In the days leading up to his execution, Texas death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez seeks redemption from his victim’s son; an elegy about the death penalty where a prisoner seeks forgiveness.

A documentary that follows a girl within the extreme side of BDSM.

The ostensibly simple story of a sympathetic veteran teacher giving Italian lessons to a weekly class of diverse immigrants is given infinitely more depth and complexity by the manner in which director Daniele Gaglianone renders his story. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and artifice, and between documentary and drama, Gaglianone has created a film within a film. You see the apparent artifice of Gaglianone’s crew using professionals, including the noted film actor Valerio Mastandrea as the teacher, interlinked with ‘real’ immigrant protagonists, studying the language to improve their chances of employment and of gaining a permanent residence permit. Thus in the course of the lessons there is simultaneously the painful and upsetting relation of the students’ personal stories but also humour, as they interact and share their humanity, bridging cultural differences, united in their striving to make a better life for themselves. (Source: LFF programme)

Biographical documentary of the war photographer Don McCullin, with sections on his upbringing, early work for the Observer and extensive war reporting for the Sunday Times until the purchase of the newspaper by Rupert Murdoch in the 1980s.

Fact based story about a former Greek Olympic boxer who was taken as a prisoner during World war II and placed in the Auschwitz prison camp. There he was permitted to survive as long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.

Finding himself in a house in the north of Iran by the Caspian Sea, the director picked up his handheld DV camera and began filming the seemingly anodyne events happening on the 500 metres of beach in front of his house—a piece of wood toyed with by the waves, people walking by the sea, indistinct shapes on a wintry beach or noisy ducks.

Driving around the streets of Cuba, Lav Diaz – the famous Filipino director – and Gustavo Flecha – a talkative Cuban taxi driver – find themselves discussing about politics, migration, social conditions and love; touching many personal stories and experiences, they create an historical affresco of the conditions of their own countries.

Contact with family members is vital for maintaining the emotional and social ties of those who are deprived of their liberty. Those who have the right to visits and those who have someone to visit them await that moment with hope…

Ram Dass is one of the most important cultural figures from the 1960s and 70s. A pyschedelic pioneer, author of Be Here Now, beloved spiritual teacher, and outspoken advocate for death-and-dying awareness, Ram Dass is now himself approaching the end of life. Since suffering a life-changing stroke twenty years ago, he has been living at his home on Maui and deepening his spiritual practice — which is centered on love and his idea of merging with his surroundings and all living things. Shot in a nuanced cinematic style, the film is an intimate summary of his life learning and awareness, and is ultimately a poetic meditation on life, death, and the soul’s journey home.

The early life of Walt Disney is explored in this family film with an art house twist. Though his reality was often dark, it was skewed by his ever growing imagination and eternal optimism.

What it’s like to drive the once vandalized now famous, ‘Fagbug’ to all 50 states in the USA.

Irwin Cotler and his team fight for justice and human rights in the cases and causes of Raif Badawi, imprisoned Saudi blogger; Shaparak Shajarizadeh, champion of women’s rights in Iran; Anatoly Sharansky, famed refusnik; and Bill Browder, creator of the most important human rights tool of this century.