When cinema is politics
SUDAN: Exploring the importance of cinema for democracy.
Scottish reels, global results
SDI: Executing contrasting styles, two films from the 2019 Scottish Documentary Institute «Bridging the Gap» program showcase SDI’s admirable geographical balancing-act
Condemned to an idea of Russia
RUSSIA: Though the communist era may be over, the ideology of serving the motherland is still very much alive as an ideal for indoctrination.
Ghana’s creative micro-entrepreneurs in a grey zone
AFRICA: Sakawa uses beautiful portraiture to tell a story of Ghana’s enterprising young adults who hope to make a living by learning how to scam on the Internet.
Death and duty
RUSSIA: The dreamlike beauty of Ksenia Okhapkina’s concise film connects the subtle mechanisms of control in a former Gulag town.
Living in interesting times
COMEDY: Following two characters on the fringes of New York City’s stand up circuit, Hysterical depicts personalities who may very well be more peculiar than their acts.
More than sun and heat
MIGRANTS: An uneven book about people who move with a desire for a better life but encounter problems when they move «home» again.
The age of platforms
MEDIA: Analyzing contemporary social media practices likes fake news, Geert Lovink looks toward a possible end to «platform nihilism».
Bikini-clad pluralism
ISRAEL: A different kind of coexistence is happening on a beach, a bit off the beaten track in secular and pluralistic Tel Aviv.
An intimate portrait of ordinary Afghanis in Kabul
CONFLICT: In the capital of a country that only seems to get international attention when suicide bombs claims lives, director Aboozar Amini offers a fly on the wall glimpse into life as the locals live it.
Criminal species extinction
ECOLOGY: The making of this film is itself an integral part of a drama involving the Chinese mafia, Mexican fishermen pushed into crime, fearless activists, frightened policemen and a rare species of mini whales.