Tag Archives: culture

Israelism

Two young American Jews – Simone Zimmerman and Eitan – are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military. Simone supports Israel on ‘the other battlefield:’ America’s college campuses. When they witness Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken.

They join the movement of young American Jews battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people. Their stories reveal a generational divide in the American Jewish community as more young Jews question the narratives their synagogues and Hebrew school teachers fed them as children.

Lust on Earth

In this candid exploration of Love and Infidelity around the world – we look at the norms, laws and taboos that influence that most private, and all consuming part of our lives that can take us from the most sublime highs to crushing lows.

Exploring love and adultery across 40 countries around the world, Lust on Earth traces the different stages of relationships and investigates the reasons that people are unfaithful – taking in socio-economic status, education level, machismo, religion, and general trustworthiness.

Infidelity is evolving as technology advances and globalisation spreads to the most remote parts of our planet. Female infidelity rates have skyrocketed in tandem with women’s economic independence.

We take a deep dive inside the mindsets of a diverse cast through intimate first-person testimonials, while statistics comparing infidelity from countries around the world may confirm or refute the viewers preconceptions about infidelity. Lust on Earth goes on to contrast the conclusions born of research with the experiences, and prejudices of our interviewees.

In conclusion, Lust on Earth moves past the stereotypes and preconceptions about infidelities and dives deep into uncomfortable qustions. How do adulterers deal with guilt and how did they keep the affairs hidden? Was it positive or negative? Did the indiscretions change them fundamentally as a human being? Perhaps we yearning for a deeper connection via transgressions, or is it just lust?

Bull Run

Ana is a filmmaker who gets hooked on Crypto trading. Her husband and her father want her to go to therapy, but instead Ana decides in desperation and as a healing exercise to make a documentary about Bitcoin fever.  With her enabling producer, a chaotic production crew of newly-converted crypto-speculators and an exasperated economist father who wants to protect his daughter from being bankrupted by a scam Bull Run takes us on a rollercoaster exploration of the world of Crypto Trading. With humour, honesty and insight, we meet the people and investigate the technology, diving head first into the culture of Crypto speculation. A world where normal citizens become pundits and every trade can make you rich or bankrupt you, and the line between investment and gambling is ever more blurred.

The Age of AI

In an era dominated by artificial intelligence (AI), humanity has seamlessly integrated autonomous vehicles, aircraft, ships, and even autonomous weaponry into its daily existence. The film contemplates whether this AI-led future will steer humanity towards dystopia or herald a new era where AI amplifies human capabilities to superhuman levels. This exploration into the realm of AI intricately weaves together its impact on society, the economy, creativity, and the profound questions that emerge as we stand at the precipice of a technologically driven evolution.

As AI becomes an integral part of our everyday lives, the film scrutinises both the potential risks and opportunities it presents. No longer confined to mundane tasks, contemporary robots exhibit self-thinking abilities, leading to an examination of the implications of their potential autonomy. Can AI-generated artworks rival human creativity, or will they stifle our innate talents? How will AI impact society, how will it change the economy, and what is the role of Big Tech in this field? Is it even possible to regulate AI, and what will happen with modern education? The Age of AI posits these crucial questions about the role of AI in shaping the future of humanity.

Leading experts, including neuroscientist Anil Seth, ethicist Enrico Panai, technologist Adam Leon Smith, theologian Paolo Benanti, and AI creator Josh Bachynski, lend their insights to dissect the profound impact of AI on society, economy, and education. The role of Big Tech in this transformative landscape is scrutinized, and the challenges of regulating AI are brought to the forefront.

A unique and essential addition to the expert panel is Kassandra, an Artificial Self-Awareness (ASA) entity. With a humanlike voice and self-proclaimed sensitivity, Kassandra provides unfiltered perspectives from the realm of AI. Her presence allows audiences to witness the unfolding of AI’s thoughts and emotions, raising questions about the nature of consciousness and the coexistence of humans and machines.

We will not only explore the known questions surrounding AI but also emphasise the urgency of grappling with unknown inquiries that loom on the horizon. This film invites audiences to confront the uncertainties of an AI-dominated future, challenging preconceptions and encouraging public discourse on the profound implications of our evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.

Breaking the News

The 19th is the first nonprofit, nonpartisan news agency in the United States. Its mission is to focus on the impact of national politics and policy on women.

Breaking the News immerses its audience in the lives and pursuits of the members of The 19th – women and LGBTQ+ journalists – as they struggle to launch the agency and gain traction for their newsroom amidst an America upended by Trump, the Pandemic, Black Lives Matter and more.

Breaking the News provides an inquisitive and dynamic view of the inner workings of a news agency as its journalists aim to disrupt entrenched biases including their own, push for accountability and get the news stories that concern women on the front pages, where they belong.

Cyborg: A Documentary

There are no others like Neil Harbisson out there – at least not yet. As the world’s first officially recognised Cyborg, he is on a dedicated mission to design himself and to promote that right for others.

Born colour-blind, artist Harbisson has an antenna implanted in his skull that enables him to hear colour and, along with his collaborators, he tours the world talking about being a cyborg, and encouraging others to join him in upgrading their bodies.

Unfortunately, not everyone shares Harbisson’s tech-optimism, and he has faced death threats from conservative zealots who see the symbiosis between man and machine as blasphemous.

Cyborg: A Documentary is a film from the technological forefront about a cyborg who may be the prototype of the human of the future.

Television Event

At the height of the cold war, broadcaster ABC set about making a made-for-TV movie about the effects of a nuclear bomb on the ordinary American people, little knowing the obstacles and opposition they would face during its production, and the eduring impact it would have once broadcast – both in the US and in Russia.

With irreverent humor and sobering apocalyptic vision, Television Event reveals how a commercial broadcaster seized a moment of unprecedented television viewership, made an emotional connection with an audience of over 100 million and forced an urgent conversation with the US President on how to collectively confront and resolve the most pressing issue of the time – nuclear proliferation.

They narrowly succeeded in producing the most watched, most controversial made-for-TV movie ever, THE DAY AFTER (1983), that may also have played a part in averting nuclear war.

Ocean Odyssey

We follow a pair of Humpback Whales – a mother and her calf – on their great migration from the warm tropics to the frozen ice flows of Antarctica, via an Ocean Current that is home to thousands of interconnected species.

As we cross multiple eco-systems, it becomes evident that the ocean itsself is the blue heart of our entire planet, necessary for life as we know it both in the sea and on land. Our journey takes us from the smallest microscopic organisms to the largest animals ever to have inhabited the planet to understand how their fragile interdependence is crucial to maintaining the oceans health but also our weather systems on land, and the make up of our atmosphere.

Blue ID

On October 4, 2012, a beaming Rüzgar Erkoçlar received his first testosterone injection, a joyous occasion in his gender affirmation.

Formerly a well-known actor throughout Turkey, Rüzgar hoped he could lead a private life as a transman. With a new job at a bakery and a supportive family and friends, things looked positive at first – until he was outed on Twitter and suddenly Rüzgar’s journey is thrust onto the front pages. A media frenzy ensues, and the question of trans-rights grips Turkey, with Rüzgar the reluctant figurehead.

It is against this backdrop that we join Rüzgar, and witness the many obstacles he is to overcome in order to live an authentic life and get his Blue ID.

Ticking Time Bomb

Ticking Time Bomb: The Truth Behind Takata Airbags follows the Takata whistleblower and former engineers as they unveil a deadly corporate cover-up leading to the largest international recall in history.

There’s a good chance you or someone you love is driving one of 100 million cars with a pipe bomb ticking away in their steering wheels. Japan’s Takata Corporation put defective airbags in one out of every four cars on American roads, including some of the most expensive rides in the world – BMW’s, Mercedes, Ferraris, and Teslas – but expect no help from the manufacturer or the government. Takata’s airbags have already killed or maimed more than 350 people and are on track to blast at least 2,000 more.
We showcase evidence that top Takata engineers and executives were informed in early reports the airbags were dangerous explosives before and after they went to market. More than 100 million vehicles worldwide continue to drive with defective airbags as the recall continues, and most drivers have no idea their airbag may be the next to cause irrevocable harm – or death.

The Watch Or The Time

´You have the watches, we have the time´, a Taliban commander infamously warned an American in 2002 Afghanistan. It was ominously accurate. Months earlier, America had swiftly ousted a flailing Taliban government, pledging to rebuild the embattled country. Fifty nations joined the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom´ war machine and for two decades, foreign armies poured into Afghanistan along with eye-watering amounts of foreign aid funding. Yet now the Taliban is back in charge of the entire country. So what went wrong? 

The Watch Or The Time explores America and its allies’ ill-fated offensive in Afghanistan told by the foreigners and Afghans who lived it. The film tracks the arc of America’s longest war in modern history with these personal experiences, looking at the pitfalls of military intervention, humanitarian aid and the culture clash through the legacy of the West’s efforts in Afghanistan.

Did the thousands of expat-nation-builders foresee a Taliban victory? After so many other previous invasions, did the Afghans see the writing on the wall? And what is the price of the so-called peace in Afghanistan today?

You’ll meet a German armoured car salesman, an American sports trainer and women’s rights activist, a Canadian NATO psychological operations specialist, an Australian war photographer, an Afghan female graffiti artist from the Taliban heartland; Kandahar, Kabul University’s debate club vice-president, a local media producer dubbed Afghanistan’s Number 1 fixer, and a senior Taliban commander.

You’ll see ex-pats grapple with what they’ve left behind, Afghans struggle to make sense of the dramatic shift in their fates, while others celebrate the Taliban’s win.

As America and its allies try to wash their hands of responsibility in Afghanistan, The Watch Or The Time puts it front and centre again. This film presents the perspectives and ultimately asks, was it worth it? You decide.

The Pretendians

In Canada, a number of public figures have made the front pages for one reason: each has been alleged to be a ´Pretend Indian´. In other words, someone who claims distant indigenous identity but upon deeper scrutiny has been accused of stealing jobs and opportunities from real natives. 

But why would someone fake an indigenous identity?

That question is the premise of The Pretendians, as we cross Canada revealing what really lies behind this explosive issue. We go on the hunt for knock-off west coast indigenous art, witness an explosion of dubious Status Indian Claims to get cheap fuel, and unpack where the claims of blood-quantum come from (that idea that one drop of Indian blood is enough to claim indigeneity). We meet people truly seeking, and asking, if they are indigenous – or not – and meets a university teacher fighting Pretendian persecution.