POLITICS

Surreal, Delightful Political Satire With Soccer, Gender-Bending and Giant Puppies—‘Diamantino’, dir. Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt, 2018

November 29th, 2020|Country: Brazil, France, Portugal, USA|

The end of a soccer legend’s career makes him an easy target for Portuguese nationalists, opportunism, and greed—but will his kind heart show him the way to love and truth?

The Exhausting Reality of Being on the Vanguard in the Fight for Trans and Sex Worker Rights in Brazil—‘Indianara’, dir. Marcelo Barbosa & Aude Chevalier-Beaumel, 2019

October 1st, 2020|Country: Brazil|

A consummate portrait of Brazilian organizer Indianara follows her through joy and pain, rites of passages, and a tense fight for the respect, inclusion, and protection of which her community is constantly robbed

Cy Gavin’s Incendiary Paintings Shed the Neon Light on the Dark Spots of Bermudian and American Histories

September 17th, 2020|Country: Bermuda, USA|

Excavating the past and applying creative scrutiny, this exciting young artist creates electric landscapes that give power to those hidden in the colonial reading of history

One of the Country’s Most Exciting Filmmakers Experiments with a Collective Portrait of Iceland at Christmas Time—’Echo’, dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson, 2019

September 7th, 2020|Country: France, Iceland, Switzerland|

56 short scenes allow an unprecedented pleasure to peek into the different households and community gatherings in Iceland during the holiday season

The Voices of Women Reclaim Algerian History Through Colonization, Wars, and Personal Infractions—Assia Djebar, ’Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade,’ 1985, trans. Dorothy S. Blair

September 2nd, 2020|Country: Algeria|

A linguistically ornate exercise exploring postcolonial history and identity, Assia Djebar’s account of her homeland is a monument to the country’s women and their heroic lives

The Transformations of Albania and Its Femininity in the Works of Hasan Nallbani

August 30th, 2020|Country: Albania|

Whether he’s depicting socialist worker heroines, women alienated by their fragility, or experiments with the Byzantine heritage, Hasan Nallbani is Albania’s foremost master of the female portrait

Small Business Owner Against the City Authorities in Pre-Epidemic Wuhan—‘City Dream’, dir. Weijun Chen, 2019

July 28th, 2020|Country: China|

A close look at the law enforcement systems in the Chinese city of Wuhan through the story of a street vendor who decides to battle gentrification in a very flamboyant fashion

A Senegalese Village, Swiss Drama and a Masterful Critique of Globalization From Senegal’s Finest Filmmaker—’Hyenas’, dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1992

July 21st, 2020|Country: France, Italy, Netherlands, Senegal, Switzerland, United Kingdom|

An anti-neocolonialist gem from legendary Mambéty: human nature and capitalist indoctrination are under scrutiny when a billionaire agrees to give money to her struggling hometown—on her terms

Fighting for Change, Against the Odds and with Each Other, a Look Into the DRC Protest Movement—‘Kinshasa Makambo’, dir. Dieudo Hamadi, 2018

July 9th, 2020|Country: DR Congo, France, Germany, Norway, Qatar, Switzerland|

An incendiary documentary about three brave men at the forefront of the uprising against Joseph Kabila’s rule shows just how much the protest movements across the world have in common

Manga Bears, Latex Pigs and Tireless Activism in Japan’s Struggle for Equality and Queer Acceptance—‘Queer Japan’, dir. Graham Kolbeins, 2019

June 23rd, 2020|Country: Canada, Japan, USA|

A head-spinning tour of the many ways in which queerness manifests itself in Japan, from art-forms to infrastructure, from communities to mass media, made with affection for every featured voice

The Human Cost of Duterte’s Drug War—‘The Mortician of Manila’, dir. Leah Borromeo, 2019 + ‘The Nightcrawlers’, dir. Alexander A. Mora, 2019

June 15th, 2020|Country: Philippines, Qatar, United Kingdom|

Vigilante brigades committing extrajudicial murders to help the police, journalists trying to shed light on the atrocities, and an undertaker who takes care of the victims’ bodies

Brilliance, Blackness, and Brutality of Brazilian Revolutionary Hero—The ‘Marighella,’ dir. Wagner Moura, 2019

June 5th, 2020|Country: Brazil|

A powerful portrait of a man who tried to take down the Brazilian Military Dictatorship is necessary viewing on the question of violent resistance

Social Realism Meets Coptic Motifs in Eritrean Artist’s Michael Adonai’s Visions of His Evasive Homeland

June 1st, 2020|Country: Australia, Eritrea|

He became an artist while struggling for his country’s self-determination as a young man on the frontline of the liberation movement. Then he lost Eritrea again but recreates it in imposing paintings

Gasping at the Horrors of Past Internment Camps, as We Build More Prisons—‘Dead Souls’, dir. Wang Bing, 2018

May 31st, 2020|Country: China, France, Switzerland|

An exhaustive, gutting look at a Chinese internment camp allows us to learn from the survivors first hand. However, what exactly are we as a carceral society taking away from it?

Disability Rights Activists, a Radical Reimagining of Social Institutions, and the Summer Camp That Made It Possible—’Crip Camp,’ dir. James Lebrecht & Nicole Newnham, 2020

May 27th, 2020|Country: USA|

A summer camp inspired by Woodstock allowed kids with disabilities to find their voices and a sense of community. Then, these kids led the movement towards an accessible, open social landscape for all

Mother, Media, Memory, and Material Truth—‘Mute Fire’, dir. Federico Atehortúa Arteaga, 2019

May 17th, 2020|Country: Colombia|

As young Colombian director was making a film on his homeland's visual history, his mother stopped speaking. His film became an exploration of the power of narratives to shape collective perception

A Father’s Secrets, War Crimes, and a Daughter’s Return to Liberia—‘Daddy and the Warlord’, dir. Shamira Raphaëla, 2019

May 14th, 2020|Country: Aruba, Liberia, Netherlands, USA|

A striking documentary follows journalist Clarice Gargard to her homeland, as she investigates the connection between her beloved father and Charles Taylor, one of Africa’s most prominent warlords

Lynching in America, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow—‘Always in Season’, dir. Jacqueline Olive, 2019

May 6th, 2020|Country: USA|

An unsettling, indispensable documentary on the legacy of lynching that juxtaposes memory of historical cases with a recent one and asks the questions that the American society evades

Balkan Beats and Battle Hymns—Dubioza Kolektiv, ‘#fakenews,’ 2020

May 3rd, 2020|Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina|

A Bosnian band with firm positions on civil rights and intellectual property and a fluid approach to genre has a song for every political issue you may care about

One Candidate’s Race for Office and Against the Disenfranchisement of Arab-Americans—‘Brooklyn Inshallah’, dir. Ahmed Mansour, 2018

April 23rd, 2020|Country: Palestine, USA|

A chronicle of a city council nomination campaign reveals complex truths about diversity, belonging and 9/11's traumatic heritage in Bay Ridge, one of NYC's most prominent Arab-American enclaves

Progress Flailing Under the Stronghold of Capital—’The Edge of Democracy,’ dir. Petra Costa, 2019

April 21st, 2020|Country: Brazil|

An intimate yet sprawling account of Brazil's journey from Lula to Dilma to Bolsonaro that dissects the tumor of "Operation Car Wash" and studies its underlying causes

Migrants Playing the Waiting Game In the Shadow of the Border Wall—‘Chèche Lavi’, dir. Sam Ellison, 2019

April 19th, 2020|Country: Haiti, Mexico, USA|

A portrait of two Haitian men seeking admission into the US in Tijuana becomes a complex reflection on the Beckettian nature of immigration’s bureaucracy and the sacrifices it demands

A Guyanese Artist, His Communist Wife, Their Marvellous Lives, Wine Bar and Activism—Patrick Barrington

April 6th, 2020|Country: Guyana, United Kingdom|

How an art enthusiast helped us uncover a tremendous love story behind a striking self-portrait from Georgetown’s National Gallery of Art

Hoarding Is Political: A Civil Rights Activist and the Prolific TV Archive She Created—‘Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project,’ dir. Matt Wolf, 2019

March 10th, 2020|Country: USA|

A meticulous profile of Marion Stokes, whose obsession with collecting TV footage became a lifelong crusade against the biases of mass media

The Fantastic Story of South Sudan’s First Olympic Athlete—‘Runner’, dir. Bill Gallagher, 2019

March 9th, 2020|Country: South Sudan, USA|

A nuanced portrait of Guor Mading Maker, also known as Guor Marial, who survived the civil war and child slavery to become the first man from his country to participate in the Olympic Games

The Upset Stomachs and Egos of Colonialism—Tierno Monénembo, ‘King of Kahel’, 2008, trans. Nicholas Elliott

February 25th, 2020|Country: France, Guinea|

Guinean author subverts the traditional colonizer narrative by crafting a tragicomedy about a Frenchman who wanted to be an African king; offers an unflinching look into the mechanics of occupation

Wool Over the Eyes—‘This Magnificent Cake!’, dir. Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels, 2018

February 6th, 2020|Country: Belgium, DR Congo, France, Netherlands, South Africa|

Whimsical felt puppet fantasy from filmmaking couple tackles colonization of Congo by Belgian King Leopold in a graceful satirical exploration of the chaos that ineptitude sows

Abkhazia	Congo-Brazzaville	Indonesia	New Zealand	Spain
Afghanistan	Costa Rica	Iran	Nicaragua	Sri Lanka
Albania	Côte d’Ivoire	Iraq	Niger	Sudan
Algeria	Croatia	Ireland	Nigeria	Suriname
Andorra	Cuba	Israel	Niue	Sweden
Angola	Cyprus	Italy	North Korea	Switzerland
Antigua-and-Barbuda	Czech Republic	Iwaidja People	North Ossetia	Syria
Argentina	Dagestan	Jamaica	Norway	Taiwan
Armenia	Denmark	Japan	Oman	Tajikistan
Arrernte	Dominica	Jordan	Pakistan	Tamil Nadu
Aruba	Dominican Republic	Kanak People	Palestine	Tanzania
Australia	DR Congo	Karelia	Panama	Tatarstan
Austria	Dunghutti People	Kashmir	Papua New Guinea	Thailand
Azerbaijan	Ecuador	Kazakhstan	Paraguay	Tibet
Bahamas	Eelam Tamil	Kenya	Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians	Timor-Leste
Bahrain	Egypt	Kosovo	Peru	Tiwi Islands
Balochistan	El Salvador	Kurdistan	Philippines	Togo
Bangladesh	Estonia	Kyrgyzstan	Poland	Tonga
Barbados	Eswatini	Laos	Portugal	Torres Strait Islands
Bashkortostan	Ethiopia	Latvia	Puerto Rico	Transnistria
Belarus	Faroe Islands	Lebanon	Qatar	Trinidad and Tobago
Belgium	Fiji	Liberia	Rapa Nui	Tunisia
Belize	Finland	Libya	Reunion	Turkey
Benin	France	Lithuania	Roma	Turkmenistan
Bermuda	French Guiana	Luxembourg	Romania	Tuvalu
Bhutan	Gabon	Macedonia	Russia	Uganda
Biripi People	Gambia	Madagascar	Rwanda	Ukraine
Bolivia	Garifuna Nation	Malak Malak People	Saint Kitts and Nevis	United Kingdom
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Garrwa People	Malawi	Saint Lucia	Uruguay
Botswana	Georgia	Malaysia	Saint Vincent and The Grenadines	USA
Brazil	Germany	Mali	Samoa	Uyghur Nation
Brunei	Ghana	Malta	San Marino	Uzbekistan
Bulgaria	Golan Heights	Māori	Sao Tome and Principe	Vanuatu
Burkina Faso	Greece	Martinique	Saudi Arabia	Venezuela
Burundi	Greenland	Mauritania	Scotland	Vietnam
Buryatia	Grenada	Mauritius	Senegal	Wales
Cabo Verde	Guatemala	Mexico	Serbia	Wallis and Futuna
Cambodia	Guinea	Moldova	Sierra Leone	Water
Cameroon	Guyana	Monaco	Singapore	Yemen
Canada	Haida Gwaii	Morocco	Slovakia	Yöruk People
Central African Republic	Haiti	Mozambique	Slovenia	Zambia
Chad	Ho-Chunk Nation	Myanmar	Solomon Islands	Zimbabwe
Chile	Honduras	Namibia	Somalia
China	Hong Kong	Native American Tribes	South Africa
Chinook Nation	Hungary	Nepal	South Korea
Colombia	Iceland	Netherlands	South Ossetia
Comoros	India	New Caledonia	South Sudan

POLITICS

ISSUES