Film/Documentary tip top 5

Every issue we publish a tip top 5 of documentaries and films that we think are worth watching. In this issue a selection of eco conscious stories tipped by Thomas Streekstra, film programmer at Studio/K, Sprouts Film Festival and Humans of Film Festival. If available we share the content on our Youtube channel.

Uýra: The Rising Forest

Director: Juliana Curi
Release: 2022
Topic: Queer ecology, pollution
Watch: from 13 - 16 October at the Humans of Film Festival in Het Ketelhuis
Trans-indigenous artist Uýra bravely fights pollution of the Amazon forest by exposing the ongoing problems through hypnotizing performance art.

Madalena
Director: Madiano Marcheti
Release: 1988
Topic: Transphobia, capitalism Watch: on MUBI
Brazilian trans women and the rainforest have an important thing in common; both are under extreme threat by a capitalist, heteronormative and patriarchal society. Through magical realism director Marcheti shows how human and non-human can still come together to heal in his remarkable debut.

Rien à foutre
Director: Julie Lecoustre, Emmanuel Marre
Release: 2021
Topic: Labor rights
Watch: on Ziggo and Cinetree
It is hard to miss the news about the ongoing crisis at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Rien à foutre shows the exploitative and dehumanizing world behind low-cost airlines. An eye opening film led by Adèle Exarchopoulos’ strong performance that will make you want to take the train to London instead of flying.

Alcarràs
Director: Carla Simón
Release: 2022
Topic: Renewable energy, traditional farming, generational divide, strike
Watch: in cinemas
The farmer strikes dominate the Netherlands. Alcarràs shows a similar conflict by focussing on a Catalonian family of peach farmers forced to rethink their way of life. Director Simón won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale for her tender look at people affected by change.

Still Life
Director: Jia Zhangke
Release: 2006
Topic: Construction, economic growth, pollution
Watch: in Eye Filmmuseum
In October Eye Filmmuseum is back with the fourth edition of their ongoing film program Cinema Ecologica, focussing on human greed this time around. In Still Life Chinese slow cinema master Zhangke shows the devastating ecological and societal effects of China’s seemingly unstoppable economic growth and specifically the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.