First Preview of the Program
We are happy to present the first preview of our festival program. It includes an Oscar candidate, the newest film from Werner Herzog, the fight against Ebola, as well as three other excellent documentaries for our international documentary program Just HUMAN.
Previews from the section Just HUMAN
Watch trailers and read more about the documentaries on our Program page.
Meeting Gorbachev
2018 / USA / Dir: Werner Herzog, Andre Singer / 92 min
Two giants in a surprisingly emotional meeting.
The air is electrified when film veteran Werner Herzog sits down face-to-face with 87-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev. Usually sharp around the edges, Herzog betrays a great love for Gorbachev, the last leader of Soviet and the man behind perestroika and glasnost. Herzog shows us a man who is still pained by the failure of completing his vision of a reformed communism, and with warmth and empathy the documentary takes us through Gorbachev’s personal memoirs, which are closely intertwined with the end of the cold war.
Minding the Gap
2018 / USA / Dir: Bing Liu / 93 min
A gripping coming-of-age story from the US working class.
This award-winning and exceptional documentary brings us right into the lives of a group of friends at the threshold of adulthood- and the director is one of them. Through several years we see how the experiences from their own childhood in a poor American city shape them as humans. In a circle of violent, alcoholic and distant parents, what role models do they look to, to not reproduce the same mistakes? The documentary provides us with a unique insight into what shape our identity and our choices, and makes us deeply engaged in the choices these friends are required to make. The documentary is short-listed for the Oscar for best documentary.
Survivors
2018 / Sierra Leone, USA / Dir: Arthur Pratt / 86 min
The West African Ebola outbreak, as seen from the ground.
Sierra Leone was one of the countries hit the hardest during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. A local collective of filmmakers followed the outbreak closely, and the documentary is an intimate and sober account of what the crisis looked like on the ground. We meet health workers who risk their own lives to help, street children with no form of protection, locals who are sceptical to the health authorities, and who don’t understand the gravity until they loose their lives. They tell their own story of Ebola, and give us the opportunity to understand how you survive such a nightmare, as an individual and as a society.
The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid
2017 / Ireland / Dir: Feargal Ward / 85 min
An Irish man firmly set on living life on his own terms.
An original and poetic portrait of the Irish farmer Thomas Reid, whom the Irish state is trying to intimidate into selling his family farm, so the multi national company Intel can take over his land. Irish authorities claims that international investments are for the greater good, and thus eclipses the rights of Thomas. But when should the needs of companies outweigh the rights of the individual? Alone in this battle, Thomas is fighting quietly, but uncompromisingly. A strikingly beautiful and moving documentary which uses fictional elements when his isolated existence becomes invaded by authorities that want him gone
The Corporate Coup d’État
2018/ Canada, USA / Dir: Fred Peabody / 90 min
The erosion of democracy for the benefit of corporations.
In a time where big corporations acquire an increasing amount of power through both corruption and lobbyism, is is democracy itself which is at stake. Through philosophers, journalists, politicians and activists the documentary argues that there has been a silent coup d’état over the last 30 years. The coup is facilitated by corporate interests who see the democratic system as a secondary product of the free market. The power of the people have become powerlessness, and the election of president Trump is one of the consequences. But what is the solution?
Hungary 2018
2018 / Portugal, Hungary / Dir: Eszter Hajdú / 82 min
Xenophobia and election campaigns in a polarised Hungary
An alarming portrait of the parliamentary elections in Hungary in 2018. The rhetoric of the ruling party is coloured by extreme xenophobia and conspiracy theories, wherein the elites are conspiring to destory Hungary by swamping the country with refugees. On the other side is a somewhat helpless opposition trying to claim that Hungary needs to return to social democratic and solidaric politics.The documentary follows opposition politician and former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, who leads the party Demokratikus Koalíció (Democratic Coalition) in a seemingly hopeless battle.
