Cooling Waters

The director revises a TV report which a local TV station shot with him and his family on the Rosh hashanah holiday in 1974. In the footage which seemed as an expression of interest in the Jewish culture at the time it was created, the author discovers antisemitic and racist tendencies. The title refers to a zoo where domesticated and tame animals can be fed and petted by the visitors.

In this uniquely positive film, young Rubina is a dealer of the happiness experienced within the conditions of the slum – a wonderful place to be born if you don't mind that malaria isn't always such a great thing. A probe into an anthill full of wide-eyed children, contented dirt, sewing machines and trash, from where one can make it all the way to the Oscar ceremony. Houses like scattered, torn, and rain-soaked cardboard boxes under the palm trees. Children in the streets and hidden alleyways, on the train tracks, in such numbers that nobody dares to purchase chocolate to hand out to the poor children; there would be too much.

A documentary study of the eye and its functions. A compilation of images from various places gives the function of the eye new meanings. It is a tool for instilling fear, the soldier uses it to find his target, and looking into the eye of your executioner can cause him to doubt his actions. What happens when the eye stops looking?

The overflowing waters of Venezuela's Lago de Valencia led to the evacuation of several families living nearby. They found refuge in motels that are often used for sexual encounters. The film's images, suffused with resignation, provide a silent witness to the oppressive atmosphere without any vocal complaints. A flock of birds circles over the swamp. On the dusty pavement, a person's leftover belongings fade away. Grass grows over the half-decrepit collapsed buildings, but a fresh breeze blows through them as well. In the motel, the day passes at the pace of waiting.

In 1975, Czech professor of economics Karel Žlábek, in collaboration with engineers from Pragoprojekt, designed and calculated the shortest route for linking Czechoslovakia with the Adriatic Sea via a tunnel. The plan called for spoilage from the tunnel – which would have led beneath the territories of Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Slovenia – to be used to construct an artificial island in the Adriatic Sea. The island, which was to be called Adriaport, would have belonged to Czechoslovakia. This scripted documentary tells the story of professor Žlábek's meeting with President Gustáv Husák in order to convince him of his vision.

As soft as dandelion hair and as freezing as the north wind, this poetic black-and-white film – consisting of archival footage of the harsh rural landscape, the chiaroscuro of simple dwelling, and of local people during everyday life and marriage feasts – is accompanied by the profound mystery of birth, an experience during which a woman becomes a mother and the space above the clouds is open wide. Images of old women’s faces. “How did they do it? How did they do it? They gave birth on floorboards in the sauna or in bed. Did they try not to scream, so the others wouldn’t hear? Did they feel ashamed? Perhaps they cried and got splinters under their nails. Were they afraid they might die?”

This documentary combines interviews with participants in ethnographic research led by the filmmaker personally with footage of his own personal reflections and insights. The recordings, gathered during the three years prior to the end of the authoritarian regime of Zimbabwean president Mugabe, is accompanied by 8mm footage of Rhodesia.

This film gives one of the many refugees who were unjustly imprisoned in detention centers located close to European borders a chance to tell his story. His horrifying experience is reflected in the static, well-composed, deep focus shots, which reveal traces of lingering suffering in the abandoned buildings.

During the Soviet era, Ukraine was a difficult place for members of the LGBT community, and even today the country remains less than welcoming to sexual minorities. Working with archival interviews of women from the past thirteen years, the film brings together two eras and thus contributes to a discussion of today’s situation.

An observational documentary follows cockfighting on the Indonesian island of Bali. It creates a scathing denunciation of senseless violence against animals, fed by a betting frenzy. It does so not by depicting the fights themselves, but rather primarily through rapid cuts between gestures, movements, and facial expressions of the enthusiastic onlookers.DETAIL:It’s over, the cockfight is over. While punters in the audience exchange and count their money, the injured cock still lies in the ring, unable to fly.

Contrary to popular belief, rape most often occurs among those who know each other and those who are close, all in a seemingly safe home environment. This documentary draws attention to the problem and reconstructs the memories of victims of sexual violence whose testimony manages to free a standard furnished apartment of its aura of innocence.

This black and white film depicts the movement of flocks of birds, a sequence of shots captured during a mild winter when migratory birds stayed in the Netherlands. Every evening they swarmed over the plains, creating moving ornaments in the sky.DETAIL:More and more birds join the huge flock, pouring through the skies like water in a vacuum, a spectacular thing to see, one that the participants are utterly unaware of.