The Real Eve
The made-for-cable documentary film The Real Eve is predicated on the theory that the human race can be traced to a common ancestor. The mitochondrial DNA of one prehistoric woman, who lived in Africa, has according to this theory been passed down from generation to generation over a span of 150,000 years, supplying the "chemical energy" to all humankind.
The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life
The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life poetically narrates the story of a community of Iranian Americans who have made the San Francisco Bay Area their home over the past five decades. The film explores Iranian immigration through turbulent histories of dissent, revolution, war, and separation, and the reinvention of identity in a new land and culture. The Dawn is Too Far highlights how Iranian students, activists, and artists have navigated displacement while drawing on and influencing Bay Area culture. This community offers a more nuanced story of the Iranian diaspora—the ways that this community enriches the region where they live, work, and build families. The Dawn is Too Far undermines the tired and overplayed news headlines that are dominated by narratives of enmity and mistrust between the government of Iran and the U.S., to offer a more humane understanding of the how people's lives and the sacrifices they make are part of the larger story of immigration.
Last Day of Us
Returning to sell her old family home, a Korean Guatemalan immigrant confronts buried memories and lingering emotions, ultimately finding closure within its familiar walls
Resembling a Body
H is on a trip to scenic Lofoten with his boyfriend. Affected by an event the night before leads him to alienation and transformation. ‘Det likner en kropp’ is a genre-bending, intimate and evocative short about living on the inside and outside of flesh.
How to Build a House out of Wreckage and Rags
Found footage: California in the 1950's and 60's. A young Indian couple enjoys their personal American dream come true in their home somewhere in the suburbs of San Francisco. In great detail they pose with their newly achieved wealth in front of their Super-8 camera. Just like postcards, they would send these film rolls to their joint families back in India. Around the same time, an American missionary couple visits the city of Calcutta to shoot a Christian propaganda film. The drastic reality with poverty and famine in the streets of the Indian metropolis fits perfectly into their wicked plan: To promote the faith in Jesus by showing the misery that pagan believers are doomed to suffer from.
Slowrajah
A young man struggles to fit into the fast-paced world of white-collar jobs as he tries to keep up with his friends' success. While he fears falling behind, he must realize that the true race is against himself.
Les années noires
nor any memories of the turning backs
[poem_body_memory_voice] None of them belong to each other. All of them belong to themselves. A layered accumulation —___- a poetic exercise on relating*_on_love, migration, and mourning.
Names Live Nowhere
A Senegalese storyteller travels to Belgium and observes the lives of African expatriates in Europe. Dreams and struggles great and small are explored.
Night Working
Lin, a migrant female worker from Cambodia, and Yeon-hee, a Korean, are friends who work together at a factory at night. One day, the two will go to the sea together for the weekend. However, the factory manager only forces Lin to work overtime on the weekend, while Lin finds out that Yeon-hee is leaving Korea for Australia soon.
King
“King” delves into the intimate realm of men’s mental health through a poignant exchange between a young man and his barber in a vibrant Dominican barbershop. Through candid conversations and mutual support, the film explores the complexities of masculinity, identity, and emotional well-being within the context of a culturally rich community. “King” offers a compelling portrayal of the power of dialogue and fellowship in navigating the challenges of modern life.
We Never Left
Set during the Lebanese revolution, WE NEVER LEFT portrays a heart-wrenching duality between Beirut and New York, an impassioned testament to the Lebanese diaspora’s unrequited but irrepressible love for their homeland.
In the Land That Is Like You
In the Land That Is Like You is a progress on the tracks of my lost past, with the contact of my mother, my grandmother and the man who I love, in a country which escapes from me and retains me, Lebanon.
Intrusive Thoughts
In the aftermath of a breakup, a struggling filmmaker becomes seduced by his therapist while his ex-girlfriend grapples with her identity and where to go next.
The cats, the sea, and everything in between.
In 2022, when the economic crisis in her native country was at its peak, she decided to visit her family there. She turned her short trip into a collage-like diary in which she reflects on her relationship with her homeland, which is in a state of protracted decay. The film is composed of spontaneous snapshots capturing the author's stay, interspersed with inserted captions serving as personal, often poetically formulated comments and observations. As a result, the film does not hide its strongly subjective perspective, but at the same time builds on it to make an important statement that shows the transformation of Lebanese society in everyday details such as the appearance of the city itself or in the intimate sphere of the author's family life.
Diasporama: Dead Air
An average of 60,000 people emigrated from Hong Kong each year in early 1990s. An absolutely personal and biased sampling of this diaspora from an insider/outsider perspective just before the 1997 handover. Based on the personal experiences of individuals from Hong Kong in 1990s, Diasporama is an experimental documentary that addresses issues of the diasporic condition. In a series of intimate interviews that explore the relationship of the personal and the political, Yau Ching confronts notions of nationhood, identity, and post-colonialism. Inserting her own face and voice as a form of mediation, the artist herself becomes one of the subjects.
Letter from Romania
Part of a series of promotional films commissioned by Romania's National Tourism Office in the early 1970s with the aim of reconnecting diasporic communities with the country they left behind. In this case, the film is addressed to Jews who emigrated in the context of the Second World War or were sold by the Romanian state to the State of Israel starting in the 50s and settled in Israel and the USA - therefore, a target group made up of seniors, probably retired , possibly prosperous, eager to revisit the places of youth and willing to forget, temporarily, the traumas associated with them.
Donde comienzas tú
Two young Puerto Ricans, childhood best friends, decide to spend one last day together before one of them moves to the United States in search of a better life. As their departure approaches, they begin to realize that saying goodbye isn't as easy as it seems.
Language Of Mules
Language of Mules is a poignant exploration of the haunting legacy of the Holocaust through the eyes and words of poet and author John Guzlowski. Born to Polish parents who survived the unimaginable horrors of Nazi concentration camps, Guzlowski's poems give voice to the stories passed down from his parents, stories of suffering, resilience, and survival. The film interweaves interviews with Guzlowski in his home in Virginia, with vivid poetic depictions of his parents' harrowing experiences: the brutality of the German soldiers, the daily horrors of camp life, physical torture, and enslavement in conditions that dehumanized those who endured them. With profound sensitivity and depth, Language of Mules becomes not just a retelling of history, but a meditation on the enduring impact of war on the human psyche.
what does it feel like to live inside a pomegranate?
In ‘what does it feel like to live inside a pomegranate?’ Iranian-American filmmaker Kamyar Mohsenin transforms a giant pomegranate into a portal. The protagonist ambiguously consumes the fruit in interludes, reflecting the tension between nourishment and the discomfort of engaging with one’s cultural heritage.