The little beetle tries unsuccessfully to get out of the sink. When the tap is opened, the watery whirlpool takes him into the wide world. The beginning of a wonderful journey.
Little Beetle's attempt to escape from the sink has been unsuccessful, but the trouble that comes in the form of water will prove to be the beginning of a wonderful journey.
The director, a stateless Filipino, returns to his native country. For more than twenty years, he lived without papers in the USA and feels trapped in a world full of borders.
A poetic essay film through the lens of an undocumented immigrant becoming disillusioned by their future in the United States and deciding to return to an estranged homeland. Nowhere Near tracks down the origin of a family curse backtracking through the post 9/11 era, the US occupation of the Philippines and the spiritual conquest of the Spanish empire. The film is a years-long diary towards understanding the causes of migration to the United States, though ultimately this odyssey deviates far from the expected course.
When puffins leave their nest on Vestmannaeyjar, they often get lost. Birta and Selma have made it their mission to bring the fledglings back to the cliff.
On a remote Icelandic island, teens Birta and Selma rescue pufflings (young puffins) from imminent danger; as pufflings leave their nests for the first time, they often get lost in town, mistaking the harbour lights for the moon. Over the course of one night, we follow Birta and Selma as they take it upon themselves to counteract humanity's damaging impact on nature; exchanging night-time parties for puffin rescues. A coming-of-age documentary about growing up and making choices, Puffling explores the delicate interplay between wildlife, the environment, and human life.
Abkhazia, a place of memory and at the same time a blind spot for the director. Almost impossible to enter from Georgia, she chooses an associative and personal approach to the split-off territory.
An abandoned house opens the door to revisit the past by bringing to life a unique, nearly destroyed image archive from the unrecognised territory on the border of the Black Sea: Abkhazia. A place normally inaccessible for Georgians because of the ethnic conflict that happened between Georgia and Abkhazia back in 1993. Combining voice, archive and recent footage, the film examines a lost and split identity stuck between the margins. The audio-visual fragments of this archive are intricately woven together to create a personal and political biography which recalls the complicated and controversial historical past of Georgian-Abkhaz relationships.
The highly personal narration delves into the complexities of nationalism and identity in times of war and global displacement. Ultimately, these reflections on recent history become a potential manual for what can come next, once the wars are over.
What are the costs of the half-truths that politicians tell? In 2012, the Georgian president wanted to make the nation smile. In the race for reelection, the incumbent's party was promising subsidised dental care to the country's least well-off. Across the land, state medical practitioners began removing rotten teeth with the promise of replacements in the months that followed – then the president lost. Through interviews with those worst affected by that campaign, Smiling Georgia tells a story about the whims of political power and the defiance of those who usually hold the least of it – a film short on teeth, yes, but far from toothless.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.