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A lady in her mid-70s was social and active. Although she took heart medicine every day, she continued to participate in various gatherings and activities. However, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she gave up all outdoor activities, spending most of her time in or around the home. Since then, she has unfurled conversations with plants on the balcony, plants in the kitchen, and those rooted in the vegetable garden too. ‘Get Some Sunshine’ explores a day in the life of this lady (the film director’s mother) and the solidarity she developed with companion plants during the pandemic.

Documentary on Heinz Grünberg's own experience of coming to Shanghai as a Jewish refugee when he was 6.

The Accidental Politician is a ten-year documentary journey following three young Taiwanese activists who emerged from the 2014 “Sunflower Movement” and stepped into the complex world of local politics. Fueled by ideals but confronted with entrenched power, political deals, and disillusionment, their stories unfold like real-life quests through Taiwan’s democratic landscape. As they struggle between hope and burnout, the film reveals not only the cost of participation, but the unfinished nature of democracy itself. With the 2024 “Bluebird Movement” weaving the past into the present, this is not just a portrait of three individuals—it’s a timely reflection on the fragile, ongoing experiment of democracy in Asia.

The Naked Summer is a film that documents young artists' effort and growth while training and preparing for a performance of Butou that is praised internationally as a unique art form. Butou was born about 40 years ago as a form of modern dance that pursues the untraditional movement of the body and defies the convention of the human body. As a result, it is known for the dancer's strange facial expressions, naked body covered in white powder, and strong visuals. The film contains the summer training process of the dance group Dairakudakan led by a veteran artist of Butou, Akaji Maro

A live rendition of Feedbacker, recorded on 1 November 2003 at Shinjuku Liquid Room.

23 Cents Soldier is shaped around the memories of four Turkish and three Korean war veterans. The interviews begin with the lives of the veterans before the beginning of the war and continue with memories of the war and post-war era.

The elder waiting for visit from their children.

This documentary focuses on the female Chinese writer Xiao Hong and her traveling during the Sino-Japanese war years between 1932 and 1942.

This is a documentary about the father of a miner. In 1955, more than 300 young people from Shanghai came to Sanlidong Coal Mine in Tongchuan City, Shanxi Province with the hope and dream of supporting the construction of the Northwest. After 50 years, most of the builders of that year were gone. In the land where black coal is buried, the fate and breathing of the miners are always stirring. The film uses 15 clips to record the old miners, the deceased and the era that is still living in the area, witnessing the tenacity and dignity of life with a group of miners. They are: Shu Guoqi, Gu Longxiang, Shen Longgen, Wang Zhengxiang, Yao Hongchang, Ge Dengfa, Zhang Baisheng, Lu Rongchu, Zhou Shougen, Luo Shijun, Ding Fuzhen, Tong Guang, Gao Zhangshun, Chen Yixiang, Zhu Yongsheng.

A documentary on the living practices of farmers in rural japan during the 1940s.

Documentary style short of Japanese performance artists questioning employees of a dating service.

Sounds of Love and Sorrow lets the eerie sounds of the Paiwan flutes including the nose flute, which legend says imitates the call of the deadly hundred-pace snake, mix in with the recollections of tribal elders and traditional tales to present a rich background of Paiwan life in Taiwan. Tribal elders recall the days of the youth and their romances. They tell of the creation of the Paiwan people, and lament the end of tribal life, crushed by the irresistible and contradictory forces of government policies and alien cultural influences. Talking of love, both the charm and cruelty of a traditional society are revealed. For many of the Paiwan, love may be a high point of a young life – but it is also the gateway to sorrow. But in the end, it is the high spirits, the playful romances and the family spirit of the Paiwan which shine through.

I am fascinated by candlelight. If the world finally came to an end, I imagined it would be like a candlelight. People laughed, cried, and shouted in the square. Thanks to a small spark in my hands, I was able to imagine a new world to come after the apocalypse. Fascinated by the roaring flame, I didn't think of those who couldn't afford to hold candlelight, those who couldn't occupy the square.

Crowdfunded documentary on the life and career of Japanese idol Tsukihi.

A Yi and A Bing are both working in the same company, living in the basement 4 of a luxury building with both business and residence attributes. A Yi went back to his hometown at Sichuan before Chinese New Year, so he could earn double wage for the Chinese New Year duty. The movie records the whole process of him back to home. His home is at a mountain, has elders and kids at home, has many trivial things waits him to settle. A Bing married when he is forty. After finish the marriage outside Beijing, he came back to company. He has no feel to his newly married wife, A Jiao. He still thinks of his ex-girlfriend who has cohabited with him for 3 years.

Take a look at our shocking world. We live in an age of violence where inhumanity is becoming commonplace. Accidental deaths are on the rise, and violent crime is on the rise. We have ended the 20th century and we have to wonder if the new millennium will end in chaos, violence and devastation. This documentary will show you horror acts of violence, terrible accidents and many other atrocities...

This is a record of people who face up to the big change.

Workers employed under unacceptable conditions are increasing in Japan after the Japanese government's easing of labor regulations. This shocking documentary follows a truck driver and his fight for a normal life as he is threatened by a gang hired by his employers.

A documentary capturing life in Asuka village in Japan's Nara prefecture, specifically through an examination of the Asuka Village National Health Insurance Clinic's connection to the village.

Being Women in Japan documents the recovery of Michishita’s sister from brain surgery, which hospitalized her for four months. Michishita's interest was not only in the personal struggle of her sister to regain her health, but also in how this crisis caused a major rupture in the daily life of her sister's family.

As a special generation born in the New China, the hundreds of thousands of educated youth from Shanghai went through enormous hardship during their work in Xinjiang from 1963 to 1966. Because of the specific historical conditions and context, they have been strikingly stamped with the mark of the times and have had to struggle to understand the relationship between themselves and the nation.

Tadasu Takamine's “God Bless America”, a continuously looping stop motion/live action video of he and assistants modeling a huge and monstrous head with an unmistakable resemblance to George W. Bush and consequently accompanied by an appropriately garbled and fractured rendition of God Bless America. Shown in 2003 in the Arsenale during the 50th Venice Biennale.

Poet and photographer Ren Hang was renowned for his sensual images of Chinese youth, and in I've Got a Little Problem, Zhang chronicles the artist's struggle with the depression, public morality, and painful criticism that sent his life spiraling out of control.

As a young man, Zheng was a wild boy: he’d rather spend his time gambling and dancing than studying. But his exuberant way of life came to an end when, during the Cultural Revolution, he was charged with counter-revolutionary behavior and sent to prison. Now, he lives in the boarding house of Shuanglin Town, and is a silent witness to the last chapter of his own, lonely Life. Unyielding to his neighbors, to his society, to its History, as well as to the omnipresent Chinese system, he realizes that he is even almost independent of himself. This intimate and respectful portrait of a striking 83-year-old Chinese citizen offers us an inside view into the way China treats its Seniors and gives us the opportunity to better understand China’s contemporary History.

Centers on a married couple in their 80s who decide to divorce, which proves shocking news to the small country-town community of Huaihua in Hunan province. Director Yang, who is their granddaughter, unpicks the story behind the separation and a marriage that began 60 years ago through matchmaking.

A documentary that explores the relationship between three families in Suzhou and their private gardens. Each family invested considerably in creating serene and classic gardens, seeking ancestral tranquility. However, they face challenges when trying to maintain a poetic relationship between people and their gardens in an ever-changing modern world.

All the family members willingly went through hardship travelling numerous cities and countries including Gwangju city, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Palestine, and the young children became grown-ups doing so. There were joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure in their journey as they chose to visit the troubled parts of the world with not enough money.

The location of Hunan's southwestern Hunan, the local economy is not active, the people either go out to work or go up the mountain to mine. Due to the constant mining disasters, despite the government's efforts to rectify and regulate, many people still illegally mine. Miners often do not pay attention to the protection of mines. Many years later, many miners have pneumoconiosis. The film started shooting in 2010 until 2018, with a filming period of nearly ten years, until the death of Zhao Pingfeng, the protagonist of pneumoconiosis, leaving young children and mentally handicapped wife.

Nan-Fang-Ao, a village in northeast Taiwan, once thrived on its big-net fishing industry. Now migrant workers from the Philippines and China vigorously live and work with the locals on one of the few remaining fishing boats. As we observe their life at sea, where the air is abuzz with different languages and gestures, thoughts of home drift among those who have come to provide for their families. There is the captain who talks about the old days, the woman who sent her husband off to sea and runs a shop in the village, and the laborers from foreign countries who buy gifts for their families at the market. With a fresh look, the film depicts people living on the unchanging stage of the ocean’s vast wilderness.

This film captures some changing moments that took place in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2021. The changes in the landscape of our city are also a portrayal of the author's inner heart - cold rain, hot fire, and continuous loneliness.

Between Mount Kavulungan and the Gaoping River, history streams across the wilderness, coalescing the values and identities of different peoples. So begins the Pakedavai family ritual. As an 11th-generation descendant of the Pakedavai ruler family, Dabiliyan Alifu grew up in a family slate house in the Sandimen tribe. For him, the family is a constant source of education about how to live with the forest and what kind of person to become. Of Pakedavai’s 12th generation, Kang Yuan-Jin grew up in a traditional Chinese community with a Paiwan grandmother and a Chinese grandfather. Only in adulthood did he start to explore the meanings of family and personal identity.

In 2018, following 23 years of marriage, my mother and father got divorced. All the family members claim that the divorce happened because of their grandfather. What has happened to my family?

Koki Tanaka questions the coordinates and the mechanisms that contribute to the formation of a family through his video work, where the notion of “family” is not one based on blood relation, but refers to a “quasi-family,” wherein a group of people who happen to share the same time and space are united.

When my mom wants to burn all her wedding photos.

Li Yi-Fan’s What Is Your Favorite Primitive (2023) narrates “a death match” between the artist and their software while grappling with the production process. In a fight between social and ethical concerns, it also raises questions of image production and communication.

Although sumo is a cherished part of Japanese culture, few have managed to get a behind-the-scenes look at the sport. Director Eiji SAKATA had the opportunity to spend six months in close contact with two sumo stables. In the process, he managed to capture fascinating footage of the rigorous training sessions and daily life of the wrestlers.

This Documentary is all about Rinzai Zen and Zen in common. The film gives you an insight to how Zen is lived in a strict monastery order and how it has influenced so many things. Parts one and two of this documentary shows life in a Rinzai Zen temple, mainly during a Rohatsu retreat. It gives some flavour of life in a Zen monastery. Parts three and four continues to explore life in a Rinzai Zen temple and how Zen influenced Japanese and to lesser degree Chinese culture.

A documentary profile of contemporary Japanese artist Hisashi Tenmyouya, whose works have become famous for their striking combination of gold leaf, traditional Japanese painting, and present-day pop culture.

Each August, these survivors gather in their community to remind the world the horrors they endured and advocate for change. Even after 78 years, the impact of those bombs remains vivid in their lives, but the world seems to have forgotten its atrocities, hurtling faster and faster towards another atomic bomb use.

A documentary about the people of Hirono, a city located 20 km away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the whole town was forced to evacuate. In 2019, 80% of the population at the time of the earthquake is back in town.

In Wuqiao, a small Chinese town, the inhabitants are dedicated to circus. For decades, different generations have been presenting themselves as clowns, magicians, acrobats and tamers. During the holidays of Chinese New Year, the Wuqiao Acrobatic World turns into a big playground for spectators. Surrounded by Buddhist temples and Taoist sculptures, artists create their own space of circus tradition, imagination, illusion and reality. Backstage life is melancholic. "Wuqiao Circus", a film about circus life fragments, performative existence and the love for playfulness.

Tracing the Future follows In the Wake exhibition artist Naoya Hatakeyama as he photographs the devastated landscape of his hometown of Rikuzentakada after 3/11. Hatakeyama, who represented Japan in the 2001 Venice Biennale and is renowned for meticulous photographs that explore the relationship between humankind and nature, suffered enormous losses on 3/11: his family home was washed away in the tsunami and his mother lost her life. Tracing the Future delves into the artist’s deeply personal response to the disaster and explores his four-year-long mission of documenting the place of his upbringing.

The film was born from discovering a Super 8 film shot by her deceased father during her childhood, and unfurls through a personal archive of images and reminiscences that patch together the life of this complex and reserved individual. In its quest to deconstruct the mundane, private appeal of family memories, Doi calls the film an “anti-home movie,” yet in keeping with the diaristic quality of her previous works, My father, burned paints its portrait of memory akin to a window onto a chamber or interior space, through which ambiguous emotions resonate and resound.

Chinese photographer Weicheng Hua meets the vagabond Zhighuo Sun in 2015 at an amusement park just outside Chongqing. Hua’s first film is an affectionate portrait of the drug-using, possibly psychotic, sensitive and always cheerful Sun, who moves through the amusement park like a kind of shaman, holding forth about mystical concepts such as “the principle of zero” and “understanding the self.” The central figure seems to fit perfectly into this odd environment.

A film documenting life in Okinawa under the domination of American military bases

Inspired by a photograph taken by a French soldier in the early 1900s of a ‘lingchi’ execution, Chen created a high-impact film that reconstructed this brutal form of punishment for criminals who had committed heinous crimes in feudal China. Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph opens with the gruesome execution of a condemned man in extreme slow motion. The crowd of witnesses eagerly await to collect blood and pieces of skin. Chen interweaves the event with images of the ruins of the Summer Palace after the second Opium War (1860), and also with remnants of abandoned factories and suffering workers. While the recurrent appearance of the haunting black wounds on the condemned man’s chest connects history with the present, it is also a provocative yet cruel metaphor for the cultural and political hegemony from imperialism to the current global context. Chen’s film opens a dialogue with viewers on the ruthless and barbaric events that happen in contemporary society.

A Documentary about poet, novelist Leung Ping-kwan (Yesi).