In heated, often hostile debates about homosexuality, trans and sex work, a young Armenian family tries to assert some kind of queer normality for themselves and others.
Carabina, a gay artist, transvestite, and ex-sex worker, is married to Hasmik, a heterosexual lawyer. They have just become parents and are facing a dilemma: Should they raise their child in Armenia, where 93% of the population is against homosexuality?
Despite the lack of infrastructure, Mamy, from Guinea, builds up the first coffee washing station in all of West Africa and, through his vision, gives local people back their pride.
“I have seen many of my family members fail when trying. (...) I want to try too, but differently!”
Mamy Dioubaté is the founder of Macenta Beans and a visionary. He has been building West Africa's first coffee washing station for three years. In the rainforest of Guinea, not far from the Liberian border, the coffee is processed to high quality and thus saved from exploitative middlemen.
Mamy doesn't eat, he sleeps a maximum of 4 hours a day, pulls his own tooth and gets malaria 3 times in one season. Why does he do this?
At first glance, Macenta lacks roads, electricity and water supply, but if you ask Mamy, it is trust and hope that is missing. Hardly anyone here believes in a self-determined future – but he does. In First Taste, we see Mamy in his life's work to change the entire agricultural system of a country. He visits 131 villages in Macenta and hands each farmer his coffee. For the first time, the local people are transformed from producers to consumers. We experience surprise. Disappointment. Pleasure. Disgust. Shame. And above all pride. Mamy puts all his eggs in one basket – especially his own hope. What would it mean for him if he fails with this vision?
In Burkina Faso, in the gold-digging site of Bantara, 16-year-old Rasmané descends more than 100 meters deep in artisanal mines to extract gold. Anxious about accidents, Rasmané makes his way in this world of fierce adults in the hope of one day becoming emancipated…
A filmmaker goes on a journey of a lifetime: after receiving his grandfather's WWII diary, he decides to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet army and discover today's reality.
An extraordinary document leads Hakob Melkonyan to undertake the journey of a lifetime: after receiving his grandfather's WWII diary, the Armenian filmmaker decides to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet army and discover today's reality in those territories. The War Diary is a road movie through four countries: Armenia, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine. It confronts the history of the Second World War with today's reality in these former Soviet republics. Having become independent after the fall of the USSR, they are now torn apart by numerous deadly conflicts in Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine.
The War Diary is a very personal quest but also sheds light on the geopolitical context of these countries that once fought side by side. Today, however, with the invasion of Ukraine, it has become an essential project.
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.