Documentaries that change the way we see the world
There’s power in coming together, and documentaries know how to capture it. Insights gathers international nonfiction where filmmakers mold and morph identity into metaphors for worlds in transition.
Young people in China, France, and Georgia come of age. From Kenya to Colombia and North America, communities resist extraction and organize for change. Across SWANA, personal archives and revolutionary images bring past struggles into the present. Together, these stories reveal love not as retreat, but as the force that creates collective change.
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Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Whispers in May
Whispers in May follows Qihuo and her friends in China’s Liangshan Mountains as childhood gives way to womanhood. It blends close observation and scenes of the girls' search with animated fragments of Yi oral myth to create a hypnotic coming-of-age film.
A Distant Call
In the South Sulawesi province of Indonesia, Eka, one of the few remaining bissu — spiritual leaders who embody the aspects of all genders — struggles to reconcile their identity with community expectations and their own devout Muslim faith.
Birds of War
Told through phone videos, voice notes, texts, and news footage, Birds of War documents the love story of Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian activist Abd Alkader Habak as their connection deepens and their communications grow in urgency.
Concrete Land
Filmed over eight years, Concrete Land follows the Najar family, one of Jordan’s last Afro-Palestinian-Bedouin families, as luxury villas close in on their grazing space outside Amman. Asmahan Bkerat preserves their way of life in the face of erasure.
A Fire There
Winner of the Special Jury Award at Visions du Réel, A Fire There follows three teenage friends in rural Georgia as adulthood arrives. Marlene Edoyan’s finely observed film redefines coming of age as something slower and more quietly rebellious.
Image: © Nemesis Films F3M
A Place of Absence
A Place of Absence follows the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants along migration routes through Mexico and toward the United States, while tracing the disappearance that shaped the filmmaker’s own family history.
Nitassinan
Innu poet Joséphine Bacon and filmmaker Kim O’Bomsawin weave poetry and observation in Nitassinan, a lyrical portrait of the Innu people’s enduring bond with their ancestral land.
Who Moves America
Who Moves America follows UPS teamsters through their 2023 contract negotiations. Director Yael Bridge turns meetings, rallies, votes, and everyday conversations into a clear-eyed portrait of solidarity and building power.
The Wind's Thirst
In The Wind’s Thirst, three Indigenous Wayuu guardians confront mining and energy corporations exploiting Colombia’s La Guajira desert to defend their water, sacred sites, and right to remain.
Revolutionaries Never Die
Revolutionaries Never Die is Mohanad Yaqubi’s reply to Jocelyne Saab, who passed away before the two could collaborate. Yaqubi's film serves as equal parts tribute, conversation, and partnership with the revolutionary past.
Nuisance Bear
Winner of the highly coveted Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, Nuisance Bear follows a polar bear through Churchill, Manitoba, where the town profits from bears as spectacle while treating their arrival as a problem.
Kikuyu Land
Kikuyu Land follows Mr. Mungai’s struggle to reclaim family land taken during the colonial era. Through personal stories and archival research, the film explores the enduring impact of land dispossession in Kenya.