Director: Stephane Goldsand.
Faced with his wife's desire to become a mother, a filmmaker goes on a quest to find out how people decide to have kids and identify the sources of his own hesitation. What emerges is an intimate story, peppered with humor and poignancy, where memories and present moments converge in an effort to redefine a couple's future. LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK is a first-person short documentary that combines various storytelling styles, including vérité, interviews, narration, animations and family archival material.

Director: Predrag Velinovic.
Ivan teaches history in a Belgrade high school. In his class, Ivan is provoked by a student and ends up slapping him on the face. In Serbia, in the heat of transitional changes, Ivan’s presence in school is no longer welcomed. He finds a temporary job opportunity in a war-scarred mountain village in Bosnia. On his way there, he meets Yasmina, a young Muslim woman, back from Germany to her homeland after the war and after being invited by an old friend – Hazim - who now runs a motel. A lone kiss in a stormy night, in a village still lying in ruins, will bring Yasmina and Ivan closer together in a joint escape from reality and to a ride on a dusty bus, where neither one of them wants to sit next to the window.

Director: Ferenc Moldovanyi.
“Expanding upon themes he explored in Children: Kosovo 2000 (SDFF 24), Ferenc Moldoványi’s latest documentary is at once hypnotically beautiful and acutely disturbing. Shot over a two-year period in four countries on four continents—Ecuador (South America), Mexico (North America), Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa), and Cambodia (Asia)—Another Planet unfolds as a cinematic tone poem in the tradition of Koyaanisqatsi, exposing the unequal distribution of wealth around the world as a major humanitarian crisis. Framed by pastoral sequences in which a Tarahumara shaman imparts a dream of paradise on earth, the film moves quickly and seamlessly between the lives of seven children inextricably linked by their shocking and tragic experiences of daily exploitation and abuse. We meet lonely, aimless urchins, barely eking out a living on the streets. We see child laborers toiling in brick factories, garbage dumps, and brothels, only to be beaten when business is down. And perhaps most harrowing of all, we get to know the child soldiers of Congo as they are turned into killing machines. Throughout this journey, Moldoványi’s unwavering vision reminds us of the eternal coexistence of beauty and horror all over the world. Informed by the haunting cinematography of Tibor Máthé as well as Tibor Szemzö’s ethereal soundtrack, Another Planet crosses cultural boundaries to forge a commentary on the human condition as damning as it is open-ended.” 31st Starz Denver International Film Festival Official Catalogue "This globe-spanning film hits hard on many levels—visually, intellectually, emotionally. Beautifully shot in Ecuador, Mexico, Africa and Asia, Moldoványi’s film presents images that sparkle in the eye even as they punch you in the heart. Moldoványi introduces us to children in Cambodia, Ecuador, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo, each of whom is struggling to survive. Working long hours, often in dangerous and dirty conditions, these children show us a side of existence that many have never seen or even imagined. While many in the US hold childhood as a special and protected time of nurtured innocence, this film reminds us all that for many children life is a brutal and precarious game of survival. With subjects that include children scavenging dumps for recyclables, child soldiers and child sex workers, this film offers a sympathetic and unblinking eye. The children themselves are our strongest storytellers, and they open up to Moldoványi’s camera to give us their own perspective. Their frankness astonishes as they talk matter-of-factly about their jobs and the consequences of not earning. The children either are at the mercy of adults—often the parents who force them to work and beat them when they don’t earn enough—or have been abandoned by adults altogether. While the film is not a gentle journey, it imagines a better world, a greater one. The filmmaker relies on your humanity and empathy to be moved by these children, while never directly suggesting a call to action. This film offers an unprecedented opportunity to explore another planet, a trip definitely worth taking." SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival

Director: Ashley Fairfield.
Zeke is an eighteen year old Sudanese refugee living with his parents and younger brother in a small housing commission flat. He has lost one of his younger brothers to the fighting which engulfed his country and his whole family struggles with their loss as well as their new life. Zeke feels like his violent past is determining his future but finds hope for the future through the power of music.