Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18, 1961. Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the UN, dies mysteriously in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case in search of definitive closure.
At the end of the world, day in, day out, three men take on the southern ocean and its legends. They leave their families and brave the cold and the storms to go and meet the isolated fishermen in the infamous Cape Horn islands. Some launch themselves into these epic channels through greed, others for love of the sea or family need, but all agree on the importance of carrying forward this endangered traditional livelihood and brotherly sharing.
Nelly and Nadine meet in Ravensbrück concentration camp. They spend the rest of their lives together. Decades later, Nelly’s granddaughter goes in search of clues. A poignant film about a love story and the need for individual and collective remembrance.
They're called water carriers, domestics, 'gregarios', 'Sancho Panzas' of professional cycling. Always at the back of the group, with no right for a personal victory. These wonderful losers are the true warriors of professional cycling.
A team of scientists search for the lost island of Testerep in front of the Belgian coast, venturing into artificial landscapes and virtual realities.
ZAAD tells the autobiographical story of Dries Meddens. After the death of his mother, the care for Dries' bipolar father falls on his plate. He discovers how crudely and ruthlessly society and psychiatry treat patients. His father eventually dies in solitary confinement. While emptying his parent’s home, Dries discovers an old letter from his grandfather. The man appears to have led a busy, productive life. He is the founder of an internationally renowned seed breeding company and still has time to paint, write diaries and conduct intensive correspondence. Dries finds similarities between his grandfather, his father and himself. Slowly the fear grows that his father's psychiatric illness might be hereditary. Strolling through the family’s film and photo archives, with dramatic and sometimes hilarious finds, Dries tries to find answers. He also consults a psychiatrist. Together the consultations and reviewing of his archival material help Dries look at bipolarity with new eyes.
Strong-willed, funny and charismatic, at 37, Belgian athlete Marieke Vervoort’s time is running out. As her strength falters and her body begins to fail, she determines to end her life with the aid of her doctor. Liberated by the legal permission to die, Marieke rediscovers the freedom and thrill of living and competing and becomes a Paralympic champion. Her acceptance of death becomes an affirmation of life. Marieke demystifies one of the most controversial issues of our time.
The life and struggles of Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph Maria of Habsburg-Lorraine (1832-1867), emperor of the Second Mexican Empire as Maximilian I of Mexico from 1864 to 1867 (under the wing of Emperor Napoleon III and the French Empire), his tragic confrontation with Mexican leader Benito Juárez, the defeat of the will and the end of a dream.
"Beyond the Ararat" is the story of a woman of Turkish origin who embarks on a journey to better understand what makes up her identity. A road movie which brings her from her childhood neighborhood in Brussels to Turkey and Armenia. A quest where each woman she encounters could be the reflection of herself. Entering the land of her ancestors, Anatolia, she questions her cultural heritage. Stopping in her grandmother's village, she discovers the "Agit"; an antique oral tradition where women sing for their dead. The songs open a potential space for mourning, where Turkish, Kurdish but also Armenian women missing from that land, can sing "together". The confrontation with the "missing" from her memory, brings her farther eastward in Anatolia to the foot of the Ararat Mountain, and beyond.
At the top of Mont Ventoux hangs a huge poster with the names of all the cyclists who won Tour de France stages to the summit of this legendary “Giant of Provence”. But which one of these winners is the greatest climber of them all? The documentary feature The King of Mont Ventoux puts five cycling heroes against each other in an unprecedented virtual race beyond the bounds of time: Belgian ‘Cannibal’ Eddy Merckx (1970), Frenchmen ‘Jeff’ Bernard (1987) and Richard ‘the Lionheart’ Virenque (2002), the Italian ‘Pirate’ Marco Pantani (2000) and Spanish climber ‘Juanma’ Gárate (2009). Starting together at the foot of the giant, they battle it out over the 21-km ascent along a winding forest road to the lunar-like summit of the ‘Bald Mountain’; a gruelling one-hour test of endurance and strength. The first to reach the summit is crowned King of Mont Ventoux.
On the death of his mother, a filmmaker makes a film to see how much her disappearance has changed his vision of the world. It is an opportunity for him to look back over his relationship with her: a relationship that made him a free individual, as a man and as a filmmaker. The second night is the final part of a trilogy that began with Letter from a filmmaker to his daughter, which was followed by Dreaming films. The making of this " Cabin Trilogy" is the fruit of fifteen years of work and reflection.
This documentary is about living with Alzheimer's, seen exclusively through the eyes of people who suffer from it. Eight of them live together under constant supervision and care. They are all in the first phase of the disease: bouts of lucidity, forgetfulness and falling into oblivion constantly alternate. The patients live their lives, as long as they're capable. The film is a 'tranche de vie': a portrait of the daily coming and going of people in that particular and ditto state. It is also the portrait of a brutal disease that irreversible expropriates the memory from the characters. Eventually the characters will have changed. Because of their illness, they may have been disappeared completely, physically or mentally.
Fourteen-year-old Sana bakes by day and boxes by night. Will she be able to balance the demands of these two passions?
For Felix, who has autism, hosting his own radio show is a way to try and better understand the world around him.
Carnotstraat 17 is a feature documentary looking more closely into the effect on someone’s identity through migration.
