A Portrait on the Search for Happiness

The story of the former diamond-diving village of Port Nolloth in South Africa

Three diamond diggers in South Africa are searching for the precious stone that will change their future forever. In their pursuit of happiness and prosperity, a story ignored by the media unfolds.

On These Grounds

The school incident that exposed the division at America’s core

An explosive video goes viral, showing a white school resource officer in South Carolina pull a Black teenager from her school desk and throw her across the floor. An outraged nation divides over who is at fault and what role race played in the incident. Healer-Activist Vivian Anderson uproots her life in NYC and moves to South Carolina to help the girl and dismantle the system behind the "Assault at Spring Valley". To contextualize this incident, geographer Janae Davis treks the surrounding swamps to unearth the overgrown and neglected homes of formerly enslaved people of African descent, drawing a throughline connecting trauma from the past to present.

Jacinta

A deeply intimate portrait of mothers and daughters, and the effects of trauma

Jacinta follows a young woman in and out of prison as she attempts to break free from an inherited cycle of addiction, incarceration and crime. Filmed for over three years, Jacinta begins at the Maine Correctional Center where Jacinta, 26, and her mother Rosemary, 46, are incarcerated together, both recovering from drug addiction. As a child, Jacinta became entangled in her mother's world of drugs and crime and has followed her in and out of the system since she was a teenager. This time, as Jacinta is released from prison, she hopes to maintain her sobriety and reconnect with her own daughter, Caylynn, 10, who lives with her paternal grandparents. Despite her desire to rebuild her life for her daughter, Jacinta continually struggles against the forces that first led to her addiction. With unparalleled access and a gripping vérité approach, director Jessica Earnshaw paints a deeply intimate portrait of mothers and daughters and the effects of trauma over generations.

North by Current

A family death spurs an exploration of grief, time and transformation

After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, prepared to make a film about the family’s wrongful persecution at the hands of authorities. Instead, he pivots to excavate struggles of generational addiction, Christian fervor, and trans embodiment, and in the process, creates a breathtaking reflection on the challenges of creating identity, the agony of growing up and the ever-fickle nuances of family.

Wine and War

The untold story of wine in the Middle East

Woven into Lebanon’s ancient history is a rich tale of wine-making, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit. Unravelling the story of the world’s fist wine merchants, Wine and War is a complex testament to the Lebanese people’s courage in the face of adversity, and a deep dive into the history of a nation which has bred masters of crisis management; a skill personified by the winemakers who for thousands of years have gone about their work in war, famine, occupation and the constant hum of political instability.

The Colonel's Stray Dogs

When dreams of revolution die, what is left behind?

For over 40 years Ashur Shamis was a member of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and Colonel Gadaffi’s enemy number one in exile with a $1m bounty on his head. His dream of a ‘free’ Libya almost cost him his life and his family. When the 2011 revolution rid the country of their dictator, Ashur finally returned home to a hero’s welcome but soon found a land vastly different to the one he left. As Libya slipped into civil war he was rejected by the new country and found himself exiled once again. His dream of Libya now distorted, Ashur’s son uncovers a dangerous past and questions the choices his father made to inherit the mess Gadaffi left.

By Rook or Left Hook: The Story of Chessboxing

Rocky meets The Queen's Gambit as brain and brawn are put to the test

Follow a self-defeating promoter from London and a self-promoting artist from Berlin as they fight for control of professional chessboxing, a sport which taxes mind and body through alternating rounds of chess and boxing. While Londoner and chessboxing aficionado Tim Woolgar toiled away and carried the financial burden to get the sport into the spotlight, Iepe Rubingh, the sport's inventor, used his status to garner all of the media attention at his events. As relations turned sour, Tim cut ties with Iepe and the two squared-off in a behind-the-scenes battle to decide who would become the 'Don King of chessboxing.'

TikTok

Lifting the lid on the social media platform that's taken the world by storm

TikTok: it's the social media app which has come to define our perception of Gen Z, and which has firmly embedded itself within the covid-era zeitgeist. A phenomenally popular platform, more than a billion users scroll through its endless feeds, and it's turned ordinary people into overnight internet stars. But there's another side to the world's most popular app: from racist 'feeds' that erase people of colour, to videos promoting eating disorders, there's problematic content beneath the platform's playful exterior. Meanwhile, are the many techniques TikTok is using, including facial recognition, a threat to data security? It may be time to look beyond the dance videos and recognise what's going on behind the fun façade.

Operation Wolf Patrol

One man's battle to end wolf hunting in the States

Eco-activist Rod Coronado has made it his life’s mission to advocate for the planet and the rights of animals. In 2014, he formed Wolf Patrol, an activist group which fights to preserve the grey wolves which roam Wisconsin’s forests. After 30 years of radical environmental action that earned Coronado the label, "eco-terrorist," Operation Wolf Patrol follows Rod's journey to redefine his activism. As ‘hunter harassment’ laws strengthen the rights of hunters in the States, Coronado is forced to make a momentous choice: retain his own freedom, or risk prison to continue his quest to protect America’s wildlife.