The Sniper of Kobani
Haron is a Kurdish sniper operating within the Syrian town of Kobani. As he fights the IS occupation, he shares his hopes and fears for the future of his country.
Twelve Palestinian women sit before us and talk of their life before the Diaspora, of their memories, of their lives and of their identity. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery. Twelve resilient, determined and articulate women from disparate walks of life: lawyers, artists, housewives, activists, architects, and politicians stitch together the story of their homeland, of their dispossession, and of their unwavering determination that justice will prevail. Through their stories, the individual weaves into the collective, yet remaining distinctly personal. Twelve women, twelve life-spans, and stories from Palestine; a land whose position was fixed on the map of the world, but is now embroidered on its face.
Haron is a Kurdish sniper operating within the Syrian town of Kobani. As he fights the IS occupation, he shares his hopes and fears for the future of his country.
Tree Ukrainian volunteers, injured during the war with the Russians and the separatists, are treated at the military hospital of Kyiv. Three generations, three social environments, three different regions. Dmytro, Oleksii and Anatolii are recovering, hoping and preparing for their future.
The story of how a small group of teenagers created a skate scene from scratch in a place where you can't even buy a skateboard, whilst facing the challenges of living under military occupation.
Danish soldiers are sent to Afghanistan in 2009 for 6 months, to help stabilize the country against the Taliban. They're stationed on Armadillo military base in Helman province. Unlike other war movies, this is the real deal – no actors.
This short-form documentary focuses on the true story of Alfons Heck, who as an impressionable 10-year-old boy became a high-ranking member of the Hitler youth movement during World War II. The story is told in his own words. This film originally aired as part of the "America Undercover" series on HBO.
In 1915, the First World War is in full swing and young men are called to military service in rows - including Franz and Peter. Both are sent to the Dolomite front, in order to fend off a threatened Italian attack. Comradeship and loyalty are needed in the fight, but Franz and Peter are ever enemies. Since Peter's romance with Anna, the competition between the two flares up more. But the circumstances of the war and the harsh weather in the mountains soon end those hostilities.
This is the story of the courageous all-female Apache 8 firefighting unit which has protected their reservation and responded to wildfires around the nation for 30 years. This group, which recently became co-ed, earned the reputation of being fierce, loyal and dependable--and tougher than their male colleagues. Despite facing gender stereotypes and the problems that come with life on the impoverished reservation, the women became known as some of the country's most elite firefighters. The film focuses on four women from different generations of Apache 8 crewmembers who speak tenderly and often humorously of hardship, loss, family, community and pride in being a firefighter.
Carla Haddad Mardini was born with bombs blasting at the worst period of the Lebanese Civil War. She embarked on a career in the humanitarian field where she experienced a meteoric rise, quickly holding leadership positions, first at the ICRC and now at UNICEF in New York. One of her greatest successes is to have overcome the challenges of combining harmonious family life with an intense professional career.
Eight women on the margins of Israeli society are thrown together during the course of a school year at Tel Aviv's oldest beauty school. Amidst the combs and colorings, these women present a microcosm of modern-day Tel Aviv -- native Israelis and new immigrants, Asians and Africans, among them women struggling with cancer and personal loss. As they learn to create beauty without, each woman undergoes a powerful transformation within.
When Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden, doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Determined to live, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her story—and four other families' stories—fighting a disease medicine forgot.
Winner of the Grand Jury Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work — a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage — follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization consisting of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives. Incorporating moments of both heart-pounding suspense and improbable beauty, the documentary draws us into the lives of three of its founders — Khaled, Subhi, and Mahmoud — as they grapple with the chaos around them and struggle with an ever-present dilemma: do they flee or stay and fight for their country?
1945 film that reveals the training that Alsatian dogs would have received for war as well as for non-combative work. (source: BFI, https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/565ce2f7cd29a)
How to combine modernity and fundamentalist Islam. "Saudi Solutions" is a unique and revealing documentary about the lifestyles and attitudes of ambitious career womenin conservative Saudi Arabia - the only country in the Arabworld where women are obliged to cover themselves inabayas and aren't allowed to drive cars. Because of the strong influence of fundamentalist Islam on society, filmingis severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. With unique access to the Kingdom, Backlight had the opportunity to film the daily routines of Saudi working women. This documentaryfeatures a top gyneacologist, a TV news anchor woman, a photographer, and a university professor. It also introducesthe wealthy Prince Al-Waleed, who passionately promotes the acceptance of women into the workforce. He kindly invitesBacklight to his luxury desert camp, but there are no women to be found - only thousands of men.
As a result of the Holocaust and later, AIDS, the male homosexual community has sustained bitter losses and, according to Praunheim, lesbian women have now placed themselves at the head of the so-called queer movement. The female protagonists in the film represent two different generations; they also incorporate the past and present status of homosexuals in society.
The film follows the story of Jamie, a struggling butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film. The main plot is a romantic comedy between Jamie's male alter-ego, "Male Jamie," and Jill, a heterosexual woman on set. The film's subplots include Jamie's bisexual roommate Lola and her cat actor Howard, Lola's abrasive butch German girlfriend Andi, and Jamie's gay Asian friend David.
World War II propaganda short which focuses on the dangers of inadvertent dispersal of military information.
Shot by a reported “1,001 Syrians” according to the filmmakers, SILVERED WATER, SYRIA SELF-PORTRAIT impressionistically documents the destruction and atrocities of the civil war through a combination of eye-witness accounts shot on mobile phones and posted to the internet, and footage shot by Bedirxan during the siege of Homs. Bedirxan, an elementary school teacher in Homs, had contacted Mohammed online to ask him what he would film, if he was there. Mohammed, working in forced exile in Paris, is tormented by feelings of cowardice as he witnesses the horrors from afar, and the self-reflexive film also chronicles how he is haunted in his dreams by a Syrian boy once shot to death for snatching his camera on the street.
Here and Elsewhere takes its name from the contrasting footage it shows of the fedayeen and of a French family watching television at home. Originally shot by the Dziga Vertov Group as a film on Palestinian freedom fighters, Godard later reworked the material alongside Anne-Marie Miéville.
Writer-actor Aaron Davidman embodies seventeen different characters in and around the sacred city of Jerusalem as he takes us on an eye-opening journey into the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian story. Exploring universal questions of identity and human connection, the film is about one man's effort to embrace a multiplicity of conflicting viewpoints, chronicling a brave exploration of the complex humanity at the heart of one of the world's most troubling conflicts.
The first full length film to be shot within the disputed Palestinian West Bank "Green Line," FERTILE MEMORY is the feature debut of Michel Khleifi, acclaimed director of the Cannes Film Festival triumph, WEDDING IN GALILEE. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women whose individual struggles both define and transcend the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives.