Made in Albania

In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.

Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

A 1993 documentary film about Bruce Lee. The film includes interviews from some of his fellow students and opponents who worked alongside him in his movies.

An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.

The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia.

A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.

A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.

A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.

Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.

After another 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! and 7 Plus Seven. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

After the high-profile killing of Damilola Taylor, Cornelius' family move out of London. But when they discover their new town is run by racists, Cornelius takes a drastic step to survive.

The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.

This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.

The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

Made by the highly influential Russian cameraman Roman Karmen, this documentary vividly features Albanian life immediately after the communists came to power in 1944. The film is especially memorable since it’s missing much of the heavy socialist realism that marked Albanian doc making. Shortly after he completed the film, Karmen set off for Berlin to shoot the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

The story of Viktor Stratoberdha (1921-1991) mirrors many of Albania’s tragedies. Stradoberdha’s humorous, buoyant style led him to be one of the country’s most promising filmmakers. But after being denounced in 1956, he was expelled from the Kinostudio and sent into internal exile. In 1967, Stratoberdha directed a local theater play in which the economic five year plan was placed in a coffin. He was then jailed for the next two decades. Urime Shokë Studentë! is one of the surviving documentaries of Viktor Stratoberdha’s all too short career.

A documentary exploring how Albanians, including many Muslims, helped and sheltered Jewish refugees during WWII at their own risk, and trying to help the son of an Albanian baker that housed a Jewish family for a year return some Hebrew books that the family had to leave behind.

A dramatic depiction of honor, family feuds and thousand-year-old traditions. In Albania, the tradition of avenging an injustice according to the motto "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" still lives on. This has led to people being trapped in their homes for fear of being murdered due to a family feud.

Documentary about Congres VI of the Women's Union.

Albania in the southeast of Europe – situated between Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro – hosts an astonishingly diverse landscape. Harmonic coastal areas lead to harsh karst landscapes. Snow-covered mountain regions, wild canyons, waterfalls, deep-blue lakes and untouched rivers are perfect conditions for an immensely rich flora and fauna. Decades of war preserved wide areas of the country from industrial exploitation, so the natural environment is still untouched.

In northern Albania, ancestral customs still exist, governing the laws of vendetta between families. Sometimes, for generations, an old feud has pitted two clans against each other, condemning them to take turns murdering a member of the opposing family. This blood code, known as the Kanoun, has painful consequences for many Albanians, who are condemned to live in seclusion to avoid being killed.

Albania and neighboring Yugoslavia officially broke ties in 1948. But in 1971, the Hoxha regime was honored to welcome the ethnic Albanian actor Bekim Fehmiu (1936-2010), at the time an international star in Yugoslav theater and film. Before his trip to Albania, Fehmiu had appeared in the popular Italian television smash The Odyssey (1968) and the Cannes-winning I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967). Dokufest will also feature a photo exhibit of recently-discovered still images taken during Bekim Fehmiu’s Albanian visit.

Within beauty lurks danger: at least that is what Albanian communist censors thought. Which is probably why this lavishly shot and seemingly innocuous tribute to the Albanian landscape – where we see pretty, fashionable young people marvel at historic towns over the Adagio for Strings, among other Western music – was shelved and never seen again until today.

“Gjama” is a rarely practiced mourning ritual that was performed by Albanian men throughout the centuries. By shouting specific phrases and acting out a strict choreography, it is a way of paying respect to the deceased but also overcoming grief and pain over the loss of a loved one. Through the documentation of the re-enactment of the ritual, Zgjim Elshani seeks to recover fragments of the practice in the communities where this form of collective grieving is still a way of overcoming loss. By doing so, the project intends to rethink collective grieving and what it means to publicly display emotions in a male-headed society.

Eliza Dushku takes on her homeland of Albania.

Patriarchal times in northern Albania gave birth to a phenomenon - the replacement of the man at the head of the household by a woman. These are masculine times, in which the woman is only tasked with taking care of the household and raising the children. But, locked in these social roles, girls emerge, ready to abandon their female identity and follow the path of honor. They want to be respected women with the power of a man, not for themselves, but for others. They give up marriage and sexual relations. They choose to live as men. The fall of the regime opened the country to the modern world, but neither communism nor the emerging democracy succeeded in changing the age-old traditions in the isolated mountainous regions of Albania. In the Cursed Mountains, to the north, the last sworn virgins in Europe today live a man`s life.

A dream destination for holidaymakers and a magnet for organised crime, is Albania ready to join the European Union? Strategically important in countering Russian and Chinese influence and managing the migration crisis, the EU seems prepared to overlook serious breaches of democratic norms and press freedoms.

Through rare archive footage, the documentary traces the forty years of Enver Hoxha's communist regime in Albania, revealing cinema as a weapon of power.

A documentary film that shows the endemic bird species that spend most of the year in the Prespa Lake region.

A short documentary about a small village in the city of Ulcinj, that has 3 bridges.

In the Kosovo War, human dignity was shattered by the terrors of the Serbian government and the Albanian liberation army. Truths about the victims’ fates faded away, which is why a Finnish forensic research group led by Helena Ranta got a mission to act as an unbiased agent and investigate the real course of events.

Albania is the country in Europe that Europe probably knows the least about. Underdeveloped yesterday, Marxist today, breaking with the Kremlin, in friendship with Red China, we hardly know more. For journalists, the country of Enver Hoxha is one of the most closed 'hunting' territories in the world.