Questions about celebrating 200 years of independence from Brazil with 300 years of slavery.
Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America (2020)
Discover how the advent of the automobile brought new mobility and freedom for African Americans but also exposed them to discrimination and deadly violence, and how that history resonates today.
Pornotropic (2020)
When French writer Marguerite Duras (1914-96) published her novel The Sea Wall in 1950, she came very close to winning the prestigious Prix Goncourt. Meanwhile, in Indochina, France was suffering its first military defeats in its war against the Việt Minh, the rebel movement for independence.
Concerning Violence (2014)
Concerning Violence is based on newly discovered, powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.
The Minoans (2004)
The mysterious island of Crete has always loomed large in imagination, as the home of the Minotaur -- that monstrous creature, half-man half-bull -- imprisoned in Daedalus' labyrinth. Before Crete collapsed in fire and violence, it gave birth to Europe's first civilization nearly 5,000 years ago, and boasted an advanced, prosperous Mediterranean civilization with hinged doors, flush toilets, and magnificent palaces. How did the Minoans live, and what brought this great society to such a sudden, obscure end? Modern archeology offers new insights into the everyday life in Minoan culture, and tantalizing clues about its tragic destiny.
Britain's Racist Election (2015)
Channel 4 documentary Britain's Racist Election follows the controversial 1964 Smethwick election battle between Peter Griffiths and Gordon Walker, fought on grounds of racial denomination
The Cowboy Capital (2024)
Bandera, Texas (THE COWBOY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD) is a captivating documentary that explores the vibrant history, unique culture, and enduring values of the small town of Bandera, Texas.
Milton Santos, Pensador do Brasil (2001)
The interview, held on January 4, 2001, was the last given by Professor Milton Santos, who died from cancer on June 24 of the same year. The geographer is gone, but his thoughts remains. Its political and cultural ideals inspire the debate on Brazilian society and the construction of a new world. His statement is a true testimony, a lesson that the world can be better. Based on geography, Milton Santos performs a reading of the contemporary world that reveals the different faces of the phenomenon of globalization. It is in the evidence of contradictions and paradoxes that constitute everyday life that Milton Santos sees the possibilities of building another reality. He innovates when, instead of standing against globalization, proposes and points out ways for another globalization.
China: The Uighur Tragedy (2022)
A relentless chronicle of the tragedy of the Uighurs, an ethnic minority of some eleven million people who live in the Xinjiang region of northwest China, speak a Turkic language and practice the Muslim religion. The Uighurs suffer brutal cultural and political oppression by Xin Jinping's tyrannical government: torture, disappearances, forced labor, re-education of children and adults, mass sterilizations, extensive surveillance and destruction of historical heritage.
Postcard (Or, from afar, you are a mirage) (2024)
"The palm trees on the reverse are a delusion; so is the pink sand". This line, taken from a poem by Margaret Atwood, lights the path traced in "Postcard". As the years go by, landscapes transform, take on new meanings, and hold onto joys that will never be regained. The sea and the beach, once stages of happy summers, romances, and encounters, will turn into concentration camps or centers of detention and torture. This occurs across different times and places. In this piece, I embark on a journey through some of my works that explore the relationship between testimony, spaces, and time, engaging in dialogue with the beautiful film directed by Alejandro Segovia in 1972.
The Blues: Another Story of France (2016)
This documentary charts 20 years of the French national soccer team, Les Bleus, whose ups and downs have mirrored those of French society.
Specters of Watch Oak (2023)
Mariners Marsh, Bloomfield, Watchogue, Old Place. History, mythology, nature, anthropogenic industry, and digitally-demarcated landscape collide in the salt meadows and brownfield beaches of northwestern Staten Island. A human-haunted nature film. All stories are ghost stories. Narration drawn from the writings of Staten Island's preeminent historian, naturalist, and mythographer William T. Davis (1862 - 1945).
Bad Axe (2022)
A real-time portrait of 2020 unfolds as an Asian-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.
Lua (2024)
Joseph Wilson meets the dance teacher fighting transphobic violence through voguing in Rio’s favelas.
Omoiyari (2022)
Violinist and songwriter Kishi Bashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.
One Book at a Time (2020)
Sarah Kamya is a school counselor in New York City. She began the project Little Diverse Libraries on June 3rd and has already raised over $13,000, supported black owned bookstores, and has distributed 775 books to Little Free Libraries across all 50 states. Sarah is helping educate communities while most importantly amplifying and empowering black voices.
Assholes: A Theory (2019)
Some people grapple with the moral challenges of treating human beings decently. Others are just… assholes. Inspired by Aaron James’ New York Times bestseller of the same name, this documentary investigates the breeding grounds of contemporary ‘asshole culture’ — and locates signs of civility in an otherwise rude and nasty universe. Venturing into predominantly male domain, this film moves from Ivy League frat clubs to the bratty princedoms of Silicon Valley and the bear pits of international finance. Why do assholes thrive in certain environments? What explains their perverse appeal? And how do they keep getting elected?
Vertrauensmann (2024)
How do you find your place in an ableist world as a person with a disability? Disabled Hugo Schmidt talks to the almost 90 year old Franz-Josef Sauer, who was left with a walking impairment by a tuberculosis infection in his childhood. In the 1990s Sauer received the German Federal Cross of Merit for his achievements in the disabled community. As a public servant in Münster and Düsseldorf he worked on several projects which still benefit his disabled peers. Sauer and Schmidt discover that, although they were born almost 70 years apart, their paths in life are not that different from each other.
Congo: A Journey to the Heart of Africa (2019)
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a vast, mineral rich country the size of Western Europe. Alastair Leithead takes an epic journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the far reaches of the Congo river to explore how history has shaped the Congo of today and uncover the lesser told stories of this beautiful, if troubled country. In the largest rainforest outside of the Amazon he comes face to face with its gorillas and hunts with pygmies, he travels into the heart of the Ebola outbreak with United Nations peacekeepers, and explores the cobalt mines which will drive our electric cars of the future.