Testimonies

Birth, mating and death under the microscope – that's the life cycle of fruitflies, the laboratory insects at the Centre for Animal Behaviour Research. With fascination and ironic detachment, this portrait of laboratory routine conveys how scientists dissect members of another species in the belief of their own superiority. White-robed gods deconstruct the living into the inanimate, turning organisms into numbers, categories and definitions, unaware that they themselves are captives of a giant human insectarium with its own collective behaviour, hierarchy and culture.

When documentary filmmaker Sophie Benoot had a kidney stone removed, she was astonished to discover that it contained a mineral found mainly in Antarctica. So she set out to find out how the foreign substance came to be in her body. It took the form of a playful polemic against the conventions of natural history documentaries. The narrator's voice, audible outside the picture, accompanies us during expeditions to different parts of the world, during which new layers of rocks and our history are uncovered. A wide-ranging reflection on the interconnectedness of the human and non-human shows that the ability to appreciate the wonders of the universe is perhaps more important than solving all mysteries. “I thought portraying our relation with stone could be a way to address certain ecological questions. Stone symbolizes a certain tradition of relating to nature that I inherited as well, living in the European West.” — Sofie Benoot

Between 1972 and 1977, about a hundred photographers joined an ambitious project under the Nixon administration. They criss-crossed the US, photographing cities and towns, countryside, mountains and beaches, taking a total of nearly 80,000 images. They captured the consumerist lifestyle and its devastating impact on the quality of water, air and interpersonal relationships. Fifty years and a series of political, economic, and environmental crises later, they sit down again with their photos to reflect on the state of the American landscape and society today. This personal documentary with an epic scope pays homage to their work, which has become a testament to unfulfilled promises.  „Pokládám základy svého filmu: není to ‚tezovitý‘ film o historii […], v němž by hrdinové byli pouhými řečníky přednášejícími fakta. Naopak chci živý, intimní a osobní film.“ — Pierre-François Didek Source: presskit

The protagonist of the film takes care of injured hummingbirds and their chicks – she heals them, teaches them to fly and helps them with socialization. We follow the stories of the recovery of several birds, from life in a cage to their release into the woods. Sunny shots of the natural scenery around Los Angeles are interspersed with close-ups of glistening hummingbird wings in a captivating visual poem that offers a meditation on the connection between the human world and nature. Throughout the film, a hummingbird caretaker reflects on her personal life in relation to the laws of nature and comes to the realization that the human world is in no way superior to the natural one.“It’s a shimmering, densely layered film about love and resilience, about how we live with and recover from trauma, and about letting go.”Quote source:The Guardian

Matěj and Zuzana Dolinay are a married couple who are devoted to zoology. Through their YouTube channel, Living Zoology, they aim to introduce the general public to animals that are often marginalised and don't have the best reputation with the public. This includes mambas, one of the most venomous genera of snakes, which Matěj and Zuzana set out to find in Togo, Africa. The different stages of their expedition and work with the deadly reptiles gradually reveal characteristics similar to the basic pillars of a healthy partnership. The adventure documentary Figures is not only a testament to how educational popular video content can be created today, but above all highlights the authenticity of a journey through nature, partnership and life.“Figures is a heartfelt adventure that is gripping for the wildlife enthusiast and romantics alike. It is a testament to love – love for wildlife, love for education, and love between two passionate individuals. At its core, this film is a real life, behind the scenes look into how professional wildlife filmmakers get the job done.”Source: https://figuresfilm.com/about

After the First World War, the nationalism of Finnish society increases and with it the need to create a nation with fighting power. One of the strategies of the government and propagandists of the time was the indoctrination of children and youth, together with their education to love the nation and hate the enemy. Using archival footage, radio recordings, photographs, as well as authentic diary entries of Finnish teenagers, the film depicts how state power can abuse children's innocence and malleability to achieve its political and war goals. This creates a parallel between the historical reality and the young fighters of today's wars. “They only need to believe, obey and fight. Our battleground is the soul of the Finnish youth.”

What is life? asks Max Kestner in the introduction to his expansive reflection on the greatest mysteries of the universe. He looks for answers that would shed light on why we exist at all in philosophy, biology and quantum physics. In addition to his curiosity, he is guided by an incident from Copenhagen Zoo that took place 10 years ago. At the time, its director had a healthy giraffe killed because it was no longer needed as part of an international breeding program. The fact that so many people around the world have expressed sympathy for the “unnecessary” animal suggests that we share much more with the world around us, including invisible microbes, than we admit, according to Kestner. “I could have made a story about how media works and how it [the story] exploded in the media but to me it was the scientific and philosophical questions that I felt were there at the time, but weren’t really answered.” — Max Kestner 

The United States is the largest producer of pistachios in the world. Growing them in California requires huge volumes of water, which many people can no longer get in the quantities they need. In the meantime, the vast inland plains, once plundered by oil production in the state, have become giant industrial farms. Investigative journalist Yasha Levine's reporting journey uncovers the context of the reckless trafficking of one of the most basic raw materials – water. Changes in legislation and massive encroachment on natural watercourses are transforming not only the landscape, but above all the human value of this life-giving liquid.“The thing I find most shocking is comparing the images of the past—a lush wetland with abundant bird life—to now, a landscape dominated by industrial farming.” Quote source: Film Fest Report

Plastics have irreversibly transformed people's lives, for better or for worse. They have found universal applications, can be produced in massive quantities and are found everywhere. And that's the problem. They are not easy to recycle or dispose of, they take a long time to decompose and they gradually release microplastics into the environment. Potentially carcinogenic particles have already found their way into the innermost depths of the human body. In interviews with experts and ordinary people, this engaging documentary seeks to capture a possible watershed moment in history. And it paints a straight line from the greed of the oil producers of plastic products to our transformation into plastic people.  “Plastic disrupts our hormones, and in one queasy section the film shows us a placenta with plastic particles in it. In its way, Plastic People is a horror movie. It could have been called Attack of the Killer Polymers.” Source: Variety

Indonesia declared independence in 1945. The Netherlands, however, was not about to give up one of its lucrative colonies and sent some 120,000 troops to the country. Four years of bloody fighting ensued, resulting in thousands of casualties, mass displacement of the population and the serious disruption of diplomatic relations. The Dutch Government subsequently employed all the tools of censorship and propaganda to justify the illegal war as a humanitarian mission. This information-dense but lucid documentary uses archival footage and the testimony of numerous experts to reveal how far the former colonial power went in rewriting history.  “Although this is about history, I really tried not to make a historical documentary.” — In-Soo Radstake

It has been 67 million years since dinosaurs inhabited the Earth. The creatures of the ancient past, who are crucial in our ability to write the story of the present, left behind not only a fascinating history that shaped our world, but also parts of their bodies – bones and fossils, which today have an almost incalculable value. This is a fact known not only by passionate palaeontologists, for whom dinosaurs are the centre of professional interest and personal passion, but also by poachers and art dealers who, with the prospect of profit, do not hesitate to sell even the most significant artefact into private hands. This adventure documentary will provide a flight across continents and cultures as well as a multi-layered story about the clash of human desires – the desire to understand the past, or to appropriate it.  “The film now moves across the world, weaving together stories, complicated by the legacies of colonialism and late-stage capitalism. And then there is the very notion of ownership. Can anyone really own the dinosaurs? And does the very idea of ownership just miss the point of what the bones truly have to teach us about life on earth and our possible extinction?” — Jeremy Xido 

The Red Stockings are pioneers of the feminist movement in Iceland. In the 1970s, they crucified a mannequin of a tired housewife on a Christmas tree, brought a live cow to a beauty queen pageant or initiated a mass strike by women across the country. Iceland thus discovered in October 1975 what happens when women leave their homes and jobs and take a day off. The humorous and serious accounts of the strikers, interspersed with Joel Orloff's animations and the closing track by Bjōrk, provide a cathartic testimony to civic awakening and the power of a collective voice to change society.“If you don’t tell this story, it never happened. This is the last chance for the women to put it in their own words, which are so powerful – as opposed to someone sometime in the future writing something based on archival material.” Source quote: Original CIN

With the fall of the communist regime, predatory capitalism invaded Bosnia and Herzegovina. ArcelorMittal, the largest global steel producer, shows the repulsive face of ruthless subordination to profit to the people of the Balkan state. Its factory regularly pollutes the eponymous sky above Zenica with fumes at levels hundreds of times higher than the standards perceived as healthy. And representatives of the state and local government only submissively stand by. The documentary follows the activities of members of a local environmental organisation over the course of several years, drawing attention to the fatal consequences of unregulated production on the health and lives of local people. “The activists struggle not only with visible signs of serious and far-reaching violations of existing ecological regulations, resulting in multiple cases of grave cancer among residents, but most of all with a total lack of hard data, research, and reliable, independent information sources on the factory’s actual activity and its consequences.”Quote source: Modern Times Review

The film offers a detailed insight into the operation of a Dutch clinic dedicated exclusively to genderqueer people and people interested in transition, especially adolescents. They can access treatment and official gender reassignment upon referral from the clinic's team. But watching their daily struggles reveals just how complicated gender issues are. The gender identity of the team members themselves influences individual decisions and is a source of internal strife – is it necessary to include their pronouns in e-mail signatures? How should the irreversibility of physical transition be explained to teenagers? And is it ethical to allow hormone therapy for a person with an intelligence disorder? “[The film] will also be used for school and psychologist education and in hospitals for doctors, because there are a lot of doctors and psychologists who do not know enough about gender care. But first we’ll do the impact campaign with television, and then the discussion will really start. Hopefully in a good way.” – Ingrid Kamerling

Amazon's Staten Island warehouse became the multinational company's first US location with its own union in 2022. The film is an observational chronicle of the years-long struggle to establish one. We watch as male and female employees face constant surveillance, threats and tens of millions of dollars worth of disparagement. They themselves have neither money nor experience. But through solidarity and determination, their position grows stronger, and they slowly becomed an equal opponent to the corporate giant. The individual steps necessary to form and sustain a union are captured in a way that makes Union both a suspenseful procedural thriller and a call to collective action. “While the insidious nature of capitalism will always fundamentally seek to undermine unionization efforts, the workers in Staten Island proved organizing may get messy, but it is what each individual brings of themselves that makes so much possible.” — Stephen Maing