KARATISTA

W : A Return to Oz(en)

Witness the rise and fall of The Warehouse, a rave venue from Plymouth and times gone by now reduced to a derelict shell. We explore its history, its people and the future. An amateur filmmaker-explorer finds the building in an empty derelict state, long after the prosperous life and energy it endured through the 90s. Through a combination of archives and stories of people who lived there, the film explores through the medium of analogue what once was and how even a now silent derelict shell can become the centre of the universe.

Karun – The Longest River of Iran(fa)

On September 22, 1998, the Iranian poet Hamid Hajizadeh and his nine-year-old son Karun, whose name symbolically refers to Iran's longest river, were brutally murdered in their home in Kerman. The documentary film, based on the statements of the survivors, tries to sensitively reconstruct one of the many terrible motivated events that took place in Iran at the end of the previous century and draws us into the fateful day with the help of detailed shots of the objects in Hamid's study.

Romy and Magda Schneider: Mother - Daughter - Rivals?(de)

New light is shed on the complex relationship between Romy Schneider and her mother Magda, a German film star of the 1930s admired by Hitler - who welcomed her and her daughter to his chalet in Berchtesgaden.

ZAAD(nl)

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.

Collective Monologue(es)

Intimate and fragmented moments unfold in a community of zoos and animal rescue centers across Argentina. As histories of these institutions are uncovered, dedicated workers commit both day and night to caring for the remaining enclosed animals, fostering a mutual bond that transcends imagined boundaries between human and animal.

Petrichor(es)

Director Juan José Arias uses old family videos to try to find out what kind of person his father was. His image comes back in dreams, his voice whispers in the smell of rain and his embrace lies in an old house in the country where they used to spent the holidays. Reality, memories and dreams blur together in a poetic way.

Snescha and Franz(en)

Sunny Beach at socialist Bulgaria, the summer of 1967. 19-year-old Bulgarian SNESCHA meets FRANZ, an 18-year-old Austrian lad. They dance and talk, he is speaking German and she – Bulgarian, and despite the language barrier, they fall in love. In 1975 they get married and leave for Austria. SNESCHA gets pregnant and gives birth to twin sisters. FRANZ embarks to an expedition in Iran and Pamir. SNESCHA gives birth to a third daughter. His next adventure is passing the river Niger to the city of Bamako in Mali. After that he goes back to Austria and buys a house on credit. In 1987 he decides to make a bicycle tour going through Tibet. Despite SNESCHA’S disagreeing, he sets for Pakistan and never comes back. SNESCHA has to take care of her daughters and pay for the house.

Bright Future(ro)

In the summer of 1989, the 13th edition of the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Pyongyang. Thousands of socialist youth from 177 countries celebrated their belief in a better society and international solidarity.

The World of Marcel Proust(fr)

Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" is one of the great novels of world literature. The documentary immerses itself in the very own cosmos, spanning 3,000 pages and hundreds of characters, for which Proust's own world was the source of inspiration, and brings Proust's moral portrait of the Belle Epoque to new life.

The Lost Album of the SS(fr)

In 2016, an album containing 250 previously unseen photos of Nazi officials was discovered in the USA by Stephan Hördler, a prominent Holocaust historian, who immediately understood the album's inestimable value. The album brings together photographs of a "group of friends," all from the same region of Germany, all of whom became SS men. From 1928 to 1943, the photo album allows us to follow their journey. Hördler conducted the investigation, comparing the photos in the album with other, better-known ones, the faces of these men with those of concentration camp officials, and ultimately revealed that it was at Lichtencburg that these young men were trained, a "school" for future camp executioners, and the bonds of camaraderie and informal network that would allow them to help each other, even after the war.

Opération Barbarossa, au cœur des ténèbres(fr)

On 22 June 1941, the German Wehrmacht launched a war of aggression against the Soviet Union. Under the code name ‘Operation Barbarossa’, the campaign aimed to bring the vast country in the east to its knees. Millions of people died as a result.

Mimaroğlu Remix Project(en)

A collection of 8mm film reels from İlhan Mimaroğlu’s archive—once tucked away in whisky boxes—has found new life through art. Curated by director Serdar Kökçeoğlu and producer Dilek Aydın, the project brings together visual artists and musicians to reimagine these long-lost images. Over thirty artists transformed the footage into fifteen distinct audiovisual pieces, blending experimental soundscapes with contemporary video art. The project concludes with a special highlight: the first-ever screening of Mimaroğlu’s silent short film about a street jazz festival, accompanied by Erdem Helvacıoğlu’s dark jazz score.

Poilu[s](fr)

A young filmmaker is commissioned to write a documentary about the First World War. He tries to find a way to tell the story of the war. What is to be done with all these films waiting in the archives to be shown again? He tries his hand at different styles of writing and editing, keeping in mind the question: can you make a montage film without transforming the images?

Polisario, a people in arms(fr)

This film is a testimony. These are the images and sounds recorded throughout the area of ​​struggle of the Saharawi people and they testify to their will to live free at home while placing the "Sahroui problem" in a real context. Ex-Spanish colony whose wealth is considerable, Western Sahara should, like many African countries, gain independence according to United Nations resolutions.

There's Fatamorgana In My Desert(en)

The film weaves together archival footage of Yugoslavia’s idealized unity with a personal investigation into the filmmaker’s grandfather’s imprisonment under the regime. As the film moves from collective memory to intimate reflection, fragmented visuals reveal the silence of political trauma and the complexities of inherited memory. Rooted in archival theory, the project questions the authority of official histories, exploring how archives shape power and memory. By reimagining history as a fluid space, the film examines the impact of repression across generations.

The Cranker(en)

A short Documentary following a beloved local pub faced by threats of demolition.

The land of the blue men(es)

Composed of images filmed in April 1975, a few months before the Green March, during an expedition of more than 3000 kilometres across the then Spanish Sahara, a unique testimony of the life of this region in an era in which it was preparing for its independence.

Mémoire de mer(fr)

Living Proof: A Climate Story(en)

The film reveals Scotland's post-war history as seen through the lens of current debate, inviting audiences on a journey to revisit the promises of the past and consider how they relate to our future on this planet. Was climate change inevitable? Can we break free from a boom-and-bust mentality?

Thrifted(tr)

Downloaded(en)

A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God(en)

Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.

Night Will Fall(en)

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

My Mom Jayne(en)

Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.

Birth of the Living Dead(en)

A behind the scenes look into George Romero's groundbreaking horror classic Night of the Living Dead.

Listen to Me Marlon(en)

With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon's perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski(en)

Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.

Wormwood(en)

In this genre-bending tale, Errol Morris explores the mysterious death of a U.S. scientist entangled in a secret Cold War program known as MK-Ultra.

Heart of a Dog(en)

Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.

More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead(en)

Retrospective documentary about the making of the horror cult classic "The Return of the Living Dead."

Love, Marilyn(en)

Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me(en)

From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.

Looking for Richard(en)

Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."

DMT: The Spirit Molecule(en)

THE SPIRIT MOLECULE weaves an account of Dr. Rick Strassman's groundbreaking DMT research through a multifaceted approach to this intriguing hallucinogen found in the human brain and hundreds of plants, including the sacred Amazonian brew, ayahuasca. Utilizing interviews with a variety of experts to explain their thoughts and experiences with DMT, and ayahuasca, within their respective fields, and discussions with Strassman’s research volunteers, brings to life the awesome effects of this compound, and introduces us to far-reaching theories regarding its role in human consciousness.

In Search of the Last Action Heroes(en)

The most comprehensive retrospective of the '80s action film genre ever made.

Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin(en)

Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty(en)

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror(en)

Follow the evolution of the 'Halloween' movies over the past twenty-five years. It examines why the films are so popular and revisits many of the original locations used in the films - seeing the effects on the local community. For the first time, cast, crew, critics and fans join together in the ultimate 'Halloween' retrospective.

Champs(en)

A documentary about the sport of boxing, as seen through the eyes of champions Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins.

Gilbert(en)

The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.