A ghost ride through Finnish TV archives of the 1960s grazes the moon landing, American TV shows, a war in Africa. But how to connect with the world when dancing is forbidden?!
The anonymous narrator is a kind of web-adventurous flâneuse, neurotic and endlessly curious. A disturbance in the proprioception, which is the ability to sense the position, movement and location of the body and its parts, makes her perceive the world in a new way. Seemingly random anecdotes found on the internet and instructions from her cryptic physiotherapist start to come together in surprising ways. The found material forms a mosaic that reflects a world full of gazes, rules and technologies that separate us. Lines from the present and the distant past take our narrator to the 1960s, where medieval dance bans, televised wars, lost bones, space utopias and American TV stars collide. This film reflects how we can be and live in the world within ourselves and with each other. With those who are near and with those who are far. Along with all this, the film recommends dancing to everyone.
Rodica (40) and her children, Maria (14) and Patrick (18), struggle to find each other's coordinates in order to have a balanced family life. Blue is a film about love, fear, anxiety, and the emotions that emerge at their intersection.
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village and became an internationally acclaimed actor. Years later, her filmmaker daughter returns there with her.
In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters.
Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter, Lina, returns with her to the village and questions for the first time her mother's bold choices, her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives. Set between past and present, Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family footage from the nineties and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds, despite exile, dispossession, and heartbreak.
A man on an e-scooter on the outskirts of the city. Only the rifle over his shoulder irritates. The mood of high alert is deceptive. The disaster has already happened.
A relationship on the rocks, naked under the scorching sun and disoriented on a vast holiday sea. In search of funny dolphins, Aurora and Jeremy are paddling for their lives.
A construction site in the Central African Republic, two career dreams: The double portrait of a native day labourer and a Chinese construction manager becomes a parable of globalisation.
Luan, a Chinese immigrant, is in Bangui, Central African Republic, facing his greatest professional challenge to date: he must oversee the construction of a bank headquarters that is expected to be inaugurated soon by the President of the nation himself. At the opposite end of the same labour chain, Thomas, a local, must dive into the river to get the sand that Luan needs for his building. Both share the same goal: to progress in their careers and give their families a better life. Meanwhile, the erratic and difficult lives of their families manifest themselves at a distance in various ways. Luan receives phone calls from his wife who, living thousands of kilometres away, is feeling abandoned and attempts to commit suicide; while Thomas' wife and girlfriend have both abandoned him, leaving him in charge of all his children. Eat Bitter fluidly and honestly articulates the daily life of both men, revealing the traces of the presence of the large Chinese community in the region, as well as the scars of a country devastated by the experience of a long civil war and poverty for which no one seems to have any answers.
Vasyl is a former ski jumper who now works as a coach at the ski jumping school for children in the Carpathians. He is a loner, and sports is his whole life. Zhenya is Vasyl's favourite trainee. In the last 5 years, he spends a lot of energy making her a champion. With her success, his dreams can come true. When the girl grows up, she decides to try in another area of life not connected to sports. Vasyl's work seems to no longer make sense. But he finds the strength to start all over again.
From their lookout towers, female fire wardens scan Portuguese landscapes for wildfires. An allegorically condensed, wordless study of vigilance and vision.
Looking at the tree line, a question creeps into my mind and, simultaneously, I have a desire.
What if nothing existed?
Extended Presences follows several women in their seasonal work as fire watchers in Portugal. The film comes close to their breathing, to the passing of time and to solitude, from within.
Els is in her late forties, divorced and in love again. For her, falling in love was not easy: it meant that she had to accept, that she has a life even if her twenty-year-old daughter wants to die and has already asked for psychiatric euthanasia which her mother can do nothing about. In the storm of her own emotions, mixed with guilt, anger, fear and hope, love is what teaches Els to try stepping forward even if it seems impossible.
Falling is a lyrical, found-footage-based testimony from a mother who faces not only the taboos surrounding motherhood but also the most difficult situation in her life.
Truck driver Abu Husain spends endless hours in Qatar in a self-contained world of standing, waiting, and tenaciously moving trucks on the fringes of society.
Truck driver Abu Husain, like many guest workers in Qatar, spends endless hours in a self-contained world of standing, waiting, and tenaciously moving trucks on the fringes of society.
Countless chunks of stone are lying around. A red-haired boy assembles them to build many impressive towers. One by one, the towers are made to shine again.
We follow a little man's journey in his sacrificial attempt to keep alive his beloved lighthouses.
Rooted in a love letter in absentia, this short animation poetically reenacts the stages of a broken heart, after the heart finds itself in a void of sudden nothingness.
In this void, the sound of waves and oceanic wind become the first anchors of something remotely familiar. Then the appearance of a sand trail ignites the memories of happy times and the heart starts walking up and down this path, in search of that love and bustling life on the shore, only to discover the memories are broken in this new lonely universe.
In an attempt to salvage what is now broken, the heart starts fixing the lighthouse with the only tool she has – her own pumping power. Step by step and lighthouse by lighthouse, she pours her life into these artefacts of happy memories until she comes to an acceptance – her own form of closure.
Leonie helps where she can on her parents’ farm. She wants to be a pig-farmer when she grows up. When they are forced to give up the farm, Leonie says goodbye to her dream.
Leonie's biggest dream is to become a pig farmer. On her parents' farm, she is happily wandering around with her best friend, Skeet, the cat. She is always helping out in any way possible: fertilising the sows, tending to the pigs and helping load the fully grown hogs onto the truck that will bring them to the slaughterhouse. The family farm is helping Leonie learn about the circle of life. However, new laws surrounding nitrogen emissions set by the government are threatening Leonie's parents' life work – their company – into bankruptcy. Together with her cat Skeet, Leonie sees the last pigs disappear from the farm and realises that her dream of living as a pig farmer might not come true.
After graduating from university, a music college student who majored in tuba was unable to find a job. He had to return home but found that things were different there. So he made up his mind that he must work hard to find a satisfactory job.
When the war starts, 12-year-old Niki finds refuge in a Kharkiv underground station. Monotonous, oppressive days – until Vika enters his life. The tender connection gives new courage.
On a cold February morning, 12-year-old Niki and his family arrive at the Kharkiv metro station to take shelter from the terrifying war raging outside. For Niki's family, daylight is synonymous with mortal danger, and the boy is not allowed to leave the station premises, living under the constant glow of their neon lights. While aimlessly wandering around the abandoned cars and full platforms, Niki meets Vika (11), and a new world opens up to him. As their bond strengthens, the children find the courage once again to feel the sun on their faces.
How do you grow up on a planet that is being destroyed by humanity? The two friends Bo and Luca are enthusiastic climate activists whom the film follows for four years.
How does one grow up on a planet that is destroying itself? Filmmaker Pieter Van Eecke provides a possible response to this urgent question. For four years, he has followed the beautiful and mischievous friendship between Bo and Luca, two teenagers who are as enthusiastic in their ecological activism as they are in their experience of the contradictory and surprising travails of growing up.
Pippa and Victoria are avid skaters. But there are “NO SKATING” signs at every corner. A street contest is needed to find allies and take back the streets.
Skater-girl Pippa is determined to claim her place in a city that offers little space to skateboarders. Together with her friend Victoria, she goes into town in search of cool spots for street skating, only to find new “No Skating” signs. Back home, Pippa and Victoria come up with a plan to reclaim the streets. They let their imaginations run wild: what if they organise a street contest themselves? And skater-girls rule. On that day, the streets will belong to the skaters. They decide to put this daring plan together themselves, and immediately spring into action.
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.