Step Across the Border (1990)

A well-preserved mammoth carcass is found in the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, opening up the possibility of a world-changing “Jurassic Park” moment in genetics.

Filmmaker Peter Mettler embarks on a mission that takes him around the world. He is determined to record the diverse modes of transcendence that people in different cultures adopt in order to live life to the fullest. As he traverses civilization and wilderness and encounters a range of lifestyles and ideas, the filmmaker's mind-expanding trip around the world grows into a poem of images and sounds, reflecting the fragmented but alluring worlds it attempts to capture.

"O Grande Silêncio" é o primeiro filme sobre a vida interior da Grande Chartreuse, casa mãe da Ordem dos Cartuxos, uma meditação silenciosa sobre a vida monástica. Dezessete anos depois de ter pedido autorização para filmar no mosteiro, é dada autorização para entrar ao realizador, que filmará a vida interior dos monges cartuxos. Sem música à exceção dos cânticos do mosteiro, sem entrevistas, nem comentários, ou artifícios. Evocam-se unicamente a passagem do tempo, das estações, os elementos repetidos incessantemente durante o dia ou as orações. Um filme sobre a presença do absoluto e a vida de homens que dedicam a sua existência a Deus. O filme ganhou os Prêmios de Melhor Documentário no Festival de Sundance e nos Prêmios Europeus do Cinema.

An avant-garde documentary film on English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith.

A documentary. David Sieveking takes the advice of his idol, David Lynch and tries out Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's transcendental meditation technique.

An account of the life and work of Swiss painter, sculptor, architect and designer H. R. Giger (1940-2014), tormented father of creatures as fearsome as they are fascinating, inhabitants of nightmarish biomechanical worlds.

A Ópera de Paris está sob nova direção, e se prepara para levantar as cortinas com um novo espetáculo: 'Moisés e Aarão' de Schönberg. Mas o anúncio de uma greve e a chegada de um touro como ator coadjuvante podem complicar as coisas.

A look at the pervasive power of dust from its tiny particles settling in unseen places to its ability to cause illnesses and create the cosmos.

A documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.

Croácia, 7 de janeiro de 1992. Durante a guerra, o corpo de um jovem jornalista é encontrado com o uniforme de um grupo mercenário internacional. Dezenove anos mais tarde, sua prima Anja Kofmel investiga essa história para tentar compreender o papel dele no conflito.

Os pastores Carole e Pascal se dirigem à Suíça francófona debaixo de neve com três burros, quatro cachorros e 800 ovelhas. Contornam estradas principais, trilhos ferroviários, casas suburbanas e estados industriais, passando por campos e florestas.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the heart of Jerusalem, six different Christian denominations, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syrian, Roman Catholic, Ethiopian and Coptic Christians-have divided the sacred site and simply can not agree on which of the claims on the tomb of Jesus is the most legitimate. So they fight. Sometimes through a difficult time cleaning, sometimes even by force. An intuitive and entertaining approach to the fact that faith is a very human thing.

Ceschi and Stamm's documentary tells the incredible story of Monika Krause, a former East German citizen, who became Fidel Castro's Sexual Education Minister. After 20 years in Cuba, Krause set the Cuban sexual revolution in motion: in favor of a woman's right to sexual fulfillment and legal abortion, and against exclusion of homosexuals, she acquired the title "Queen of Condoms". A film about potent female agitators, staunch macho men and Caribbean love lives.

It is winter at an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Every night at the door of this little-known basement facility the same entry ritual takes place, resulting in confrontations which can sometimes turn violent. Those on duty at the shelter have the difficult task of “triaging the poor”: the women and children first, then the men. Although the total capacity at the shelter is 100, only 50 “chosen ones” will be admitted inside and granted a warm meal and a bed. The others know it will be a long night.

What does a baby's cry have in common with the echo of a mountain yodler, and what connects the head tone of a Tuvin nomad with the stage show of a vocal artist? The answer is: THE VOICE. Against a background of powerful alpine vistas and modern city landscapes, "heimatklänge" enters the wondrous sonic world of three exceptional Swiss vocal artists. Their universe of sound extends far beyond what we would describe as singing. In their engagement with local and foreign traditions, the powerful mountain landscape becomes a stage as do the landscapes and sonic backdrops of modern life.

It’s a black-and-white record of European cities in the dark (2-5am), from Basle to Belfast. Quiet, and meditative, what emerges most strongly is an eerie sense of city landscapes as deserted film sets, in which the desolate architecture overwhelms any sense of reality. The only reassurance that we are not in some endless machine-Metropolis is the shadow of daytime activity: a juggernaut plunging through a darkened village, a plague of small birds in the predawn light. The whole thing is underscored by a beautiful ‘composed’ soundtrack, from quietly humming streetlights to reggae and the rumble of armoured cars in Belfast. A strange and remarkable combination of dream, documentary and science-fiction.

Above and Below is a rough and rhythmic roller coaster ride seating five survivors in their daily hustle through an apocalyptic world. A journey of challenges and beauty in uncomfortable places: Rick & Cindy, Godfather Lalo in the flood channels deep down under the shiny strip of Sin City. Dave in the dry and lonesome Californian desert and April in simulation for a Mars mission in the Utah desert. Through the hustle, the pain and the laughs, we are whisked away to an unfamiliar world, yet quickly discover the souls we encounter are perhaps not that different from our own.