Indigenous Perspectives

During the late 1800s in Cuba, runaway African slaves hide in mountainous settlements after overpowering their Spanish masters. Discord soon follows: traitors are in their midst, secretly working for the Spanish.

A filmmaker tracing the steps of Swedish explorer Erland Nordeskiold travels with a Guarani Indian from the highlands of La Paz to the swamps in the forests of South Eastern Bolivia, a place where uncontacted indigenous still exist. Philosophical Road Movie into the heart of Guarani culture of Bolivia translates ancient knowledge and explores the importance of the other in the construction of our identity.

Having nowhere else to turn, a teenager named Alicia, following the deaths of her parents by unknown guerrillas in a war-torn region of Columbia, is able to track down her paternal Uncle Óscar for a place to live if only temporarily, he who didn't even know she existed and who had not seen Alicia's parents for quite some time. He agrees, with one stipulation being that she stay out of his son Freddy's room, Freddy who no longer lives there. Óscar lives at La Sirga, a run down guest house nestled in the mountains and on the shores of Laguna De La Cocha. It is barely inhabitable and which impoverished Óscar does not have the money to repair. Despite the probability that any tourists stopping by anytime soon is remote at best due in part to the war, Alicia, to do her part, starts to help make repairs along with Óscar's housekeeper Flora, while Óscar largely spends his time down at the harbor trying to set-up a trout farm with his friends at the cooperative. Alicia also befriends Mirichis, the young man who works transporting goods up and down the lake. Life at La Sirga takes a turn with the mysterious return of Freddy, who may or may not know of some ominous goings-on which threaten their existence.

WADJDA is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn't be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. At first, Wadjda's mother is too preoccupied with convincing her husband not to take a second wife to realize what's going on. And soon enough Wadjda's plans are thwarted when she is caught running various schemes at school. Just as she is losing hope of raising enough money, she hears of a cash prize for a Quran recitation competition at her school. She devotes herself to the memorization and recitation of Quranic verses, and her teachers begin to see Wadjda as a model pious girl. The competition isn't going to be easy, especially for a troublemaker like Wadjda, but she refuses to give in. She is determined to continue fighting for her dreams.

Komona, a girl in Sub-Saharan Africa, tells the story to her unborn child about her kidnapping by rebels and forced to join their bloody civil war. When she discovers a valuable intuition about the presence of the enemy, she is elevated as a witch and favored by the rebel leader. However, this special status threatens to be short-lived in this world of superstition and senseless brutality even as the ghosts of the war dead haunt her visions. However, when a newfound friend convinces her to desert, Komona finds escaping that brutal life is far from easy with its physical and spiritual consequences following her wherever she goes.

Based on Gabriel García Márquez's novel, this is the unsettling story of 13-year-old noble Sierva and the dog bite that changes her life forever. Abandoned, displaced, in the midst of a sexual awakening and finally exorcised, Sierva finds an unlikely ally in a young priest and together they discover passion.

An ancient Indian warrior who has reached the end of his life is brought back from his 'death' to save his family from a raiding party of enemy Indians in this unique story of 'Indians without a single cowboy.'

An animated poem about the vital need for embraces and contact with other beings.

A single gun weaves through four linked stories that converge to reveal a compelling and tragic exploration of humanity worldwide. From a troubled Moroccan couple on vacation, to a Japanese girl navigating modern life in Tokyo, to a Mexican nanny facing challenges while traveling, the film reflects the common threads that bind us all and illustrates the interconnectedness of seemingly random lives across the globe.

Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother's footsteps.

The ocean contains the history of all humanity. The sea holds all the voices of the earth and those that come from outer space. Water receives impetus from the stars and transmits it to living creatures. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its 2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the Patagonian Indigenous people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some say that water has memory. This film shows that it also has a voice.

For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed some of the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus. He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of wild fauna and flora, and of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty.

On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

Centuries ago, in what would become the Canadian Arctic, Atuat is promised to the malevolent Oki, son of the leader of their tribe. But Atuat loves the good-natured Atanarjuat, who ultimately finds a way to marry her. Oki's sister, Puja also fancies Atanarjuat, and when she causes strife between him and his brother Amaqjuaq, Oki seizes the opportunity to wreak a terrible revenge on Atanarjuat.