Mimo: Sau Chun's Story

Dear Brother

November 2019 •German

Markus Becker is hit by a car, dragged along, his head bashed on a curb and he falls into a coma. The doctors don’t believe that the 45-year-old will survive the next five to ten days. His father makes preparations for the funeral. Markus’ brother Michael refuses to accept this fate and begins an extraordinary battle. In his brother’s apartment he seals Markus’ clothes to preserve the smell. He records the neighbors’ voices. Every day, Michael exposes his brother to things that are familiar and films everything that is part of Markus’ life with a DV camera. He wants to keep him in his world and to bring this world to his bedside. He documents every step of Markus’ development, risking his own life in the process, wishing that his brother will one day regain the ability to lead a normal life. This full-length documentary accompanies Michael Becker for 10 years on his unwavering and creative mission to bring his brother Markus back to life.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

June 2003 •Mongolian

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

First, We Eat

January 2021 •English

An observational portrait of the California Chinese community through the eyes of a Chinese restaurant in Monterey Park and an LA-based recent graduate trying to navigate the difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joanne Martin: A Life in Miniature

October 2017 •English

A septuagenarian woman from St. Louis, Missouri has been a miniaturist, businesswoman, museum president, Girl Scout leader, teacher, student, mother, daughter, and most of all, an indomitable human spirit. Life is what you make it.

To Be and to Have

August 2002 •French

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

SYNCHRONOUS

April 2022 •Dutch

SYNCHRONOUS is an intimate portrait of love and the reverse side of love: mourning. The granddaughter/maker looks idealistically at the endless love between her grandfather and grandmother. When her grandfather dies, she decides to look for answers by filming her grandmother. What happens when you've been together all your life and your great love dies? Where is the love then?

Lenin kam nur bis Lüdenscheid - Meine kleine deutsche Revolution

February 2008 •German

BULIR

February 2024 •Portuguese

All the stories told, all the memories, dreams and lost moments were left in a tank from other generations.

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

February 2024 •English

A multigenerational story celebrating director Sean Wang's two grandmothers, one on his father's side and the other on his mother's side.

Wir Ostdeutsche - 30 Jahre im vereinten Land

September 2020 •German

The Last Chinese Laundry

Invalid date •English

A documentary from 1987 featuring the life of early Chinese immigrants to the island of Newfoundland.

Half Elf

September 2020 •Icelandic

A lighthouse keeper prepares his earthly funeral while trying to reconnect with his inner elf. Hulda and Trausti have shared a roof on the Icelandic coast for over seventy years. Her love of books is matched by his love of stones. When he tells her he wants to change his name to Elf she warns him that the family will reject him. Now, as his one hundredth birthday nears and Trausti senses the hand of death upon him, he is searching for an elf’s coffin…

Make Your Own Decisions

March 1951 •English

Once you're old enough to make decisions for yourself, how exactly do you go about doing it? How can you really know which choice is best for you?

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

January 2003 •English

Long Tack Sam was an internationally renowned Chinese acrobat and magician. He overcame isolation, poverty, cultural and linguistic barriers, extreme racism and world wars to become one of the most successful vaudeville acts of his time. His showmanship was unrivalled, yet he refused to appear in movies because of the way Chinese were portrayed at the time. A celebration of the spirit of Long Tack Sam's magic and art, this richly textured first person road movie is an exhilarating testament to his legacy and a prismatic tour through the 20th Century. It all begins in a small village in China... https://www.nfb.ca/film/the_magical_life_of_long_tack_sam/

Learning to Live

November 1964 •English

The film twice states that it doesn't intend a moral injunction, but it clearly does with comments such as "our society... regards sexual intercourse outside marriage as irresponsible and possibly disastrous" and "you can use your knowledge with responsibility and real love or you can use it wantonly and with mere animal appetite". This is clearly marriage education not sex education.

Homem Comum

April 2014 •Portuguese

Over nearly 20 years, filmmaker Carlos Nader lived with the Paraná truck Nilson de Paula and his family. From the beginning, the project was to conduct a documentary whose intentions become viscerally, a process also captured by the camera. During this period, becomes the lives of Nilson, who gets sick, his wife, Jane, and his only daughter, Liciane, as well as the director, who happens to be part of this circle also affectively. Major issues such as the meaning of life, are incorporated into the very fabric of the film, which oppose excerpts from the classic "The Word" (Ordet), Carl Dreyer, highlighting aesthetic and existential connections.

Erzähle Deine Geschichte - Vom Mauerfall bis heute

October 2020 •German

Option Zero

April 2021 •Spanish

There are countless stories of Cubans reaching their dream destination of Florida as boat refugees. A lesser known route to the United States starts with a flight in a ramshackle plane to Guyana. Then the refugees travel to Colombia where they cross the jungle to arrive in Central America, from where they hope to reach the promised land of America—a hard and dangerous journey. Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltrán visits them in a refugee camp in Panama, where one of the residents gives him an idea. Many people here have filmed their journey, she says, and these videos tell their real story. These jerky, shocking videos are interspersed with Beltrán’s footage of the camp, tangibly illustrating the difference between the hectic pace of the journey and the insecure life at the reception center.

The Limits of My World

September 2019 •English

THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD follows a nonverbal young man’s transition from the school system into adulthood. Brian has autism and faces the daily challenges of adjusting to his new life. Filmed from the intimate perspective of his older sister Heather, this documentary seeks to understand Brian’s personality beneath his disability. THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD is an autistic coming of age story exploring what it means to be a nonverbal disabled person in today’s society.

Kasama Kang Tumanda

May 2024 •Tagalog

A filmmaker follows her grandparents’ daily life after her chain-smoker and alcoholic grandmother is forced to stop drinking beer for a month.