Cocaine Bear: The True Story (2023)

In August 1991 a failed coup d'état attempt (known as Putsch) led by a group of hard-core communists in Moscow, ended the 70-year-long rule of the Soviets. The USSR collapsed soon after, and the tricolour of the sovereign Russian Federation flew over Kremlin. As president Gorbachev was detained by the coup leaders, state-run TV and radio channels, usurped by the putschists, broadcast Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" instead of news bulletins, and crowds of protestors gathered around Moscow's White House, preparing to defend the stronghold of democratic opposition led by Boris Yeltsin, in the city of Leningrad thousands of confused, scared, excited and desperate people poured into the streets to become a part of the event, which was supposed to change their destiny. A quarter of a century later, Sergei Loznitsa revisits the dramatic moments of August 1991 and casts an eye on the event which was hailed worldwide as the birth of "Russian democracy". What really happened in Russia in August 1991? What was the driving force behind the crowds on the Palace Square in Leningrad? What exactly are we witnessing: the collapse or the regime or its' creative re-branding? Who are these people looking at the camera: victors or victims?—ATOMS & VOID

GRAIN is a documentary that explores the stories of those committed to using film in modern day photography.

FRAMING AGNES turns the talk show format inside out in response to media's ongoing fascination with trans people. The film breathes life into six previously unknown stories from the archives of the UCLA Gender Clinic in the 1950s.

9 January 2022, the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. 30 minutes into the first half, Federico Chiesa collapses to the ground, screaming in pain. He has torn the cruciate ligament of his left knee. A ten-month ordeal, during which Federico will have to rediscover himself as a footballer and as a man, begins here. By his side, his family, his teammates, the Juventus staff and a precious new love.

The district of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean in Brussels has become world-famous as a center of jihadism, but for six-year-old Aatos and his friend Amine, it is a familiar home. Here, they listen to spiders, discover black holes, and fight about what is going to steer a flying carpet. Together they search for the answers to life's big questions. But the brutality of the adult world makes itself known when terrorists detonate a bomb in the neighborhood. Aaatos envies Amine's Muslim faith and looks for his own gods, although his classmate Flo questions him; she is strongly convinced that anyone who believes in God is completely nuts. Gods of Molenbeek is a wonderful portrayal of childhood friendship, inquiry and the creation of meaning in a chaotic time.

In Mexico, citizens outraged by the rampant corruption and the way of doing politics are questioning power every day. This documentary shows the personal and direct experience involved in the act of governing through four protagonist who reveal what is "the power of the chair".

In 2014, Malian Toumani Kouyaté was urgently summoned to his native country to hear his grandfather tell his final story. Feeling death approaching, the experienced man decided to pass on the tradition.

Manuk, a five-year-old child, tells the story of the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra, a company of musicians, dancers, actors and circus artists coming from different places around the world.

An evocation of the God of war introduces the film. A framework ties together and abstracts seven portraits of Liberian warriors from their context. Their voices present war as an ineluctable human expression of destructive forces that are, at the same time, universal and individual, real and archetypical.

A personal, animated documentary about the director's life growing up in Latvia during the Soviet era 1970-1990, where Sovjet used WW2 as an ideological weapon to suppress and scare the population.

Downtown São Paulo, Brazil. An Apartment Building: 7 floors, 28 rooms, 107 residents who all have in common the addiction to crack. Over the course of several months, life in a social housing - part of a city hall "damage reduction" program about to be extinguished - is revealed. Characters on a hallucinated hunt for bonding and fighting passionately for life can be seen as the camera drifts through hallways, rooms, elevators, stairs; day and night. In this claustrophobic place, anything can happen.

Three families live in a village partially submerged by water in Northwestern Mexico. Despite their loneliness and fear, they refuse to leave.

An olive grove farmer on the southeast French border tries to help immigrants without papers, many of them black, crossing over from Italy, but runs into bureaucratic and racist obstructions.

Follows a man waiting in his hut in the desolate expanse of the Russian Arctic. He is holding out in order to observe a natural event that occurs here, every year, but ocean warming is taking its toll.

Documentary filmmakers follow electro-pop duo FINKEL as they set out to write a record from within the frozen forests of their hometown - Michigan's isolated and eccentric Mackinac Island.

Follows the mysterious disappearance of Travis Walton. Was he abducted by aliens?

A Decent Home is a documentary about manufactured homes in America. Focused on how these last vestiges of Affordable housing are facing trials as rich landowners raise rent and evict them from the land they rent, but do not own.

Follows the iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro and his editor, the literary giant Robert Gottlieb, in this chronicle of a unique 50-year professional relationship.

A poignant story about overcoming our demons and finding hope through darkness. Haunted by the affects of PTSD induced by fighting a war, the physical injuries that led to copious amounts of opiates, the emotional strain of his squad leader committing suicide, losing his best friend from overdosing on heroin, all combined with his drug addiction ultimately left Shawn losing all hope in life. He found himself facing a 20 year prison sentence, homeless, addicted to heroin, and out-casted by his family. 100 MILES TO REDEMPTION is a profound documentary that captures true insight on the inner struggle and mental anguish behind PTSD and Addiction. The story is told following the treacherous adventure of Army Veteran Shawn Livingston's journey running The Pinhoti 100 mile trail race through the Talladega National Forrest in Alabama - paralleled with his family's battle of living with his demons. Their lives unfold in front of us as we experience Shawn's past events that gave him the fight to run100 miles and the will to push forward.—Andrew Shebay

Children and staff in a special kind of home: an institution for children who have been removed from their homes while awaiting court custody decisions. Staff do their best to make the time children have there safe and supportive.

It follows Bert Kreischer as he spills on bodily emissions, being bullied by his kids and the end to his family's escape room outing.

Soláas's feature debut is a vérité chronicle of final examinations at Argentina's public universities, in which students from a wide array of disciplines-botany, anatomy, astronomy, law, physics, music-prepare for, worry about, and ultimately partake in oral tests. Soláas trains her focus on a diverse and disparate group of 12 such students, capturing the intensity, nerves, and pressure bound up in their by turns dramatic and absurd experience of the examinations. A singular work of observation and pathos, The Faculties offers a thought-provoking meditation on the contemporary state of education and marks an auspicious debut for Soláas.—Art of the Real

It combines fragments of Vivian Barrett´s diary with footage by Léon Barrett over the 40s through to the 60s of the 20th century.

The story of Eero Ettala, a professional snowboarder from Finland. The documentary tells about his career and includes his friends' and colleagues' comments.

A documentary film based on Liverpool football club's anthem of the same name. The anthem originated from the 1909 Hungarian play 'Liliom' and was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Adam, a young Tanzanian boy persecuted because of his albinism, finds a kindred spirit in Peter, a Canadian man with the same condition. Together they embark on an unlikely journey that transcends cultures and continents.

For Berliners, the Baltic island of Usedom was once the most luxurious destination for excursions within striking distance of the city. This is where imperial Germany's grand health resorts of Bansin, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck were built. Heinz Brinkmann, who was born in Heringsdorf, traces the eventful history of his island. He talks about the magnificent villas on Europe's longest beach promenade, about the expulsion of Jewish citizens by the Nazis and about Usedom being split into a German and a Polish half after the Second World War. During the GDR era, most of the spa architecture remained intact because of the lack of means to build something new. Since the fall of the Wall, however, investors have been trying to replace it with indistinguishable luxury residences. Brinkmann also asks people about conservation and change. We hear from the mayor infuriated by the architectural eyesores of recent years, a farmer who bought an island in the Achterwasser lagoon for his organic cattle, a Polish hotel manageress and other bridge-builders between the two countries. Brinkmann also quotes from his own 1992 Usedom film and compares the plans of his former protagonists with today's reality. A discursive tour through a fractured paradise.

Imagine your mind has been wiped: memories, knowledge, experiences, language - every word you ever spoke, has vanished. If eventually you found the words, what would you say? For Edwyn Collins, 'The Possibilities Are Endless'.

When music is your whole life, and suddenly life gets interrupted....

Vicenta lives with Laura, her 19-year-old daughter, who suffers from a developmental delay. Laura is pregnant, the product of rape by a family member. She is legally allowed to have an abortion, but the system will put all kinds of obstacles to make sure this doesn't happen.—Mar del Plata International Film Festival

Matt Lucas celebrates 50 years of the Mr Men and Little Misses, telling the amazing story of the colourful little characters who changed global publishing forever.

Recording the everyday was always a way of relating to the world. One night the rape happened and everything changed, although the search continued. When revisiting these images, a dialogue arises between light and darkness, while the strangeness remains before the world.

Follows David Letterman as he joins U2 musicians Bono and The Edge for a concert performance during his first visit to Dublin.