILIATED
Straub-Huillet take as their inspiration the 1949 novel Women of Messina by the Sicilian writer Elio Vittorini, whose courageous wartime work in the underground Communist resistance press led to his imprisonment by the Fascists.
COMMUNISTS
COMMUNISTS
Six scenes concerning resistance to “forms of domination and violence of man on man,” including Communist prisoners who face down their Fascist interrogators during World War II and Egyptian workers and peasants who revolt against their colonial exploiters in 1919.
SPETTACOLO
SPETTACOLO
From the directors of Marwencol, Spettacolo tells the story of a small town in Tuscany that came up with a remarkable way to confront their issues – they turned their lives into a play. Every summer for the past 50 years, their piazza has become their stage and residents of all ages play a part – the role of themselves.
ESCAPES
ESCAPES
Directed by Michael Almereyda and executive produced by Wes Anderson, a journey through 20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and unlikely producer and screenwriter of Blade Runner - showing how one man's personal journey can shape a medium's future.
BRONX GOTHIC
BRONX GOTHIC
From director Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside the New York Times, Ivory Tower) comes an electrifying portrait of writer and performer Okwui Okpokwasili and her acclaimed one-woman show "Bronx Gothic," a story about two 12-year-old black girls coming of age in the 1980s.
NIGHT SCHOOL
NIGHT SCHOOL
Emmy-winning director Andrew Cohn’s absorbing documentary observes the individual pursuits of four adult learners seeking a high school diploma, fraught with the challenges of daily life and the broader systemic roadblocks faced by many low income Americans.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC
VAMPIR-CUADECUC
Filmed on the set of Jess Franco’s Count Dracula starring Christopher Lee, Portabella’s masterpiece mixes making-of footage and an electronic soundtrack for an investigation into the figure of the vampire - as both a reflection on fascism and cinema - to create a subversive fever dream of a meta-film.
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
2018 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work – a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage – follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets; ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes in the hope of saving lives.
AFTER FIRE
AFTER FIRE
With intimate access to the lives of women veterans, After Fire is an observational documentary that throws a spotlight on the human toll of military service - including military sexual trauma, combat injuries and bureaucratic dysfunction - examining the challenges faced by the fastest-growing group of American veterans: women
RAILWAY SLEEPERS
RAILWAY SLEEPERS
The first railway line in Thailand was inaugurated in 1893 – a sign of progress and prosperity. Shot over eight years on every active line of the railway system, this extraordinary documentary, produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, offers an unprecedented immersion into the country’s past and present.
THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD
THE DREAM OF SHAHRAZAD
An exploration of recent social and political upheavals across the Middle East, The Dream of Shahrazad contextualizes these events within a broader historical and cultural legacy by drawing on the famous collection of stories known as “The Arabian Nights."
IN EXILE
IN EXILE
Forced to flee his country after filming politically sensitive events such as the Saffron Revolution, a Myanmar filmmaker finds himself a refugee amongst refugees in Thailand, where he discovers the plight of fellow migrants working under slavery-like conditions.
THE STAIRS
THE STAIRS
Shot over the course of five years, Hugh Gibson's award-winning documentary examines the lives of habitual drug users at an urban health center staffed by both former and current users; expanding into a wide-ranging portrait of the conditions that can nurture addiction and the social and legal structures that surround it.
THE BEEKEEPER AND HIS SON
THE BEEKEEPER AND HIS SON
The widening gap between generations in China today is at the heart of this deeply resonant documentary about a son, recently returned from the city, trying to modernize his aging father’s beekeeping business.
THE DREAMED ONES
THE DREAMED ONES
The tormented romance between celebrated poets Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann – a Holocaust survivor and a daughter of a Nazi party member – is the subject of this innovative documentary in which two actors read from their nearly two decades worth of correspondence.
88:88
88:88
Referencing the digital display of electric appliances after the power’s been repeatedly cut off, Isiah Medina’s audacious experimental work – one of the most acclaimed in recent years – is a personal meditation on family, friendship and the experience of living in poverty.
LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD
LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD
Voiced and executive produced by Tilda Swinton, Letters from Baghdad is a visually rich, beautifully crafted documentary that tells the story of Gertrude Bell, who, more influential than her friend and colleague Lawrence of Arabia, shaped the modern Middle East in ways that still reverberate today.
THE HUMAN SURGE
THE HUMAN SURGE
One of the year’s most bracingly original debuts, The Human Surge is a global journey that jumps from Argentina to the Philippines to Mozambique, a road movie that fuses fiction and documentary for a portrait of today’s youth at a time of economic uncertainty and illusory hyper-connection.
THE MARK OF CAIN
THE MARK OF CAIN
Sailing ships, angels and executioners, this classic documentary chronicles the vanishing practice and language of Russian criminal tattoos. Recalling the prison writings of Solzhenitsyn or Dostoevsky, Lambert's harrowingly beautiful and penetrating study served as inspiration for Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.
MY VOICE, MY LIFE
MY VOICE, MY LIFE
Academy Award winning filmmaker Ruby Yang’s My Voice, My Life follows a group of students from underprivileged families who are cast in a musical theater performance. A moving story about the importance of art education in our schools.
WILD PLANTS
WILD PLANTS
From urban farms in Detroit to Native-owned agriculture projects across the midwest to guerrilla gardens in Zurich, Wild Plants is a kaleidoscopic portrait of activists around the world who are creating their own botanic utopias.
KIVALINA
KIVALINA
This tender portrait of an Inupiaq Eskimo community who are living on an island that is disappearing into the sea is both an elegy to the indigenous cultures of the Arctic and a harrowing vision of climate change in America.
MIMOSAS
MIMOSAS
Winner of the Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Laxe’s stunning new film, Mimosas, is a breathtakingly-shot Western that follows a mysterious caravan transporting a dying sheikh into the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.
A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME
A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME
Drawing on the work of German-Jewish ethnomusicologist Robert Lachmann (1892-1939), filmmaker Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of historical Palestine in this magical documentary.
LIVING WITH GIANTS
LIVING WITH GIANTS
In a remote arctic village, a young Inuk boy's transition into adulthood becomes a quiet and devastating portrait of the issues facing the entire Inuit community in the outstanding documentary Living with Giants
HONG KONG TRILOGY
HONG KONG TRILOGY
Renowned cinematographer and artist Christopher Doyle celebrates Hong Kong and its people with this vibrant documentary that focuses on the city's residents in their childhood, youth, and old age.
KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE
KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Greene's incisive documentary exploring the story of a newswoman who committed a shocking act on live TV in the 1970s is an inquiry into our culture, media, the role of women in society and the workforce.
BEHEMOTH
BEHEMOTH
Beginning with a mining explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, political documentarian Zhao Liang's visionary new film details the social and ecological devastation behind an economic miracle that may yet prove illusory.
THE RIDE
THE RIDE
This intimate, moving documentary follows young Lakota riders on a 300-mile trek on horseback through the South Dakota badlands, as they retrace the fateful journey of their ancestors that culminated at Wounded Knee.
LOST AND BEAUTIFUL
LOST AND BEAUTIFUL
Conceived as a documentary, director Pietro Marcello (Martin Eden) had to change course when his lead, a humble shepherd turned local hero, passed away during production. The resulting film is a beautiful and fantastical ode to his memory and their beloved country.
DEAD SLOW AHEAD
DEAD SLOW AHEAD
An enormous shipping freighter drifts endlessly across the Atlantic Ocean; its' crew toiling tirelessly below. At times resembling a dystopian science-fiction film, this is trenchant commentary on global trade, labor and capitalism.
BOONE
BOONE
The final year in the life of a small farm in Southern Oregon is vividly captured in this study of a way of life quickly disappearing due to strict government regulations and competition from corporate farms.
FRAGMENT 53
FRAGMENT 53
Candid, haunted and often shocking interviews with warlords from Liberia’s First Civil War form the core of this transfixing inquiry into Africa’s modern history and the nature and essence of war itself.
THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES
THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES
In this remarkable documentary, filmmaker Brett Story excavates the often unseen links and connections that prisons – and our system of mass incarceration – have on communities and industries all around us. Widely acclaimed, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes is an essential documentary, a portrait of our criminal justice system in which we never see a penitentiary.
PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN
PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN
Capturing one year in the life of a historic garden, this magnificent documentary is an ode to nature and the delicate, interdependent relationship between man and the natural world.
FORT BUCHANAN
FORT BUCHANAN
A bracingly original debut, filmmaker Benjamin Crotty uses the tragicomic plight of a frail young man stranded at a military outpost amid a lascivious band of army wives to craft a queer soap opera for the ages.
THE ACADEMY OF MUSES
THE ACADEMY OF MUSES
A university professor espouses the role of muses in art and literature as a means of romancing his students in this breathtaking new film from the acclaimed director of In the City of Sylvia.
DON'T BLINK - ROBERT FRANK
DON'T BLINK - ROBERT FRANK
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, a documentary about Robert Frank, the legendary photographer and filmmaker behind the seminal book “The Americans” and landmark films like Pull My Daisy.
KAILI BLUES
KAILI BLUES
A stunning, dreamlike debut, a country doctor's search for an abandoned child takes him to a mysterious place where past, present and future become one.
ORIENTED
ORIENTED
An exceptional, inspirational documentary about three gay Palestinian friends in Tel Aviv who form a non-violent group to fight for gender and national equality.
DOUBLE PLAY: BENNING AND LINKLATER
DOUBLE PLAY: BENNING AND LINKLATER
This documentary on the friendship between these renowned filmmakers explores the connections and divergences in their approach to life and cinema.
IN LIMBO
IN LIMBO
Does the Internet dream with our electric memories? What happens to all those photos and videos we upload? A poetic exploration of time, memory and technology.
UNSEEN: THE LIVES OF LOOKING
UNSEEN: THE LIVES OF LOOKING
A revelatory documentary exploring the physical act of looking; from the work of an eye surgeon to a NASA explorer to a human rights lawyer.
CASA DE LAVA
CASA DE LAVA
In only his second feature, Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa (Horse Money) brilliantly reworked Jacques Tourneur's classic I Walked with a Zombie into a reflection on his country’s colonial legacy. Never before released in the U.S. and now beautifully restored.
THE THOUGHTS THAT ONCE WE HAD
THE THOUGHTS THAT ONCE WE HAD
A richly digressive journey through cinematic history from master cinematic essayist Thom Andersen (Los Angeles Plays Itself).
TASKAFA, STORIES OF THE STREET
TASKAFA, STORIES OF THE STREET
With readings by John Berger, Taskafa offers a brilliantly incisive meditation on urban space and city life by investigating the complex history of Istanbul’s street dogs.
PARASITE
PARASITE
A film of brilliant, nocturnal beauty from renowned painter and artist Wilhem Sasnal, and his wife, Anka Sasnal.
IN THE GAME
IN THE GAME
The struggles of a girls soccer team in a mostly hispanic, inner city neighborhood reveals the obstacles that low-income students face in their quest for higher education.
HERB AND DOROTHY 50x50
HERB AND DOROTHY 50x50
An ordinary couple who amassed a world class art collection on their modest salaries and then gave it all away – donating fifty works of art to one museum in each state.
HERB AND DOROTHY
HERB AND DOROTHY
The extraordinary story of an ordinary couple who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history.
FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY
FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY
A story of marital intrigue and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Persian New Year from the Academy Award winning director of A Separation.
ESTATE, A REVERIE
ESTATE, A REVERIE
The utopian dream of public housing is explored in this incandescent, artful documentary.
THE ARTEFACTA
THE ARTEFACTA
The mysterious work of Nicola Costantino, one of Latin America’s most controversial and admired artists.
FISH TAIL
FISH TAIL
The impact of global industrial overfishing on a small community of fishermen in the Azores is explored in this intimate, beautiful documentary.