1. Only Blockbusters Left Alive: Monopolizing Film Distribution in Turkey (Kapalı Gişe: Türkiye'de Tekelleşen Film Dağıtımı)
Turkish film industry has been experiencing a breakthrough in the last ten years. According to 2015 figures, there is a bold uptrend in terms of viewers and film production. Yet without any regulations at work, this growth only made injustices in distribution bigger. While a single cinema chain controls more then 50% of the market, it also started to control distribution and production. In this monopolized environment, there seems to be no country for independent production. With the guidance of producers, distributors, and economists, the film traces the distortion created by the bad economy that has become an obstacle for freedom of choice.
It has an average vote of 6.364 on TMDB.
2. Attention!
A 32-year-old PhD candidate Onur finds himself in a dilemma whereby he needs to make a decision between doing paid military service and serving the army for 6 months. Throughout this decision making process Onur not only questions the ethical and political aspects of the choice he will make, but also the compulsory military system in his country. He has only 2 months to decide. Will he go or pay?
3. Stony Paths (Les Chemins arides)
Stony Paths is the story of a walk across Anatolia. Arnaud Khayadjanian starts a trek in Turkey, on the land of his forefathers who survived the Armenian Genocide. Starting from a painting, from encounters and from accounts by his relatives, he goes on exploring the little known issue of the Righteous, all these anonymous people who saved lives in 1915.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
4. Varicella (Varicella)
Seven-year-old Polina and her 13-year-old sister Nastia live and breathe ballet. Both of them are studying at the Boris Eifman Dance Academy in frigid Saint Petersburg. They’re currently awaiting their grades to find out if they’ve done well enough to be promoted to the next year, with Nastia lovingly guiding he little sister through the process. But in the meantime, Nastia also has to deal with the high demands that the academy places on its students. The gorgeously styled shots are sometimes calm, even clinical, and sometimes warm, lively and funny.
5. Momentum
In Finland, a small child is waiting for his time to begin. His heart is broken. A major heart surgery is expected. There is a fight against time. The boys parents are wandering in the corridors of the hospital. The heart is stopped during the surgery operation. Le Locle, a village in Switzerland acts as the heart of watch industry. Narrow streets of the village carry vital parts to watches and nowdays also into human bodies, for example pacemakers. Village is formed as a big factory line and appears as a time-twisting machine. There pieces are refined and workers hands turns the time on and off.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
6. Working Dancers
In Buenos Aires a group of acclaimed dancers create the first Contemporary National Company of Dance under their collective leadership. This is the story of four talented dancers, Ernesto, Bettina, Victoria and Pablo, along six years of their journey. We follow their lives, we attend their rehearsals and performances in the emblematic building of the National Library, along with their premiere and backstage in the historical National Theatre of Cervantes. They expose their dreams as dancers, individuals and members of our society, as we observe the fulfilment of their biggest dream: the demand of a National Dance Law. Amazing choreographies, beautiful folklore songs and original Latin-American contemporary music reveal the beauty of dance becoming life.
7. Air Guitar Nation
If your bedroom has become too small a stage for your air guitar antics, take inspiration from the competitors featured here as they battle their way from the inaugural U.S. Air Guitar Championship to the world championship in Oulu, Finland. Along the way, filmmaker Alexandra Lipsitz documents the fierce rivalries that develop as would-be rock legends vie for top honors in technical accuracy, stage presence and "airness."
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
8. Veni Bici Sushi: A Bicycle Journey
Veni Bici Sushi is the story of a journey through beautiful places and countryside in Italy, Japan and England. It is a journey through some of the world's most beautiful places.
It has an average vote of 2 on TMDB.
9. The Strange Life of Dr. Frankenstein (Le Funeste Destin du docteur Frankenstein)
In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, a powerful and timelessness novel which eternal theme is nothing other than man's quest for the secret of life. Since then, the Creature became a pop culture icon, overshadowing the novel and Doctor Frankenstein himself.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
10. Blood Lines: Dracula - The Man. The Myth. The Movies.
Short documentary on the making of Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" .
It has an average vote of 6.3 on TMDB.
11. Indyfans
Amid the release of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, filmmaker Brandon Kleyla chronicles the fanaticism of the whip-carrying admirers and interviews various filmmakers, archaeologists and writers about the Indy franchise. Viewers learn why archaeologist Indiana Jones and his many adventures have spawned die-hard, convention-going fans for more than two decades.
12. The Shark Cave (La grotte aux requins)
In the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Mauritius, two divers set off in search of gray reef sharks. One is native to Mauritius, the other is from South Africa, and both are passionate about sharks and the underwater world. The waters of this region are rich and populated with fish, moray eels, corals and sharks. They used to gather in numbers in hidden pits, but had evaporated since 2004, too fished. The two divers are exploring the funds. And they end up finding them in several places
13. Judy in a Land Called Oz
Ian Stahlhut's 1992 documentary of Judy Garland's 1964 Australian Tour.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
14. Yallah! Underground
Yallah! Underground follows some of today’s most influential and progressive artists in Arab underground culture from 2009 to 2013 and documents their work, dreams and fears in a time of great change for Arab societies. In a region full of tension, young Arab artists in the Middle East have struggled for years to express themselves freely and to promote more liberal attitudes within their societies. During the Arab Spring, like many others of this new generation, local artists had high hopes for the future and took part in the protests. However, after years of turmoil and instability, young Arabs now have to challenge both old and new problems, being torn between feelings of disillusion and a vague hope for a better future.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
15. Back from Madness: The Struggle for Sanity
In part of the HBO's America Undercover series, this documentary provides an insider's view of mental illness, and the use of psychotropic drugs to alleviate some of its symptoms. Tracks the odyssey of four psychiatric patients, beginning with their arrival at Massachusetts General Hospital and the affiliated Lindemann Center, revealing their personal struggles and inner strength as they enter the world of psychiatric treatment to seek relief from insanity.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
16. Decade of Discovery
Chris Packham presents, mentioning others that didn't quite make the list, his favorite top ten animal - and plant species from the half million discovered in the first decade of the 21st century. The animals include the most endangered African monkey, a lemur , a mouse-size and -resembling relative of the elephant, a Caribean island-adapted sloth, a shark which 'walks coral reefs on an arm', the largest mega-stick, a deep sea jellyfish without tentacles and a jungle gecko mutation happening in Malaysian state Perlis in order to flee serpent predation into caves. Plant species include a giant Venus-flytrap on Palawan and the largest ever orchid from Peru.
17. Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey
An inside look at the making of the movie Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens , featuring footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers.
It has an average vote of 7.1 on TMDB.
18. Escapes
Escapes blazes a path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. Fancher recounts episodes from his life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
19. The Dazzling Light of Sunset (დაისის მიზიდულობა)
Flanked by her phlegmatic sidekick, Dariko is the only outside broadcast journalist at a local Georgian television channel. With derisory resources, she races from one report to another to give an honest, if not objective, image of the current events that shape her environment.
It has an average vote of 5.571 on TMDB.
20. JFK Remembered: 50 Years Later
A look back at the 1000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency.
It has an average vote of 3 on TMDB.
