1. Una de nosotras (Una de nosotras)
For more than forty years, Belela Herrera has dedicated her life to saving that of others. The politically persecuted, those displaced by civil wars, and the world's refugees are her concern and vocation. Her story is also that of a woman who defined herself and twisted the destiny reserved for girls of her social class: marrying to a man from high society, having a large family and a comfortable and elegant existence . And it is also the story of a female legacy that is part and consequence of the invisible resistance of thousands of women.
2. The Walk (The Walk)
Asil is a young Syrian refugee awaiting documents in Turkey while processing the trauma of losing her home and family. Her story gives voice to a charming gigantic puppet named Amal, who represents millions of migrant and displaced children in a walk from the Syrian border in Turkey all the way across Europe. Escorted and animated by a group of puppeteers who are themselves refugees, Amal’s epic journey is one of compassion and discovery.
3. The First Sea (Das Erste Meer)
Growing up in times of conflict - 13-year old Palestinian girls Wafaa and Raneen from two different Westbank villages are faced with the option of going on a one-day trip to the beach in Israel. Although they live only a few kilometers away, they have both never been to the sea. Israeli peace activists organize a day at the beach in Tel Aviv for Palestinian women and children, to let them exchange the view on the Wall against the horizon. One summer morning, Wafaa is preparing for the journey and imagining pretty people in Israel, while Raneen is playing freedom fighter with her friends. Her village is in constant conflict with the Israeli soldiers and for her and her parents it is out of the question to spend a beach day with the "others". Is the day by the sea a one-day utopia? Or a possible future?
4. The Rebel Physician: Nicholas Culpeper's Fight For Medical Freedom
Benjamin Woolley presents the gripping story of Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century radical pharmacist who took on the establishment in order to bring medicine to the masses. Culpeper lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in British history. When the country was ravaged by famine and civil war, he took part in the revolution that culminated in the execution of King Charles I. But it is Culpeper's achievements in health care that made him famous. By practicing as a herbalist and publishing the first English-language texts explaining how to treat common ailments, he helped to break the monopoly of a medical establishment that had abandoned the poor and needy. His book The English Physician became the most successful non-religious English book of all time, remaining in print continuously for more than 350 years.
5. Divergente (Divergente)
(Divergente)
6. Hard to Believe
A documentary that examines the issue of forced live organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners of conscience, and the response - or lack of it - around the world. It's happened before: governments killing their own citizens for their political or spiritual beliefs. But it’s never happened like this. It’s happened so often that the world doesn’t always pay attention.
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
7. Memórias de Izidora (Memórias de Izidora)
(Memórias de Izidora)
8. Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart
Award-winning documentary, Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart, makes extensive use of Sitting Bull’s own words, giving the viewer an intimate portrait of one of America’s legendary figures in all his complexities as a leader of the great Sioux Nation: warrior, spiritual leader and skilled diplomat. Sitting Bull’s words, as portrayed by Adam Fortunate Eagle, dominate this story. Augmented by a narrator’s historical perspective, over six-hundred historical photographs and images, and a compelling original music score, the film brings to life the little-known human side of Sitting Bull as well as the story of a great man’s struggle to maintain his people’s way of life against an ever-expanding westward movement of white settlers. It is a powerful cinematic journey into the life and spirit of a legendary figure of whom people have often heard but don’t really know.
9. Mr. Dial Has Something to Say
The documentary film "Mr. Dial Has Something to Say" investigates the problem of classism and racism in the elite American art world. By following the dramatic, disturbing story of Thornton Dial, a 79-year-old American-African artist from Alabama's Black Belt.
10. A New Life, A New Fight
A meeting between two strangers sparks the desire to understand each other through the medium of cinema. They both simultaneously start recording their surroundings on camera and crafting the resulting footage. They, Elettra from Italy and Hazem from Gaza, become the subjects of this film that documents their first moments together. It depicts a multi-faceted reality in which North and South confront each other in a discussion on rights and inequalities, a reality in which we witness a migration towards one another, while capturing an intimate way of making a film together.
11. It Started with Trees – Revolt in the Gezi Park (Začalo to stromy: Vzpoura v Gezi Parku)
Protesters diary from Gezi Park - Taksim Square, Istanbul. Occupy Gezi movement started when the government decided to build shopping mall in place of the last green area that remained in the middle of Taksim Square.
12. The Face of a City (The Face of a City)
The stories of four Iranian families who emigrate to Canada and the city they leave behind. As departure time approaches, social spaces become places of memory, fading into the distance.
13. Hunted Like Animals
A documentary about the atrocities committed against the Hmong people by the Laos government. Shot by Hmong people with cameras provided to them in 2006, this film provides a unique look into one of the worst, and silent, human rights tragedies of the 21st century.
14. Motherland (Mutterland)
Director Miriam Pucitta grew up as the child of Italian migrant workers in Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s. She herself has only fragmentary memories of this time; her mother and other relatives evade Miriam's questions. Together with her daughter Giulia, she researches her family's living conditions in Switzerland and finds a new understanding of her parents' difficult decisions.
15. L'Aventure (L'Aventure)
In the Briançonnais mountains, in France, men and women on the roads of exile find the courage to cross the passes on foot, risking their lives. Arrived at the end of a long journey, exhausted, they do not know if they could settle down somewhere to start their life over. It is this transitional time that "The Adventure" tells. Ossoul, the Sudanese poet, Mamadou, survivor of an icy night at the Col de l'Échelle, Charlotte, Mother Courage and others are gradually getting back on their feet and settling to embark on a new life. Filmed over three years, "L'Aventure" is a story of resilience, friendships and revealed emotions. The portraits are drawn and deepened until everyone can recognize themselves in the other, put themselves in their place and understand them.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
16. Angry Inuk
With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
It has an average vote of 7.4 on TMDB.
17. On the Wings of Hope (Umudun Kanadında)
On the Wings of Hope depicts the 4 years of struggle for survival of 5 immigrants, one of them is a child, after the boat they were on sank while they were trying to cross to Greece from Turkey. In 2015, 5 Iraqi refugees who were escaping from ISIS attacks, were trying to reach Kos Island of Greece from Turkey’s coastal town Bodrum, even though their boat sank they managed to survive. Turkish journalist Zehra Yılmaz witnessed the disappointments, pain and hopes of these refugees for four years. Refugees who risk death for a new beginning, refugee boats sinking in the Aegean, lost lives and dreams.
18. Escape from the World's Most Dangerous Place
Successful model Samira Hashi makes an emotional return to Somalia, one of the most dangerous places in the world and the place she was born. Civil war broke out in 1991, 10 days after Samira's birth, but two years later her family managed to flee the country and she grew up in the UK.Now, as Samira and the war both turn 21, she's going back for the first time to visit the people and places she left behind. The contrast with her safe and glamorous life in London could not be starker as she experiences firsthand the war's effect on a generation of young people growing up in conflict.
19. The Team (El Equipo)
An unlikely collaboration between a forensic scientist from Texas and a group of Latin American students changes the course of forensic science and international human rights.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
20. Libya: No Escape from Hell (Libye, les centres de la honte)
(Libye, les centres de la honte)
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
