Film Catalogue

Can art give meaning to our lives? A documentary produced by Onassis Culture, which focuses on the performance Transverse Orientation by Dimitris Papaioannou. Filmmaker Eva Stefani follows the preparations behind Transverse Orientation and its tour across theatrical stages in Europe, observing from a close distance Dimitris Papaioannou and his collaborators in their effort to give shape and breathe life into the work. For two years, her camera captured scenes from the rehearsals at the Onassis Stegi during the pandemic, as well as performances in Paris, London, Vilnius, and other international destinations, leading to the last show in San Francisco. The central question that runs through the documentary is “Why do we do what we do?” elevating art as a means of resisting the futility of things and a way to reapply meaning to our own lives.

Sang is one of the thousands of unwanted and marginalized children abandoned by American soldiers after the Vietnam War. At 55, his lifelong dream of finding his father finally comes true, but he must race against time. Before their long-awaited reunion, Sang must confront his own weaknesses, internal conflicts, and the deep scars of war – wounds that have not only shaped his life but have haunted the generations that followed. His journey to the United States forces him to face profound questions about his identity while struggling to bridge the gap between two vastly different worlds and cultures. Reuniting with his father offers a sense of redemption, but not without challenges. Fifty years after the war's end, the wounds remain wide open.

Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi creates a personal and political one-woman show about the struggle for equality in Israel/Palestine. When the elusive coexistence she’s spent her life working toward starts sounding like a bad joke, she challenges her audiences with hard truths that are no laughing matter. With a narrative backbone of Noam Shuster Eliassi’s brilliant stand-up set developed at Harvard University and filmed before a live audience, the film documents not only the shifting perspective of Eliassi – a UN diplomat turned comedian – but also the unfolding realities in the region and the resulting seismically dynamic discourse surrounding it. Audiences will come away with a laugh, a tear, and an openness that feels all together like both a salve and a kick in the ass.

Directed by Jesse Short Bull (Lakota Nation vs. the United States) and David France (How to Survive a Plague, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, and Welcome to Chechnya), and produced by Bird Runningwater, the film follows Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, who has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies.

At Milan's Niguarda public hospital, the unconventional Dr. Maurizio Bini and his team offer medical care to couples aspiring to be parents through IVF, as well as to people wishing to undergo a gender-affirming surgery. Dr. Bini’s team, comprised of doctors and nurses, works decisively against the constraints imposed by a conservative government and an aggressive market eager to commodify the human body. At a time when reproduction and gender identity often turn into a battlefield for political controversy, it is easy to miss the quintessence; it is a surgical procedure carried out by medical professionals well versed in such knowledge. Niguarda is one of the few public hospitals in Italy where these kinds of procedures are allowed. The filmmaker shadows Dr. Bini and his team for months, capturing their work through a cinematic lens overflowing with compassion. With great sensitivity and attention to detail, he encapsulates the commitment, care, and depth that permeate the relationships between doctors, nurses and their patients.

The Goals of August is a kaleidoscope of events, incidents, and moments from the everyday life of a village in the southern Pindos mountains. during an impromptu football tournament. The documentary aims to create, through observation, an “impressionistic” portrait of a small community in its summer aliveness. A portrait with light and shadows, charming and sometimes frightening, which, despite its contradictions is above all unexpectedly alive and genuine.

In the remote village of Kök-Tash, Kyrgyzstan, where conservative norms confine women to domestic duties, an activist organizes a women's football tournament to challenge these patriarchal traditions. Stunningly filmed, visually captivating, and quite evocative, Kick-Off demonstrates how athletics has the power to break taboos, opposing the norms of traditionalism, while promoting gender quality in rigidly patriarchal societies, where women are left with no choice but to occupy the margins of solely inflexible, highly restrictive roles. Sports and play, being the most natural expression of human joy - unbound by limitations and uncontained, are the best response to the sullen “no’s” imposed by any form of oppression. With masterful aesthetics, cinematic power, and a splendidly fluid directorial approach, clear of any pretentiousness, this riveting film by Roser Corella and Stefano Obino, introduces us to a faraway world that is simultaneously so near us in our need for freedom, self-determination, and revolution.

For 26 years (1972–1998), Swiss dentist Julien Grivel treated Hansenites (lepers) pro bono in Greece. An inner journey that helped him see the world and life differently. “By adopting the language of the Greeks, I unconsciously adopted their thinking,” he says. His friendship with ex-hansenite Manolis Fountoulakis was a catalyst.

Mathu, a medical doctor, grew into the complete opposite of his father, a spiritual healer. While Mathu is an ascetic loner, Malby was a hedonistic womanizer. Mathu's controlled reality unravels when Anna, a Malby devoted believer, tries to convince him that his father saved her life through telepathic healing. He is now forced to come to terms with his family trauma, while challenging Anna’s beliefs. The confrontation turns into an exploration of the opposite beliefs between Science and Magic.

In 1989, the fall of Alfredo Stroessner’s 35-year dictatorship in Paraguay marked the end of one of the world’s longest authoritarian regimes, but also the abandonment of the audiovisual archives that had cemented its power. This footage, crafted to shape a national identity and celebrate the regime, was left to fade from memory. Decades later, a trove of unseen and long-forgotten footage – as newsreels, public television broadcasts, propaganda films, and declassified documents – has been recovered from Paraguay and abroad, revealing the hidden mechanisms of power behind Stroessner’s rule. A visual experience through the history of the media, covering all the supports that have been able to store pieces of memory during the 20th century. The found Paraguayan footage reflects the appropriation of the past to indoctrinate, the construction of a national imaginary, and the cult of Stroessner. The foreign archives narrate the Cold War, international alliances, and the power game that allowed the dictatorship to prosper, in addition to denouncing propaganda and oppression. It is an archeology of the present, in a country where the descendants of the regime's leaders still rule.