Bashir Abu Rabi'a

Lobna Alsana

Danny Ben Menahem

Negev Desert, Israel, 1987. Bashir Abu Rabi'a works as a pyrotechnics and special effects assistant on the film Rambo III, starring Sylvester Stallone, a shoot that will have far-reaching consequences for the local Bedouin population.

This chronicle of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games marked one of the National Film Unit's most ambitious productions. Though a range of events (including famous runs by John Walker and Dick Tayler), are covered, the film often bypasses the pomp and glory approach; instead it dares to talk to the injured and mention that most competitors lose. The closing ceremonies of the "friendly games" feature the athletes gathering to — as the official song's chorus put it — "join together". Four directors joined together to work on it: Arthur Everard, John King, Paul Maunder and Sam Pillsbury.

Based on home movies shot on Super 8mm film, A Family Film places the mother at its center as the narrator while tracing the memories of a family living in Istanbul in the 70s.

La doble vida del faquir (The magicians) returns to the scene of a school in the Catalan town of Sant Julià de Vilatorta where, in 1937, in the midst of civil war, a film-maker in hiding and a group of orphaned children dressed up as sultans and explorers shot an exotic adventure film. The films protagonists relive those childhood days when they were able to switch their school smocks for oriental turbans, while reality imposed its own fancy dress ball with military uniforms and priests dressed in civilian garb.

If there is one person Matthew Lancit can’t get out of his mind, it is his uncle Harvey. Dark rings around his eyes, pale, blind, his legs amputated. Like Harvey, the filmmaker also suffers from diabetes. He has the disease under control, but one question is always nagging at him: How much longer? His long-term (self-)observation reliably revolves around fears of infirmity and mutilation. He translates the feared body horror into film, stages himself as a zombie, vampire, a desolate figure. Lancit playfully anticipates his potential decline, serving up a whole arsenal of effects which – as video recordings prove – go back to his youth. It is not for nothing that the “dead” in the title is also reminiscent of “dad.” Because “Play Dead!” also negotiates his own role as a father.

"Giraffes: The Forgotten Giants" delves into the reasons behind the "silent" extinction of giraffes worldwide, and introduces us to the scientists who are gathering new information that may stave off their decline.

A short behind the scenes documentary showing the creation of the short claymation film The Genie in a Ravioli Can (Le génie de la boîte de raviolis).

An annual battle of Dresden’s culture of commemoration and the question of authority to interpret history breaks out.

A video diary from Xmas 2023 New Years to awards season, the filmmaker's personal cinema, and a tribute/time capsule of their cat Fox, their movie-loving friends and film community of Portland, and the actresses they love -- with Annette Bening's Nyad Oscar campaign as its political backdrop.