Dawnland
“My foster mother told me … she would save me from being Penobscot.” For most of the 20th century, government agents systematically forced Native American children from their homes and placed them with white families. As recently as the 1970’s, one in four Native children nationwide were living in non-Native foster care, adoptive homes, or […]
Heart
Filmmaker Sam Karney and Metis poet Katherena Vermette journey to Winnipeg’s North End, one of the most economically depressed and violent neighbourhoods in Canada, only to find some of the most wonderful and warm people, dispelling many of their preconceptions of the people who call the place home.
Sgaawaay K’uuna [Edge of the Knife]
![Still from Sgaawaay K'uuna [Edge of the Knife]](https://www.cinemapolitica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/EdgeOfTheKnife1.jpg.webp)
The first feature film made entirely in the Haida language — a critically endangered language spoken fluently by fewer than 20 people — EDGE OF THE KNIFE is set in 19th century Haida Gwaii. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes […]
Wall (Le Mur)
Wall is a feature-length animated film written by and starring playwright and two-time Academy Award® nominee for screenwriting (The Hours, The Reader) David Hare, whom The Washington Post referred to as “the premiere political dramatist writing in English.” Hare’s body of work spans 35 years and deftly explores socio-political issues at home and abroad. The […]
State of Exception
As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympics, a community of self-described “urban Indians” are threatened with forced eviction to make way for a stadium named after the original indigenous inhabitants of the territory. As the mega-events begin threatening a number of other communities with displacement, residents unite […]
Turkey on the Edge
For the first time a documentary shows the radical changes in Turkey from an inner perspective and what it means to be part of the opposition. Turkish filmmaker Imre Azem accompanies four protagonists for one year in the state of emergency: Fatih Polat, journalist and editor in chief of the left-wing Newspaper Evernsel; Gül Köksal, […]
The Feeling of Being Watched
In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations […]
Emwas: Restoring Memories
Emwas is a personal film that follows the journey of the director, Dima Abu Ghoush, as she rebuilds her demolished hometown from the memories of its people. The film follows the journey of the director, Dima Abu Ghoush, as she rebuilds her demolished hometown, Emwas, in the form of a maquette (model). Dima was born […]
Bisbee ’17
BISBEE ’17 is a nonfiction feature film by Sundance award winning director Robert Greene set in Bisbee, an eccentric old mining town on the Arizona-Mexico border that finally reckons with its darkest day: the deportation of 1200 immigrant miners exactly 100 years ago. Locals collaborate to stage recreations of their controversial past. Radically combining documentary […]
The Ceremony
Two young warrior siblings, Vim and Hax, are living in a post-apocalyptic world caused by climate change. For 150 years, the air has not been breathable for humans. As such, their whole community lives in high tech homes to keep them alive, and must wear helmets to venture outdoors. But it hasn’t stopped them from […]
Love, Scott
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi In October of 2013, a young gay musician left the bar to walk home, unaware that his life was about to be irrevocably altered. Turning the corner up a street in small town Nova Scotia, Scott Jones was viciously attacked and left paralyzed […]
Lost Alien
Blending documentary techniques with surrealist and silent filmmaking, LOST ALIEN captures the Afrofuturist cosplay of ZiggZaggerZ the Bastard as a photosensitive black alien stranded on a sunlit planet. Having lost her way from the continuum of cosmic blackness, we watch as she wanders through the planet’s forest, struggling against the debilitating effects of the sun […]
post_cunt
Imagine how bodies will relate to each other in the future, how intimacy will be radically different. Imagine trans and queer bodies having access to ways of mutating organically; reshaping their mortal flesh with their own hands or those of others to suit their desires in the moment, to gender-hack matter; a dance of monsters, […]
3000 Nights
Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri’s stunning feature debut is inspired by a true story and shot in a real prison. 3000 NIGHTS traces a young mother’s journey of hope, resilience and survival against all odds. Accused of helping a teenage boy on the run, Layal, a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher, finds herself incarcerated in a top security […]
What Is Democracy?
What does it mean for the people to rule—and is that something we even want? Director Astra Taylor’s idiosyncratic, philosophical journey takes us from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism’s roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its […]
Etlinisigu’niet (Bleed Down)
Attempts to “get rid of the Indian problem” have failed. The future is coming. A howl of pain rips across the land in Etlinisigu’niet as traditional life gives way to Indigenous peoples being starved to ensure compliance with government orders. Children forced from their families and penned into the horrors of residential school. Men, women […]