Russian political candidate Alexei Navalny helped galvanize opposition to Vladimir Putin in mass street demonstrations. Then in August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent and almost died on a flight from Siberia. Filmmaker Daniel Roher follows Navalny in real time as he teams with investigative journalists to identify his would-be killers and crack […]
In Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau community organizes to defend their land against a network of Brazilian farmers intent on colonizing their protected territory. Filmmaker Alex Pritz teams with members of the Uru-eu-wau-wau to capture the frontlines of a battle that has global consequences for the climate crisis. “No recent film captures the immediacy […]
NYC PREMIERE A rundown halfway house in Ukraine houses the country’s most vulnerable—children cramped between precarious homes and the foster care system. Simon Lereng Wilmont documents fast-disappearing childhoods amidst ever-worsening political strife with great intimacy and access. As the film records how children suffer and survive violence and abandonment, the “orphanage” becomes a metaphor for […]
US PREMIERE Students across the African continent come together for an annual contest of oratory skills and knowledge of the law. The film follows diverse teams of law students as they prepare for this prestigious, high-stakes mock trial, the African Human Rights Moot Competition. In her feature film debut, former lawyer-turned-filmmaker Shameela Seedat gives us […]
Aftershock puts a spotlight on the crisis of Black maternal deaths in the United States by focusing on the cases of two New York City mothers, Shamony Gibson and Amber Isaac, who died during childbirth-related complications in recent years. We watch how their bereaved families become activists on this issue. “Aftershock is a moving ode […]
WORLD PREMIERE For 30 years, Chef Jimmy Lee Hill has dedicated himself to the gourmet culinary training program he leads at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. The pioneering program gives incarcerated men. a prestigious skill they can take back into the workforce and provides a sense of purpose as they serve their time. As […]
WORLD PREMIERE Stevan, a 60-year-old, former porn performer from Serbia awaits the outcome of a Kafkaesque trial process in a Maltese prison. The moody landscapes reflect the loneliness and desperate state he was in prior to his arrest for public exposure in this bizarre story, which unspools like an eerie mystery. – Ruth Somalo The […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Ithaka documents John Shipton, father of Julian Assange, in his tireless efforts to stop the British government from extraditing his son to the US to face espionage charges. While Assange’s health deteriorates in a British prison, Shipton wages a fight both political and personal as he works to build support so his […]
NYC PREMIERE In 2005 at Guantanamo Bay, US Air Force JAG Attorney Yvonne Bradley volunteered to defend Binyam Mohamed who was facing a death penalty. She soon finds her world flipped upside down, as she uncovers the harrowing truth about the US legal system and questions whether some detainees are truly terrorists. Bradley’s captivating story […]
NYC PREMIERE For his 2015 Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky memorably captured the key moments of the Maidan Revolution in 2013-14 that ushered in pro-democracy political change. In his latest film, his subject is exponentially even more urgent, as Ukraine faces an existential threat when Russia launches its […]