A Pot Full of Dreams
01:23:37|Sweden| Directed by Shiva Sanjari
“A Pot Full of Dreams” is a documentary that explores food as a tool for community, compassion, and hope. The series follows future gastronome Rozbeh Javid on a journey through Iran, where kitchens of different religions prepare meals to bring people together and ease loneliness. From the Zoroastrians’ sacred stew in Yazd, to the Jews’ matzah in Tehran, Christians’ hariseh in Isfahan, and Shi’a Muslims’ Ash-e Bushehri in Bushehr, food becomes an act of love and a bridge across the boundaries of faith and belonging.
The documentary shows how meals can alleviate loneliness, foster community, and preserve traditions, while raising questions about sustainability, social justice, and human responsibility.
At the heart of the story is the idea that charity is a fruit—both spiritual and earthly. When shared, food sows seeds of hope in a divided world. For even if the world feels fragmented, gastronomy itself is never divided—it unites, connects, and reminds us that our sense of community and identity is shaped around the table just as much as anywhere else.
From the Zoroastrians’ sacred stew in Yazd to the Jewish matzah in Tehran, the Christian Hariseh in Isfahan, and the Shia Muslims’ Ash-e Bushehri in the port city of Bushehr — everywhere, food takes on a deeper meaning. It becomes an act of love, a beating heart at the center of community, and a bridge across lines of faith and belonging.
At the core is the idea that charity is a fruit — both spiritual and tangible. A fruit that grows from tradition and belief, but ripens in the meeting between people. The series reminds us of something universal: that no one should have to eat alone, and that food — when shared — can carry seeds of hope in a divided world.
A Remote Frontier
00:06:26|Austria
Far above the Arctic Circle lies one of the last true frontiers on Earth, Greenland’s remote and rugged north. In this visually stunning documentary, A Remote Frontier follows a team of scientists and explorers as they journey into an untouched wilderness in search of caves that predate the existence of the Greenland ice sheet. From frozen deserts to alpine meadows, from towering cliffs to unexplored caverns, this film reveals a hidden world with secrets from a warmer past, and urgent messages for our planet’s future.
Báaxpee: This Ground
00:29:42|United States|Directed by Robin Starbuck
Báaxpee: This Ground, is a lyrical and intimate documentary that traces the life and spiritual legacy of Ben Cloud, revered medicine chief of the Crow/Apsaalooke Nation and central figure in the sacred Sun Dance tradition. Far more than a portrait, the film becomes a living archive — a ceremonial act in itself — offering rare access to the inner world of the Apsáalooke as they carry ancient ritual into the twenty-first century. Merging personal memory with cultural transmission, Báaxpee: This Ground departs from conventional documentary form, embodying the quiet power and profound mystery of a spiritual practice rooted in land, lineage, and the unseen. Available with Spanish, German or Italian subtitles.
BROWN – An Archaeological Perspective in 4 Layers
12:00:00| United Kingdom |Directed by Sophie Jackson
Much in archaeology is brown – the layers of soil and deposits, the sherds, the 300 plus variations shown in the Musel Chart. Every archaeologist knows that brown is not just brown – variation, nuance, difference tell us much. Through case studies with 3 archaeologists working in India and Bolivia, this film takes us into these subtleties, right down to the microscopic and right out to the big picture questions of post colonialism.
COSMIC CODA
United States| 01:26:00|Directed by MJ Doherty
In 1985 MIT grad students search for gravity. 30 years and 1 Nobel prize later they find it. The story – told as it happens – covers each end of the most famous discovery in physics. Through cartoons and a cow avatar, the clueless, but educable, filmmaker guides us through science that even the scientists themselves don’t understand. Many things have changed; many things have NOT changed: scientists are human beings after all!
Could Try Harder
00:10:40|United Kingdom|Directed by Sophie Jackson
10 contributors are filmed reading their old school reports for the first time in many years. Funny, insightful and poignant, the readers respond to the memories of their teen selves captured on sheets of thin paper with hand written teachers comments and the benefit of hindsight. When was the last time you read your school reports?
Dabucuri
00:52:11|Directed by Kurt Shaw, Rita Oenning da Silva
In the past, the many ethnic groups of the upper Rio Negro gathered for Dabucuri festivals to dance, sing, and eat together. The festival provided an opportunity for the exchange of crafts and food, but also art, music, and perspectives.
Three women in the Balaio community decide to hold a grand Dabucuri to recapture the joy and unity they remember from their childhood. The film follows the community members as they prepare food, musical instruments, and clothing for the festival; it also follows the 110-year-old shaman, stuck in the mud on the road, as he tries to reach the festival to bless the festival.
Dabucuri concludes with the celebration of the event and the reconstruction of the community’s maloca, where the Yepá-Masã and Desana cultures can live on again.
Digital Dilemma
00:18:11 |Directed by Stephane Kaas
In a world driven by data, algorithms and AI, Tamar Sharon asks the question: does digitalisation work for us, or against us?
From homework to grocery shopping and from healthcare to farm life – the human experience is changed drastically by the seemingly unstoppable onset of data, algorithms and AI.
But is this an improvement? Ethicist Tamar Sharon researches how digitalisation changes our lives and how Big Tech embeds itself into ever more aspects of the public domain. Do we profit from this development, or does it primarily pad the pockets of Silicon Valley giants? Sharon advocates for regulation as well as a shift in thinking so that technology once again serves the public interest.
Eitai – Community Togetherness
00:59:00|United Kingdom|Directed by sally bashford-squires
Eitai, an Iteso word for community togetherness, is a documentary exploring change in rural Uganda. The film delves into the challenges faced by a rural community in Northeastern Uganda. Eitai explores critical global issues including the interconnected challenges of climate change, poverty, and gender-based violence. It highlights how social enterprise projects not only provide economic opportunities but also create safe spaces for knowledge sharing, environmental action, and community sensitisation via music, dance, and drama.
Through vivid storytelling, Eitai underscores the importance of indigenous knowledge and communitarianism in addressing pressing global crises. It calls for stronger relationships among people, the land, and non-humans to mitigate further environmental degradation. The film also captures unique narratives on combating HIV and GBV, as told by participants through their lived experiences and cultural expressions. The film is not only a celebration of the resilience and resourcefulness of communities in Teso, but also a platform for international knowledge exchange to address global challenges.
Gert’s Boys
00:19:45|United States|Directed by Sara Laura Schwartz
Gert’s Boys centers on Cindy “Gert” McMullin, an original volunteer and co-founder of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The Quilt was launched in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood in 1987, the epicenter of the AIDS crisis, as a social action tool to demand a public and government response to AIDS. Today, the Quilt is the world’s largest piece of community folk art with over 50,000 3×6 panels commemorating over 110,000 lives lost to AIDS. Gert, often referred to as Mother of the Quilt, continues to oversee the panels, which she refers to as her ‘boys’, in a warehouse in Oakland, California. Gert’s Boys introduces a unique window into San Francisco’s gay community 1981-1995 through the lens of one woman. The film explores Gert’s experiences caring for four of her boys – David, Roger, Jack and Joey – and becoming an activist in the process.
Grad Students, Talking
00:55:50|Directed by Matt Rogers
A documentary project focusing on six UNB graduate students as they interview one another about their unique research projects and experiences in grad school.
Greenland: A Geological Journey through Time
00:05:26|Austria
Greenland: A Geological Journey Through Time is an awe-inspiring documentary that unveils the hidden story beneath the ice of the world’s largest island. Spanning nearly four billion years, this sweeping cinematic journey traces Greenland’s transformation from a fiery, volcanic fragment of early Earth to a frozen giant at the center of today’s climate crisis.
Through stunning visuals and beautiful animations, the film dives deep into the island’s ancient rocks, some of the oldest on the planet, revealing clues about the origins of life and the formation of continents. From the warm tropical seas of the Cambrian to the Himalayan-scale mountains of the Caledonian Orogeny, viewers witness epic geological shifts that have shaped not only Greenland but the world.
As supercontinents form and fracture, ocean gateways open, and glaciers rise and fall, Greenland’s evolving landscape becomes a mirror of Earth’s deep-time climate and tectonic drama. The film also explores the island’s rich mineral wealth, a tantalizing but controversial frontier in the face of environmental change.
In a time of rapid ice loss and rising seas, Greenland: A Geological Journey Through Time is both a window into the Earth’s distant past and a sobering glimpse into its uncertain future. Equal parts science, spectacle, and urgent reflection, this documentary is a powerful reminder that Greenland is not just a remote, icy wilderness, it is one of our planet’s most important archives and active agents of change.
How To Groom Your Rabbit
00:18:45|Directed by Ashley D. Morgan
An at home rabbit grooming tutorial evolves into a character study on an eccentric bunny caretaker’s journey from amateur to overwhelm. Eventually needing to end her business because of it’s growth, the film explores agony and ecstasy of pursuing your passion.
In the Midst of Art and Devotion
00:35:05| Guatemala| Directed by Ayans Lam Miguez|
This documentary explores the altarpieces, sculptures, paintings, and unique structures like the circular bell tower, showing how each element served as a catechetical tool and an expression of the fusion between the maya´s world and Catholic tradition. Through aerial shots, historical records, and expert testimonies, the documentary invites viewers to discover the importance of preserving this living heritage, which represents not only centuries of history but also the devotion and memory of an entire community.
Incredible India / Incredible Bharat EP.1 Majuli: Away from tourist route
00:50:00|India|Directed by Mikhail Alekseenkov
This film is about the world’s largest inhabited river island. The island is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Despite the fact that the island is located in a remote and inaccessible place, where, in many ways, modern civilization and tourism have not yet penetrated, the cultural life of the island is incredibly colorful and rich. The island is home to several tribes that have preserved their archaic culture, folklore and traditions. Religious theater was born on the island, which has now gained incredible success and fame in India. It was from this island, more than five centuries ago, that its journey began.
Interplay
00:20:00| Netherlands|Directed by Sanne Rovers
With pipettes, petri dishes, cardboard cups and a vacuum cleaner, Teun Bousema and his international team are fighting a formidable opponent in northern Uganda: the malaria parasite.
In the countryside in northern Uganda, armed with petri dishes, cardboard cups and a vacuum cleaner, internationally renowned malaria researcher Teun Bousema, along with PhD student Daniel Ayo and his team, seeks to unravel the mysterious life cycle of the malaria parasite. But the parasite is elusive, constantly mutating, which increases the threat of drug resistance. Is this mutated parasite more infectious to mosquitoes? Interplay depicts the daily reality of the tireless scientific battle against this formidable and multifaceted opponent.
The malaria mosquito is born ‘clean’. Only after an infected blood meal and taking on various forms does the malaria parasite end up in the mosquito’s saliva, ready to claim a new human victim when the mosquito next bites. ‘It’s such a clever beast,’ says Bousema.
Invisible Machines
00:24:00|Canada| Directed by Yelena Gluzman
This is an experimental ethnographic film about captioners who use stenotype machines to transcribe speech to text in real time for d/Deaf students in the classroom. The film reflexively recreates the gaps in the work of interpretation and translation by messing with its own audio track, offering viewers a way to *feel* what is at stake in real-time captioning. Even while the film renders the face and voice of the protagonist here invisible, it foregrounds the “access intimacy” between a captioner and a student, and argues for what is lost when captioners are replaced by talk-to-text.
Like A Mountain: Mindfulness for Young Caregivers
00:25:31| Canada|Directed by Dr. Mike Lang
Like a Mountain follows young caregiver Sam, cancer survivor Mike Lang, and mindfulness researcher and teacher Dr. Linda Carlson on a rugged Yukon mountain trek where nature becomes both challenge and teacher. Through candid conversations and mindfulness practice, the film explores the hidden weight of being a young caregiver and reveals how presence and acceptance can transform struggles into strength.
Maestro Roman Toi Beautiful songs I dedicate to you
01:27:00|Canada|Directed by Kalli Paakspuu
Germany disbands their radio choirs for their war effort and Estonian composer and conductor Roman Toi gets a rare opportunity to introduce Estonian music to the world.He organizes a choir of exiled opera singers in Poland and broadcasts news and music performed by the exiled Estonian musicians through the iron curtain to their war torn and occupied homeland. Based on Roman Toi’s (2007)autobiography “”Kaunimad laulud pühendad sull”(”Most beautiful songs I dedicate to you””) featuring rarely heard archival broadcast recordings by Estonia’s eminent musicians. VeljoTormis’s “”Curse upon Iron””is sung byGrammy winning Estonian Philharmonica Chamber Choir conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste.
For five decades then Estonian-Canadian Maestro Roman Toi composed and conducted choral works and toured a Singing Revolution worldwide to restore freedom and democracy to the Republic of Estonia.
The film follows Roman Toi’s life through his music and historical events starting from the early 1900’s, through Estonian Independence, World War II and then the refugee years in Germany featuring incredible 16mm footage,photography and archival broadcast recordings. Adapted from Roman Toi’s autobiography with broadcast recordings of Roman Toi’s music performed by his choirs and eminent Estonian musicians to the socially engaged photography of early photo journalist Karl Hintser who follows the Estonian musicians’ escape to Danzig and to Germany’s Displaced Persons camps. American Julien Bryan’s photography of prewar daily life in Poland, Soviet Union, featuring Nazi Germany’s assault on modern art at the popular and the infamous Entartete Kunst [Degenerate Art] exhibition in Munich in1937.
Our Threatened & Endangered Species: Allegheny Woodrats
01:06:00|United States
Our Threatened & Endangered Species: Allegheny Woodrat follows the Pennsylvania Game Commission and partners as they fight to save one of the state’s most elusive mammals. Once common across the Appalachian Mountains, the Allegheny woodrat has declined for decades due to habitat loss, disease, and the disappearance of its ancient ally—the American chestnut tree.
Through striking cinematography and intimate fieldwork, the film reveals how a dedicated network of scientists, wildlife managers, and zoo professionals are uniting to restore a species on the brink. From genetic rescue and habitat reconstruction to chestnut reintroduction and captive breeding, each action tells a story of hope amid hardship.
Blending science and storytelling, Allegheny Woodrat explores the resilience of a species—and the people—bound to Pennsylvania’s rugged landscape. This is a story not only about saving a threatened animal but also about rekindling the connection between humans and the wild places that define us.
Saffron Robe
01:25:13|United States|Directed by Jane Centofante
Saffron Robe is a feature documentary that follows a revered Buddhist abbot in the remote northern region of Laos as he navigates the challenges of a sacred life under a communist regime.
An ambitious spiritual leader, Abbot Onekeo Sittivong defied convention by establishing a new school for the his country’s poor and undereducated children. But something else is happening at this school in a misty forest. The abbot and his fellow saffron-robed monks and young novices are working tirelessly to revitalize ancient Lao Theravada Buddhist practices and education almost lost to history.
Of the many scars left by the Vietnam War, little is known in the West of the lasting revolution in the small but pivotal country of Laos, where the U.S. carried out its “Secret War.” After the war, while America and much of the rest of Southeast Asia moved forward, the people of Laos experienced a profound transformation almost overnight, from a 600-year-old monarchy to a communist-run state. Among those most affected were the country’s revered Theravada Buddhist monks, once the spiritual leaders and the foremost educators of Laos. Many were forced to flee their temples and return to the rice fields for survival. Yet, Buddhism remained central to the spiritual and cultural fabric of the country.
Through the eyes of the young novices attending the abbot’s school, Saffron Robe journeys to a secluded plot of land along the Mekong River. Here, boys from the country’s most isolated and poorest mountain villages endeavor to receive an education otherwise inaccessible to them. Beyond a full day of basic education, they learn the centuries-old traditions of Theravada Buddhism, nearly lost to war and revolution, while also living by the strict rules of monastic life. The novices struggle between a generational past of subsistence farming and a hope for a brighter future. They carry the weight not just of their own hopes, but that of their families who place their collective dreams on the shoulders of their sons.
On the surface, this is a story of breaking the cycle of poverty and ignorance through education. Many of the school’s students will eventually disrobe to become educators or professionals, earning an income to support their families. The abbot, however, believes the novices’ path is about much more. Saffron Robe follows the abbot’s dream to safeguard the traditions and wisdom of a rich culture against the encroachments of a modern world by passing this heritage on to future generations.
Simulacrum
00:20:20| Weronika Plińska, Wojciech Jankowski
The story concerns life and work of Polish contemporary photographer Krzysztof Kris Marchlak. The documentary focuses specifically on the artist’s recreation of the Quattrocento and Mannerist iconography of Saint Sebastian through the medium of artistic photography. “Simulacrum” was directed by Weronika Plińska and Wojciech Jankowski. The film was shot between 2023 and 2025 in Poland and in Italy, as a result of ethnographic research project, based on interviews and participant observation, which concerned creative documentary filmmaking as a tool for exploring contemporary art practices.
Simulating Religious Violence
00:60:00| Italy|Directed by Jenn Lindsay
After the Boston Marathon Bombing, a group of world-class experts in religion and computer science create cutting-edge simulations to predict and prevent religious radicalization and violence…but saving lives in the real world is harder than they thought.
Snowdrops for the Bairns
00:25:12| United States|Directed by Donna Dees
In 1996, after a horrific school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, a couple of mums and a tabloid newspaper launch campaigns to make the UK safer for all. Twenty-five years later, these Scottish local heroes reflect back on these unprecedented achievements.
Stolen Time
01:25:00| Directed by Helen Klodawsky
In Stolen Time, a riveting feature documentary, charismatic elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller takes on the for-profit nursing-home industry. It’s Miller’s most challenging case yet in her early career: a mass tort representing hundreds of families fighting some of the world’s most powerful long-term care corporations. Her adversaries stand accused of neglecting their vulnerable charges as they reap huge profits. Booming elderly populations worldwide add urgency to holding these corporations to account.
Stolen Time is a compelling call for justice from desperate families who’ve turned to the courts as a last resort. We witness surprising testimonies and images from researchers, advocates and, most notably, frontline caregivers whose work is often undervalued but disproportionately blamed for what goes wrong. The film is a rare inside look at a legal battle and an emerging elder justice movement with ramifications—and inspiration—for us all.
The Darkness: Lessons on Solar Energy, Community, and Power.
00:20:00|United States| Directed by Nelson Varas-Díaz
The Darkness” is an ethnographic documentary that captures the resilience of the ‘Alto de Cuba’ community in Puerto Rico as they confront disaster and darkness. Partnering with the grassroots organization ‘Casa Pueblo,’ they harness solar energy to restore power, protect their health, and reclaim their well-being. Through their journey, the community offers five powerful lessons on building a just and sustainable future. The film highlights their fight against governmental neglect and the privatization of Puerto Rico’s power grid, showing how collective action can ignite hope, power, and change in the face of crisis. Is this just about solar power, or is there more at hand?
THE DOCTRINE
01:23:00|United States| Directed by Gwendolen Cates
THE DOCTRINE is a feature-length documentary film about the Doctrine of Discovery that follows a group of Indigenous youth in Minneapolis/St.Paul who decide to request a meeting at the Vatican to explain how the 15th-century Doctrine has impacted Indigenous Peoples and advocate for its repudiation.
Also featuring Indigenous activists in Aotearoa New Zealand, Guatemala, New Caledonia, and Puerto Rico, the film exposes how laws of conquest and colonization issued by the Vatican in the 15th-century codified slavery, racism, and the exploitation of natural resources for profit, and became international law, targeting communities of color and enabling corporate forces driving the current climate crisis. Incorporated into U.S. law in 1823, the Doctrine of Discovery was also the origin of the transatlantic slave trade.
THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK
00:28:00|Directed by Dorna Van Rouveroy
The Empire Writes Back is a short documentary about a long-overdue conversation between Indonesia and the Netherlands. At a unique summer school, students from both countries explore their shared colonial past through film and literature — not as fixed history, but as lived memory. What emerges is not consensus, but a deeper understanding of how narratives are shaped, challenged, and rewritten.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: ASHLEY GILBERTSON
00:25:29| Australia|Directed by Fiona Cochrane
Seven different Australian photographers, each with a significant body of work and each with a different photographic style: Ashley Gilbertson is a photojournalist.
Born In Australia, Ashley now lives and works in New York. In his teens Ashley started photographing his skateboarding friends. He had a good eye and became very involved in filming refugees both in Australia and later internationally, ending up in the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq just before the Iraq war started. When the war began he was embedded with US marines, eventually publishing a book of his time there called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer’s Chronicle of the Iraq War. His time in Iraq was harrowing and he returned to the US with PTSD. In the US he subsequently made another book– Bedrooms of the Fallen – using photographs of the bedrooms left behind by 40 fallen soldiers.
Since this time he has photographed many subjects for the New York Times, and has just been back in Melbourne for the launch of his exhibition at NGV about the COVID-period in New York, titled Requiem to New York.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: EMMANUEL SANTOS
00:26:57| Australia|Directed by Fiona Cochrane
Seven different Australian photographers, each with a significant body of work and each with a different photographic style: Emmanuel Santos is an art and documentary photographer.
Born on an island in the Philippines, Emmanuel was a photographer for the UN there when he met and married an Australian. He migrated to Australia, finding an affinity in East St Kilda with the Orthodox Jewish community (about whom he authored the book Observances). He subsequently produced another book photographing the Jewish diaspora throughout the world (Israel; one land, one people, one dream). He has had his art photography exhibited throughout the world, and considers photography to be ‘learning the language of light.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: JACQUELINE MITELMAN
00:24:38|Australia| Directed by Fiona Cochrane
Seven different Australian photographers, each with a significant body of work and each with a different photographic style: JACQUELINE MITELMAN is a portrait photographer who has lived and worked in Melbourne apart from a period living in France. Since studying photography at Prahran College under the tutelage of Athol Smith, Paul Cox & John Cato, she has worked as a freelance photographer focusing primarily on portraiture. A wide range of private commissions has resulted in an extensive collection of portraits of culturally significant Australians, described as “fusing the intensity of the moment with stillness of icons” (Dr Vivien Gaston). Jacqueline was awarded the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2011. Her works are held in public institutions and private collections in Australia and internationally.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: JOHN STREET
00:24:30|Australia|Directed by Fiona Cochrane
Born in the UK John spent the first 15 years of his life in and out of different orphanages. He remembers light being an important thing to him as he lay in fields as a child, looking up at the sky. John subsequently became a merchant seaman, then returned to London in the swinging 60s and became a commercial photographer. He migrated to Australia and continued this work, being acclaimed as a very exacting food photographer. At a later stage John swapped to an ultra large format camera to compose unique, one-off art photographs, which he describes as ‘slow photography’. At the age of 90 he has now sold his large camera but continues to make photographs that are more of a combination of art and photography – ‘painting with light’.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: MEREDITH O’SHEA
00:23:00|Australia|Directed byFiona Cochrane
Born into a working class family in Melbourne, Meredith’s father chose to move them to very outer suburban greenery and freedom. She preferred horse-riding to school, but became interested in film and photography. She was scooped up by THE AGE as soon as they saw her folio, and they have been her main employer for the last 2 decades. She creates most of her own story concepts for the newspaper and believes her working class background allows her to relate more easily to her subjects – she covers difficult issues and engages with her subjects at a profound level of intimacy, revealing hauntingly beautiful photographs of her subjects at their most vulnerable. And then there are the beautiful photos of her children, which she started taking during COVID…
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: PONCH HAWKES
00:23:35|Australia|Directed byFiona Cochrane
A Melburnian, Ponch’s work has explored themes to do with women, sport (including circus), female bodies, relationships and identity. Starting out in the Pram Factory and early Circus Oz period, Ponch photographed circus performers, then extended out to portrayals of artists, feminists, sportspeople and others. Her first exhibited work was Our Mums and Us, featuring her female friends and their mothers, amongst them writer Helen Garner. More recent projects such as Flesh after 50 / 500 Strong exhibitions have explored the ageing female body. Hawkes’ extensive career is considered an influential part of the Australian Feminist art movement.
THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: RICKY MAYNARD
00:22:30|Australia|Directed byFiona Cochrane
An Indigenous Tasmanian photographer, Ricky started as a darkroom technician at the age of 16. In viewing the racist treatment of Indigenous people in the past via colonial photos, Ricky started questioning the photographer’s role, the influence of the image in society and its persuasive power. It changed the way he viewed and made pictures: “this misrepresentation of Australia’s first nation people became a lifelong pursuit of providing insight into a tragic past and providing a profound, in-depth personal interpretation rooted in my own Aboriginal experience.” Ricky also struggled with alcoholism along the way and says that photography saved his life.
The Muster at Marquette
00:10:00| Directed by Andrew Coons
A short documentary following The Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection which aims to gather 6,000 oral histories from fans around the world. The project is led by Dr. William Fliss, the archivist in charge of a special collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Other Side of the Other
00:52:03| Rita de Cácia Oenning Da Silva, Kurt Shaw
Children from the favelas of Recife make a movie about what they imagine life to be for middle class “apartment kids,” while kids from the middle class make a film about what they imagine life to be like in the favela. As they show they movies to each other and finally meet, these kids teach profound lessons about segregation, curiosity, and the human condition.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
01:26:00|Directed by Jenn Strom
Over the course of his 70-year career, E.J. Hughes created hundreds of paintings of British Columbia. From coastal villages to the Rocky Mountains, he captured the province in vivid, meticulous detail. Working quietly in his Vancouver Island studio, the paintings he produced evoke shared memories and a dreamlike sense of place, captivating elite collectors and everyday Canadians alike.
Known as a reclusive, sensitive soul, Hughes’ future as an artist was far from certain when he graduated from Vancouver’s fledgling art school during the Depression. In 1938, Hughes was struggling to make a living from fishing when he sketched the coastal scene before him. Sixty-five years later, Fish Boats, Rivers Inlet—the oil painting inspired by that sketch—would fetch a fortune at auction, setting a new record for a living Canadian artist.
How did a man too shy to attend his own art openings become so acclaimed? Along the way, Hughes crossed paths with artists from the legendary Group of Seven and became one of Canada’s most prolific war artists, chronicling army life during the Second World War and profoundly changing his own artistic voice in the process. Travel through painted landscapes and Canadian art history, tracing the quietly extraordinary life of B.C. painter, E.J. Hughes.
The Radiant Screen
00:47:17| Netherlands| Directed by Ine Lamers
The film follows L., a filmmaker, as she journeys through the vast red Siberian landscape, circling the enigmatic closed city of Ж (Zjeh) Железного́рск / Zheleznogorsk. Founded in the 1950s as a secret military scientific research center, this town was designed as a model socialist city. It remained hidden and inaccessible, appearing on maps only since 1992. After the fall of the Soviet Union, its residents voted to maintain their “”splendid isolation.”” Tucked away in the landscape, Ж is described online as “”the last socialist paradise on earth.””
The Radiant Screen presents contrasting perspectives on Ж. While L.’s speculative voice-over drifts through her dreamy train of thought, her Russian driver and guide—determined to take her as close to the city as possible—interrupts with facts and philosophical thoughts. Documentary footage of the city’s periphery alternates with staged scenes and reconstructions. In what resembles a casting studio, five actors deliver “”true”” accounts while simultaneously speculating about the film L. is making . Gradually, however, the images of the closed town begin to fracture. L.’s poetic comments linger in the inaccessible zone, but the film evokes a growing sense of doubt and unease: What is real, and what is mere projection? How far can one pursue a utopia before becoming a hostage to the search?
The Radiant Screen is not a conventional documentary; it weaves together footage from research trips to Krasnoyarsk Krai (2010–2019), webcam recordings from the city’s official website, archival materials, drawings, and staged scenes filmed in the Netherlands (2020–2023) to create a multilayered image about a search.
The film employs documentary strategies: the statements by the actors, as well as those of the driver, are based on interviews with (former) residents of Железного́рск. The theatrical reenactment is inspired by an archival photograph from a promotional book about the city. Together, these elements contribute to the construction of an unreachable place—one that also turns its back on the searcher.
The making of the film is part of L.’s search for the utopia, thus resonating with what German philosopher Ernst Bloch calls the utopian impulse.
This is Somewhere Safe
00:15:59|Directed by Greg Scott
This film documents the inception and operation of the first-ever unsanctioned, peer-led, supervised drug injection facility in an unnamed American city.
Tipping Point: From Local Protection to the Global Governance of Biodiversity
00:10:05|Directed by Marjolaine Lamontagne
Tipping Point: From Local Protection to the Global Governance of Biodiversity is a short documentary film in French (with English subtitles) exploring the involvement of local governments (cities and regions) and civil society organizations in the global governance of biodiversity. The film focuses on their participation at COP15, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference held in Montreal in December 2022, where a historic international agreement — the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — was adopted, committing to protect 30% of the planet’s land and waters by 2030. The documentary contends that as our planetary systems edge dangerously toward a tipping point of ecological collapse, collective action by stakeholders across every level of governance and sector of society holds the power to trigger a political tipping point — one that could reignite global momentum for bold, transformative environmental action.
Unconditional
00:31:39|United Kingdom| Directed by Simon Wharf
For 18 months every resident in 5 informal settlements called bastis in Bangladesh and India received a universal basic income.
Unconditional tells the stories of people who participated in and ran these WorkFREE pilots.
The projects provided basic income payments in combination with support from community organisers. The cash provided unconditional financial support and the community organisers worked with residents to identify and lead work that addressed the issues that were most important in their communities.
Unveiling Earth’s Climate Secrets
00:03:38|Austria
Beneath Greenland’s vast ice sheet lies a hidden archive of Earth’s climate history, one that stretches back hundreds of thousands of years. This short documentary follows the cutting-edge world of paleoclimate research in Greenland, where scientists decode the past using nature’s own records: ice cores, cave formations, ocean sediments, lakebeds, and even ancient DNA.
From abrupt ice age warmings to periods when Greenland was ice-free and forested, the film reveals how different archives, frozen bubbles, stalagmites, marine shells, and pollen, collectively reconstruct a dynamic climate system. These natural time capsules offer not just glimpses into the past, but crucial warnings for our future.
By exploring Greenland’s deep-time environmental shifts, Unveiling Earth’s Climate Secrets shows how understanding ancient climates is essential to confronting today’s climate crisis, and preparing for what lies ahead.
You Dance Our Dance
00:39:29|Canada| Directed by Brita Miko
Indians throughout the world dance the dances that once belonged to a people. This is the story of who they were, how they were mistreated by those in power, and how one descendant is reclaiming her art.
Adonis Unadorned- Stories of Me
00:53:00|Canada| Directed by Dalibor
Adonis Unadorned: Stories of Me is a film portrait of Don Lowe—a writer from the Greek island of Hydra, and a fellow Artist and a long-time friend of Leonard Cohen. Through ten select stories, told by Don himself, the film provides an intimate account of some of the key episodes from Don’s life and paints an unmediated portrait of Don’s impressions of Greece, experiences on Hydra, and relationships with some of his closest friends and fellow Artists (notably, Antony Kingsmill and Leonard Cohen).
Spotlight on Academics 