1. Sufi, Saint & Swinger
The tragic story of an American music virtuoso who found in 1970s Iran the love and acceptance he never received back home, and who was punished by his country upon his return after the Iranian revolution.
2. Songs of the Open Road
“Songs of The Open Road” sheds light on the life of the award-winning Irish Traveller, Traditional Singer, Thomas McCarthy. Thomas comes from a long line of singers and musicians who kept the tradition of singing strong within the Irish Traveller community. He now knows over a thousand songs and since 2021 has set about collecting a repertoire of this fabulous part of Traveller heritage. Filmmaker Pat Collins’ evocative documentary, Songs Of The Open Road’ sheds light on the life and prowess of this great storyteller who was named Traditional Singer of the Year in the prestigious ‘Gradam Ceoil Awards’ in 2019. The film follows Thomas as he moves from his home in London to perform, sing and speak in various venues, festivals and clubs throughout Ireland and England.
3. Citizen Miko (More Miko)
Miko is a truck driver, his father is Romani, and above all he is a man who wanted to help those in need. When the Czech government was looking for reasons not to take in a few dozen children from Greek refugee camps after the chemical attacks on Syrian civilians in 2018, Miko took justice into his own hands and, together with the Czechs Helping initiative, prepared facilities for child refugees. However, government officials gave priority to political interests. Will parliamentary elections and a change of ministries save the situation? An unflattering but accurately portrayal of the Czech Republic as a country that will only offer a helping hand when it is worthwhile.
It has an average vote of 2 on TMDB.
4. Leaving to Remain (Odchádzania)
With the UK’s hardening immigration policy in the background, director Mira Erdevički follows the lives of three Roma: Petr Torák, Denisa Gannon and Ondrej Oláh. Settled in the UK over 20 years ago, the trio still feel attached to their native Slovakia and the Czech Republic. As the country goes into lockdown, they film their lives throughout the Covid pandemic and the aftermath of Brexit.
5. Carmen (Carmen)
A documentary about a young Finnish Romany Carmen, 11, who lives with her grandmother and aunt in the suburb of a small town in Northern Finland.
6. Beyond the Noise.
An exploration into the benefits of music in uk youth culture. Understanding the comfort it can provide.
7. Flames of God
Muzafer Bislim comes up with some of his most insightful songs while sitting on the floor, recording lyrics into a cassette recorder bought at a flea market. A poet and songwriter who collaborates with the biggest names in Romani music, the 54-year old lives a life of modest means with his family in Shutka, Macedonia. Stored in the corner of his one-room house is a tottering, ceiling-high stack of handwritten, 25,000-word, multi-dialect dictionary of the oldest and most obscure words in the Romani language, which he has painstakingly collected over 35 years. When he's invited to the International Biennial of Poets held in Paris, he sees the trip as an opportunity to have his dictionary published. A testament to the endurance of a people who have been scattered across Europe, the dictionary is not only a work of art but also a rare link to a divided past.
8. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Portrait of David Toop Through His Records Collection
British musician and writer David Toop leads viewers through a tour of his voluminous record collection, reflecting on perception, the limits of music and the connections between seemingly disparate performers. This unusual documentary from filmmakers Guy Marc Hinant and Dominique Lohlé also captures Toop's progression from engagement to near exhaustion as he methodically combs through tens of thousands of records.
9. Концерт (Концерт)
(Концерт)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
10. 21st Century Âshikizm Art Movement
The sound of centuries-old Adhan in Turkey, the sound of centuries-old church bells and the polyphonic music of Europe echo in our memory. Our traditions and our future determine our present. In the present tense, the sounds of the war's sirens are mixed with the sound of Adhan and church bells. How can people hear themselves? How can humans exist?
11. 'Are'are Music
A documentary about the traditional music of the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
12. Jiyana Rewsenbireki Kurd: Casimê Celîl (Jiyana Rewsenbireki Kurd: Casimê Celîl)
Casimê Celîl was born into a Yezidi Kurdish family in 1908, in a village called Kızılkule, located in Digor, Kars. The village and family life, which he longed to remember throughout his life, ends with the massacre they endured in 1918. During his long road to Erivan, Armenia, he lost all his family members. Left all alone, Casim was placed into an orphanage and was forced to change his name. To remember who he was and where he came from, every morning he repeated the mantra “Navê min Casim e, Ez kurê Celîlim, Ez ji gundê Qizilquleyê Dîgorê me, Ez Kurdim, Kurdê Êzîdî me”, which translates to: “My name is Casim, I am the son of Celîl, I come from the village of Kızılkule in Digor, I am a Kurd, and I am Yezidi”. He clings to every piece of his culture he can find, reads, and saves whatever Kurdish literature or art he comes across. As the year’s pass, Casim finds himself with an impressive collection of Kurdish culture and history.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
13. Helping Mihaela (Kerjäläiselokuva)
A Roma beggar on his knees raises many extreme emotions: guilt, rage, sympathy and frustration. Most people just walk on by, but there is always someone willing to help. In this film, the director follows the confrontations between the Roma beggars from Romania and Finnish people, and is forced to question, over and over again, her own ideas about helping.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
14. Atumpan: The Talking Drums of Ghana
This classic documentary features the story and sounds of the talking master drums of the Ashanti. Filmed in Ghana and narrated by Mantle Hood
15. Amir: An Afghan Refugee Musician's Life in Peshawar, Pakistan
Amir, shot during the height of the Afghan civil war in the 1980s, investigates and portrays the life of Afghan refugees living in and around the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan through the experiences of the musician Amir. The aspirations of Afghan refugees are expressed through their political songs dealing with the civil war in Afghanistan, with exile, with Afghan nationalism and with the Islamic revolution. In highly charged and tragic circumstances, music can be used in very direct ways, both to promote solidarity and as an agent of catharsis.
16. Acasă, My Home (Acasă)
In the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, nine children and their parents lived in perfect harmony with nature for 20 years – until they are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
17. Roma Boys – The Love Story (Roma Boys – Příběh lásky)
The film explores the taboo subject of homosexuality within the Roma community through the personal story of a Roma activist who happens to be gay. Though his job has earned him respect among his peers, by coming out his status is in jeopardy. However, the desire to share his complex story prompted him to write a screenplay based on his life. Partly a documentary about his autobiographical script, the film switches between documentary and narrative storytelling. Owing to its distinctive style, the film offers a glimpse into the protagonist's world as he faces triple discrimination: as a Roma, as a gay man, and as a gay man in the Roma community.
18. Friends of the Ghetto (Kamarádi v ghettu)
The young director Tomas Vynikal arrives at the Roma ghetto in search of humanity. With an authentic approach, he finds true friendship, but also human corruption. Everything is kept in the dark when the city of Prerov sells the ghetto together with its inhabitants to a private company for the purpose of new housing construction. This company will only go so far to demolish part of the houses and end up insolvent. The work is also a picture of current social problems in the Czech Republic, where human dwellings are meaninglessly devastated. These inhabitants receive new rental flats from the state, thus another ghetto is being created and society is moving in a catch 22 circle. The film contains time spent from September 2010 to September 2020.
19. The Third End of the Stick (Tretí koniec palice)
Otherness in otherness. What does it mean to be different in a community that is itself excluded from society? The documentary follows the fate of Roma who have become a minority in a minority society. Roma gays and transvestite search for their living space and dream of working abroad. A legless father of five longs for a wheelchair. A Roma grandmother sacrifices her life for the health of her beloved grandson. Will Emil, a Roma man who has found faith in God, be able to save his son from alcohol? Four stories from the poorest Roma settlements in Slovakia aim to break down prejudices between the Roma community and the white majority.
20. A Curing Ceremony
Sha//ge, a very young woman about to have her first child, falls ill, probably with malaria. /Ti!kay, a relative and healer, enters a mild trance, without the stimulus of dancing, in an attempt to cure her. Sha//ge lives but the baby is stillborn.
