Luana Muniz is a 59 year old sex worker, known as 'Queen of Lapa' after the bohemian neighbourhood in Rio where she lives. Lapa is famous for its samba venues and also for the trans women who work on its streets, and Luana is one of them. She also owns a house that serves as a meeting point and h...

The bird-singing contest in Rio, which showcases the talents of curiós – birds that are on the list of endangered species. We follow the preparations of a bird and its elderly owner in the lead-up to a competition.

While many traditional bailes funk ('funk balls') have been prohibited in Rio's favelas, there has been a surge in the number of parties attended by upper-middle class youth in these communities. Tickets to exclusive parties in favelas can cost over $25, and the high price prevents local resident...

In Brazil, the Spiritist movement is growing at a phenomenal rate. Followers believe that direct contact can be made with dead loved ones. In this film, we see the work of one of Spiritsm's proponents, Fernando Ben, as he claims to receive messages from a deceased man. Grief stricken relatives cl...

Though apartheid in South-Africa was abolished in 1994 some of its institutions, such as townships, remain. Initially constructed to house black citizens as part of segregationist policy these are still home to underprivileged, largely-black communities. Experience life in the townships through i...

Filmmaker Khalo Matabane has a disturbing recurrent dream, where he sees his body in a coffin in the ground. To try and explore the meaning behind it, he enlists the help of a psychologist, and a traditional South African sangoma.

Rio Brazil is a city where racism and inequality are alive and well despite much of its population having ancestral connections to slaves and a 53% of its population identifying itself as 'brown'. Today, women of colour such as Ludmilla must fight to empower themselves in the face of judgment and...

When Columbus and Cortez ventured into the New World, there was no technology to record the drama of this first encounter. But, in 1930, when the Leahy brothers penetrated the interior of Papua New Guinea in search of gold, they carried a movie camera. Thus, they captured on film their unexpected...

After the Dance is a deeply personal film, by award-winning documentary maker Daisy Asquith, who unlocks a family secret that is still causing shame and outrage in an insulated village in County Clare, Ireland. Exploring the ongoing effects of her mother's conception after a dance in the west coa...

Best known for Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, and Olympia, her documentary about the 1936 Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl was an undeniably extraordinary filmmaker. In Ray Muller's two-part exploration of her life and work, Riefenstahl claims to have prioritized art over politics, that her...