Hong Kong Mixtape
In HONG KONG MIXTAPE, director San San F. Young weaves a powerful narrative about creativity and resistance in the face of growing authoritarian control. As a sweeping national security law restricts words, images, slogans, and songs, Young shares her personal journey alongside those of Hong Kong's bold artists—rappers, stunt collectives, and more—who dare to defy the silence. Through their stories, the film captures the raw tension between self-expression and survival, exploring what it means to risk everything for art in a city caught in a battle for its soul.
"Hong Kong Mixtape is a love letter to the region and its people, celebrating the passion and talent of its creatives, and honouring the resilience of those who make their voices heard even when silenced." - HotDocs
Light Needs
LIGHT NEEDS is an experimental documentary about houseplants who cohabitate with people and the surprisingly intimate and complex relationships that can develop between them. Containing footage collected from many different domestic and professional spaces over several years, each home/site evidences the different ways people cohabitate with and relate to plants. Yet, this film is ardently not a document of houseplants but rather a consideration of the benefits and losses accrued through the social contracts between plant and animal. By directly attending to the relationships humans have with nonhumans, Light Needs looks to shine a light on the responsibility for care towards other living beings.
"a generous, thought-provoking and artistically inventive film that literally expands one’s consciousness and creates a space for empathy with other life forms – namely the houseplants that most of us live with" - CPH:DOX
A French Youth
In the south of France, in the heart of the Camargue, an ancient and little-known tradition takes place. In the region’s arenas, young men dressed in white confront bulls in a dangerous and impressive face-off. Much more than a traditional sport, this fight without killing the bull offers many young people from North African immigrant backgrounds the chance to take their place in the arena and in French society. Among them are Jawad and Belka, two bullfighters at a crossroads. Following a major injury, Jawad questions his future in the sport. Belka, on the other hand, follows in his father’s footsteps. He sees his passion as an opportunity to escape an uncertain future and realize his dream of becoming a French champion.
"Beautifully shot and featuring intimate access with a small cadre of characters, A French Youth offers an effective microcosm for battles playing out in arenas of all kinds worldwide" - POV Magazine
Onlookers
Onlookers offers a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos, reflecting on how we all live as observers. Traversing the country's dusty roads and tranquil rivers, we watch as elaborate painterly tableaus unfold, revealing the whimsical and at times disruptive interweaving of locals and foreigners in rest and play. Drawn to spectacle, tourists swarm to magnificent Buddhist temples, the ordered rituals of monks, and sites of dazzling natural beauty, then recede like a passing tide, leaving Laotians to continue with their daily lives.
"Visually-stunning! ....showcases how tourism can have an effect on a country and its local people." - The Playlist
Who, if Not Us? The Fight for Democracy in Belarus
Who If Not Us? provides a unique glimpse into the struggle for democracy in Belarus and the lives of three women after the major protests of 2020. These protests were the largest in Belarus's history, but the Lukashenko regime brutally suppressed them. Over the course of an entire year, the film follows these exceptional women from different generations, all of whom continue to tirelessly fight for a democratic Belarus.
"Director Juliane Tutein fashions a melancholic mood-piece which chronicles ineffectualness in the face of impregnable state machinery, and the meaning of resistance under such circumstances" - Guardian