GLOW

She was a muse, model and performer – a star, dazzling and intense. Lady Shiva managed to rise from street prostitution to the top. She lived in the fast lane and died tragically young. Her dream was to become a singer. With her companions, we trace her life during a vibrant time that kindles a yearning and provokes until today. The story of a woman’s meteoric fate and a great dream. An irrepressible desire for freedom in all its beauty and destructive force - and a stirring friendship and love.

Rêve de Chine

Iraqi Odyssey

Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war and foreign occupation of Iraq.

SeelenSchatten

Two women and a man suffering from severe depression are accompanied by a camera for a year and a half. The acute phase of their depression is the starting point for this filmed account. How do they cope with their illness and their stay in hospital? How does their professional and family situation evolve after this major crisis? When do they feel cured again?

Drunk on Too Much Life

The filmmakers' 21-year-old daughter journeys from locked-down psych wards and diagnostic labels toward expansive worlds of creativity, connection, and greater meaning. Featuring insights from trauma experts and others, the film challenges the widespread idea that mental illness should be understood purely in biological terms, revealing the myriad ways that madness has meaning beyond brain chemistry.

I Am Mariam Binladen

Ina, Amer & Elvis

Auf der Suche nach Heilern

“I am a hypochondriac”, admits Rosa Von Praunheim, the icon of the gay movement, right at the beginning at the film. The director, who turned seventy in 2012, is afraid of cancer, and he actually suffers from glaucoma, with osteoarthritis in his big toe. Von Praunheim is interested in alternative medicine and goes on a foray into the scene.

Becoming Who I Was

Angdu is no ordinary boy. Indeed, in a past life he was a venerated Buddhist master. His village already treats him like a saint as a result. The village doctor, who has taken the boy under his wing, prepares him to be able to pass on his wisdom. Alas, Tibet, Angdu’s former homeland and the centre of his faith, lies far away from his current home in the highlands of Northern India. On top of that, the conflict between China and Tibet makes the prospect of a trip there even more daunting. Undeterred by these harsh facts, the duo set off for their destination on foot, accompanied by questions of friendship and the nature of life. With its narrative approach steeped in a serene sense of concentration, this documentary film, composed over a period of eight years, stands as a fundamental experience in its own right.

Blindsight

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Serviced

Serviced explores touch based service businesses including cuddling, erotic massage, sex surrogacy and sex work. Meet the men who have foregone the 9-5 grind or are adding on a side-hustle service-based job. From cuddling to sex work we're looking at the world's oldest profession with eyes wide open.

Predator on the Reservation

FRONTLINE and The Wall Street Journal investigate the decades-long failure to stop a government doctor accused of sexually abusing Native American boys for years, and examine how he moved from reservation to reservation despite warnings.

Hugo Koblet - The Charming Cyclist

Zurich-born Hugo Koblet was the first international cycling star of the post-war period. He was a stylist on the bicycle and in life, and a huge heartthrob. Koblet had a meteoric rise and won the Giro d'Italia in 1950. Once he had reached the zenith of his career, Koblet was put under pressure by overly ambitious officials and ended up ruining his health with drugs. In 1954, he married a well-known model and they became a celebrity dream couple. After his athletic career ended, Koblet began to lose his footing. Threatened by bankruptcy, he crashed his Alfa into a tree.

The Camelia Boy

An autobiographical film about Eric M. Nilsson's experiences of Swedish health care and the limits of polite society.

Dosed 2: The Trip of a Lifetime

Laurie, a terminally ill cancer patient and loving mother of four, is granted the right to legally use magic mushrooms to treat her end of life anxiety. She then embarks on a remarkable journey of personal transformation and healing while exploring lesser known possible cures for cancer, like cannabis oil.

Monte Grande: What is Life?

Documentary account of a man’s life in the face of imminent death – Francisco Varela's story told affectionately and gently, touchingly and astutely. Varela spent his life building bridges: between Western science and Eastern wisdom, neurobiology and philosophy, abstract theory and practical life. This film seeks to deconstructs the prevailing division between science and art.

Trust Me

Animated short documentary following a young woman's diagnosis of bipolar: a journey of self-acceptance to challenge everyday stigma. In "Trust Me", a genre-bending short documentary, a young woman uses humour and compassion to share her moving and deeply personal story of coming to terms with her mental health condition. When she starts exhibiting atypical and extreme behaviour, her loved ones trick her into hospitalisation against her will. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder which starts her challenging journey of self-acceptance, confronting internalised and societal stigma, and learning to trust herself and others again.

Die Gabe zu heilen

The film tells the stories of five people with special abilities who treat and heal their patients in an unconventional way. These charismatic healers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are the subjects of this documentary which sets out to show how their old-school, arcane methods can serve as an addition to conventional, academic medicine.

Exit: The Right to Die

Switzerland is presently the only country in the world where suicide assistance is legal. Exit: The Right to Die profiles that nation's EXIT organization, which for over twenty years has provided volunteers who counsel and accompany the terminally-ill and severely handicapped towards a death of their choice.

Der lange Weg ans Licht

Edeltraut Hertel - a midwife caught between two worlds. She has been working as a midwife in a small village near Chemnitz for almost 20 years, supporting expectant mothers before, during and after the birth of their offspring. However, working as a midwife brings with it social problems such as a decline in birth rates and migration from the provinces. Competition for babies between birthing centers has become fierce, particularly in financial terms. Obstetrics in Tanzania, Africa, Edeltraud's second place of work, is completely different. Here, the midwife not only delivers babies, she also trains successors, carries out educational and development work and struggles with the country's cultural and social problems.