How Far We've Come

What happens when traditionally generous and export-driven Sweden imposes steep tuition fees for non-Europeans students?

The process of making movie magic is explored in this 53-minute documentary. Though the production features instructive commentary by many industry professionals, the heart of 'Shot by Shot' is the captivating story of Alex, a student filmmaker at Boston's Emerson College who is working laboriously on his thesis project -- a short dramatic motion picture. As Alex and another student from Boston University race against time to finish their final projects, they are haunted by a sobering reality -- if they don't complete their films in time, they don't graduate.

Six young Americans travel across the Middle East in the footsteps of the Arab Spring.

In 2008, we travel to Egypt to tell the story of heavy metal in a conservative Muslim country. We meet the kids in Cairo's tight knit underground music scene who are the film's main characters, including the sons of the country's foremost political dissidents and the Muslim World's first all-female metal band. Living under an oppressive regime, they're denied the basic right to free expression, and risk arrest just for playing their music... Then halfway through our story, a revolution begins, casting them, and us, into the unknown, opening new horizons, and presenting our main characters with a new set of life changing dilemmas.

Accordingly to Amnesty International, in Romania 'the right to housing is not effectively recognized or protected by national legislation' and Roma people are 'disproportionally affected' by forced evictions. A început ploaia is the first feature documentary narrating the full history of, and reasons behind, this continuous harassment and displacement. The film follows the story of the Vulturilor 50 community of Bucharest (100 individuals), whom dwelt on the street from September 2014 to June 2016 in order to fight against the eviction from their home, enacting the longest and most visible protest for housing right in the history of contemporary Romania. The vicissitudes of this community are interpolated with a number of interviews with activists, scholars and politicians, composing a picture that speaks of racial discrimination, homelessness, evictions, but also of grassroots practices of resistance and social change. A început ploaia is the touching testament to the everyday revolution of Roma people fighting forced evictions from the centre of Bucharest, an endeavour made of fragile dwellings, provisional makeshifts and tenuous - but fierce - occupancy of public space.

A Bridge Apart looks at the epic migration of immigrants from Central America and Mexico to the United States from the point of view of the migrants themselves. Haunting photography, dramatic narration by Edward James Olmos and first hand interviews give witness to their harrowing journey. If a parent cannot find enough work to sustain a family, they are pushed by economic hardship and pulled to the U.S. by the promise of better life. The film also shows how simple economic development in small towns and villages can transform a desperate living situation into one that can sustain it's people - providing them options not to have to leave their home. A Bridge Apart - so near yet so far.