Mark Adams

“What is a good picture?” is the fundamental and intriguing question at the heart of this warm and generous road trip documentary, as filmmaker Nahuel Lopez joins acclaimed German photographer Thomas Hoepker as he heads across America, training his lens on a changed world and also facing up to the challenges of his slowly advancing dementia.

A compassionate yet deeply harrowing delve into the important work done by the Croatian empowerment programme ‘I Am Much More Than My Trauma’ which helps women who were raped and traumatised during the Croatian War of Independence. Vedrana Pribacic’s film focusses on a handful of women taking part throughout the programme’s two-year duration.

A fascinating and enthralling film that begins as a story of momentous artistic discovery before spiralling into heated examination of the power of the cultural establishment. Acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker Nils Gaup’s documentary debut, an International Premiere at Hot Docs, may raise questions and provoke debate but ultimately (and perhaps most importantly) it helps celebrate an artistic talent long thought forgotten, and one that has been hitherto dismissed.

An often heartrending essay on grief and on how humans and nature rebuild after trauma, Jennifer Rainsford’s lyrically titled film is set against the backdrop of incidents of March 11 2011, when the largest earthquake in modern history hit Japan and then, some thirty minutes later, the dark tsunami waves roared in over the north-eastern coast, dragging cars, homes and lives back out to sea. Review: Mark Adams

Contrasting visions and perspectives of modern-day Armenia are played out in 5 Dreamers and a Horse with the film focussing on four protagonists as they aspire to fulfil their very different dreams. There is also – as the enigmatic title suggests - a horse…but in truth it plays a minor role in proceedings.

A Holy Family offers an engaging, at times very moving, examination of a family that has struggled to find its balance, but which opens up to eventually appreciate and even understand each other. Review by Mark Adams.

An elegant and insightful blend of childlike art, music and observation helps elevate Vida Dena’s documentary My Paper Life (Ma vie en papier) to something rather special, and helps deliver a thoughtful and warm immersion into the thoughts, memories and present-day realities for a Syrian family who have escaped the war and are now living in Belgium.

Though conventional in tone and structure, Steven Vit’s My Old Man also manages to be gently profound as it dwells on a childhood spent in a conventional family (not unlike countless ones encountered in Switzerland and elsewhere) and the director’s realisation that he doesn’t really know the often-absent father who would call from the other side of the world to say goodnight when he was a child.

An intriguing and languid blend of magical realism and observational documentary, Tizian Büchi’s Like An Island (L'îlot) presents the often enigmatic story of two men whose job is to watch over the area around the Vuachère, the burbling river running through a suburban neighbourhood in Lausanne (Switzerland).

Deep into indigenous territory within the Brazilian rainforest a local activist and his team are fighting back with a video camera as a weapon. Their provocative and often heart-breaking story is impressively recorded by documentary director and cinematographer Alex Pritz who joins them to stress the urgency of the dilemma facing both land and people.