At Berkeley
Frederick Wiseman
2013
250 min
Frederick Wiseman an extensive portrait of the prestigious University of California,
Berkeley as it strives to provide independent, high-quality public education in the face of financial deficits.
Dead Angle: Institutions
Dead Angle is a multi-year focus program that uses documentary cinema to reveal what remains outside our direct field of vision. This year, we examine institutions—tracing their histories and contradictions and reflecting on their role in shaping society.
Dead Angle is supported by Vfonds
A
C
Checks and Balances
Malek Bensmaïl
2015
97 min
A meticulous observation of daily life in the newsrooms of the Algerian independent daily El Watan. With talent, intellect and humor, journalists convey the political impasse in their country.
Cover-Up
Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus
2025
117 min
A portrait of US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh (b. 1937), who has exposed countless abuses, from the My Lai massacre to torture in Abu Ghraib prison, while constantly facing resistance from the government and, at times, his own employers.
D
Democracy
David Bernet
2015
105 min
Over more than two years, Democracy follows the laborious process of drafting the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, a controversial issue among European policymakers. A rare glimpse into the unwieldy and opaque mechanism of EU politics.
E
Estados generales
Mauricio Freyre
2025
76 min
Madrid’s botanical garden houses unidentified seeds collected by Spanish colonial expeditions. Mauricio Freyre’s 16mm camera captures their imaginary journey back to Peru.
exergue – on documenta 14
Dimitris Athiridis
2024
848 min
In 14 compelling episodes the making of documenta 14 unfolds, from its radical proposition to the eventual media fallout, revealing along the way the sort of tensions that arise with the ambition to challenge ideas of what an art manifestation can be.
F
Fellow Citizen
Abbas Kiarostami
1983
51 min
A traffic cop at a busy intersection in Tehran can only let cars drive through that have a permit. The drivers use inventive excuses and serious arguments to persuade him to let them pass.
G
GEN_
Gianluca Matarrese
2025
104 min
Fly-on-the-wall documentary following the charismatic Dr Bini at work in his consultation room. As head of the fertility and gender department at a Milanese hospital, he takes an unconventional and deeply empathetic approach.
H
How to Build a Library
Maia Lekow, Christopher King
2025
100 min
In Nairobi, two determined women set out to renovate a dilapidated former colonial library. We follow them over five years as they transform a place once reserved for white Europeans into a creative hub for the entire population.
I
I Will Forget This Day
Alina Rudnitskaya
2011
25 min
Shot from a distance, patients sit in the bleak waiting room of a Russian clinic. In these oppressive scenes, Alina Rudnitskaya penetrates deeply into the minds of the inwardly focused young women.
L
Lessons from a Calf
Kore-eda Hirokazu
1991
47 min
An elementary school class in Japan looks after a calf. By taking responsibility for a living creature, the children learn not only math and science in a playful way, but valuable lessons about life as well.
M
La Maison de la Radio
Nicolas Philibert
2012
103 min
Nicolas Philibert follows various employees at Radio France, which manages several French public radio networks, over a 24-hour period. This entertaining tribute puts a face to the passionate voices behind the scenes.
O
Our Body
Claire Simon
2023
168 min
A story of life in the obstetrics and gynecology department, both deeply intimate, and clinically detailed. Claire Simon’s patient observations offer a profound insight into the female body and what it’s like to live in it.
P
Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed
Donald Brittain
1979
58 min
Biting sarcasm in the form of a humorous nature documentary: a deadpan voice-over comments on the behavior, habitat, and fascinating survival mechanisms of the Homo bureaucratus.
Pride of Place
Kim Longinotto, Dorothea Gazidis
1976
60 min
Kim Longinotto and Dorothea Gazidis analyse the educational system of the
isolated and repressive girls’ boarding school that Longinotto ran away
from years before. They reveal it to be an isolated, repressive world full of absurd regulations.
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State Legislature
Frederick Wiseman
2006
217 min
During the full three months of a legislative session, Frederick Wisemans shows the day-to-day activities in the Idaho Legislature—demonstrating the achievements, values, constraints and limitations of the democratic process.
T
Toute la mémoire du monde
Alain Resnais
1956
21 min
A tour of the National Library of France, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of human knowledge. A somewhat wry voiceover guides us along miles of bookshelves, thousands of pounds of newspapers, and into rooms totally filled with maps.
The Trial
Ulises de la Orden
2023
177 min
A record of the unique trial of the Argentine military junta in 1985, edited from hundreds of hours of television footage. The viewer is present in the courtroom as witnesses paint a horrifying picture of perverse state terror.
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War and Peace
Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti
2020
128 min
Every day we can witness scenes from countless violent conflicts all over the world, through television, news sites, social media and newspaper images. This exciting, dreamlike film explores the intimate relationship between war and cinema.
Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students
Claire Simon
2025
90 min
In this spirited celebration of the power of literature, secondary school students across France share their experiences of reading the raw and compelling work of French author and Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux.