Tag Archives: America

Body a la Carte

We live in a world where self-image has become an obsession, where we can no longer ignore the role that science and technology play in our never-ending quest for beauty and youth.

Through touching and meaningful stories, as well as the testimonies of plastic surgeons, and interviews with experts from related fields, Body à La Carte explores the increasingly popular and fascinating phenomenon of cosmetic procedures.

In a booming industry where plastic surgery is just another product to purchase, who knows when we will bite? Even the sceptics have mirrors.

Escape From Room 18

John Daly, an ex-neo-Nazi skinhead, fled to Israel after his own gang attempted to murder him for being Jewish. Years later he receives an e-mail from someone in his long forgotten past.

Kevin Connell, a former friend and fellow ex-neo-Nazi is on a mission to change his own life and make amends for his past. He invites John to meet him in Eastern Europe to discover first hand the effects of what they both practiced and preached.

Suffering from PTSD and a brain tumor John is reluctant at first. Is this another attempt on his life? Or is this actually a man trying to better himself and make amends for the pain he caused so many people so many years ago?

End of Truth

“They are gone.” These are the words that propelled photojournalist Nicole Tung into a daunting situation which nothing could have prepared her for. Masked men wielding Kalashnikovs had abducted her friends John Cantlie and James Foley while they were en route from Syria back into Turkey. Nicole had been nervously waiting for their arrival at the border. Instantly, their fate rested upon her ability to find out who captured her friends and how to get them back alive.

The abductions of John Cantlie and James Foley were the beginning of a hostage taking frenzy which impacted the foreign policy of many countries.  Because of media blackouts surrounding the kidnappings, many others unwittingly ventured forth into hostile ISIS territory. Fixers were targeted, causing people who thought they were safe to be captured. These unsuspecting journalists and aid workers were thrown into a dark and desperate situation that ended horribly for those whose countries didn’t pay ransom. These crimes revealed what can happen when truths are obscured – causing negotiations and rescue missions to go horribly wrong.

End of Truth is an emotionally powerful investigation into the political and criminal enterprise of kidnappings as ISIS rose to power in war torn Syria. By intercutting exclusive footage with intimate interviews of negotiators, investigators, fixers and even a used car salesman who are caught up in the confusion, we examine the leads that led to lies revealing the terrible consequence of misinformation when lives are at stake.

91%: A Film About Guns in America

America’s 325 million residents own an estimated 347 million firearms. Not surprisingly, gun violence has become one of the most urgent public health issues facing Americans today.

In 91%, a cross-section of U.S. gun violence victims tell their heartbreaking stories of loss, pain, and a heroic search for hope in a nation stalled in a senseless gun control debate. Throughout these otherwise unrelated shootings, we find a common thread – the gunmen had all-too- easy access to the virtually untraceable, high-powered weaponry used in their attacks.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, a 2013 poll revealed that 91% of Americans support comprehensive background checks – a factor that could prevent thousands of similar gun violence tragedies nationwide. Yet, divisive political rhetoric and congressional gridlock continues to perpetuate a flawed system that hurts communities across the country.

Moving beyond the confusing gun control politics and avoiding any discussion about the often-unpredictable motivations of rampage killers, 91% shows that Americans almost unanimously support both 2nd amendment rights and common sense regulation. The film finds a shared language between citizens on both sides of the issue, encouraging them to move common sense policy forward by speaking up in a conversation typically dominated by firearm lobbyists and manufacturers.

By highlighting the impact of unregulated gun sales on schools, families, and communities across the country, 91% addresses the real problems and possible solutions to gun violence in America. It’s something we all agree about, we just don’t know it yet.

Desert Coffee

In California’s poorest desert region, a colourful group of regulars and their dogs gather at Rob’s cafe for coffee in ‘the last free place in America’. 

Slab City is a squatter community in the Sonoran Desert, Southern California. The inhabitants, Slabbers, live in broken trailers or old school buses. Their closest neighbors are the United States Navy and Marine Corps, who practice aerial bombing in the area. Despite living off-grid in extreme weather conditions with no running water, electricity, sewage system or trash pickup, the residents enthusiastically embrace their freedom in the beautiful badlands of the desert. 

Rob hates coffee but as soon as dawn breaks he meticulously brews ‘the best coffee in the county’ for the customers of his makeshift cafe. Desert Coffee sketches an intimate, warm portrait of Rob and his friends – an unforgettable bunch of troubled characters and left-behinds.

The Coming War on China

The Coming War on China, from award winning journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn’t – that the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war. 

Nuclear war is not only imaginable, but planned. The greatest build-up of NATO military forces since the Second World War is under way on the western borders of Russia. On the other side of the world, the rise of China is viewed in Washington as a threat to American dominance. 

To counter this, President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’, which meant that almost two-thirds of all US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific, their weapons aimed at China. A policy which has been taken up by his successor Donald Trump, who during his election campaign said “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing”.

Filmed on five possible front-lines across Asia and the Pacific over two years, the story is told in chapters that connect a secret and ‘forgotten’ past to the rapacious actions of great power today and to a resistance, of which little is known in the West.

Bad Hombres

Bad Hombres explores the most heavily used migration route on Earth. Journalist Stef Biemans traveled between Guatemala and the US to see what the so-called ‘bad hombres’ hope to find in the USA.
Who are the people who inspired the building of a wall on the Mexican border?

“Biemans stays calm at all times and defers to his subjects. The result is rich and integral television, sometimes moving and always captivating”

De Volkskrant

Also available as a five part series:

Episode One:

Episode Two:

Episode Three:

Episode Four:

Episode Five:

Sticky: A (Self) Love Story

Everyone does it; few admit it; now there’s a movie about it!

Sticky talks candidly about what has been referred to throughout history as both a form of self-love and self-abuse. After being shamed as a child by fellow students for admitting that he masturbated, writer/director Nicholas Tana, interviewed over sixty sexologists, authors, religious figures, porn stars, and entertainers to understand what’s so wrong with masturbation.

Full of candid interviews from sex therapists, religious figures, and psychologists to celebrated figures such as former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, comedian Janeane Garofalo, and, among others, “Hustler” creator, Larry Flynt. Sticky answers age-old questions; “Will it make me go blind?”; “Is it “normal”?”; and, “Why are we so afraid to be caught in the act?” As well as tackling more contemporary issues like why the media portrays masturbation so negatively, how the world’s major religions disagree about the moral effects of self-pleasuring, and why the sale of sex toys is illegal in Alabama.

When confusion about sexuality remains at the root of so many societal problems – rape, sexual abuse, and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases – Sticky pulls no punches in exploring a subject that touches us all.

Rise of the Trolls

Has internet anonymity unleashed a ‘dark demon’ lurking in all of us? A film that reveals the hard truths surrounding anonymity, dark instincts and freedom on the internet.

Smartphones have put the internet into our pockets and billions of people around the world are now connected online. Our lives have improved greatly, but this “freedom” has also made us vulnerable to a new kind of predator – the internet troll. Hiding behind a veil of anonymity, trolls indulge their darkest impulses, attacking whoever they want with impunity. Once you become the target of a Troll, what starts as a minor annoyance can escalate into a living nightmare. But who are Trolls? And will the fight to stop them destroy our personal freedoms? In Rise of the Trolls we meet:

  • One of the internet’s most notorious trolls, who spends hours every week insulting and infuriating as many people as he can – just for the laughs
  • Britain’s most notorious Troll. A young woman who was jailed in England for sending six threatening tweets.
  • The very first recorded troll in internet history, who led a digital ‘invasion’ of a cat lover’s chat board.
  • A feminist blogger whose trolls are ramping up their tactics to harass her family.
  • A Canadian psychologist who published the first ever study of internet trolls, uncovering the four dark personality traits that drive trolls in their cruelty.
  • An accused Twitter troll whose precedent-setting court case will affect freedom of speech online worldwide.
  • A digital forensics expert who tracks down the most technically adept trolls.

Rise of the Trolls from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

A Revolution in Four Seasons

This seminal film tells the story of two women with opposing political views fighting for their different versions of a democratic future for Tunisia, the country that sparked the Arab Spring.

Over the course of Tunisia’s critical post-revolution years, we follow journalist Emna Ben Jemaa, who envisions a country governed by free speech and without the corruption of the former regime. In contrast, Jawhara Ettis of the Islamist party Ennahda works towards a Tunisia guided by Islamic principles.

On a public level, both women must navigate how females are treated in their society, while in their own homes they must make difficult choices to balance their public political roles with marriage and motherhood.

Both know the stakes are high and the ever-present threat of Islamic extremists means their fragile political process could break down at any moment and all they’ve worked for could be lost.

Through the intertwined stories of Emna and Jawhara, the unresolved tensions of the Arab spring are laid bare. A Revolution in Four Seasons gives both a comprehensive review of this crucial period as well as an intimate look at what these sometimes painful compromises mean for those living in a country struggling to define itself.

A Revolution in Four Seasons from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Timelines

Three girls die before their 21st birthdays. Kayleigh, 19, a victim in a fatal car accident; Amber, 16, bullied into taking her own life; and Jenna, 20, lost a fight with a rare disease. Soon after, their stories go viral and the world is given access to their lives and deaths.

Kayleigh wrote a bucket list that was shared the world over after her death, inspiring thousands of strangers to live her dreams. Amber seemed to have it all, her suicide sent shockwaves through her small town, questions are asked and a portrait of online bullying and torment emerge. Jenna is diagnosed with a disease so rare that doctors didn’t know how to treat it, turning to social media to find support and raise awareness, her campaign ‘Get Me to 21’ makes her a star, and saves lives but sadly not her own.

Timelines is a documentary about three young girls who lived and died on the internet, a story about grief in the digital age and how personas are shaped online. And for the families the question remains, how do you say goodbye, when death goes viral?

Timelines from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

The Abortion Hotline

In Chile, where abortion remains illegal and punishable by imprisonment, we follow a group of young activists who run an underground abortion hotline. Our protagonist Mafe is backed by a group of trusted volunteers who dedicate their evenings to answering calls and advising pregnant women in distress. Their goal: to inform callers about Misoprostol, a pill used to treat ulcers that can also induce abortion.

But change is in the air. After a heated election campaign, new President Michelle Bachelet has promised to loosen certain laws related to abortion. As the debate intensifies we witness first hand the trials and tribulations of the hotline as they find themselves taking centre stage. Election promises become diluted, allegiances are formed and broken with opportunists profiting from illegal abortions and the countries deep divisions are laid bare.

Can the hotline survive personal differences, will they remain safe from the authorities or will progressive reforms render the abortion hotline obsolete? 

The Abortion Hotline from Sideways Film on Vimeo.