Cycling the Frame

Inspired by the transformation of the sex-trafficking survivors whose lives she follows, the filmmaker finds the courage to break the silence about sexual abuse in her own life.

Eleven year old Masha Kulabokhova is about to be adopted into fourteen year old Cami Diaz's family. Masha grew up in a Russian orphanage; Cami was born and raised in Wisconsin and has been the exclusive focus of her parents' love her whole life. The process of Masha becoming part of the Diaz family is going to change both girls forever. The Dark Matter of Love follows Masha as she leaves Russia to the spend her first year as part of the Diaz family, who have also adopted five year old twin boys Marcel and Vadim. When the reality of bonding with children who have grown up in institutions turns out to be more difficult than they ever imagined, the Diaz's hire two of the world's best developmental psychologists to help them build their new family - through science. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, The Dark Matter of Love melds the story of the Diaz family learning to love, with rare archive footage of science experiments exploring parent-child love.

A babysitter realizes that one of the children she looks after is being physically abused by his mother.

An aging Irish businessman, an aspiring Australian actress, a retired American baseball player and a widowed British bodyguard attempt to complete the four most difficult ultra marathon races on Earth- a goal previously only attempted by professional athletes. The four races bring them to the world's most picturesque and brutal deserts in Chile, China, Egypt and Antarctica, where they will push their bodies, minds and spirits to their limits. Desert Runners chronicles the intense, year-long journey of these dedicated runners and the many obstacles that they face - both expected and unexpected,external and internal - and provides an intimate view into the complex ways human beings deal with heartbreak and triumph.

Writer and filmmaker Assia Djebar explores Algerian history, the psychological impact of war, and post-colonial female identity in this 1979 classic of film literature. Named for (and taking its structure from) a traditional song with five distinct movements, the film combines documentary-style observation with loose narrative form to tell the story of Lila, an Algerian expatriate returning to her country 15 years after independence has been won. In comparing her life with the lives and experiences of rural Algeriennes, Lila is able to put her childhood demons to rest and discover a new history - one written in the ongoing strength of generations of women. Like much of Djebar's writing, the film has a strong subtext dealing with resistance to patriarchy and women's desire to appropriate the means of power and expression - one of which, of course, is the filmmaker's camera.

Who, apart from moviegoers, knows Alice Guy (1873-1968) today? However, she was the first woman behind the camera and the first female director and producer of fiction films in history.

Amanda is a divorced woman who makes a living as a photographer. During the Fall of the year Amanda begins to see the world in new and different ways when she begins to question her role in life, her relationships with her career and men and what it all means. As the layers to her everyday experiences fall away insertions in the story with scientists, and philosophers and religious leaders impart information directly to an off-screen interviewer about academic issues, and Amanda begins to understand the basis to the quantum world beneath. During her epiphany as she considers the Great Questions raised by the host of inserted thinkers, she slowly comprehends the various inspirations and begins to see the world in a new way.

A Girl and A Gun shows the female perspective on an object whose history is deeply bound to men and masculinity. The classic Hollywood portrayals of pistol packin' mamas, tomboy sharp shooters, sexually twisted femme fatales, and high-heeled, cold-blooded assassins are caricatures. In truth, the typical woman who hangs out at rifle ranges and keeps ammo in her purse is the girl-next-door, the single mom, a hard working sister or aunt. Maybe she's a realist or has learned tough lessons from life; either way, she cares about her personal safety and may even find salvation, comfort or something satisfying in possessing a gun. In a word, she is empowered. Breaking through the caricatures, A Girl and a Gun reveals America's diverse and far-ranging female gun community. It depicts how this community is portrayed by the media and targeted by the gun industry; and shows, through personal stories, how guns change women's lives.

At the top of Mont Ventoux hangs a huge poster with the names of all the cyclists who won Tour de France stages to the summit of this legendary “Giant of Provence”. But which one of these winners is the greatest climber of them all? The documentary feature The King of Mont Ventoux puts five cycling heroes against each other in an unprecedented virtual race beyond the bounds of time: Belgian ‘Cannibal’ Eddy Merckx (1970), Frenchmen ‘Jeff’ Bernard (1987) and Richard ‘the Lionheart’ Virenque (2002), the Italian ‘Pirate’ Marco Pantani (2000) and Spanish climber ‘Juanma’ Gárate (2009). Starting together at the foot of the giant, they battle it out over the 21-km ascent along a winding forest road to the lunar-like summit of the ‘Bald Mountain’; a gruelling one-hour test of endurance and strength. The first to reach the summit is crowned King of Mont Ventoux.

How does it feel when your brother, someone you felt to be the dearest, brightest and most important person in the world, suddenly decides to join an ultraconservative Catholic religious order? Whilst the two siblings had spent time at Christian summer camps – he at the Legionarios and she with the Consagradas – the members of both orders had always seemed rather odd to them. Her brother swore he would never join the Legionaries and that it didn’t interest him at all. Why did he break this pact, what happened to him?