2020: A Very Particular Year

At the beginning of the year 2020, a relentless plague sweeps the planet and, as a consequence, a global lockdown is gradually decreed: how did people from very different latitudes, living necessarily very different situations, experience this shared solitude? How did people adapt to the restriction by decree of their personal freedoms and the transformation of many bustling metropolises into ghost cities?

Italian Wings Over the Skies of Brazil

On an expedition through Latin America, Italian General Italo Balbo made the Atlantic crossing with his seaplane squadron, which left Boloma, entered Brazilian territory via Natal and now ended its journey in the capital Rio de Janeiro. Arrival of the fascist squadron at Enseada de Botafogo. People, many in boats, applaud the descent of the seaplanes. A group of officers searches the soldiers in profile. Italo Balbo, Ambassador Vittorio Cerrutti and Royal Consul Onorevole Mammalella watch the parade of troops. A group of officers with Col. Magdalena, "the intrepid hero of several aerial feats". At the Catete Palace, Balbo and Cerrutti are received by the President of the Provisional Government, Getúlio Vargas, and his ministers. The Italian delegation leaves the Catete Palace.

Bohemia

When Melbourne’s cultural hub is left devastated post-pandemic, the creative industry, like many others, is ravaged. Set amongst the ashes of the cities arts scene, BOHEMIA is a hybrid of documentary, music video, and next generation concert film that powerfully recounts the story of this fallen angel of Australian culture and asks the looming question: “what now?”. Shadowy underground musician VANTA and debutant director Madeline Royce team up with a decorated collective of young creatives to contend that art in the pandemic need not be a compromise, but an evolution.

Hayden's Corner

The world lost Hayden Hunstable to suicide in the middle of the mandated stay-at-home orders on April 17th, just 4 days before his 13th birthday. Hayden did not struggle with depression nor did he have a history of mental health problems. He was a normal healthy and happy kid who was unprepared for social isolation. His parents attribute Hayden’s emotional suffering to a “perfect storm of routine disruption, social isolation, increased gaming, and a pressure stack of activity cancellations,” all created by the government’s mandated stay-at-home orders in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Lockdown Generation

In the beginning it felt like a holiday, then everything changed due to Covid19.

Republic of Evil Ants

One of the greatest pests on the planet, the evil ants destroy the forest to protect their family. Memories of the covid-19 pandemic, eroded by ignorance and negationism. What's left in this great country of worms and viruses?

Netīrā zona

A look into how it is to work in the Covid-19 area at a Latvian hospital. Created by a team of journalists of Latvian Television: Aija Kinca, Ivans Milovs, Dace Kokle, and Edmunds Rimšāns.

In the Same Breath

This documentary recounts the experiences of people on the ground in the earliest days of the novel coronavirus and the way two countries dealt with its initial spread, from the first days of the outbreak in Wuhan to its rampage across the United States.

Homeroom

Following the class of 2020 at Oakland High School in a year marked by seismic change, exploring the emotional world of teenagers coming of age against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.

Seeking Asylum

Seeking Asylum is a feature documentary that bears witness to the endless deterrents migrants face when petitioning for asylum in the United States. In a dismantled system that has been designed for failure, we follow one woman's journey as she searches for protection for her and kids. Many people view getting to the United States as the final hurdle of the migration journey, but we quickly learn that once in the U.S. the fight has just begun. During one of the most uncertain times in our country's history, Seeking Asylum documents the challenges asylum seekers face and shows why asylum is an integral part of the American Dream that we cannot afford to lose.

The Quiet Diplomat

The Quiet Diplomat centers on former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The UN saved his life during the Korea War, inspiring him to become a man of peace. During two terms as the 8th Secretary General, Ban discovers the challenges of international diplomacy in an increasingly splintered world.

Contágio

Several Portuguese creators occupy the director's chair in this collective short film shot during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in an unfolding of personal perspectives.

Hotels Lockdowns

Jenny Holm - Nazispionen der kom ind i varmen

It is not in the cards that young Anne Marie Christensen from Fanø ends up as one of the most notorious Danish war criminals from World War II. Nevertheless, she is recruited by the Gestapo under the name Jenny Holm during the occupation. She turns out to have agent skills beyond the usual. It is believed that she is responsible for many hundreds of arrests of enemies of Nazism. She is so skilled that she is recruited by Danish and British intelligence in the years just after the war, where she uses her skills to catch Nazi war criminals in Germany. Jenny Holm disappears into oblivion - until a day when a resourceful writer finds out where Jenny Holm ends her days. The trail ends surprisingly, at a celebrated alternative therapist with electric hands on Gammel Kongevej

If you don't wanna know, go away

Documentary filmed in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. A Latinx look at one of the most important cities in the world, which was the epicenter of the pandemic. Thirteen testimonies that tell in the flesh what they lived through and how they survived. The coronavirus pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on Latinx communities. Latinos died from COVID-19 at twice the rate of white New Yorkers.

The Day Sports Stood Still

The story of the unprecedented sports shutdown in March of 2020 and the remarkable turn of events that followed. This sports documentary is a chronicle of the abrupt stoppage, athletes’ prominent role in the cultural reckoning on racial injustices that escalated during the pandemic, and the complex return to competition in the summer and fall.

Inocentes

In a time marked by longing and uncertainty, at the beginning of a social isolation, two friends disappear. The pandemic becomes a backdrop for the loss of innocence and the rescue of long-lost things. Ingenuous is like a farewell gift from the only link that united these two missing figures; two strangers who get lost, or maybe, just maybe, just met.

The Last Cruise

Using intimate footage recorded by passengers and crew, The Last Cruise is a first-person account of the nightmare that transpired aboard the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship, which set sail from Japan on the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facing Down Under: A Backpackers Documentary

A 19-year-old high school graduate travels through Australia as a backpacker and accompanies his adventure with a camera.

Gideon: Searching for truth

'Gideon: Searching for the truth' takes the viewer with Van Meijeren on his quest for answers to questions about the current global health crisis. Questions that are common among the population, but to which he, and therefore the people in the country, do not get an answer in the Dutch House of Representatives. A place where Van Meijeren says he often feels like 'crying in the desert'. Where he gets no answers to his 'justifiably pressing' questions. Where instead he is invariably framed and judged by form, which makes any form of democratic debate impossible in advance.