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Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.

Armando Iannucci presents a personal argument in praise of the genius of Charles Dickens. Through the prism of the author’s most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, Armando looks beyond Dickens – the national institution – and instead explores the qualities of Dickens’s work that still make him one of the best British writers. While Dickens is often celebrated for his powerful depictions of Victorian England and his role as a social reformer, this programme foregrounds the elements of his writing which make him worth reading, as much for what he tells us about ourselves in the twenty-first century as our ancestors in the nineteenth. Armando argues that Dickens’s remarkable use of language and his extraordinary gift for creating characters make him a startlingly experimental and psychologically penetrating writer who demands not just to be adapted for television but to be read and read again.

The new film from Sergei Loznitsa (Maidan, The Event) is a stark yet rich and complex portrait of tourists visiting the grounds of former Nazi extermination camps, and a sometimes sardonic study of the relationship (or the clash) between contemporary culture and the sanctity of the site.

Amidst the small beautiful city of Guarapari, Brazil, Derek Rabelo’s father prayed that his son would become a famous professional surfer. Unfortunately on May 25th 1992, his prayer seemed unanswered when Derek was born blind. Seventeen years later Derek decided that despite his blindness he still wanted to surf and that he wanted to surf Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. Through the encouragement of his parents, best friend, and surf coach, Derek embarked on a three-year journey of grueling mental, physical and spiritual training. As Derek perseveres towards his goal of surfing Pipeline, he inspires the best pro-surfers in the world including Kelly Slater, Damien Hobgood, Rob Machado, Lakey Peterson, Taj Burrow, Laird Hamilton and more, who are featured in the film. You will learn from Derek’s story that the best journeys in life are walked by faith, and not by sight.

For more than forty years, British journalist Robert Fisk has reported on some of the most violent conflicts in the world, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, always with his feet on the ground and a notebook in hand, travelling into landscapes devastated by war, ferreting out the facts and sending reports to the media he works for with the ambition of catching the interest of an audience of millions.

The story of Diego Obregon, an Afro-Colombian musician who came to the United States 16 years ago in search of his dreams. He made the ultimate sacrifice by leaving his family behind and living a solitary life.

A young man searches for his identity deep in the Amazon jungle, while living among the tribe that murdered his grandfather decades earlier. The Grandfathers is a motion-graphics documentary completing Jim Hanon’s inspiring trilogy begun with Beyond the Gates of Splendor and followed by End of the Spear. These films were produced by Mart Green. Jesse Saint struggles to find his place in a world dominated by the memory of a famous grandfather he never knew and a heroic father he could not understand. Years spent living among the Waodani and befriending the three old men who took part in his grandfather’s murder teach Jesse the healing power of dignity, respect and forgiveness. In the jungle, Jesse must confront his family’s past as he determines his own future. This documentary is a moving tribute to a young boy’s quest for significance and wholeness, and its imprint on three old men, who, unwittingly, are on a quest of their own.

Mumford and Sons are a band that have never stayed still. An innate desire to travel, to meet people and to do the unexpected has become a calling card of sorts as fans the world over join their community and fall in love with their consistently evolving music. The documentary follows the band and their latest set of collaborators as they travel across uncharted territory, playing the major cities of South Africa with an eclectic mix of musician friends. They explore the craft of song writing and the people, events and influences that dictate that. The film showcases the band at their most open and collaborative as they relish the excitement of playing to crowds in new cities who’ve never seen them before. Along the way they set a fresh challenge for themselves; taking their collaborative culture one step further as they attempt to write and record a mini album in just two days, with the other musicians on tour. The filming of this process not only lifts the lid on the art of song….

50 year old Kim is transitioning from female to male gender over a period of two years. The story follows his life, surgery and struggles with his self-image and self-acceptance. Alongside Kim’s narrative are interviews with luminaries in the field and trans community.

The film tells the story of one of the oldest circus families in Romania, descendants of the Globus Circus founder, Toma Zdebschi. Mina and Carol have been married for 55 years. They were both circus artists. Mina is 75 and Carol is 84.

A documentary following the Black Arm Band, a gathering of Australia’s finest Aboriginal musicians, as they take to the road with their songs of struggle, resistance and freedom.