A letter to Nikola (2021)

2021-10-2850m

As a letter to her son, the filmmaker testifies her experience as a photographer aboard the Aquarius, a ship that rescued 29,523 people in the Mediterranean between 2016 and 2018.

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Reporters (1981)

The co-founder of the Gamma press agency, Raymond Depardon, created this documentary of press photographers in Paris and their subjects by following the photographers around for one month, in October, 1980. In-between long hours waiting for a celebrity to emerge from a restaurant or a hotel, boredom immediately switches to fast action as the cameras click and roll when the person appears. The reaction to the gaggle of photographers is as varied as the people they often literally chase all around town. While some of the celebrities, such as Jacques Chirac who was mayor of Paris at the time, are perceived as comical caricatures, others are shown simply going about ordinary pursuits - including Catherine Deneuve, Gene Kelly, and Jean-Luc Godard.

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Grete, la mirada oblicua (2016)

Grete Stern decided to be a photographer. Then she also decided to be Argentinian. Those two choices are interwoven in a unique heritage, of paramount importance for modern Argentinian photography, that helps us better understand the world we live in and the worlds that live inside us.

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Willy Ronis, autoportrait d'un photographe (2015)

Willy Ronis lived his life between Paris and Provence capturing post-war life. From a historical shot to intimacy, his pictures speak of history and the idea of framing. He was the first French photographer to work for LIFE magazine.

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Fragments of a Revolution (Sahneye Tarikh) (2019)

An experimental film about narrations of two journal photos from Iran's revolution in 1979.

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Ilse (2017)

When Ilse Cruz was a toddler, she and her mom immigrated from Mexico to Chicago in search of better opportunities. Now a passionate dancer and ambitious high school student, Ilse hopes to go to college and one day visit the family she left behind. However, her undocumented status pushes these dreams further out of reach. Halfway through her senior year, Ilse learns her DACA permit qualifies her for a special document that allows her to return to Mexico. Through a life-changing trip, Ilse reconnects with her family and Mexican roots – and her legal re-entry to the U.S. fast-tracks her application process for permanent residency. Six months after she graduates from high school, Ilse obtains her green card – mere weeks before Donald Trump takes office. While Ilse’s mother rejoices in these unexpected events for her daughter, her own fate grows ever more uncertain.

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Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014)

The film explores the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. The dramatic arch is developed as a visual narrative that flows through the past 160 years to reveal black photography as an instrument for social change, an African American point-of-view on American history, and a particularized aesthetic vision.

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Behind the Lens: Giro d’Italia (2023)

Witness cycling’s top photographers in action at the world’s most beautiful bike race, as we go behind the lens with Ashley and Jered Gruber, Luca Bettini, and Zac Williams at the 2023 Giro d’Italia. Filmed during the race’s three epic final stages, learn how the photographers chase the action, doing their best to capture the pain and glory of the riders, and document the beauty of the mountains and towns across Italy. This is a thrill-a-minute, front row seat to the stunning finale of a race that will live long in the memory – and in the photographers’ beautiful imagery.

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All You See (2022)

What if from one day to the next, you’re no longer seen, but instead are stared at? The leading characters in this multi-layered film have ended up in a new world where suddenly nothing seems to align. In their new lives in the Netherlands, they unintentionally provoke reactions on a daily basis. Even after many years, they still hear the same questions over and over again: where are you from, do you speak Dutch, do you tan in the sun?

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Hitchhiking to the Edge of Sanity (2017)

A look at the turbulent social upheaval of the early 1970s which follows an idealistic writer and his soon-to-be-married photographer friend as they set out to find their purpose via a terrifying road trip across the Sahara Desert.

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From Abdul To Leila (2024)

After losing part of her memory in an accident, Leila, a young French woman of Iraqi origin, reconstructs her story by reconnecting with her family and exploring her roots. Through music and cinema, she brings her exiled father's poems to lite, dis-covers the reality of the Middle East, and embarks on a personal quest to understand her identity and find her voice.

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Call it the burning (2022)

One night, nine children from the same Tunisian village attempt the deadly crossing. Like a poem or a prayer, this film welcomes the words of bereaved mothers and gives dignity to their grief.

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Weegee's New York (1948)

The best known, "Weegee's New York" (1948), presents a surprisingly lyrical view of the city without a hint of crime or murder. Already this film gives evidence, here very restrained, of Weegee's interest in technical tricks: blur, speeded up or slowed-down film, a lens that makes the city's streets curve as if cars are driving over a rainbow. - The New York Times

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Balakrishna (2019)

When an extraordinary new resident – Balakrishna, an Indian elephant – arrived in the town of East River, Nova Scotia, in 1967, no one was more in awe of the creature than young Winton Cook, who became inseparable from his mammoth new friend. Using painterly animation, photographs and home-movie treasures, Balakrishna transmits the wistfulness of childhood memories, while evoking themes of friendship and loss, and issues of immigration and elephant conservation.

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Borderland (2024)

A powerful set of stories of “righteous persons” taking action along the U.S.-Mexico border, motivated by moral conviction and compassion. "Borderland" shows how courageous actions can lead to political mobilization and the defense of human rights in the face of hate and discrimination.

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MMXIII (2013)

An experimental self-portrait, MMXIII explores phenomenological subtlety, intersections of construct and verité, and the ways in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce.

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From the Black You Make Color (2012)

Eight women on the margins of Israeli society are thrown together during the course of a school year at Tel Aviv's oldest beauty school. Amidst the combs and colorings, these women present a microcosm of modern-day Tel Aviv -- native Israelis and new immigrants, Asians and Africans, among them women struggling with cancer and personal loss. As they learn to create beauty without, each woman undergoes a powerful transformation within.

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City of Photographers (2006)

A film about the fearless photographers and photojournalists who documented strikes, demonstrations, protests etc during the Chilean military regime of Augusto Pinochet, sometimes risking their very lives.

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Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini (2024)

The documentary begins when the fictionalized drama ends. Sara spent three years volunteering to save refugees on the same journey that made her so famous, and was suddenly arrested in Aug. 2018, accused by Greek authorities of running a criminal enterprise with charges including “international espionage and people smuggling.” If convicted, she faces up to 25 years in prison and the end of her humanitarian career. Shot over three years, the film follows Sara’s fight for justice and journey of self-discovery.

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Aan ons den arbeid (2007)

Documentary that shows the changing attitude towards immigrant labor in The Netherlands. The documentary follows three immigrants that arrived in Holland 30 years ago to work in a bakery.

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Visions of Europe (2004)

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.