
24 Jan 2006

Thumbsucker - Behind the Scenes
No overview found
Albeit unaware, we all have an opinion: guys without a job, a cigarette in one hand, a beer can in the other...
Albeit unaware, we all have an opinion: guys without a job, a cigarette in one hand, a beer can in the other... It's easy to label them as junkie, leach, or welfare case. A reason for the producers to show that there is more than one truth. The men central in this film present a viewpoint that is both piercing and confronting. THIN LINE is not always comfortable to watch but provides pressing critical comments from an unexpected angle. This "fascinating perspective on the standard thinking of our society", as the jury report stated, was rewarded with a Wildcard by the Dutch Filmfund in 2014.
24 Jan 2006
No overview found
01 Jan 2018
Masao Adachi, the author and director of experimental works and pinku-eiga in the 1960s, was a member of the Japanese New Left that shifted from being a filmmaker to a guerrilla fighter. In 1974, he joined the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon, which worked closely with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck met Adachi in Tokyo in 2018 and talked with him about a wide range of topics, including art, revolution, the influence of western avant-garde art and American underground; the Japanese Red Army; collaboration with secret services; the role of the Left after 1968; and the reasons for failures of leftist ideas and strategies.
11 Oct 2013
As clichés go, in 1999 the World as we knew it was about to change - and we'd been expecting it. Since childhood we'd been promised that the 21st century would bring us dramatic new technologies like flying cars and Utopian cities. Instead it bought us the smart-phone, social media, and virtual societies. And as it turns out these technologies began to transform society almost as dramatically as the moon colonies we'd been expecting. Now over a decade into the revolution, 'DSKNECTD' explores how digital communication technology is profoundly changing the way we interact and experience each other - for the good and for the bad.
06 Oct 2005
Shot over the course of 18 months in New York City's Lower East Side, METHADONIA sheds light on the inherent flaws of legal methadone treatments for heroin addiction by profiling eight addicts, in various stages of recovery and relapse, who attend the New York Center for Addiction Treatment Services (NYCATS).
24 Sep 2014
An unnamed man narrates the downward trajectory of his life from beyond the grave, from delinquency to the string of fateful decisions and foolhardy moves that tied him inextricably to the opiate that was the elusive love of his life.
03 Sep 2017
This documentary follows three women — a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary — as they battle West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.
26 Nov 2023
In southern Italy, stateless migrants pick the tomatoes the rest of the world will taste. But what about these workers’ European dreams? Will they be ground to a pulp? Our canned tomatoes are picked by migrant workers who have come to southern Italy to realise their dream of Europe. However, they never get beyond the tomato fields. This documentary shows how the tomato broaches a broader issue. Will the pickers keep believing in their dream, or fight against a Europe where others reap the sweet rewards of their disillusion?
03 Jul 2015
Approximately, because so-called "ethnic" statistics are prohibited, there are an estimated 3.3 million black French citizens. Distant descendants of slaves from the Caribbean or "indigenous" peoples from the French colonial empire in Africa, they constitute a minority that is often discriminated against. Isabelle Boni-Claverie, a mixed-race woman raised in the affluent neighborhoods of Paris, daughter of an Ivorian politician and granddaughter of Alphonse Boni, a Black man who became a magistrate of the French Republic in the 1930s, examines what is blocking the social advancement of Black French people and the full recognition of their citizenship.
25 Aug 2019
For five years, Stephen McCoy documented street life in Boston. This is what he captured.
01 May 2002
An unflinching look at the life and story of Mark Kerr between 1999 and 2001, an intelligent, articulate, and emotionally vulnerable athlete, considered by many at the time to be the most dominant ultimate fighter in the world. A former Olympic wrestler, Kerr easily dominated all his opponents, earning him the nickname "The Smashing Machine." With the promise of big money and the euphoria of his early victories, Kerr must battle his injuries and inner fears. The shock of these fights takes a heavy toll on his body and mind, and Kerr attempts to overcome these physical and psychological traumas by turning to painkillers. Kerr's addiction is shown in its raw form, with the camera capturing him desperately soliciting drugs from friends and staff, and injecting painkillers into his veins. His shocking defeat to Fujita in Japan shows us a story that is sometimes difficult and heartbreaking to watch.
30 Jan 2010
"Africa Light" - as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and poor could hardly be greater. Namibia does not give that impression of it. If you look at its surface it seems like Africa in its most innocent and civilized form. It is a country that is so inviting to dream by its spectacular landscape, stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife. It has a very strong tourism structure and the government gets a lot of money with its magical attraction. But despite its grandiose splendor it is an endless gray zone as well. It oscillates between tradition and modernity, between the cattle in the country and the slums in the city. It shuttles from colonial times, land property reform to minimum wage for everyone. It fluctuates between socialism and cold calculated market economy.
09 Jan 2016
An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.
23 Nov 2017
About Stefan Stricker, who calls himself Juwelia and has been running a gallery on Sanderstraße in Berlin Neukölln for many years. Every weekend he invites guests to shamelessly recount from his life and to sing poetic songs written with his friend from Hollywood Jose Promis. Juwelia has been poor and sexy all her life, has always struggled for recognition, but only partially.
25 Oct 2007
The true-life story of a Harlem's notorious Nicky Barnes, a junkie turned multimillionaire drug-lord. Follow his life story from his rough childhood to the last days of his life.
11 Nov 2023
From Belgium, Jialai Wang maintains contact via smartphone and camera with her mother and grandmother in China. When her grandmother’s health deteriorates, Jialai returns to Shanghai, but when she arrives, her grandmother has already died, and she is left alone with her mother. A devout Buddhist, her mother seems to pay more attention to her daily prayers, Maoist past and dog Dongdong than she does to her daughter. She herself had been abandoned as a child by her own mother, when she divorced Jialai’s grandfather and moved to the city.
07 Jun 2014
What does it mean to be Black in America in the 21st century? The recently formed Black American film group TNEG™ has set out to elucidate this very question. Hearing from the likes of fine artist Kara Walker and musical artist Flying Lotus, the film is based on a deceptively simple approach -- asking a refined list of black 'specialists' as well as 'uncommon folks' questions about what they think, and more importantly as lead director Arthur Jafa states, 'What they KNOW' -- the film is an unprecedented 'stream of the black consciousness' and a strikingly original and rarefied look at black intellectual and emotional life. What's so unorthodox about this simple approach is that the interviews were recorded separately from the images in the film. What results is a breathtaking, kaleidoscopic look of American black life from the dawn of three original filmmakers.
02 Jan 2016
Since the enactment of the Anti-Boryokudan Act and Yakuza exclusion ordinances, the number of Yakuza members reduced to less than 60,000. In the past 3 years, about 20,000 members have left from Yakuza organizations. However, just numbers can’t tell you the reality. What are they thinking, how are they living now? The camera zooms in on the Yakuza world. Are there basic human rights for them?
11 Jun 2017
From can't miss future NFL star to incarcerated addict, former San Diego Charger Ryan Leaf shares insight into the choices and mistakes he made that changed his life forever.
16 May 2023
No overview found
14 Nov 2019
In his new film, Erwin Wagenhofer is looking for the good and beautiful in this world.