The Moroccan Labyrinth

JEWS excavates a lost world of manners and ritual in home movies shot by several Chicago families from the 1920s through the 1940s. Much as in similar found footage soliloquies by Péter Forgács, Jay Rosenblatt and Ken Jacobs, director Roger Deutsch wrings unexpected pathos from mundane traces of the past. Children mug for the camera with dances of the day, upright mothers march their strollers up the avenue, men smoke, the family gathers around the table to light the candles. The bare title cannot help but raise the specter of contemporaneous events in Europe, lending an extra degree of urgency to the film's meditation on disappearance. - Max Goldberg

Guillermo Gómez Álvarez explores the identity politics of Puerto Rico via archival footage from various sources that clash with nine original songs from local independent musicians and a thematic analysis from a psychoanalyst and a historian. From the juxtaposition the absurd becomes coherent and the coherent becomes absurd as Puerto Rican identity is defined and rejected almost simultaneously.

Montezuma is a 2009 BBC Television documentary film in which Dan Snow examines the reign of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II.

Eighteen years in the making, two-headed cow started off as a black and white film that followed Dexter Romweber and his drummer Crow on a rock and roll tour along the same route as General Sherman. The film was not finished due to many circumstances, but the filmmakers were able to resume the film seventeen years later. After major TV appearances, a stint on a major label, bouts of depression and drug addiction, the film took on a different tone and poignancy.

The documentary goes through the 23 years of MTV Brazil, taking stock from the avant-garde to the ostracism of the broadcaster that was the main guide for the musical, cultural and social formation of young people in the 90's and 2000's with interviews and testimonials from former VJ's and artists that emerged and became popular in the country because of the channel.

"Stitched" is a fun-filled documentary following three quilters racing to complete their entries for the International Quilt Festival, the largest and most competitive quilt show in the nation. Judged on a combination of craftsmanship and flair, traditionalists compete with newcomers as the competition features heated battles between hand and machine quilters, and a controversial painted nude piece that sparks debate.

Men and women in the Horn of Africa and adjiacent regions of the Middle East tell stories of their relationships and contacts with demons and spirits in their life and culture.

As director Hakim Belabbes chronicles his journey from his home in Chicago to visit his family in his hometown of Boujad in Morocco, his exploration of family relationships is self-conscious and at times painfully honest. We witness his most private moments with his family. The film intimately explores the domestic spaces and religious rituals of intra-family relationships, especially when compounded by one member's break with traditional values.

Caught between chasing his past and accepting his impending end, a man follows his childhood memories through the dark alleyways and desolate cemeteries of Boujad, Morocco.