1. On the Banks of the Tigris
When Majid Shokor escaped from Iraq he discovered that the songs he loved as a child in Baghdad have a hidden history. To find out more, Majid makes a bold journey from Australia to Israel, Europe and Iraq to meet Iraqi musicians, hear their music and stories, and unite them in a concert for peace and reconciliation.
2. The Community (A Comunidade)
A Comunidade is a short documentary focused on CCL, the oldest camping park in Portugal.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
3. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatrum Orbis Terrarum)
In the sixteenth century the Padrão Real hung from the ceiling of the Map Room in the Casa da Índia. It was a secret map, guarded from the eyes of foreign spies, which was changed and reworked with the comings and goings of each expedition. Aided by scientific equipment to measure distance, the navigators dreamed up the representation of the expanses that they had covered. When at sea, they looked up to the heavens and gauged their path by the stars, hands drawing in space fictional lines that carved territories. Upon returning to shore, they took the map that had previously belonged to others as their own, erasing divisive lines and constructing new borders. The map that they followed has been lost over time, and what remains of it is a stolen copy, made from memory by one of the cartographers in order to outwit enemies.
It has an average vote of 8.8 on TMDB.
4. Holding Our Ground
Filmed in a squatter community of Labangon in Cebu, Philippines, Holding Our Ground is the inspiring story of a group of women who have organized collectively to pressure their government for land reform, to establish their own money-lending system and to create shelters for street kids. A story of grassroots organizing that can be a model in both hemispheres.
5. Spirit/Will/Loss
Sculptor/painter Katie Dallam entered the boxing ring for her first professional fight and, 140 blows to the head later, suffered major brain damage. . Irish musician Graham Sharpe’s career was on the rise when advancing tinnitus caused a ringing in his ears so bad that it put an end to his rock-and-roll dreams. Sculptor Alice Wingwall experienced complete loss of sight from a degenerative eye disease. Game over for these three, right? Not so fast. Each managed to struggle, innovate, and, ultimately, through their art, transform themselves into someone new.
It has an average vote of 5.7 on TMDB.
6. Desert Haze
The American West. We have arrived in a world where human life would seem to be impossible: an arid, mythical landscape characterized by absence. Absence of water, trees, life. In the beginning there was nothing. But then traces start appearing. Desert Haze tells the many layered story of human presence in the American Desert.
7. The Rules of the Game (Les règles du jeu)
Lolita hates to smile. Kévin doesn't know how to sell himself. Hamid doesn't like bosses. They are twenty. They have no qualifications. They are looking for work. Over six months, the coaches of an employment consultancy firm are going to teach them the attitudes and language required to get a job in today's market. Through this apprenticeship, the film reveals the absurdity of these new rules of the game.
It has an average vote of 4.8 on TMDB.
8. Flowing Stories (河上變村)
FLOWING STORIES is a documentary about change, migration of Hong Kong people and the unknowability of the future.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
9. Cloudy Times (El tiempo nublado)
Arami Ullón must return to Paraguay to make an important decision: what will happen to her sick mother, Mirna? The heartfelt gaze of the camera reveals a relationship filled with love, but also unspoken and unresolved issues. A sensitive film which examines the inner turmoil of the daughter during the final stages of her mother’s degenerative illness.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
10. Uncle Tony꞉ Three Fools and the Secret Service (Uncle Tony꞉ Three Fools and the Secret Service)
This documentary was subjected to condemnation and attempts for institutional censorship as soon as it was done. The film observes how one man makes a career using another in the totalitarian society of Communist Bulgaria.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
11. 9×10 Ninety (9×10 Novanta)
The Istituto Luce turned ninety in 2014, its decades-long history intertwined with that of Italy itself, through cinema and that unique treasure trove of images known to all as the Luce Archives. To celebrate its anniversary, some of the most acclaimed rising filmmakers in Italy were invited to make a small film, with each director selecting ten minutes of footage from the archives, out of the thousands of hours of footage to be found there. The result is an album full of different narratives.
It has an average vote of 4.8 on TMDB.
12. I Touched All Your Stuff (A Vida Privada dos Hipopótamos)
This is a film about Christopher Kirk, an American IT guy who moves to Colombia after reading about Pablo Escobar’s hippopotamuses. It is also a film about the story of V., a story that Kirk obsessively tells and retells about his infatuation with a mysterious Japanese-columbian woman. A story that may or may not have to do with his arrest in 2009 in Brazil for international drug trafficking. Moreover, it is also a film about two directors.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
13. Felvidek – Caught in Between (Felvidék – Horná zem)
In her documentary on Hungarian-Slovak relations, Vladislava Plancíková focuses on the word "felvidék", which refers to the now non-existent northern part of Austro-Hungary. In a personal collage consisting of the stories of members of her Slovak-Hungarian family and of visual references to historical events, she follows the eventful and today often taboo history of the post-war fate of Hungarians on Slovak soil. The abstract topic grabs our interest not only through the witnesses' testimony, but also by using thre novel technique of animating real objects, including a number of contemporary and modern photographs.
14. Queens of Syria
Queens of Troy follows a group of Syrian Refugee women as they put on their own updated, Arabic version of Euripides' ancient Greek play about refugees in Amman, Jordan.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
15. The Wound and the Gift
The Gift is a feature-length film exploring a major transformation in peoples' relationships with animals.
16. Histoire d'un secret (Histoire d'un secret)
A young woman tries to understand the real circumstances of the death of her mother.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
17. The Old Believers (Starověrci)
The award-winning Old Believers , made over a period of five years, documents the life of a strongly religious community in the Danube Delta where time seems to stand still.
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
18. K2 & The Invisible Footmen
K2 is widely seen as the world's harshest mountain. Yet many indigenous porters make a living in its extreme conditions, carrying provisions for foreign climbing expeditions. Often risking their lives, they receive minimal pay for their efforts. Against a backdrop of breathtaking natural beauty, this doc explores the courage and sacrifice of the men who call the 'Savage Mountain' their home.
It has an average vote of 8.9 on TMDB.
19. Field Notes
Field Notes is an experimental documentary about the ghosts embedded in the culture of Trinidad and Tobago. The film is structured as a visual and aural field guide to the ghosts spirits and jumbies througout the island. From personal tales about the soucouyant and lagahoo, to the ghosts of Trinidads past. Shot and finished on 16mm.
20. On the Coast (Bu sahilde)
The film reflects on the nature of vacation, as it is a transformed version of reality, the fantastical counterpart to winter.