Chaylla (France) by Clara Teper, Paul Pirritano

Lens, in northern France. Chaylla, a 23-year-old woman, is trying to break free from an abusive relationship. She is ready to fight – to gain custody of her children, to have her ordeals vindicated. But, deep inside, she still harbours a lingering hope of becoming a family again with her ex-partner. From legal battles to inner struggles, "Chaylla" portrays four years in the life of a young woman, whose longing for freedom and burning desire for justice are enmeshed with the mechanisms of abusive control and dependency.

Running time: 01:12:00

Unstoppables (Czech Republic) by Luka Đikanović

Film 'Unstoppables' follows the Czech National para hockey team, as they are getting ready for 2022 Paralympic games in Beijing. Through trainings, meetings and exhibition game we get an insight in intimate sphere of the team while through the two main characters we get to meet different lives of handicapped people - one of Filip, the youngest player in the team, whos career in the national team has just begun and the other one of Zdenek, an experienced veteran to whom the games in Beijing will be his last.

Running time: 01:20:00

The Lost Dragon (Switzerland) by Alex Spoerndli, Tobias Schreiner

One of the rarest lizards in the world is caught in the Indonesian jungle, exported across two international borders and dies miserably in the care of a European collector. And all this completely legally. This is the story of the silver monitor lizard, a relatively new and still completely unknown species that is already being traded on the international rare animal market. We follow the tracks of the monitor lizard from Indonesia to Japan to Europe, revealing how scurrilous animal traders, inconsistent legislation and toothless international agreements threaten biodiversity.

Running time: 00:50:07

Lights Out, Berlin! (Germany) by Dimitris Argyriou

Lights Out, Berlin! is a documentary about the effects of the covid-19 pandemic in Berlin's music & club scene. 

Berlin has always been a vivid and colourful city. A city that was full of inspiring spots, artistic opportunities, and loud nightlife. 

A city with a huge cultural background that was for two years on hold.

Running time: 01:21:00

Karam Camera (United States) by Liam LoPinto, Shaimaa Al Sabti, Hana Barhum

Two Syrian refugee girls make their first films.

Running time: 00:16:51

Through The Visual Lens (United Kingdom) by Marie Arthaud-Lingois

Hearing people don't have a full understanding of what deafness really means. The deaf community has its own culture, its own sensorial reality, its own communication. To experience that through TV and film is a great learning opportunity. It could be a major influence on society. Most people get their knowledge through mainstream media, which means that all hearing people could benefit from accurate representations of Deaf culture in film. Even if we are watching something purely for entertainment value, the information we view affects our understanding of our world. Mainstream media holds tremendous power over societal expectations of communities, especially when marginalised. If we want individuals to become more informed and unbiased, that work needs to happen in film. By portraying sign language and Deaf culture in mainstream films, movies could impact the social understanding of this marginalised identity.

Running time: 00:15:10

Wayward (United Kingdom) by Ross Casswell

Wayward is a feature documentary charting one man's ambition to restore and motor 'his wreck of a boat' from London to Ireland to reunite with his family.  All plans soon take a back seat as struggles with alcoholism, spiralling mental health and mounting debt threatens to hamper all progress. Can he find the personal resolve to turn it around before it all closes in? 

Running time: 01:03:40

Traces, Voices of the Second Generation (United States) by Isaac Brown, Ana Paula Habib

In Traces, Voices of the Second Generation, children of Holocaust survivors share their parents’ remarkable accounts of surviving history's darkest evils and illustrate how the Holocaust has shaped their own lives.

Running time: 00:56:46

The Lens of Memory (Australia) by David Foreman

This film is a collaboration between filmmakers, artists, musicians and writers, all of whom live on Kangaroo Island. It is their interpretation of the environmental recovery in the aftermath of the 2020 wildfires that destroyed so much of the island’s natural habitat. As an island incorporating vast wilderness areas the process of climate change is obvious to these multi- disciplined artists.

Running time: 00:28:03

King of the World (Belgium) by Ron Chiers

Marc is an artist with bipolar disorder. He filmed himself, and was filmed, during a psychosis. It is an insight into the raw reality of someone struggling with mental illness. Like a lonesome rider, he lets us see into the depths of his soul and goes off the track with his uncontrolled connections.
Marc let music take him into higher realms and paints himself with battle colours. A wall is used as a canvas for a manic work of art. With a state of mind that alternates between euphoria and sadness, he struggles through a rollercoaster of delusions. Wandering through past and present, through his own reality versus reality, he imagines himself to be a king, performer, stripper, art teacher, advertising man and child. In this search for himself, Marc shares his vulnerability with us.

Running time: 00:25:45

Floating (Germany) by Carlotta Monath

The 25-minute experimental documentary shows the freedom of Berlin nights. No matter who you are, at night everyone gets into conversation and lets their emotions loose. The viewer follows the group of young people through the nights and becomes more and more part of the whole. In the process, one experiences the feeling of floating while watching.

Running time: 00:24:43

Danzoneros (Mexico) by Chiara Bonetti

Entering a ballroom is like being on the edge of another world, far from the hustle and bustle of everdyday.

Running time: 00:07:00

Bodylands (United States) by Sarah McColgan

The human body becomes a living sculpture in this film that aims to reimagine toxic societal beauty norms. 

Running time: 00:01:00