Tukdam: Between Worlds

A journey through life and death

Most of us regard death as something clear-cut, fully explicable by medical science. Yet in what Tibetan Buddhists call tukdam, advanced meditators die consciously, their bodies remaining lifelike and preserved for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. Mingling scientific and spiritual perspectives, this is a groundbreaking exploration of a mystery which bridges life and death.

Off the Rails

Growing up isn't an easy journey...

Rikke Brewer and best friend Aiden Knox hone their spectacular UrbEx stunts and gravity-defying Parkour skills, hoping that millions of likes on social media will be their ticket out of boring Guildford. But the trauma of a close friend's death triggers darker stories, of broken families and fragile mental health, threatening to send them both off the rails.

James & Isey

A Māori family's celebration of life and love like no other

Ninety-nine-year-old Ngāti Manu woman Isey Cross lives with her devoted adult son James, on a farm in Kawakawa - a small town on New Zealand’s North Island. Cheeky and vivacious, Isey is preparing to celebrate her 100th year on earth. Over the next seven days, James organizes the festivities and brings the spirit world onboard. Florian Habicht captures their devoted bond – to each other and to the spirit world – as well as their infectious joy. Only the truly stone-hearted could resist this film's celebration of love and whānau (family).

Milked

White Lies in Dairy Land

A young activist goes deep into dairy land where he takes on the giants of New Zealand’s most powerful industry, and reveals how the sacred cash-cow industry has been milked dry. His journey exposes not only the sustainability crisis and the dangerous denial of impending agricultural disruption, but also what New Zealand and other countries can do to change their fate.

Tantura

The untold story of Israel's foundation

Hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated amid the formation of the state of Israel. To Israelis, this was the War of Independence. Palestinians call it 'Al Nakba' - the Catastrophe. In the 90s, research into a massacre that had allegedly occurred in the village of Tantura in 1948, was dismissed. Now, director Alon Schwarz revisits former Israeli soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade as well as Palestinian residents in an effort to re-examine what happened in Tantura, and why 'Al Nakba' is still a taboo in Israeli society.

Up on the Mountain

Inside the American West's wild mushroom harvest

Refugees, immigrants and locals migrate year-round to harvest wild mushrooms in the American west. Working on foot in public forests, it's an accessible path to self-employment. Despite sustainably supplying the world's restaurants, the workers are frequently denied access to public lands. This fascinating verite doc exposes the inequities of natural resources policies, and the resourcefulness of the disenfranchised.

Myanmar: The Forgotten Revolution

Myanmar's forgotten fight for democracy

More than 20,000 people are reported dead, air strikes are hitting towns and villages, artillery is pummelling positions of armed resistance – but this is not Ukraine, this is the world’s forgotten civil war, where thousands of twenty-somethings are risking death to fight against a military coup that has removed elected government and stolen what they see as their future.

Was Tun

Taking a stand against injustice

Faced with a documentary film that included an interview with a young girl forced into prostitution, Michael Kranz asked himself the apparently banal question of “what can be done?” He travelled to Bangladesh and began to search for the girl. A film that is both self-critical and critical of society about the desire to at least do something and not to simply and passively give in to the injustices in this world.

Lady Buds

It's all about the females

When California legalized marijuana, six women emerged from the shadows of the cannabis underground, and into the light of a legalized market. But with major corporations and heavy-handed regulations to reckon with, these trailblazing women must risk everything in order to claim their own piece of the American dream in the market they helped to create.