Tag Archives: Politics

Out Run

As leader of the world’s only LGBT political party, Bemz Benedito dreams of being the first transgender woman in the Philippine Congress. But in a predominantly Catholic nation, rallying for LGBT representation in the halls of Congress is not an easy feat.

Bemz and her eclectic team of queer political warriors must rethink traditional campaign strategies to amass support from unlikely places. Taking their equality campaign to small-town hair salons and regional beauty pageants, the activists mobilise working-class trans hairdressers and beauty queens to join the fight against their main political opponent, a homophobic evangelical preacher, and prove to the Filipino electorate that it’s time to take the rights of LGBT people seriously. But as outsiders trying to get inside the system, will they have to compromise their political ideals in order to win?

Culminating on election day, Out Run provides a unique look into the challenges LGBT people face as they transition into the mainstream and fight for dignity, legitimacy, and acceptance across the globe.

Out Run from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

A Revolution in Four Seasons

This seminal film tells the story of two women with opposing political views fighting for their different versions of a democratic future for Tunisia, the country that sparked the Arab Spring.

Over the course of Tunisia’s critical post-revolution years, we follow journalist Emna Ben Jemaa, who envisions a country governed by free speech and without the corruption of the former regime. In contrast, Jawhara Ettis of the Islamist party Ennahda works towards a Tunisia guided by Islamic principles.

On a public level, both women must navigate how females are treated in their society, while in their own homes they must make difficult choices to balance their public political roles with marriage and motherhood.

Both know the stakes are high and the ever-present threat of Islamic extremists means their fragile political process could break down at any moment and all they’ve worked for could be lost.

Through the intertwined stories of Emna and Jawhara, the unresolved tensions of the Arab spring are laid bare. A Revolution in Four Seasons gives both a comprehensive review of this crucial period as well as an intimate look at what these sometimes painful compromises mean for those living in a country struggling to define itself.

A Revolution in Four Seasons from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

BAKUR: Inside the PKK

Shot in secret, BAKUR: Inside the PKK is the worlds first documentary made with inside access to the Kurdish separatist group, who are considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and NATO. The result is an inside look at the undeclared war going on in Turkey for decades. This was the first time any film crew had ever accessed these camps.

To date, the PKK has lost over 30 thousand of its members in combat against the Turkish State. What is the PKK’s perception of the state, justice and authority? What constitutes the foundation of their relationship to the people? How did the Kurdish movement evolve over the years into a battle for freedom founded on the women’s rights movement? How do the guerrillas who have been living under wartime conditions for 40 years manage to survive all year-round in the harsh outdoor living conditions in the mountains?

In search for answers to all of these questions, BAKUR: Inside the PKK introduces the audience to men and women who have chosen to join the armed resistance in order to create a new future. We witness life in three guerrilla camps located in three different regions of Kurdish territory within the Turkish borders.

Beautifully shot over months, we follow the lives of guerrilla fighters including the training and graduation of new recruits, their justice system and the progressive philosophies that guide them.

 

BAKUR: Inside the PKK from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

The Sacred City

The Sacred City presents compelling evidence that suggests the holy city of Mecca is in the wrong location and that the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims are praying in the direction of the wrong city. Compiling evidence from both historic sources and new technologies point to the correct location in this seismic, revelatory new film.

In this startling and original documentary, writer and historian, Dan Gibson, shows that descriptions of Mohamed’s original holy city – as detailed in the Qur’an and Islamic histories, do not match that of the Mecca we know today.  If true this could shake Islam to it’s roots, because every Muslim is required to pray towards  the ‘forbidden gathering place’. If Dan Gibson is right, Muslims are praying in the wrong direction.

In the film ‘The Sacred City’ we set out his evidence from within Islamic and ancient histories – while also using modern technologies –  to track down the biggest secret of the last fifteen hundred years. Gibson not only finds the location of the original Mecca but also provides a convincing argument as to how such a great misunderstanding in Islamic history came about.

While clearly controversial, The Sacred City is respectful of Islam’s prophet, and does not dispute the events of the Qur’an; but shows how a deliberate attempt was made to hide from Islam, secrets that impact every Muslim today. The evidence is compelling and fascinating.

In a time when the world agenda is being set by Islam, it is more important than ever for the origins and history of this world religion to be examined afresh. This is an important documentary with world-wide appeal for both religious and secular audiences.

Beautifully filmed in the ruins and deserts of the middle east, the film is a detective story that investigates the dawn of Islam and will become the most talked about film for years to come.

The Sacred City from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Code of Silence

Code of Silence follows the parallel journeys of a fervently Orthodox Jewish father and his now-secular son, after the son Manny breaks the code of silence in Melbourne’s Orthodox community and goes public with his story of being sexually abused as a school student.

Manny Waks claims he was abused by an Orthodox Jewish security guard, who also taught boys karate, at the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne. Now Manny is demanding his abuser be brought to justice, and the rabbis and Chabad leaders who tried to cover it up, are brought to account.

His father Zephaniah joins forces with his son, but soon finds he has been virtually excommunicated for breaking an ancient Jewish law forbidding Jews from informing secular authorities about other Jews.

We see how father and son split this tightly-knit, powerful Jewish community as we open the door into their insular world of study and duty, charity and faith, power and piety.

Will Manny get justice in court? Will the rabbis be held to account? And, what price will the father and son pay for blowing the whistle?

 

Code of Silence from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Call Me Dad

Can violent men change? Call Me Dad is a film that takes its audience to the most delicate and painful place inside a parent’s heart. A place where good intentions and hope are pitted against entrenched and tormenting cycles of violence.

For some of these fathers, their fists are their weapons. For others, words and manipulation are most potent, used as part of a sustained pattern of intimidation, threats, and abuse intended to isolate, diminish and control the people they love. Now these men are seeking change. They have come together to talk, share information, challenge and support each other to be better men, partners and fathers to their children.

The group’s founder and facilitator David Nugent believes that women and children have the right to live their lives free from violence, and that men can change if they have the will and opportunity to do so. He challenges men to take ownership of their abusive and violent behaviours, and shows them that they can make different choices, and in doing so, can stop the cycle of violence.

David draws these men deep into conversation about the underbelly of patriarchal forms of masculinity, and the ways in which sexism can harm and diminish women, and constrict and isolate men.

Together the participants in David’s program are reaching for the courage and knowledge they need to be good partners, and good fathers. These men have taken the brave and difficult decision to confront their behaviours and histories head-on. These Dads are fighting to change the story for the next generation. Can these men re-establish ‘family’?

Somaliland: An Experiment In Democracy

In 1991 the northern section of Somalia declared itself an independent democratic state, since then Somaliland has struggled on its path to find international recognition while the rest of Somalia has become infamous for anarchy and violence.

Somaliland: An Experiment in Democracy follows the 2012 election spotlighting the difficulties of running an election in an undeveloped country with a fragile infrastructure. While threats from outside (including terrorism and piracy) and inside (such as factionalism and vote rigging) loom over the process, one man is tasked with keeping the election fair.

We follow Ali – an ex-investment banker from Toronto – who gave up his old life to run the electoral commission, and it is through him that we see the scale of the challenge facing Somaliland’s nascent democracy.

Somaliland: An Experiment in Democracy is a close up look at how democracy functions under difficult and unfamiliar circumstances, and gives an insight into why so many countries fail in their attempts to have a system based on popular representation.

Resistencia

“A thoroughly captivating window into history as never told by the winners — beautiful, enraging, profoundly inspiring.” Naomi Klein

June 28th, 2009. The Honduran people are preparing to vote in the first referendum in the country’s history. But, instead of waking up to ballot boxes, they see soldiers carrying out the first coup d’état in Central America in three decades.

This is the story of the two thousand farming families who challenged the coup by taking over the plantations of the most powerful landowner in the country and converting them into worker-run cooperatives.

Shot over four years, the film is both a testament to the capacity of an organized movement to transform the most fertile land in the country, as well as an account of the coup regime’s violent attempts to get the land back.

Burzynski: Cancer Cure Cover Up

Burzynski: The Cancer Cure Cover-up is the story of a pioneering biochemist who discovered a unique and proprietary method of successfully treating most cancers. This documentary takes the audience on a near 50-year journey both Dr. Burzynski and his patients have been enduring in order to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of Antineoplastons. Defying the face of skepticism, legal attacks from state and federal agencies, and a powerful propaganda campaign to stop Burzynski – this doctor and his patients are still going strong.

Due to the continued failed efforts of state and federal agencies in their attempts to stop Burzynski from continuing to treat patients and expand his research, special interest groups have since launched a relentless propaganda campaign against Dr. Burzynski, and his supporters and patients, in hopes  that this game-changing innovation never reach the open market.

The primary reason that the cancer industry and its regulatory agencies fear the approval of Antineoplastons is purely economical.

If Antineoplastons were FDA-approved for just one cancer type this would mean that anyone of any age diagnosed with any type of cancer could legally insist their oncologist provide them with Antineoplastons “off-label”.   Given the gentle and nontoxic nature of these medications, most people would begin to opt for Antineoplastons as a first line of defense against their cancer instead of first choosing life-threatening yet profitable chemotherapy and radiation.

Burzynski: The Cancer Cure Cover-up investigates this hidden cancer treatment and the decades of failed lawsuits the US government and FDA have pursued in order to try to silence him.

Burning From the Inside

German and Greek nationalists have paradoxically joined forces, and grown in numbers promoting a fascist agenda while on both sides, antifascists have risen to challenge them amidst a backdrop of global recession, finger-pointing and scapegoating. 

Burning from the Inside charts the rise of the Greek Nazis ‘Golden Dawn’ – the ‘monstrous’ child of the crisis – the changes they brought to Greek society after their entry to parliament, their collaboration with German Neo-Nazis in the formation of ‘Black International’, and their fall two years later with the murder of the anti-fascist Pavlos Fissas.

Through the trajectory of the party, we question the political and social structures of Greek leadership that fomented the rise of fascism and corruption, as well as the dis-function of Capitalism and Democracy in the country that gave birth to it. We also look at the role of Germany as the ‘queen of Europe’ and the extent to which she is responsible for developments in southern European countries.

While the rise of far right may seem unthinkable, dramatic scenes of racially motivated blood shed on the streets of Athens, police brutality linked to membership of far-right organisations and institutional racism in Greece tell a different story. Meanwhile, in Germany a more subtle, insidious message reaches the public with headlines blaming ‘lazy Greeks’ and other minorities within the country. Burning from the Inside is a visceral indictment of a deadly minority on the fringes of Europe that we ignore at our peril.

Inside Her Sex

Inside Her Sex is a thought-provoking documentary that explores female sexuality and shame through the eyes and experiences of three women from different walks of life, each brave enough to chart her own course of sexual discovery.

While we live in a highly sexualized society, the messaging around sexuality, particularly female sexuality, is distorted and rife with shame. What we should look like, who we should want, what we should desire…in fact, who we should be, is dictated to us from screens and pages and people. As if there is one correct answer.

Stepping outside the common narrative is never straightforward. Exposing our deeper selves can be terrifying, even risky.

Candice, Elle, and Samantha have little in common. Not their age, not their hometowns, not their family circumstances. But they are all women. They are all sexual. And be it through circumstance or happenstance, they have each faced their sexual selves head on, and chosen to step outside the bounds of what society has dictated they should be, raising some interesting questions:

What happens if we are able to tap into our innate sexuality? To push beyond the bounds of societal structure and expectation? To stand up to powerful messaging and divert from the prescribed course?

Mad As Hell

The Young Turks, one the most popular online news show in the world, has amassed a YouTube network of over 2.4 million subscribers and 2 billion views. But that wasn’t always the case.

MAD AS HELL documents the tumultuous, at times hilarious and altogether astonishing trajectory of Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks’ main host and founder, as he traverses from unknown Public Access TV host to internet sensation by way of YouTube. When he ventures into national television by landing the 6 PM time slot on MSNBC, Cenk’s uncensored brand of journalism is compromised as he becomes a thorn in the side of traditional news media; his unwavering dedication to speaking the truth puts him at the nexus of the battle between new and old media, and makes MAD AS HELL not only entertaining, but incredibly timely as well.