Anastasia Trofimova gains unprecedented access to follow a Russian Army battalion in Ukraine. Without any official clearance or permits, she earns the trust of foot soldiers and over seven months embeds herself with the battalion as it makes its way across the frontlines.
What she discovers is far from the narratives propagated by the East or West: a war cutting through family and historical ties, soldiers disillusioned and often struggling to understand what they are fighting for.
Once regarded as something that happens exclusively in Guy Ritchie films and on gypsy sites, bare knuckle boxing is fast becoming a thriving scene in the UK — the ultimate British bloodsport.
When Clive Martin embeds with the bare knuckle boxing elite, what he discovers is not dissimilar to Fight Club; IT technicians, builders, lifestyle coaches and even a solicitor, all throwing their unprotected fists into each other’s faces. It’s a subculture of honour, pride and violence.
As the UK prepares to play host to the first US vs UK bare knuckle title fight in 150 years — the biggest event the scene has known since it went underground in the 19th Century — Clive tries to find out if violence is a cause or effect for these angry young men.
The War on Drugs has failed. Okay, but ending it is more complex than just letting people sell heroin to kids in supermarkets.We think about what a legal market might actually look like. We look at different classes of drugs, exploring exactly how legal, regulated markets for heroin, cocaine and MDMA can be structured in order to protect users from harm.
We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe.
Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
Over the past decade or so, South American cartels have found a new way to get their product into the vast European marketplace – West Africa.
The region’s porous borders, endemic poverty and weak law enforcement make it an easy target for international organised crime. But now drug use is spilling over into local markets, and the corruption inherent in the War on Drugs has begun to warp entire societies, leading to the emergence of Africa’s first real narco-states.
We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
The award-winning film chronicles the life of Alberto “Chino” Carias, the infamous leader of a vigilante “colectivo” from the slums of Caracas, Venezuela.
Once accused of robbing banks and killing cops, Chino sheds his outlaw reputation and takes a post in Hugo Chavez’s government. But after Chavez dies, the country’s struggling economy collapses.
In the absence of true law and order, Chino clings to his contradictory roles as saint and executioner.
Produced by Peter Marshall Smith and Matt Weinglass
Damian Abraham goes to Delaware to get an inside look at one of the most violent forms of professional wrestling in the world. Deathmatch is an ultra-violent style of wrestling that includes makeshift weapons, light bulb tubes, and barbed wire to ensure a maximum amount of bloodletting.
This documentary tells the story of Deathmatch wrestler David Markland (aka DJ Hyde) who organizes the controversial CZW Tournament of Death, a yearly highlight in the wrestling community that sees many fans traveling from all over the world to attend.
When thousands of young people travelled the back roads of Northern New South Wales 50 years ago to camp and explore a new way of living at Nimbin Aquarius Festival something unexpected happened amongst all the bliss, drugs and revolutionary zeal.
In May 1973, 10,000 artists, activists, hippies, radical students, gurus and visionaries descended on a small dairy town for 10 days of social and cultural exploration that changed a generation.
Those 10 days birthed an irrepressible movement and a manifesto for sustainable change. Aquarius is a film about the people and the power of change, of unintended consequences and the radical wisdom that reaches down through generations today.
The occupation of Columbia University by pro-Palestinian students made waves around the world.
A group of students set up camp on the lawn of Columbia University in New York, and founded the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to protest the war in Gaza, and to protest their own university’s investment in the US and Israeli arms industry. An action that made waves around the world and quickly grew into the largest protest movement since the Vietnam War. But the world has changed.
The Encampments is a film about power and resistance in the 21st century, where both have taken on new forms, while the role of universities as bastions of democracy, critical thinking and freedom of expression is under threat.
We are plunged into the high-stakes drama with full access to the hard core of dedicated organizers led by Mahmoud Khalil as they face fierce resistance from the police, the media and their own fellow students.
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An urgent protest film that carries the same conviction and resolve of the students who organized these demonstrations last spring.
At only 80 minutes, The Encampments tells a fascinating, ripped-from-the-headlines story.. As a snapshot of a particular few weeks in which a protest movement was born and spread, it’s an effective and prescient documentary. Eerily, in one of the last shots in which Khalil is shown, he’s asked by an off-camera voice, “What would happen to you if you were deported?” to which he responds, “I will live.”
The Encampments shows that same determination and confidence from other young people who carry the responsibility of attempting change.
Variety
It’s a stark and powerful reminder of what the protesters are actually protesting.
The Washington Post
The Encampments chronicles how students at Columbia ignited a far-reaching and influential solidarity movement last spring… it takes a harrowing turn once the filmmakers observe university responses to the student occupations spreading across campuses.
The Encampments not just critical in capturing the real-time makings of a movement, but in laying bare the consequences of this response.
The Hollywood Reporter
The Encampments is a very conventional documentary on purpose. It mounts its argument with little flare and with muted aestheticization, all to dispel the hysteria surrounding its subject… it is already making an appeal to posterity.
The New Yorker
This rousing documentary explores the impact of and responses to student solidarity with Palestine without getting caught up in polemics… Stirring and tense.
Sight and Sound
In 1991 the northern section of Somalia declared itself an independent democratic state, since then Somaliland has struggled on its path to find international recognition while the rest of Somalia has become infamous for anarchy and violence.
Somaliland: An Experiment in Democracy follows the 2012 election spotlighting the difficulties of running an election in an undeveloped country with a fragile infrastructure. While threats from outside (including terrorism and piracy) and inside (such as factionalism and vote rigging) loom over the process, one man is tasked with keeping the election fair.
We follow Ali – an ex-investment banker from Toronto – who gave up his old life to run the electoral commission, and it is through him that we see the scale of the challenge facing Somaliland’s nascent democracy.
Somaliland: An Experiment in Democracy is a close up look at how democracy functions under difficult and unfamiliar circumstances, and gives an insight into why so many countries fail in their attempts to have a system based on popular representation.
This is not a film about men versus women. Beyond Men and Masculinity explores how men see themselves, how they relate to the people they say they care about and how the personal impacts the political.
What happens when men are taught to disconnect from their feelings in the name of being strong and independent? What is the link between shame and male violence? Why do we find it hard to value kindness and compassion in men? And what role do women play in defining what is expected from men and masculinity?
A discussion of these sometimes uncomfortable questions is now more crucial than ever. From the therapy room to the political battlefield, this provocative film offers a clear insight into why we must look beyond traditional definitions of men and masculinity.
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´You have the watches, we have the time´, a Taliban commander infamously warned an American in 2002 Afghanistan. It was ominously accurate. Months earlier, America had swiftly ousted a flailing Taliban government, pledging to rebuild the embattled country. Fifty nations joined the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom´ war machine and for two decades, foreign armies poured into Afghanistan along with eye-watering amounts of foreign aid funding. Yet now the Taliban is back in charge of the entire country. So what went wrong?
The Watch Or The Time explores America and its allies’ ill-fated offensive in Afghanistan told by the foreigners and Afghans who lived it. The film tracks the arc of America’s longest war in modern history with these personal experiences, looking at the pitfalls of military intervention, humanitarian aid and the culture clash through the legacy of the West’s efforts in Afghanistan.
Did the thousands of expat-nation-builders foresee a Taliban victory? After so many other previous invasions, did the Afghans see the writing on the wall? And what is the price of the so-called peace in Afghanistan today?
You’ll meet a German armoured car salesman, an American sports trainer and women’s rights activist, a Canadian NATO psychological operations specialist, an Australian war photographer, an Afghan female graffiti artist from the Taliban heartland; Kandahar, Kabul University’s debate club vice-president, a local media producer dubbed Afghanistan’s Number 1 fixer, and a senior Taliban commander.
You’ll see ex-pats grapple with what they’ve left behind, Afghans struggle to make sense of the dramatic shift in their fates, while others celebrate the Taliban’s win.
As America and its allies try to wash their hands of responsibility in Afghanistan, The Watch Or The Time puts it front and centre again. This film presents the perspectives and ultimately asks, was it worth it? You decide.
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.