zarema and her rebelS family

IT | Completion December 2024 | 52’ & 88' | HD | Italian, English (sub.) | By Tatsiana Khamliuk POPCult 

 

The story of Zarema, kidnapped and imprisoned in Chechnya for having a family defending human rights.

 

In Chechnya, the case of Zarema's illegitimate kidnapping breaks out in the democratic western world against the dictatorship of Kadyrov. Every day in Chechnya, opponents of the leader Ramzan Kadyrov are abducted, tortured and killed. People who have tried to speak out for human rights in the region have been forced to leave the country. Some of them paid with their lives. This is the story of one of these rebel families. The narrative thread is based on the letters of Zarema, the mother arrested by the dictatorships’ forces, and alternates the story of all the members of her family, in forced exile and divided in Europe. Each of them will have to face the issue and give themselves answers to the question of whether their actions against power were worth the price they are still paying today.

 

It won the Czech Television Development Award at Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days' pitch in 2024!

HEAD IN THE VINES

FR | 2022 | 52’ | French, English (sub.) | By Thibault Jandot | La Boîte à Songes | Broadcaster: France Télévisions

 

Julien Pineau, a 34-year-old excellent winemaker from Loir-et-Cher (France), has just invested in a brand new winery. We follow him in his work during a whole year during which he will encounter more and more difficulties and challenges caused by climate change (storm, wine disease, etc.). Will he be able to save his production?

SEEING MUSIC

CA | 2022 | 10x22’ | French, English | By Julien Cadieux | Productions du milieu & Pimiento Médias Inc. | Broadcaster: AMI-télé

 

Blind or visually impaired musicians (any music genre), women and men from all over the world, share with us the challenges they had to overcome to become professionals as well as accomplished human beings, and their unique practice of music. In Canada, Mexico, Barcelona, Basque country & Madrid (Spain), New York (USA), Belgium and France, (two countries by episode), these outstanding artists who gave everything to achieve their dream, prove that music is the universal and inclusive language by excellence. 

closing words

BE | 52' (2020) /73' (2021) | French, English (sub.), Polish (sub.), Italian (sub.) | by Gaëlle Hardy & Agnès Lejeune | Les Films de la Passerelle | Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, WIP, Wallimage, Région Wallonne, ADMD, CAL, Solidaris Broadcasters: RTBF, ARTE.TV

 

What means the right for euthanasia? What are the conditions under which it is allowed in Belgium?

 

With the progress of medicine, life can be prolonged to a point that is sometimes no longer desirable because it is difficult to sustain. Belgium does not allow assisted suicide, but has authorised euthanasia under certain conditions for the past 20 years. Through the experience of a doctor and his patients, this film shows how the right to decide the day and time of one's death is exercised. A lesson of respect, life and humanism.

 

>>NEW<< my friends have style

FR | 2020 | 10x7' | HD | French | by Julie Bonan | Axe Sud | Broadcaster: France Télévisions

 

MY FRIENDS HAVE STYLE is a gallery of portraits of women who, against all odds, have chosen a path for which their social, ethnic or sociological origins did not predestine them. This mosaic reflects the diversity of today's modern woman, who knows how to assert herself with what she is, what has built her up, without letting herself be intimidated or guided by pre-existing clichés, determined to take her place in society as closely as possible to her desires.

DREAM ON

DE | 2020 | 52’ / 97' | HD | German, English (sub.) | by Valentin Thurn | SCHNITTSTELLE GmbH & ThurnFilm GmbH – GbR, EIKON Media | Broadcaster: RBB

 

Transforming trashes into islands, making living space accessible for everyone through mobile wood tiny houses, developing self-determining schooling at home and low Carbon footprint freight transport through balloons are not dreams anymore! Despite obstacles, inspiring protagonists show us that anyone can tackle social and environmental issues and make our world a better place.

FASHIONING THE FUTURE

BE | 2019 | HD | 73’ | French, English (sub.) | By Erwan Augoyard & Sophie Kovess-Brun | Matching Socks Ventures | Broadcaster: RTBF

 

© Matching Socks Ventures

In La Cambre (Brussels, Belgium), one of the most prestigious fashion schools in the world, the students have a last year to achieve their professional dream of becoming a fashion designer.  We follow four of them developing their collection until the ultimate fashion show gathering the most exclusive international brands professionals. Will it be the starting point of their professional career? A documentary about up-and-coming fashion designers, overflowed with ideas, overwhelmed by doubts but determined to hold on to their dreams.

no time for quiet

AU | 2020 | 52’ | HD | English | By Samantha Dinning & Hylton Shaw | Film Camp Pty | Broadcaster: ABC

 

What’s better than pop-rock music to empower teenagers, help them finding their voice, accepting who they are and the others? Five teenagers, two of them facing mental troubles, take part in the GIRLS ROCK! MELBOURNE summer camp, empowering girls through music. During one week, they form a band, learn an instrument or singing and write a song. Will they overcome their fears and perform it on stage? 

 

OPERA ClasseS 

BE | 2020 | 54' | HD | French (sub.), Dutch (sub.), English (sub.) | By Joël Franka | ADNStudio - Alizé Production - RTBF - Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie | Broadcaster: RTBF

 

La Monnaie (Brussels, Belgium) welcomes during six month 258 kids from different social backgrounds to appropriate the opera’s world.  Guided by professionals, they give life to an original creation. How this fruitful exchanges will revolutionize the kids’ relation to learning and perception of current social issues, and help opera modernizing itself? 
 
 
Sindbad, A Journey Through Living Flames: opera written and composed by Howard Moody

Moving Libraries - Where books Mean The World

DE | 2019 | 5x26' | 4K | English (sub.), German (sub. or voice-over), French to be bought to ARTE Sales, French (sub.) | By Michael Bernstein & Anja Schürenberg | Bernsteinfilm | Broadcasters: ARTE, BR, RSI, RTP, Al Jazeera Documentary, TVP, RTS Serbia, RTBF.

 

Original mobile libraries are run by unusual operators by roller bee, garbage truck, in bags, by bike or ship in order to find their readers, whether they are children in the slums of Bhopal in India, homeless people in Portland, USA or simply those for whom the next book is simply too far away. We get to know the motives of these mobile librarians as they take us into the colorful everyday world of readers in India, Italy, the Caribbean, Columbia and Portland, USA.

East Of Our MemorIES

FR | 2019 | 52’ | HD | French, German, English (sub.) | By Marion Verlé & Jeanne Nouchi | Wendigo Films & Ambiances asbl | Broadcasters: Mirabelle TV, Vosges TV, Public Sénat

 

Mario, Heidi, Franck, Hans and Martina have different ages and backgrounds but they share the nostalgia they feel for the GDR. 30 years after the fall of the Berlin's Wall, this feeling still affects their daily lives. How can we explain the regret of a totalitarian regime?

12 Days and 12 Nights in Damascus

SY/DE/FR | 2017 | 52’ | HD | German, English (sub.), French (to be bought to ARTE) | By Roshak Ahmad | DOKfilm | Partner: Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts | Broadcasters: ARTE, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Das Erste

 

Every day, the war in the streets of Damascus, Syria's capital, is raging between the rebels and Assad’s soldiers. The government is preparing their last assaults to crush the rebels. Dive right into the reality of daily street battles with this unique film, and see how each side is carefully planning their next move.

ciaO babylon

CH | 2017 | 52' | HD | English (sub.), German (sub.) | By Kurt Reinhard, Christoph Schreiber | Soap Factory GmbH | Broadcaster: SRF, RTR

 

By the end of the century half of the 6,500 languages spoken today will have vanished; and with every language dies a unique way of perceiving the world. CIAO BABYLON calls attention to this dramatic development. Dan Kaufman, a linguist living in New York is committed to preserve endangered languages, while Giancarlo Malchiodi goes from Brooklyn to Grisons, Switzerland to rediscover his mother tongue -Romanish- a language that may die out within a few decades. 

Beyond the barS

BE/FR | 2016 | 57' | HD | French, English (sub. ) | By Daphné Baiwir | Sebastien Cruz | Broadcaster: RTBF

 

Let’s enter into the daily life of a prison from the employees' perspective! Thanks to this immersive documentary and vibrant testimonies, we understand why the Belgian characters purely love their job.

RETURN to bosnia

AU | 2016 | 54’ | 4K | English (sub.) | By Wes Greene | Nalu Productions | Broadcaster: TVP

 

25 years after fleeing the civil war in Bosnia (1992-1995), Damir Mitric returns to uncover this trauma. He meets with family, friends, and those working to rebuild a nation borne of ethnic and religious divisions. From Sarajevo, his childhood home where Serbians established a siege to a former concentration camp and to mass graves unveiling the ethnic cleansing of Bosnians by Serbians, Mitric confronts the incomprehensible: How could your neighbours turn into killers? How can you rebuild lives and communities devastated by violence?

 

VUKOVAR(s)

FR | 2015 | 52' | HD | English (sub.), French (sub.), Croatian | By Grégoire Osoha & Timothée Demeillers | Quilombo Films | Broadcaster: TV Tours Val de Loire, France 3, TVP.

 

30 Years Anniversary in 2021 of war in Croatia.

 

25 years after the civil war in Ex-Yougoslavia, the Serbian and Croatian communities living in Vukovar, a city in Croatia deeply affected by fighting, still don't reconciliate with each other. Segregation in everyday life is still very much alive: children don't play in the same sand box & go to separate classrooms while men don't drink in the same bar and intra-ethnic love is not tolerated by families. Even though, Croatia belongs to the EU, the country remains a powder keg. 

LAURENT GBAGBO, DICTATOR OR ANTICOLONIALIST?

CI | 2015 | 2x52' | HD | French & English | By Saïd Mbombo Penda | Sentinelles Productions | Broadcaster: Al Jazeera

 

Laurent Gbagbo’s trial in International Criminal Court for crime against humanity opened in January 2016. Acquitted in 2021, he is back in Ivory Coast. President of Ivory Coast from 2000 to 2011, he was sued for having stirred up hatred between his supporters & opponents, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians & two European journalists. Was he an anti-colonialist liberator or a dictator?  

YOLANDE OR THE SCARS OF THE SILENCE

FR | 2015 | 50’ | HD | French (sub.), English (sub.) | By Léandre-Alain Baker | Mikaté Productions | Broadcaster: CINAPS TV

 

Yolande Mukagasana, wife of a high-ranking Tutsi official, lost her husband and children during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. She makes us relive the first morning of horror and the atrocities that follow. This courageous woman can't stop there: after 1 6 years spent in Belgium in exile, she comes back to her country and makes the people talk about their traumas to rebuild a society still deeply affected by the genocide.

DISTRICT ZERO

ES | 2015 | 52' / 67’ | HD | Spanish (sub.), English (sub.), Italian (sub.), French (sub.), German (sub.) | By Pablo Tosco, Jorge Fernandez, Pablo Iraburu | Arena Comunicacion Audiovisual

 

A Syrian refugee lives in the second biggest camp in the world,  Zaatari, in Jordan, counting not less than 60,000 refugees. From his mobile shop, he prints his customers' personal photos, making us get into their stories and life.

THE MAN WHO WANTED TO MOVE THE MOUNTAIN

FR | 2013 | 53' | HD | French, English (sub.) | By Philippe Delassus | Skopia Films | Broadcaster: France 5

 

In a mine in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, everybody from children to old people, works to extract, carry and crumb granite outside of any company’s organisation in the framework of rules established by the workers’ community. In the middle of this anthill, a man decides to move a huge quantity of earth to launch his own stones’ exploitation. Will he succeed?