The film is an inquiry into contemporary forms of alternative models of partnerships. For many protagonists, polyamory, open marriage or long-term lover-to-lover relationships present a fulfilling life style, but also a struggle with misunderstanding of the society or conflicts within their own relationships. The director follows the development of relations of her protagonists over several years, while in intimate talks, she searches for the joy, striving and insecurities brought along by such unusual faces of love, revealing a need for redefining partnership in our times.
Over the past 25 years, Lauren Greenfield's documentary photography and film projects have explored youth culture, gender, body image, and affluence. In this fascinating meld of career retrospective and film essay, Greenfield offers a meditation on her extensive body of work, structuring it through the lens of materialism and its increasing sway on culture and society in America and throughout the world. Underscoring the ever-increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, her portraits reveal a focus on cultivating image over substance, where subjects unable to attain actual wealth instead settle for its trappings, no matter their ability to pay for it.
Father and son Vít and Grisha travel to Russia to visit the boy’s mother and sister. Why did their previously harmonious family split in two? A documentary road movie about the distance between two Slavic countries, the difficulties of fatherhood and puberty, and the alienation between people who should, in theory, be the closest of all.
Celebrated actor Nayanthara looks back on her journey towards love and superstardom amidst personal struggles and triumphs in this intimate documentary.
Oscar® winners Mark Jonathan Harris and Deborah Oppenheimer (INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS: STORIES OF THE KINDERTRANSPORT) roam courtrooms, foster homes, juvenile halls and the streets of Los Angeles to tell the moving human stories behind the largest county child protection agency in the United States.
What is love? And how does it function as an emotion? Looking at the latest research from Heidelberg and Hannover universities as well as Seattle’s ‘Love lab’, scientists analyse love the biology of love.
Nahid meets Anders who is dating 24 women at the same time. Anders, Me and His 23 Other Women is a film about love, loneliness and dating in the 21st century.
Two mothers who were each separated from their children in the United States for months after fleeing from danger in their homelands to seek asylum work with pro-bono lawyers and volunteers to reunite with their kids who have been placed thousands of miles away from them with little access to communication.
69-year-old Jola puts on elaborate make-up, while her husband spouts casual abuse in the background, how she never had much in her head and is basically worthless when it comes down to it. So Jola leaves Italy on a train bound for her native Poland. There, on the beach, she takes a trip down memory lane with her girlfriends: how she married the young man who got her pregnant, swore to care for him “in good times and in bad”, raised her six children and put up with punches, put-downs and her husband’s drinking problem. And now? Now she dresses elegantly, and takes singing and dance lessons. In the process, she meets a gentleman her age, Wojtek and the two strike up a friendship. But divorce, at her age? What will her family, her friends or the church say? Of course, one can just leave, everyone is free to choose, but is it the right move?
A discussion of infidelity told through confessional interviews of sex, marriage, and adultery. The film explores our hunger to find fulfillment through acts of committing to—and straying from—our partners and how the secrets we keep--and the lies we tell--in our search for love and desire reveal who we are. It is also the story of the director’s unexpected transformation, as she discovers her future partner through the process of making the film.
When Zdenka, a single woman in Czech Republic, started playing online games with strangers, she didn't know it would change her life. Neither did Tabish, a computer scientist a world away in Pakistan.
Rena is on the threshold of adulthood. For her and her mother, the Internet is a form of escape from their humdrum everyday lives. In the world of talent shows, Facebook and YouTube, the keyboard seems to be a gateway to fame and love. Yet the border between fantasy and reality is quickly obliterated.
Vitaly is a nuclear physicist and record-holder in extreme cold-exposure training who now makes a living as a bricklayer, surviving below the poverty line in Novosibirsk. Like the rest of his family, former scientists and members of the old Soviet Elite, he dreams of a return to the great Soviet Union, a fairy-tale country that would eliminate all the injustice from their lives, as the reason for their misfortune lies with the capitalists of the West. For years, Vitaly has expressed his radical opinions on his eccentric video blog.
This feature-length documentary embarks on an adventurous journey to questions about death and the fear associated with it. Through Jaroslav Dušek's acting guide, he explores how we can use and control people's behavior through fear of death. The film looks at various cultural approaches to the topic of death, including those that do not perceive death as a scarecrow. Modern science, like traditional wisdom, offers alternative perspectives on death that can change our understanding of life. Through the personal stories of people who have overcome their fear of death, the film shows us that our approach to death can affect the quality of our lives.
The scent trail as an evidentiary method in criminal proceedings was invented in the USSR and subsequently developed by the East German secret police and widely used against opponents of the regime. Since the 1980s, it has become a common part of police and judicial practice, even in the post-communist Czech Republic. Zuzana Piussi's latest film continues the director's investigative work dealing with the problematic construction of reality and dead ends in Central European justice. It follows the fate of people who seek retrials of unfair court proceedings and, in the wake of this, asks whether the method of proving the presence of a person at a crime scene based on the scent detected by a dog is really impartial or how it is possible that a scent trail is often sufficient as the only evidence to convict suspects, even though it is questioned by scientists.
Martina was doused with acid by her ex-boyfriend, causing third-degree burns to the upper half of her body and almost complete blindness. The documentary portrait follows her life story after this life-changing attack – coping with the loss of physical attractiveness, the fear of a world she cannot see, and her search for a new meaning in life. Martina's story bears all the hallmarks of a good biopic. It presents a strong central character going through difficult situations and finding happiness despite many pitfalls. But what sets it apart from mainstream productions is the directness with which Martina speaks to us and its potential to break through many taboos.
Vladimir 518, uncompromising rapper, artist, stage designer and activist, is a rare phenomenon, who not only writes books, but publishes them as well. Today also a respected authority primarily on pre-1989 architecture, he has written not only a major publication on the subject, but also the story for two audiovisual works treating the same theme, which were shot by Jan Zajíček, renowned director of music videos. In addition to the recent TV series we have the eagerly anticipated feature-length film which, through its fascinating and impressive exploration of Czech and Slovak architecture of the latter half of the 20th century, offers exclusive insight into extraordinary buildings and unique individuals living below the Tatra Mountains. Karel Och (kviff.com)
A feature-length documentary about the Prague band Tata Bojs. Called tata_bojs.doc, it looks at the history of the group, which celebrated 35 years last year.
