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Now That the Sun Begins to Set

2022 · ★ 2

Rafaela, an 80-year-old woman, has a long conversation with her grandson, going over his path from childhood to old age. Now that she has been diagnosed with chronic breast cancer, faith is more present in her life than ever, which coexists with Rafaela's fear of death, and her grandson's fear of dying.

No me acuerdo ahora

2025

For more than a decade, my grandmother has been the tireless caregiver of my grandfather, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Through this story, we explore the love, sacrifice, and despair of someone who devotes their life to caring for another.

The Other Side of the Wall

2017 · ★ 7

Honduran immigrants living in Mexico, teenage siblings Rocío and Ale must take over care of their two younger siblings after their mother is sentenced to prison on dubious grounds. Tensions grow between the pair as the decision must be made on whether to stay together in Mexico or split the family up to cross into the US to work.

A Conversation Between Parents

2017

A year after Thadd and Shannon gave birth to their son, A Conversation Between Parents highlights a climactic conversation in their lives -- as both young parents grasp at the last threads of their ideal family. On an afternoon off of work, the couple sits on their couch, while their son sleeps in his crib, and the family grapples with their limited options one last time. Dietrich’s camera ties the couple’s painful conversation together with flashbacks of both parents’ precious memories of their first year with Jasper, attempting to find a way to articulate their struggles in the last conversation they have together as a couple.

The Day of No One

2025

A silent day unfolds on the slope of a mountain… A child exists alongside his mother and father, yet each of them seems to inhabit a different world. With no dialogue, the film relies on visual storytelling. In certain close-up shots, color fades to black and white; symbolizing moments of inner solitude, personal conflict, and emotional disconnection. The unseen distances within the family are revealed not through words, but through images.

Es gibt kein zurück

2024

The documentary film "There is no turning back" by Stéphane Kleeb tells the story of the Tibetan siblings Losang and Dechen Barshee, who came to Switzerland as refugee children in 1964. After a difficult childhood in various foster families, they return to Tibet with their mother 40 years later. This journey confronts them with the alienation from their mother and their changed homeland. The film addresses homelessness, uprooting and lost dreams.

Everything I Was Told About Love

This documentary explores the experience of love in young adulthood, contrasting the lessons learned through real relationships with the expectations from childhood (whether from parental portrayals or romanticized fairytales). Through stories of first love, heartbreak, and reflections on parental advice, we will delve into how these early encounters redefine what love truly means.

Goodbye Darling, I'm Off to Fight

2017

No synopsis available.

The Story of a Butcher Shop

2013 · ★ 5.2

The Kitades run a butcher shop in Kaizuka City outside Osaka, raising and slaughtering cattle to sell the meat in their store. The seventh generation of their family's business, they are descendants of the buraku people, a social minority held over from the caste system abolished in the 19th century that is still subject to discrimination. As the Kitades are forced to make the difficult decision to shut down their slaughterhouse, the question posed by the film is whether doing this will also result in the deconstruction of the prejudices imposed on them. Though primarily documenting the process of their work with meticulous detail, Aya Hanabusa also touches on the Kitades' participation in the buraku liberation movement. Hanabusa's heartfelt portrait expands from the story of an old-fashioned family business competing with corporate supermarkets, toward a subtle and sophisticated critique of social exclusion and the persistence of ancient prejudices.

Buzz One Four

2017 · ★ 7

Buzz One Four chronicles the ill-fated flight of a Cold War B-52 Stratofortress loaded with two 3-4-megaton nuclear bombs that crashed 90 miles from Washington DC in 1961. Information suggests that detonation came closer than official reports indicated. The full details of the crash have remained classified and otherwise repressed by the Air Force, but the filmmaker, Portlander Matt McCormick, grew up with this story because the pilot was his grandfather. As McCormick recounts the history of the era, aspects of this crash, and other little-know nuclear-weapons accidents, he leaves us wondering if the U.S. was in greater danger of nuking itself than of being attacked by the Russians.

WICCA

2018 · ★ 10

I was scrounging around the neighborhood for inspiration. Within a block from my apartment, I found a wild mushroom in the grass, and an advertisement for a psychic named Sara.

1985: Heroes among Ruins

2022

"1985: Heroes among Ruins" is a reflection of disaster. It is about the human solidarity, the search and rescue and the importance of civil protection, but above all, the triumph of the people over devastation during the earthquake of September 19, 1985 in Mexico City and the one ocurred in September 19, 2017.