Tag Archives: World

The Encampments

The occupation of Columbia University by pro-Palestinian students made waves around the world.

A group of students set up camp on the lawn of Columbia University in New York, and founded the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to protest the war in Gaza, and to protest their own university’s investment in the US and Israeli arms industry. An action that made waves around the world and quickly grew into the largest protest movement since the Vietnam War. But the world has changed.

The Encampments is a film about power and resistance in the 21st century, where both have taken on new forms, while the role of universities as bastions of democracy, critical thinking and freedom of expression is under threat.

We are plunged into the high-stakes drama with full access to the hard core of dedicated organizers led by Mahmoud Khalil as they face fierce resistance from the police, the media and their own fellow students.

 

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An urgent protest film that carries the same conviction and resolve of the students who organized these demonstrations last spring.

At only 80 minutes, The Encampments tells a fascinating, ripped-from-the-headlines story.. As a snapshot of a particular few weeks in which a protest movement was born and spread, it’s an effective and prescient documentary. Eerily, in one of the last shots in which Khalil is shown, he’s asked by an off-camera voice, “What would happen to you if you were deported?” to which he responds, “I will live.”

The Encampments shows that same determination and confidence from other young people who carry the responsibility of attempting change.

Variety

 

It’s a stark and powerful reminder of what the protesters are actually protesting.

The Washington Post

 

The Encampments chronicles how students at Columbia ignited a far-reaching and influential solidarity movement last spring… it takes a harrowing turn once the filmmakers observe university responses to the student occupations spreading across campuses.

The Encampments not just critical in capturing the real-time makings of a movement, but in laying bare the consequences of this response.

The Hollywood Reporter

 

The Encampments is a very conventional documentary on purpose. It mounts its argument with little flare and with muted aestheticization, all to dispel the hysteria surrounding its subject… it is already making an appeal to posterity.

The New Yorker

 

This rousing documentary explores the impact of and responses to student solidarity with Palestine without getting caught up in polemics… Stirring and tense.

Sight and Sound

The Veto: The Single Greatest Threat to Global Peace & Security

For 80 years, the UN Security Council permanent member veto power has been the subject of constant debate, within the UN and without.

The veto itself isn’t going away—it’s ‘veto-proof’. But when vetoes are cast in the face of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, obligations under international law and the UN Charter must be considered. Such veto uses have led to massive loss of life, displacement of millions, and the multilateral order pushed to a breaking point.

This film, featuring leading global experts and ongoing situations affected by the veto including Gaza and Ukraine, puts aside ‘the impossibility of change’ and explores real paths to breaking the Security Council deadlock.

Russians at War

Anastasia Trofimova gains unprecedented access to follow a Russian Army battalion in Ukraine. Without any official clearance or permits, she earns the trust of foot soldiers and over seven months embeds herself with the battalion as it makes its way across the frontlines.

What she discovers is far from the narratives propagated by the East or West: a war cutting through family and historical ties, soldiers disillusioned and often struggling to understand what they are fighting for.

Aquarius: Dreamers, Tree-Huggers and Radical Ratbags

When thousands of young people travelled the back roads of Northern New South Wales 50 years ago to camp and explore a new way of living at Nimbin Aquarius Festival something unexpected happened amongst all the bliss, drugs and revolutionary zeal.

In May 1973, 10,000 artists, activists, hippies, radical students, gurus and visionaries descended on a small dairy town for 10 days of social and cultural exploration that changed a generation.

Those 10 days birthed an irrepressible movement and a manifesto for sustainable change. Aquarius is a film about the people and the power of change, of unintended consequences and the radical wisdom that reaches down through generations today.

Sex Robot Madness

As Big Tech shifts its focus from the attention economy to the emerging “intimacy economy,” the question arises: Are we ready for customizable lovebots designed to push our most primal buttons? Sex Robot Madness is a fast-paced, unapologetic dive into human-machine intimacy, where the line between connection and commodification blurs.

Through interviews with leading experts, authors, sex workers, inventors, and even the world’s first commercially available sex robot, this documentary explores whether sex robots will serve as a solution to the epidemic of loneliness—or if they’ll pour gasoline on the fire of societal isolation. The debate is fierce, with strong and sometimes terrifying points made on both sides.

Tough ethical questions about the commodification of intimacy, the objectification of women, and the implications of leasing a lover from a major corporation are just part of what’s tackled head-on. Intelligent, humorous, and deeply personal, Sex Robot Madness charts the filmmaker’s own journey as he grapples with the allure of artificial intimacy in his own life.

No stone is left unturned, weaving personal vulnerability with a punk rock attitude and a sense of urgency. Society can’t afford to be caught off guard by a future filled with robots capable of fulfilling our deepest desires. Whether you find the idea thrilling or terrifying, one thing is clear: It’s time to have this conversation—before we’re surrounded on all sides by artificial lovers who may understand us better than we understand ourselves.

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.

Taiwan: On the Brink of War

Taiwan: On the Brink of War explores the threat of war with China, explaining how the conflict has already gotten underway as China directs grey-zone conflict, disinformation and other measures at Taiwan, fomenting political polarization.

It delves China’s demands to unify Taiwan with what it calls the Chinese Motherland, and how this is part of a larger project including Hong Kong. The film finds China’s harsh control of Hong Kong’s has rebounded on Taiwan, whose fate hinges on Beijing’s choices and the state of the US-China rivalry.

But Taiwan is taking its future in its own hands, and, even if it may be wanting in military readiness, Taiwan is growing stronger. Many civilians are also girding themselves for war, having learned lessons from Ukraine’s clash with Russia.

Taiwan: The Making of a Nation

Taiwan: The Making of a Nation examines how Taiwan has developed into a nation – despite not being able to call itself a nation due to Chinas claimed ownership.

The Making of a Nation provides a nuanced exploration of the historical factors that have contributed to societal divisions, examining the forces shaping Taiwanese society, including the tension between economic interests and environmental concerns, indigenous rights and political clashes related to China.

The documentary discusses the emergence of democracy in the 1990s and how it empowered civil society to atonishing reforms and economic growth.

The Caravan

Born of desperation, a caravan of migrants left Honduras in October 2018 with the goal of walking to the US border with Mexico. Donald Trump repudiated these migrants as they traveled north through Central America, inflating the threat they posed to the United States declaring that they were drug dealers, criminals and Islamic terrorists.

The Caravan follows Yuri, eight months pregnant, as she walks from her home in Honduras towards the US border with her husband Mike and two-year old son Santi. Yuri is determined to give birth in the United States, guaranteeing her second child US citizenship. For her husband Mike, it is an opportunity to escape the endemic corruption, violence and poverty that plague Honduras and create a more secure future for his young family.

Like millions of Americans before them, the story of their journey is one of determination, faith, and a desire to build a new life in the promised land.

The Age of Robots

In a world where robots seamlessly coexist with humanity, serving as both companions and collaborators, the future of artificial intelligence (AI) unfolds with a series of intriguing questions that challenge the very fabric of human existence. This film delves into the intricate tapestry of AI’s impact on society, the economy, creativity, and the existential questions that arise as we teeter on the brink of a technologically driven evolution.

As the line between humans and machines blurs, The Age of Robots takes us on a journey to explore the prospective sentience of AI. No longer confined to menial tasks, today’s robots possess self-thinking capabilities, prompting an exploration into the consequences of their potential autonomy. What happens when robots take over the workforce? Can AI-generated artworks rival human creativity, or will they inhibit our unique talents? Also, what will future AIs look like, how will it change humanity in general, and if it’s possible that machines can gain self-awareness or sentience, will humans become 2nd smartest beings on Earth? What will be 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.

This film not only explores the known questions surrounding AI but also emphasizes the urgency of grappling with unknown inquiries that loom on the horizon. The 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.

Searching for Nika

When Russian forces invaded Ukraine and bombed Kyiv, film director Stas Kapralov’s family dog, Nika, ran away… Determined to find her, Stas sets out into the devastation and documents his journey as he joins volunteers helping to rescue animals. Becoming a part of their cause, Stas films the trials and successes of the volunteers as he continues his search for Nika, which takes him to ‘Sirus’ Animal Shelter, the largest in Europe, housing 3,500 animals, and still receiving emaciated and hungry dogs daily. There he meets Alexandra, the shelter director, who regularly risks her life to find food for the animals and is determined never to abandon them. Alexandra’s iron inspires Stas, and even though he is unable to locate Nika, he does not give up hope and decides to take a more active role in helping the volunteers and animals in need.

Joining forces with another volunteer, Olena, Stas documents and aids in rescuing a blind and abandoned lion, Ruru, as she’s brought across the Ukrainian border to Poland. Later, he meets Alex, a volunteer who helped Kyiv inhabitants escape the city at the start of the war and now risks his life rescuing cats left behind by their owners… Among the rubble of a bombed and burned stables, Stas hears Yura’s story, whose horses were like family members, many dying in the bombings, as he now searches for a safe home for them… In another instance, Stas journeys to Harkov, experiencing mortar shelling first-hand, as he becomes part of urgent evacuations of animals at a zoo actively being bombed, where two volunteers had been killed in previous days…

What begins as a journey motivated by the disappearance of his dog, Nika, becomes a mission to document and aid in a humanitarian movement to help as many animals as possible in Ukraine. Documenting and participating in this journey, Stas discovers stories of altruism and humanity amidst the harshest landscape of war…  and by the end of his journey, Stas finally finds out what happened to his dog Nika.

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.