Fagbug

British documentary filmmaker Chloe Ruthven’s grandparents were aid workers in Palestine. Growing up, she had avoided getting too involved in the subject, recalling how mention of the country made all the adults in her life angry. In her forties, after revisiting her grandmother’s book on the subject, she starts to research a documentary on the effects of foreign aid in the area and is shocked at the continued reliance on it there. Along the way she meets Lubna, a Palestinian woman who acts as her driver and fixer, and who is fiercely critical of Western aid efforts in her country. What begins as a quest to better understand her family history turns into a deeply emotional account of two women trying to understand one another. Ruthven’s determination to focus her film on deeply subjective analysis results in a unique joining of the acutely personal and complexly political. (Source: LFF programme)

Directed by Véra Belmont

In post-revolution Libya, a group of women are brought together by one dream: to play football for their nation. But as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the “Arab Spring” begin to fade, can they realise their dream? And is there even a country left to play for? Freedom Fields is a film about hope and sacrifice in a land where dreams seem a luxury. Through the eyes of these accidental activists we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love, struggle and aspirations collide with History.

Beyond the mystical city of Timbuktu, Mamatal, the son of a Tuareg chief sets out on a journey across the Sahara to save his culture known as the blue people of the Sahara before they disappear. But when the North African government of Mali collapses, he finds himself and his people caught up in an international crisis,a battle between the Tuareg fighting for independence and Al Qaeda bent on taking over the Sahara to plot future terrorist attacks against the United States and Europe. documentary looks behind the international headlines of the crisis in the Sahara and exposes the government corruption and neglect of an indigenous people who might be the only hope for defeating Islamic radicals in the region.

On October 23, 1998, a sniper carrying a high-powered rifle assassinated Dr. Barnett Slepian in his home, altering forever a family, a community, and the bounds of our imaginings about anti-abortion violence. This horrific act punctuated a decade of escalating harassment and violence against women’s heath care providers – a decade marred by murders, assaults, death threats, stalking, clinic blockades, arsons, bombings, and chemical attacks. How do these events affect the personal and professional lives of abortion providers? What motivates them to continue their work in the face of such terrorism?

Short documentary about a woman known from a film by Eduardo Coutinho.

Victor and Fernando are hairstylists in Mexicali. They are the go-to professionals for the city's socialites. To their customers, they were a lovely couple until they decided to legally marry. Losing the support of people and friends an confronting a blacklash of criticism, through their fight they woke up members of Mexiciali's society to fight homophobia and inequality.