FREE OF THE WEEK
Every morning Grand Master Chan Hui performs Tai Chi to cultivate his mental energy and calm his mind. What makes him even more unusual, is that he chooses to do so under the bridge in Canning Town, London.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Every morning Grand Master Chan Hui performs Tai Chi to cultivate his mental energy and calm his mind. What makes him even more unusual, is that he chooses to do so under the bridge in Canning Town, London.
But fear not! The organisers have got you covered with plenty of fantastic docs available to watch online. In partnership with Mediapart, you can now discover Cinéma du Réel’s thirteen “Premières Fenêtres” selections for free.
The 42nd edition of Cinéma du Réel kicks off in Paris this week and we can’t wait to dig in to this year’s selection. Doc Weekly will be in attendance, keeping an eye out for future classics, interviewing directors and keeping you all updated on social media along the way. But first, here are our top picks from this year’s line-up.
In honour of International Women’s Day, we’re featuring an episode of the brilliant Visible Farmer film project in our Free of the Week series! Melissa is a small holds market-gardener implementing techniques and processes that regenerate her land, ensure a strong bond with her local community and completely cut out the need for a supply chain.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Director Matt Hopkins of the Progress Film Company takes us on a journey to meet Douglas McMaster, the fearless pioneer at the heart of Silo, the UK's first zero-waste restaurant. We interviewed Matt to learn more about his England Your England series and his plans for the future.
For our first episode of “What Are You Watching?” we met Matt, who had his mind blown by the ‘Zeitgeist’ movies as a kid, was inspired by the cult film ‘American Movie’ and reckons ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’, a film about product placement that is funded by product placement, is the most “WTF” doc he’s ever seen.
46 states abide by a felony murder rule, under which felony murder is generally considered first-degree murder. It means an offender can be imprisoned for a murder that occurred while the crime was being committed, regardless of whether the offender directly caused the death. This was the nightmarish circumstance of the ‘Elkhart Four’.
In 2018 Latin America’s largest collection of natural and scientific history, the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, burned to the ground in a what is now known to have been a wholly preventable fire. Director Marta Miskaryan became fascinated by this tragedy which has had a traumatic effect on the people of Rio, not only wiping the building from the map, but also taking with it generations of emotional attachment and fond memories.
Our next Free of the Week is best described as the most breathtaking 12 minutes you’ll witness this week. The film has now deservedly accrued over 11 million views on Youtube.
IN CINEMAS
Juan’s family operate a private ambulance in Mexico City. They do this because, without them, 9,000,000 people - as many as live in London - are cared for by only 45 government-funded emergency ambulances. That’s one ambulance for every 200,000 citizens. Families like the Ochoas help to fill the gap; they try to save lives. But it’s not charity.
“Tell Me Who I Am” is as shocking and disturbing as you’ve probably already heard, but don’t let that put you off watching it. Despite it’s stomach-turning revelations, it pries open a taboo subject and is impossible to tear yourself away from. At its heart is an unwavering brotherly bond that, after enduring untold suffering, allows two men to confront their past to tear-jerking effect.
FREE OF THE WEEK
‘We dance to forget, we sing to forget. To forget the horrors we passed through before we came to Naples’ says Yankuba, an aspiring biochemist from The Gambia, one of the protagonists of Guardian Docs’ latest film Teranga: Life In The Waiting Room.
The Cave follows Dr Amani Ballour, a Syrian paediatric doctor and manager of an underground hospital comprised of a network of tunnels and caves in besieged Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus.
FREE OF THE WEEK
A few years ago, after a long day at work, Richard began to consider whether he really needed any of his possessions. Looking around his London flat at the TV he never had time to watch and the playstation he’d never even used, he realised that all he truly cared about was his hot shower.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Remember your first digital pet? I bet your parents do… This 2000s craze is so deeply rooted in our imaginations that its iconic high-pitched sound alone will be enough to bring back the fits of joy (and panic!) that it so often delivered to its long-suffering owners - The Tamagotchi.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Explore the depths of rural Egypt to discover the mystical Sufi Mawlid celebrations, traditional festivals where locals gather to experience divine ecstasy through chanting, dancing and shared experience. Director Yasmin Kamal gives us some background to this unique film, shot in a vérité style to give us an experiential viewing that is sure to overload the senses and make you question what is real.
The time has finally come to announce your winners of our inaugural Yearlies Awards. Discover what were our favourite docs of 2019!
At this year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), we sat down with directors Rica Saito and Caio Castor to discuss their short film “Batalha” or “Battle”.
FREE OF THE WEEK
For our second edition of ‘Free of the Week’ we travel to the highlands of Northern Ethiopia to discover the uniquely symbiotic relationship between religion and the natural world. Watch it now.
