WORLD PREMIERE After wildfires force her to leave her home in Oregon, a young filmmaker reconnects with the rituals and the landscapes of her maternal tribe in Himalayan China. In a poetic and contemplative revisiting of her family and her ancestors’ history, director Shasha Li reflects on their animistic traditions while visiting her childhood hometown, […]
US Premiere A poetic, riveting, and cathartic exploration of the lies and misrememberings of director Asmae El Moudir’s family, surrounding the Casablanca Bread Riots of 1981. The period of repression known in Morocco as the “Years of Lead” is hardly ever discussed. Narratives of trauma, loss, and love are recovered here through exquisite re-enactments played […]
Lawand is a deaf 5-year-old boy from Iraq whose extraordinary family goes to great lengths to move to England and enroll him at the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. There, he learns British Sign Language (BSL) and begins to blossom. But will the British government allow Lawand to stay and continue his education? Filmmaker […]
NEW YORK PREMIERE In this gem of minimalist and poetic magnetism, filmmaker Oskar Alegría and adorable donkey Paolo embark on a journey to bring provisions to the last shepherd of the Andia Mountains. Retracing the seasonal route his grandfather made with his flock, Alegría collects a trove of memories from a disappearing world, embodied in […]
NEW YORK PREMIERE In South Africa, Sharon-Rose Khumalo and Dimakatso Sebidi, two intersex individuals, find strength and support in each other, while tackling their society’s misunderstanding and prejudices about their bodies. – Jaie Laplante “A call for empathy and understanding – in the end, difference is what you make of it.” (Screen) The first screening […]
US PREMIERE A disturbing look at surveillance technology—its prevalence, abuse, and the stifling effect on those whose lives are monitored by the Chinese government. The title nods to a claim made by Chinese officials in the early days of the pandemic that most of their population trust the government, even as the film spotlights the efforts […]
WORLD PREMIERE In this new feature by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland), Asil is a young Syrian refugee in Turkey, processing the trauma of losing her home and family.. Her story gives voice to a charming gigantic puppet named Amal, who represents millions of migrant and displaced children in a walk from the Syrian border […]
NYC PREMIERE Thirteen years after their Oscar-nominated animated collaboration Chico & Rita, Spanish artists Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal reunite to explore the origin story of bossa nova, the universally beloved Brazilian music movement. With gorgeous hand-drawn frames and vivid colors, THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER examines the 1976 disappearance of Brazilian piano virtuoso, Francisco […]
NEW YORK PREMIERE Yousef Srouji’s childhood in Palestine wasn’t something that he and his parents spoke of as a family, so when he found a box of his mother’s home videos from the early 2000s, an especially perilous and tumultuous period in the West Bank, the tapes became a means for remembering and comprehending a […]