The End of the Endless

It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, is the northernmost settlement in the world. About 3000 polar bears and 400 snow scooters outnumber its 2700 inhabitants. It is a place where you can actually see climate change and social diversity.

This is the story of an ordinary man transformed by history. A simple baker from Besançon who became a political symbol of resistance. That of a France that knows how much it needs others to grow. Of working classes rejecting the siren calls of populism. He says: "I was nothing and I became a monster" to express the vertigo of his transformation. And so the baker entered politics, visited the United States in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, brought aid to the Ukrainians, and ran for legislative elections. Fearless. Fighting with all his heart. It is this inspiring, touching, and funny human epic that Pedro da Fonseca's camera followed closely, capturing his doubts, his hesitations, and his emotions.

Somewhere in Myanmar is a forest rich in amber and controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Most of its inhabitants work in a mine, digging the earth night and days in the hope of finding the precious ore that will get them out of poverty. But on top of the excruciating hardship of the work, they also have to fear an attack from the army.

Melbourne-based Stelarc burst into prominence in the early 1970s with confronting, and outrageous public art performances. Following his mantra that ‘the body is obsolete’ he set about testing the limits of his own body in a series of death-defying stunts. Stelarc has always fought to escape the force of gravity. A third arm, an extra ear, a cheeky prosthetic head and an ambidextrous hand all play parts in this lively biopic as Stelarc wrangles the intersection between humanity and technology.

The oldest Quebecois Benedictine convent open its gates to a documentary filmmaker for the first time. Observed up close, life behind its walls is busier than one would expect. About twenty cloistered nuns, most of them over 70, share their daily life with diligence and humor. A contemplative portrait of a community of sisterhood and solidarity emerges, punctuated by prayer, work and games evenings.

While everyone wants to die "at home" without suffering and surrounded by loved ones, in reality almost everyone dies in hospital. What healthcare provisions enable people to die at home? Are we all equal in terms of the support we receive, regardless of where we live? Young caregivers in a home hospitalization unit drive day and night along the Alabaster Coast. From house to house, from dying person to dying person. Accompanying a dying person at home also means accompanying their loved ones, immersing oneself for a few days or weeks in the intimacy of a family history. Thanks to them, the end of life returns to the home, to the family, and is rehumanized.

A more experimental aproach to labor protection films. In the line of Săucan's style, the soundtrack is as important as the image, the threatening music, full of shrillness, composed by Ion Dumitrescu potentiating the visual construction that mixes - in a montage reminiscent of the Soviet avant-garde school of the 1920s - all kinds of shooting techniques and frame combinations.

Oscar, not quite a child anymore, scavenges for scrap metal for his father. He spends his life in improvised landfills among what remains of leftovers. Worlds apart, yet close-by, there is Stanley. He tidies the church in exchange for a monetised hospitality, picks fruits, herds sheep: anything that keep his foreign body busy. Oscar, the young Sicilian, and Stanley the Nigerian don’t seem to have much in common. Except for the feeling of being thrown into the world, to suffer the same refusal, the same overwhelming wave of choices imposed on them by others.

Immigrant workers build a shopping mall for the upcoming 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. In 2016, nine people with migrant backgrounds are killed in a racist attack at the same mall.

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.

Truth or Consequences is a speculative documentary about time and how we weave the past into the present and our possible future. Set in the small desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, the film takes place in the shadow of a nearby Spaceport and the commercial exploration of space. Through the lives of the people in town and a filmmaker from the future, the film explores progress, echoes of history, and how we each navigate a sense of loss, within ourselves and within a changing world.

AGNI, a visual artist in the twilight of his life, is rushing to complete his monumental work. Caught up in a frantic creative routine despite his declining health, he transforms every gesture, every moment into a final trace of his passage. Soon, he knows, he will join the stars.