Common Ground

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.

The final word in the story of what really happened to Robin Williams at the end of his life, focusing on his fight against a deadly neurodegenerative disorder known as Lewy body dementia.

An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.

A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.

In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.

From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.

A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.

Daft Punk Unchained is the first film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy Awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution revealing a duo of artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom.

A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.

A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.

This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.

Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.

Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.

A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.

This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.

The filmmakers' 21-year-old daughter journeys from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels toward expansive worlds of creativity, connection, and greater meaning. Featuring insights from trauma experts and others, the film challenges the widespread idea that mental illness should be understood purely in biological terms, revealing the myriad ways that madness has meaning beyond brain chemistry.

Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV architects, always has 100 projects going at once. Documentary filmmaker Jan Louter followed him for two years to make "Under Tomorrow's Sky", a candid and open-hearted look at the highs and lows of the architecture profession.

Gregorio, Dolores and Zoila are three elders excited about the arrival of a new member to the family; Esteban, their great-grandson. Through the memories of their ancestors, they narrate themes of loneliness, love, union, loss, and hope. They search through their belongings for a special gift to leave to a future Esteban, who may never know them as an adult. The short film itself is a gift that will make them endure in their family history.

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

Beginning at the industrial revolution of the ‘great north’, Jenn Nkiru draws lines between peoples, cities, countries, buildings, movements, bodies and spaces(s) using a mixture of archive materials and new footage. There is little stillness as we are pushed and pulled through Black histories and communities across the city of Manchester and beyond. Nkiru has termed this filmmaking process “cosmic archeology”, and it is grounded in Afro-surrealism, experimental film and the Black arts movement.

The Freedom of the Sea is a short documentary highlighting the freedom of living in the UK - in contrast to a more restrictive life in Iran - through the joy of daily sea swimming in Brighton.

The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America chronicles for the first time the complete story of this great American symbol… from Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and St. Louis’ role in westward expansion; to the eventual construction of the largest stainless steel structure in history.

In 1609, Henry IV sent Inquisition judge Pierre de Lancre to the French Basque Country to investigate witchcraft. In the trials, 80 people were sentenced to death at the stake. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, a total of between 40,000 and 60,000 people fell victim to such waves of persecution in Europe. How can this phenomenon be explained?

The memories of a woman, condensed into four periods.

A short film following Anthony, a young child from the small, rural town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. We see him in different moments of his daily life as he interacts with different forms of environmental, familial, and social influences. While Anthony displays contradictory traits of creativity, destruction, rigidity, and tenderness as he interacts with his external and internal worlds, we see a story built from the the multidimensionality of Anthony's layered personality as a young man.

A year after Thadd and Shannon gave birth to their son, A Conversation Between Parents highlights a climactic conversation in their lives -- as both young parents grasp at the last threads of their ideal family. On an afternoon off of work, the couple sits on their couch, while their son sleeps in his crib, and the family grapples with their limited options one last time. Dietrich’s camera ties the couple’s painful conversation together with flashbacks of both parents’ precious memories of their first year with Jasper, attempting to find a way to articulate their struggles in the last conversation they have together as a couple.

Crocodile Crunch competes against the best purebred dogs in the world at the Agility World Championship in the Netherlands. Rising above the backstabbing, snitching, complaining and treachery, the mutt is determined to prove that talent and heart can defeat bloodlines and privilege.

Like a visual elegy, My Memory Is Full of Ghosts explores a reality caught between past, present and future in Homs, Syria. Behind the self-portrait of an exsanguinated population in search of normality emerge memories of the city, haunted by destruction, disfigurement and loss. A deeply moving film, a painful echo of the absurdity of war and the strength of human beings.

Four experts in different areas such as religion, philosophy and thanatology, share their wisdom when it comes to death.

It is the story of an encounter, that of two men, that of a coffin meeting its hearse, of death inviting itself into life or perhaps of life inviting itself into death. This encounter follows an advert on Leboncoin: “Solid oak coffin, varnished. Excellent condition. Large size. Its particularitý is to have the place for the legs embedded. It is not padded inside. Does not fit in an oven, hearse or traditional vault. Difficulty to get through doors (…)”

In the narrow streets of Marikina City, where the sound of hammers once echoed endlessly, Soles of Marikina unfolds as a cinematic portrait of craft, struggle, and survival. The film follows aging shoemakers and young apprentices as they work by hand—cutting leather, shaping soles, stitching stories into every pair—while fighting to keep an industry alive in a rapidly changing world.

An old dog is living in a vacant lot. Camera approaches the villagers to reveal the dog. While people share their memories, memory and reality are intertwined to form an atmosphere.