This essay film tells of the ocean as a place of yearning, of the world of giant container ships and their crews, and the women that wait for them in ports and drinking holes. The protagonists’ thoughts are rendered as inner monologues in voiceover, all set to striking documentary images. Sandy represents all the women willing to give themselves to strange men, the perfect complement for the desire of all those roaming restlessly from port to port. The film has an affectionate eye for this eccentric former prostitute, for her body marked by life, lust, and the men she’s met, as well as for her free, yet romantic idea of love. She is a siren and Penelope in equal measure.

In Becoming Frederick Douglass, acclaimed director Stanley Nelson and co-director Nicole London bring to life the story of an American icon. Using Douglass’s own powerful, profound speeches and writing, the story retraces his journey from a man born and raised in slavery to one of the most prominent elder statesmen and inspiring voices for freedom in American history. With additional context and insight provided by historians, scholars and Douglass’s descendants, the filmmakers recount the brutality and trauma of his childhood while illuminating his strength of character, defiance against the bonds of slavery and the influences that guided his lifelong quest for freedom. The most celebrated Black man of his era, Douglass’s legacy and achievements continue to resonate today. His life and work still inspires activists, educators and citizens in the fight for freedom, equality and a more just American society.

Leading Australian documentarian Eddie Martin puts viewers on the frontlines of the deadly 2019–2020 bushfires, capturing the catastrophe with a perspective and scale never before seen. 24 million hectares were burnt, 3000 homes were destroyed, 33 people died, and nearly three billion animals perished or were displaced. Fire Front is a powerful account of that calamitous antipodean summer, told from the ground where climate change took on the face of hell.

The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America’s most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison’s death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA’s film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.

While investigating the destructive relationship of his parents, Efim, the filmmaker, stumbles upon a dark secret concealed from him. This revelation rocks his world and he sets out on a cinematic journey to heal his wounded soul.

2017 will mark a century from the recording of what is historically considered the first Jazz record, but very few know that it was recorded by a Sicilian emigrant to New Orleans: Nick La Rocca. The record sold a million and half copies! Featuring exclusive interviews to American music critics, historians and archivists, as well as amazing archive picturing New Orleans at the beginning of the century, Sicily Jass takes us on a journey through music and history, telling the story of the world’s first man in Jazz.

Plot 35 is a place that was never mentioned in my family; it is where my elder sister, who died aged three, is buried. The sister about whom I was told nothing, or nearly nothing, and of whom my parents had oddly never kept a single photograph. It was to make up for the missing images that I decided to make this film. Thinking that I would simply chronicle a forgotten life, in fact I opened up the hidden door to a past that I was unaware of, to the subconscious memory that lies inside each of us and who makes us what we are.

Jimmy Carr refutes the idea that one can’t joke about anything these days with his edgy takes on gun control, religion, cancel culture, and consent.

Carlin returns to the stage in his 13th live comedy stand-up special, performed at the Beacon Theatre in New York City for HBO®. His spot-on observations on the deterioration of human behavior include Americans’ obsession with their two favorite addictions – shopping and eating; his creative idea for The All-Suicide Channel, a new reality TV network; and the glorious rebirth of the planet to its original pristine condition – once the fires and floods destroy life as we know it.

A documentary on the famous Los Angeles street.

Moving between earth and stars, past and present, this hybrid feature documentary follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, a charismatic and irreverent Indigenous Elder who overcame a harrowing history of displacement, racism, and addiction by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.

In a time when America’s economy was crumbling and sense of community was in question, one guy left everything behind to see if he could survive solely on the support and goodwill of the 21st century’s new town square: Craigslist.