23-year-old activist Nadia Murad has a horrifying personal story to tell. But her ability to relate it is a rare beacon of hope for her minority community of Yazidis. They were targeted by ISIS for systemic rapes and genocidal violence. As one of the few Yazidis who speaks to the Western press, Nadia carries their […]
WORLD PREMIERE Raf’aa flees Syria in the midst of the war, leaving behind her husband, Nazem, and their two sons in order to seek asylum in Europe. The family plans to follow her to Germany, but by the time Nazem and the boys make it to Greece, they find the borders closed. Confined to the […]
NYC PREMIERE Marina has barely spoken to her sister, Tatiana, in 20 years, ever since Tatiana left Jerusalem to follow spiritual leader Gerondas to a monastery in Greece and became a nun. Wishing to understand her sister’s choice to surrender her freedom to a religious order, and compelled to reconnect, Marina seeks out Tatiana and […]
NYC PREMIERE War correspondent Marie Colvin repeatedly and selflessly put her life on the line to report the atrocities unfolding in conflict-ravaged Syria, specifically against its innocent civilians. This gritty adaptation of fellow correspondent Paul Conroy’s titular book puts the viewer under fire on the frontline alongside the intrepid journalists, using harrowing on-the-ground footage. A […]
WORLD PREMIERE This refreshing film offers a unique peek into the private lives of women who have survived unspeakable sorrow, yet blossom through the healing power of art. During a theater workshop in a Lebanese refugee camp, four Syrian women discover they have a lot in common with the ancient Greek heroine, Antigone, and experience […]
NYC PREMIERE In this winner of Best Film and Audience Award at Visions du Réel, filmmaker Jawad Rhalib documents diverse creative voices in the Muslim world—including his mother, a Moroccan dancer—who seek to free themselves from bonds of stereotypes and repression. The film forgoes conventional artist-profile tropes in favor of a weave of rehearsals, conversations, […]
History is made, for better or worse. The Happiness Machine (USA, 24 min., Rebecca B. Blumhagen) profiles philosopher, inventor and farmer, Carl, who grew up a sharecropper on 22 acres in rural Iowa which he now hopes to pass on to his children as a gift of place. Using entirely archival footage, In the Absence […]
Students in The Documentary Project at Columbia Journalism School learn to write, film and narrate the stories of our time, from deadline reporting to profile writing and documentary features. Successful candidates have leveraged their work to include magazine features, NPR radio stories and newspaper articles. Columbia’s showcase includes: Born to Stay (USA, 24 min., Daniela […]
After Raqqa, Syria, was overtaken by ISIS in 2014, a group of anonymous citizen journalists formed a collective to report the truth of the Syrian conflict to the outside world. With remarkable access, director Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land) presents an intimate and immersive profile of the brave figures involved, revealing what they’ve sacrificed through their […]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE After the death of their emotionally distant mother, Elisheva Rise, her seven children discover a secret cache of journals that she kept for over half a century. Unusually, these were written not in her own voice, but from the perspectives of each of her children, beginning with their birth. Now, filmed by Elish’s […]