We Don't Need a Map

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone

October 2003 •Spanish

An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.

Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra

February 2021 •English

Taking us through Bangarra Dance Theatre’s spectacular growth, we follow the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers — Stephen, David and Russell Page — turned the newly born dance group into a First Nations cultural powerhouse.

Servant or Slave

August 2016 •English

During the time of the Stolen Generations, thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were taken from their families and pressed into domestic servitude by the Australian Government. They were supposedly employed as servants, but with total control over their movements, wages and living conditions, their lives all too frequently became an inescapable cycle of abuse, rape and enslavement, with consequences that echo powerfully to this day. Recounting the stories of five of these women – Rita, Violet and the three Wenberg sisters – Servant or Slave is a commanding piece of first-person testimony to a dark and unacknowledged corner of Australian history. Shot with admirable craft and humanity by documentarian Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF 2012), Servant or Slave is a work of great sadness and urgency, bringing to forceful life the human tragedy of Australia's Indigenous history in the unadorned words of those who lived it.

Ella

July 2016 •English

Ella Havelka made history in 2013 by becoming the first Indigenous dancer at the 50-year-old Australian Ballet. In this engaging, MIFF Premiere Fund-supported world premiere, Ella – a descendant of the Wiradjuri people – charts her inspiring journey from growing up in modest circumstances as the only child of a single mother in rural Australia to gaining entry to National Ballet School, then spending formative years with the acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre before accepting the invitation of The Australian Ballet's artistic director David McAllister to join one of the world's foremost ballet companies.

Un pays sans bon sens!

November 1970 •French

Essay-film on a crucial issue: the notion of belonging to a country. Lingered sentimentalism or deep psychological reality if one believes it is rooted in the heart of man? The action here takes place in the context of a nation that seeks: the French Canadians, and other people without a country: the Indians of Quebec, the Bretons of France. And here is the fundamental question posed: what are the "viable" peoples whose "maturity" allows them to "give" the autonomy and territory? And what is the environment that people can call "their country"?

Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty

June 1938 •German

Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.

Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky

August 2020 •English

A new songline for 21st century Australia - a fresh look at the Cook legend from a First Nations' perspective - the songline tells of connection to country, resistance and survival and features the cheeky, acerbic and heartfelt showman - Steven Oliver and a host of outstanding, political Indigenous singer/songwriters.

Salaam Cinema

April 1995 •Persian

Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

La trattativa

October 2014 •Italian

In the Name of God

September 1992 •Hindi

The film explores the campaign waged by the Hindu right-wing organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad to build a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, as well as the communal violence that it triggered. A couple of months after Ram ke Naam was released, VHP activists demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992, provoking further violence.

Baker Street Live

December 2016 •English

The sort film “Baker Street Live” is being produced for December 2016 exhibition “The Masterpieces of Russian Cinematography”. The film is aiming to intrigue the viewer by the strength of British culture taking place within Russian cinematography influencing and shaping the soviet and modern Russian society. The story of two puppets – Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson - undertaking an investigation and finding the lost pages scattered around London by which they are mostly intrigued. As the puppets keep finding page by page, they unveil their own story as if one discovers himself from within. And as ever, the successful investigation by Serlock results in the re-union of the lost pages with their lawful owner.

Bad Faith

January 2024 •English

On January 6, 2021, Americans witnessed an attack on the U.S. Capitol without precedent in our history. Armed militiamen and QAnon followers made headlines, but among them were a sea of crosses and Christian flags, rosaries and "Jesus Saves" signs. What motivated so many Christians to participate in this violent assault?

George Carlin: Doin' It Again

June 1990 •English

George Carlin brings his comedy back to New Jersey and this time talks about Offensive Language, Euphemisms, They're Only Words, Dogs, Things you never hear, see or wanna hear, Some people are stupid, Cancer, Feminists, Good Ideas, Rape, Life's moments, and organ donors.

Bajo el silencio

October 2020 •Spanish

Bastardy

August 2008 •English

Provocative, funny and profoundly moving, Bastardy is the inspirational story of a self proclaimed Robin Hood of the streets. For Forty years and with infectious humour and optimism, Jack Charles has juggled a life of crime with another successful career- acting

J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius

March 2019 •English

What started out as an inside joke amongst two self proclaimed weirdos in Ft. Worth, Texas soon becomes much more than they bargained for. Frustrated by the rising consumer-driven culture, out-of-work pals Douglass St. Clair Smith and Steve Wilcox decide to turn their conservative southern ideology on its head and invent a new religion all their own. Spurred on by the overreach of religion and zealous televangelists of the day, the pair concoct religious monikers (Reverend Ivan Stang and Dr. Philo Drummond), a newly minted prophet (J.R. "Bob" Dobbs), and devise a crusade to expose the conspiracy of normalcy by using humor as the ultimate weapon.

Liberation Day

October 2016 •English

Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat, and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea.

Found Footage Festival Volume 7: Live in Asheville

March 2014 •English

This special 10th anniversary edition of the Found Footage Festival finds curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher in a nostalgic mood, delving deeper--perhaps too deep--into some of their favorite VHS finds from over years. But Volume 7 is also jam packed with newly unearthed treasures, featuring singing rabbis, petulant news anchors, coughing snake handlers, bodybuilding clowns, and two body parts never before seen in the festival! It's a celebration of a decade of Found. Record over and you'll die! Taped live at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina.

The Scars

March 2019 •Basque

The personal stories lived by the Uncle, the Father and the Son, respectively, form a tragic experience that is drawn along a line in time. This line is comparable to a crease in the pages of the family album, but also to a crack in the walls of the paternal house. It resembles the open wound created when drilling into a mountain, but also a scar in the collective imaginary of a society, where the idea of salvation finds its tragic destiny in the political struggle. What is at the end of that line? Will old war songs be enough to circumvent that destiny?

Vůně benzínu

April 1964 •Czech