A boy posts a message on the Internet seeking a suicide partner. A girl reads it and flies to meet him one week later. Together they jump off a 600-meter cliff. They found each other on an Internet newsgroup called alt.suicide.holiday, or ASH. Internet newsgroups are virtual discussion forums amongst people with common interests. The subject of this one is suicide. You come across thousands of letters. The unknown leave behind their open hearted life stories for us to read. Who are these people and why are they seeking each other on the Internet? What lives lay hidden behind the blue light of the computers. In ASH worlwide suicide we meet four writers of this newsgroup.
Two Bangladeshi girls born and raised in London have weddings arranged for them against their will by their family. Shahanara, the rebel of the family, banished from the family in her teens for being "too Western", has to swap her pink hot pants for a sari as she goes off to the airport to meet her new Bangladeshi husband. Her sister Hushnara is the opposite of Shahanara; a devout Muslim who agrees to marry so she doesn't upset her parents.
Following a tragic plane crash, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder happens upon a hastily-written note that was from one of the passengers onboard. She makes it her mission to deliver it to its intended recipient by Christmas, bringing her readers along for the ride.
Heddy Honigmann returns to her birthplace of Lima, Peru to reacquaint herself with a place and people dear to her heart. It is about a forgotten city, a forgotten history and a forgotten people. With irony as their loved weapon for survival, they have to forget as well, in order not to give way to cynicism, hatred and grief. It is about remembering the old days when life - despite class differences, corruption and violence - was still good: waiters, bartenders and shopkeepers who are fighting a losing battle and have lost everything. It is also about the children who manage to survive by mastering the art of street life and who reveal the country in it's true colours. Just like the dogs they share the streets with, they have no good memories to forget.
The story of Tim Reilly (84) whose son Matthew disappeared in1999. All that remains of him today are his paintings, which his father, Tim, curates.
Philomena Lee, una donna irlandese viene costretta ad abbandonare suo figlio dopo averlo partorito in un convento. Molti anni dopo, la donna, assieme al giornalista Martin Sixsmith, si mette alla ricerca del figlio, nel frattempo affidato a una famiglia americana.
Three young men commit themselves to one of the best summers of their lives...marching in a World Class drum and bugle corps. The bond of brotherhood this organization provides, helps them through both their struggles and their triumphs.
Atlantis is known across the world as a myth. But is this really the truth? No matter what cultural history we explore, we discover a story very similar to the one we know about Atlantis...why? For years, experts and researchers have been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong people and for the wrong thing. For too long historians have focused on a few words left to us by Plato whose meaning they misunderstood. The fact is, even Plato didn't understand what had been told to him. The startling truth is that the remnants of Atlantis are all around us right now and have been for a very long time - long before recorded history. New research and insight exposes Atlantis to be a pivotal part of our ancient beginnings. The legendary lost city that many think of as myth, was in fact a very real and highly advanced civilization that was uniquely aware of the laws of the universe and was able to access hidden dimensions and make contact with extraterrestrial races.
At the consulting service for immigrants at the Avicenne Hospital in suburban Paris, we observe the sorrow and powerlessness of the immigrants who come here.
Saar is an HIV positive gay man living in London, where he found refuge from the religious kibbutz where he grew up in Israel. Ever since he was diagnosed with HIV, Saar has craved his family's love, while they struggle with fears and prejudices.
Haunted by his violent past, the ambitious lawyer Anuol returns to his homeland, South Sudan, committed to serve his country and hold accountable those who are responsible. But his quest, led by the rules of law, hits a wall when he is confronted with his countrymen’s reluctance to reconcile with history.
We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie. They know we know they lie. They do not care. We say we care, but we do nothing, and nothing ever changes. It is normal. Welcome to the post-truth world. How we got to where we are now…
Taking part in The Voice Kids is already quite something, but for 11-year-old Merna it’s really something special. Her parents had to flee Iraq because they are part of the Christian minority, and IS was threatening to kidnap Merna. They now live in Lebanon, where one in three people is a refugee. The family has been waiting for two years for permission to move on. FaceTiming with her older sister, who stayed behind in Iraq, and cooking her favorite dishes with her mother make the situation more bearable. But what also really helps is singing – this calms Merna and makes her less afraid. She used to sing only in church, but since The Voice her beautiful, melancholy voice touches everyone. Because of her status as a refugee, Merna isn’t allowed to attend the foreign performances with the other finalists, but she’s now a national celebrity in Lebanon.
A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.
In China more people are on death row than the rest of the world combined. The children of the convicts are often left alone, stigmatized and living in the streets. Grandma Zhang, as the kids call her, is a former prison guard who has founded an orphanage in Nanzhao.
Somewhere in Myanmar is a forest rich in amber and controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Most of its inhabitants work in a mine, digging the earth night and days in the hope of finding the precious ore that will get them out of poverty. But on top of the excruciating hardship of the work, they also have to fear an attack from the army.
Traces the lives of the Hartings, a blind Montreal family of three who make their living singing in the city's subway stations. The Hartings lost their only sighted child Hassan in a tragic drowning accident, and have since turned to the teachings of Russian mystic Grigori Grabovoi, hoping to resurrect their son. Resurrecting Hassan is an exploration of this family's legacy of grief, tragedy and abuse; the film will follow them on their path to redemption.
"It’s not easy to find a foster family for you," an orphanage supervisor explains to nine-year-old Alicia. "After all, you are a very special girl." Alicia is crying. "I’m not special. I’m just a girl." This disturbing scene sets the tone for this film about Alicia, who was taken away from her teenage mother by the Child Welfare Bureau when she was 12 months old. She’s been living in an orphanage since the age of five, and they have never managed to find a foster family for her. In Alicia, we watch as she becomes a teenager, still craving safety and love. Over the course of three years, filmmaker Maasja Ooms follows her daily life up close. Alicia's yearning and powerlessness are palpable in these observations, which painfully reveal the effects of having no prospects.
As the healthcare system in Venezuela comes crashing down and millions of people flee the country, a doctor, a pharmacist, an activist and two cancer patients struggle to survive amidst the chaos. They face the daily dilemma of choosing to stay or flee. Activist Francisco Valencia puts his life on the line to distribute medicines illegally, but how long can he keep it up?
In a darkened classroom, the white cracked walls serve as a movie screen. We are in a remote mountain village in Georgia. The light from the projector breaks the darkness: the children's first cinematic experience is about to begin. Among the kids are Iman and Eva, two Muslim girls, for whom the experience becomes a turning point and inspires them to pick up a camera and start filming their daily lives. The girls are growing up in a valley infested by radicalism, where most people live in constant fear that their relatives will sacrifice their lives in the name of God.