BY THE RIVER
By Dan Braga
25 mins
Stretching along the river Ganges rests Varanasi, the holiest of India’s seven sacred cities, and a place where devout Hindus go to die in hopes of achieving moksha - becoming liberated from the cycle of rebirth. Hindu scriptures say that a soul has to undergo 8.4 million rebirths before reaching the human form, the only form one can attain moksha, and dying in Varanasi and being cremated along the banks of the river is believed to be the ideal way of achieving this. Several so-called ‘death hotels’ exist to accommodate believers who abandon their lives and come here in wait for death - some for as long as 40 years.

TE WHAKAIRO
By Vanessa Wells
14 mins
Te Whakairo - Ngā Kī o Te Tai Ao (The Carvings Carry the Stories of the World)
Two talented carvers from each end of Aotearoa take their whakairo (carving) to Antarctica in response to New Zealand's kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of the world’s largest marine protected area - The Ross Sea.

IMAGES OF VICTORY
By Adi Mishnayot
30 mins
2014. Israel is at war in Gaza again. Inside an Israeli hospital, hundreds gather to boost national morale, and Uri, a wounded Israeli soldier, finds himself unwillingly turned into a war hero. A private family hardship turned public spectacle, offers an inside critical look into Israeli society and the way war as a state of mind is shaping it as a nation.

YOU ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF MY MIND
By Catriona Black
5 mins
A hand-drawn animation commissioned for the BBC’s centenary programming about the Iolaire disaster, in which 201 sailors returning from WWI drowned just yards from home on New Year’s Eve. First-hand Scottish Gaelic accounts from survivors and witnesses describe the disaster and its lasting impact on the Lewis community, set to a powerful musical score by Sarah-Jane Summers. The animation is drawn in charcoal style and layered with poignant Iolaire-related photographic details.

( ( ( ( ( /*\ ) ) ) ) )
By Charlie Fairbanks
19 mins
A sonic portrait of a Chiapan village focused on architecture and public space. Filmed over six years, ( ( ( ( ( /*\ ) ) ) ) ) is a sensory ethnography of culture and communication in a community founded by volcano eruption refugees

BELOW THE FLOOD GATE
By Sarah Franke
23 mins
Vulnerable to flooding and excluded from protective measures, the residents of a coastal Louisiana community hold firmly to their way of life.

LOUIES ANTIQUES
By Melissa Mcclung
9 mins
In Louie’s shop, antique objects get a second life- and come to life. An unusual antiques dealer, Louis Farrick, provides a tour of his richly laden little store in Northampton, Massachusetts.

CLAY COUNTY
By Marcy Mccall
16 mins
An award-winning documentary portrait of a rural county in the state of Georgia. Eighteen teenage boys attend a Male Awareness class sponsored by the school system where the dynamic instructor urges them to consider the honest lessons of Black American life. Shot in a cinema verité style, the camera follows the students on the bus, in the classroom, on the basketball court, and in the home of a student. This is life for what it is and not for what it symbolizes. Filmmaker Marcy McCall met the persons featured in the film during the 15-year period she lived in Georgia, where she worked for five years as a statewide education advocate.

AUSTRALIA’S HIDDEN SHAME
By Daniel Clarke
21 mins
More than 10 million kangaroos have died of disease and starvation across Australia in the past five years. So why doesn't anyone know about it? The national emblem is perishing on mass yet no-one seems to care.