The cocaine industry in Peru is outgrowing its traditional region of production—the VRAEM—and expanding into other areas of the country like the Amazon lowlands and the Brazilian border. This is creating a new wave of violence for indigenous tribes who are refusing to work with the cartel.
We embed with local drug traffickers to see the cocaine refinement process firsthand, visit with an autodefensa militia group, and meet a local Amazonian community currently under attack.
In March 2002, a state TV station in China was hijacked by members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. Their goal was to counter the government narrative about their practice.
In the aftermath, police raids sweep Changchun City, and comic book illustrator Daxiong (Justice League, Star Wars), a Falun Gong practitioner, is forced to flee. He arrives in North America, blaming the hijacking for worsening a violent repression. But his views are challenged when he meets the lone surviving participant to have escaped China, now living in Seoul, South Korea.
Combining present-day footage with 3D animation inspired by Daxiong’s art, Eternal Spring retraces the event, and brings to life an unprecedented story of defiance, harrowing eyewitness accounts of persecution, and an exhilarating tale of determination to speak up for political and religious freedoms, no matter the cost.
Eternal Spring: The Heist of China´s Airwaves brings to life with stunning animation, the heist, and its repercussions.
¨an inspired mixed-media reflection¨
The Guardian
¨thrilling and emotional story of a group of Falun Gong practitioners who managed to take over Chinese State TV… A Story of immense bravery¨
Movies That Matter
¨A resounding success… an ultra-compelling, suspense-filled investigation¨
Avoir-Alire
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Winner of the Hot Docs Audience Award and the Rogers Audience Award at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival.
Winner of the Fischer Audience Award (Best International Feature) at the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
Activist Night film – Movies That Matter Festival.
Half of Latin American countries number among the top economies in the world to do business in, and for many the continent is an investor’s paradise. Why should we keep an eye on Latin America, and which changes are taking place there right now?
As the backbone of South America – some 7000 kilometres long and passing through seven countries – the Andes mountain range is a good place to ask that question.
You’ll find Chilean capitalism in the smog of Santiago, and will travel 30 years back in time through the clouds of remote Bolivian mountain villages. Latino’s are known as a politically engaged people. Always fighting, but with a smile. Strong, but not tough as nails. The history of this continent is one of ups and downs. Sometimes there’s a glimmer of hope, then everything seems to fall apart again. Is the continent crawling, walking or about to fall down again?
Stef Biemans’ journey starts in Tierra del Fuego and ends in Colombia. Along the way, he searches out small stories about big issues, which illuminate contemporary South America.
Episode 1. The Man-eating Mountain
Stef Biemans travels the ridge of the Andes and wonders how South Americans are doing in Potosí, the highest city in the world, and once one of its richest, but also one where life can be short.
In the mining town of Potosí, capitalism was born, as it were. Here, the first coin was struck using silver from the mine of the ‘rich mountain’, which is still in use. So much silver has been extracted from this imposing mountain, you could use it to build a bridge to Spain. But you could also build a bridge out of the bones of dead miners and slaves. On average, miners only make it to the age of 45.
Episode 2. The Skyscraper of Santiago
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, Stef visits South America’s highest skyscraper. It was once built as a symbol of progress, but now the tower represents the dark side to that success story: record depression and suicide rates.
The highest tower in South America rises out of the Santiago smog, a symbol of the strong neoliberal economic system. But almost every month, someone jumps off of it. Nowhere else are depression rates as high as in this city of remarkable economic prosperity. In and around this skyscraper, Stef tries to find out where it all went wrong. What are the prerequisites for success and how do people survive in the smog of neoliberalism?
Episode 3. El Paraíso Technológico
Stef travels to Argentina’s southernmost tip Ushuaia, and discovers an impressive electronics industry among the penguins. Since it’s become known that there are jobs to be had in Tierra del Fuego, the capital of Ushuaia draws countless South American fortune seekers. What is this growth doing to the mountains surrounding the town?
Terra del Fuego is the new migrant’s paradise of South America. Since word’s gotten out that on the southern tip of the continent you can easily find work in an Argentinian electronics plant, the city has boomed. The Argentinian government has declared the area a tax free zone and companies have flooded in with smartphone and television factorys.
Growth is so rapid here, that it feels like a threat to many people; what is the impact on the nature of the surrounding mountains and its biodiversity? In Tierra del Fuego, Charles Darwin studied man and animal, and discovered the principles of his theory of evolution. Can modern-day inhabitants adapt to these changes?
In Ecuador, Stef Biemans visits the valley of eternal life – where the high life expectancy of its inhabitants has astonished observers – and investigates its finite nature. What do spry centenarians in Ecuador right below the equator do in order to stay healthy, what provisions are there for them should they fall ill, and how do South Americans deal with their elderly?
The Vilcabamba valley in Ecuador is known for its healthy old people. The fit old man who interrupts his work in the field to firmly shake Stef Biemans’ hand shows an official proof of identity with a 1913 birthdate. A little bit later, he lets his hips do the talking when he’s dancing.
Others in the valley also dance, but it doesn’t mean they’re all happy. An 89-year-old woman says she’d like for it to be over. ‘God is keeping me alive. I’m waiting for my time to come.’ A voluntary ending to this earthly life is so unthinkable, Biemans is afraid to even broach the subject.
Episode 5. My Mother-in-Law stayed at home
In this episode we look at the role of the mother-in-law, because Latino’s tend to talk about them rather a lot.
In Latin America, folk tales, songs, novels and soap operas are not complete without a distrustful mother-in-law. Why is that, he wonders? And has the role of the mother-in-law changed, now the economy is booming and whole families don’t have to live under one roof anymore? Or are mothers-in-law still as picky and meddlesome as Latino men would have us believe? Maybe they have good reason to be so, because men aren’t always gentle with their women.
Episode 6. The Mother of Colombia
In the final episode of the series, we journey down the Magdalena River, which originates in the Andes and ends in the Caribbean Sea.
This is the most hopeful period in Colombia’s history: the peace treaty has been signed and the country looks towards the future as new roads and bridges are being constructed. At the same time, the Magdalena River, also known as the mother of the country, still means a lot to inhabitants. What will progress destroy?
The charismatic Father Marco Arana, named a Hero of the Environment in 2009 by TIME Magazine, has been so effective in advocating against the US-owned Yanacocha mine that he’s code-named “the Devil” and targeted in a campaign of harassment and terror.
When one colleague is threatened with rape and another is killed, the activists fight back, capture a spy, and uncover a military-scale operation of surveillance and violence that shocks even them.
When billions of dollars are at stake, just how far are corporations willing to go to protect their bottom line?
A gripping David and Goliath tale of corporate espionage unfolds in this exposé of torture, intimidation, and murder of Peruvian eco-activists and indigenous farmers. Shocking video footage, horrifying photos, and meticulous reports compiled by private security firms working for gold mines are uncovered by the filmmakers to reveal the truth in this real-life political thriller.
Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a brutal record – presented with minimal gloss – of the bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Almost purely observational, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population.
Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, the film shuttles between the actual bombings and the horrific aftermath on the streets and in the hospitals. Løkkeberg contrasts these graphic scenes with footage of bachelor parties, weddings and visits to the beach – social activities that epitomize daily life in Gaza during more peaceful times.
Tears of Gaza makes no overriding speeches or analyses. The situation leading up to the incursion is never mentioned. Indeed, as one reviewer noted, this film ‘doesn’t take sides as much as obliterates politics’ and demands that we examine the costs of war on a civilian populace. The result is horrifying, gut-wrenching and unforgettable.
“Few antiwar films register with the disturbing immediacy and visceral terror of Tears of Gaza.”
John Andersen, Variety
“Perhaps the ultimate anti-war film. A compelling film about war.”
Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
“NYT CRITICS PICK: A brutally uncompromising blast of outrage.. Using extraordinary footage (Tears of Gaza) spotlights the extreme deprivation of life under a blockade and the physical and psychological wounds of war.. a tapestry of human misery impossible to shake off”
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
“Tears of Gaza documents air-delivered incendiary weapons and unimaginable violence.. identification with these people is not difficult”
Chris Packham, The Village Voice
For the first time in 42 years, a camera enters Southern Libya in what was forbidden territory under the Gaddafi regime.
Shortly after Gaddafi’s demise, we accompany members of the disgraced Tabu tribe along the road to their impoverished desert territory near the Algeria-Niger-Chad borders 1000 Km from Tripoli.
Electricity has been on again for barely two months, mobile phones haven’t worked for seven. Fuel is scarce and queues are endlessly long. Two widespread weapons are in use: sat phones and Kalashnikovs.
Closely guarded by rebel escorts for security reasons, we follow the illegal immigrants route all the way to the Niger border. We discover how Gaddafi challenged Europe at the beginning of the revolution by sending and financing flows of migrants. Rebels, smugglers and victims of the old regime tell their stories.
The desert’s well-preserved secrets now finally come to light.
Three Canadian men of Muslim faith were detained and tortured during a three-year period in Syria and Egypt. Upon their release, they return to Canada struggling to find answers to why this happened to them.
An internal inquiry was struck into their cases in order to determine the role of Canadian agencies and officials in their detention and torture. The inquiry was conducted almost exclusively behind closed doorsand the findings of this inquiry were made public in late 2008, revealing that the Canadian government was complicit in their detention and torture.
Ghosts follows the lives and cases of these men for a year and a half as they – with the help of lawyers, organisations and regular Canadians – fight to leave the horrors behind them, to receive an apology and compensation, and to see accountability as they attempt to rebuild their lives.
A portrait of life after experiences of torture, this is a powerful and intimate documentary about the fragile balance between democracy, human rights and national security fears in the post 9/11 era.
Infiltrados takes an in-depth look at FARC, one of the world’s oldest and deadliest terrorist organisations, examining the Colombian National Police and the involvement of its intelligence division in the recent lethal strikes against the FARC.
Featuring first hand accounts from spies who infiltrated FARC, living for many years among them before relaying intelligence back to the Colombian military, these brave people undertook what were to be the most dangerous missions ever conceived of.
Those who were discovered were tortured and murdered as a warning to other under cover agents, and the threat of exposure lingered throughout their missions. Added to this is the threat of ambush from their own employers- the Colombian military- as well as the difficulty in returning with intelligence as deserters are executed. The chances of survival are slim.
For the first time the terrifying experiences of these people who left their lives in the cities of Colombia to live for years in the jungle as FARC members, are captured on film, and their stories recreated through animations to protect their identities.
Informant examines Brandon Darby, a radical activist turned FBI informant who has been both vilified and deified, but never entirely understood.
In 2005, Darby became an overnight activist hero when he traveled to Katrina-devastated New Orleans and braved toxic floodwaters to rescue a friend stranded in the Ninth Ward. Soon after, he became a founding member of Common Ground, a successful grassroots relief organization.
After two young activists were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Darby shocked close friends and activists nationwide by revealing he had been instrumental in the indictment as an FBI informant.
As the only film with access to Darby since his public confession, Informant meticulously constructs a portrait of his life – before and after the death threats – through interviews with Darby and tense reenactments starring the man himself.
Darby’s version of events are accompanied and often contradicted by commentary from acquaintances and expert commentators on various points along the political spectrum.
“The unreliable-narrator docu develops a new wrinkle or two with “Informant.” Jamie Meltzer’s engrossing portrait lets Brandon Darby tell his own story – of a self-proclaimed far-left, anti-government activist-turned-FBI snitch now feted at Tea Party gatherings –while fellow travelers cast doubt on that testimony every step of the way. An absorbing puzzle with the potential to intrigue viewers all along the political spectrum.”
– Dennis Harvey, Variety
“A kind of ‘Fog of War’ for the age of Occupy”
– Indiewire
“The force of Darby’s personality – a rich stew of righteousness, arrogance and self-delusion — gives the doc a psychological appeal independent of politics… it deserves a theatrical run.”
-John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter