
City Of Joel
By Jesse Sweet
2018 | 83 min | Documentary
In the small town of Monroe, New York, a dispute over land erupts between an Hasidic community and its secular neighbors and turns into a turf war.


By Jesse Sweet
2018 | 83 min | Documentary
In the small town of Monroe, New York, a dispute over land erupts between an Hasidic community and its secular neighbors and turns into a turf war.

2020 | 105 min | Documentary
“What the hell is happening to my country?” After Trump was elected, filmmaker Susanne Brandstaetter investigates the growing divide in the USA. Among non-typical Trump voters in the swing state Ohio, she discovers surprising parallels between America and Europe. What determines people’s choices? Why do people form opinions and then stick to their political positions – no matter what? The filmmaker decides the only chance to understand why the divide is growing is to follow one rule: don’t argue, ...

2024 | 95 min | Documentary
DEAR BEAUTIFUL BELOVED looks at wartime Ukraine through the people left with the hardest tasks: the weak who cannot flee, the volunteers who move the dead, and the families waiting for news. Juri Rechinsky follows ordinary journeys made extraordinary by fear, distance and loss, keeping the film close to daily survival. A driver and a student carry fallen soldiers back to their families, while a young mother tries to reach Budapest with her two children and elderly women take shelter for a few days ...

2022 | 83 min | Documentary
SOULS OF A RIVER follows a traveller back through the landscape of memory along the Evros River, where water, reeds and empty roads become a terrain of return. Moving as a stranger in his own country, he searches for the self that once left this border region behind. The search brings him to a forensic doctor who works in the river itself, recovering the traces of people who died while trying to cross. From a brown envelope come a cross, a ring and a wristwatch; elsewhere, unidentified bodies remain ...

2017 | 92 min | Documentary
An ultra nationalist right-wing party is on the rise in Germany. Filmmaker Marc Eberhardt follows candidate Jörg Meuthen during the 2016 state elections in Baden-Württemberg. The polite economics professor campaigns as a candidate for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD). This film exposes the startling reach of his seemingly rational rhetoric. Meuthen talks openly with other politicians and with citizens and sympathizers on the street, which is noteworthy in view of the "media-skeptical" attitude ...

2011 | 87 min | Documentary
Elliott and Teofilo, two released sex offenders in Miami, Florida are not allowed to leave their residence and must stay 750 yards away from schools, parks or other places where children regularly hang out. These requirements make it nearly impossible to find a job or housing. The consequences are homelessness and social isolation. "Bittner's film is worth watching for two reasons. On the one hand, he puts himself in the perspective of the "sex offenders" and thus portrays frighteningly normal ...

2022 | 28 min | Documentary
Every year, five to ten percent of all deceased Berliners are buried by authorities because no relatives can be traced. Most of them are put into the ground single-handedly by funeral director Bernd Simon. But sometimes companions do turn up to say goodbye in their own special way. An observational documentary about a funeral service worker who aspired to become an entertainer. A portrait from a diffferent angle of a city, and a mirror of ways we deal with death, mourning, and remembrance. "A small, ...

2025 | 90 min | Documentary
ALARM follows the members of a volunteer fire brigade who remain on call around the clock, ready to respond whenever an emergency strikes. Rather than turning rescue operations into spectacle, the film focuses on the routines, responsibilities and teamwork that make their work possible. Judith Zdesar accompanies the brigade through training exercises, youth programmes, the education of new members and everyday life at the fire station. Alongside the technical precision required for every operation, ...

2019 | 62 min | Documentary
The way of life in Aracà in northern Italy is threatened by globalization and technological progress. There are only a handful of aging farmers left who still grow olives and grapes using the old methods. This documentary records the thoughtful and emotional confrontation with time, change, loss, and hope related by the members of a small community in the idyllic Ligurian countrysid This documentary records the thoughtful and emotional confrontation with time, change, and loss, but also finds a ...

2020 | 92 min | Documentary
Once a year in the small Sicilian town of Siculiana, a black statue of Jesus is carried in procession through the crowded streets of the town on the shoulders of selected believers. On this occasion, hundreds of Siculianese emigrants come from all parts of Italy and abroad to pay homage to their patron saint. In recent years, however, the city has been divided over the presence of asylum seekers at Villa Sikania, a hotel that was converted into a reception center for refugees in 2014. Few Siculianesi ...

2011 | 120 min | Documentary
A disillusioned Iraq veteran, gay adoptive fathers, white party animals and a pimp in Las Vegas. Ruth Beckermann starts her quest in New York and goes all the way across the continent, through a total of eleven states - to apartment blocks where people have a lot of children and little money, to parties, prisons and memorials, to private houses threatened by repossession, to courtrooms, universities, and a casino. And to the many ""non-places"" in between: Highways restaurants, gas stations, and ...