Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible

Chapter 15 of the series 18 decades of life in Mexico in the twentieth century. Images of the cultural, social and political life in Mexico from 1970 to 1974. During the presidential term of Luis Echeverria Alvarez fantasies of prosperous and modern country it dissolves; Mexico live in political crisis. It is a time of omnipotence, barbarism, and violence intervention: the world seeks new ways. In Mexico, it held the World Cup, unionism is strengthened and inflation responds to the continuing economic imbalances.

Chapter 16 of the series 18 decades of life in Mexico in the twentieth century. Images of the cultural, social and political life in Mexico from 1975 to 1979. Overview of the first years of the government of Jose Lopez Portillo. At the beginning of his administration, political problems make it necessary to counter the influence of Luis Echeverria. It is a time of disappearances and political killings; Birth of opposition political associations and guerrilla movements. Mexico is experiencing one of its worst economic crises.

The work of the artist.

This short documentary captures the poetry of the city’s storied skid row before its gentrification.

Tom "Putuparri" Lawford is a man caught between two worlds: his past and present in modern society, where he battles with alcoholism and domestic violence; and his future as a leader of his people, reconnecting with his ancestral lands, learning about his traditional culture and shouldering his responsibility to pass this knowledge on to the next generation. Director Nicole Ma spent more than a decade documenting Putuparri's journey, travelling with him and his family on numerous occasions to Kurtal, in the Kimberley's Great Sandy Desert region – traditionally a site of great significance as a place where people ritually make rain – as they fight for their native title claim over the area. Set against the backdrop of this long fight for ownership of traditional lands, the MIFF Premiere Fund-supported Putuparri and the Rainmakers is an emotional, visually breathtaking story of love, hope and the survival of Aboriginal law and culture against all odds.

Provocateur, artist, performer: Peter Vanessa "Troy" Davies was a chameleon. Using layers of identity at will, Davies charmed his way through a lifetime of secrets and lies, prostitution, art, HIV, abuse, incest and gender subversion, leaving a legacy of unanswered questions, influential performances and reams of enigmatic home video. Ecco Homo is a psychological detective story and a testament to a social history rarely documented on film

Madeline Anderson’s documentary brings viewers to the front lines of the civil rights movement during the 1969 Charleston hospital workers’ strike, when 400 poorly paid Black women went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in confrontation with the National Guard and the state government. Anderson personally participated in the strike, along with such notable figures as Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young, all affiliated with Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Anderson’s film shows the courage and resiliency of the strikers and the support they received from the local black community. It is an essential filmed record of this important moment in the history of civil and women’s rights. The film is also notable as arguably the first televised documentary on civil rights directed by a woman of color, solidifying its place in American film history.

"If we lived in Paradise, we would no longer need hope." Harmonia lives a happy life in North Korea, but her reality cracks as she learns the truths, she never wanted to know. In the end she faces a choice of living in a broken paradise of lies and deception, or treading the unknown, lonely path of the real world outside. Nothing is free, and the struggle to become a whole human being is inhuman. Pebbles at You Door is a film about a woman from the North Korean elite, who faces the reality of her once beloved childhood paradise and the impossible task of healing a life that has been torn from birth.

Two teenage girls must come to terms with their stepfather when their mother is struck by illness.

At the height of her career, investigative journalist Hannah Dunbar finds herself wondering what would have been had she stayed with the love of her life, Ben, 10 years before. When Santa Claus hears her “what ifs?” as a Christmas wish, he transports Hannah to a version of her life where she and Ben started a family.

This documentary from Min Sook Lee follows a poverty-stricken father from Central Mexico, along with several of his countrymen, as they make their annual migration to southern Ontario to pick tomatoes. For 8 months a year, the town's population absorbs 4,000 migrant workers who toil under conditions, and for wages, that no local would accept. Yet despite a fear of repercussions, the workers voice their desire for dignity and respect.

Nicola Costantino is one of the most controversial and admired artist of Latin America. The documentary follows the visual artist, from the first origins of her work until her participation at the last Venice Biennale 2013.