The Stimming Pool is an experimental—at times fantastical—hybrid feature film, co-created by a collective of autistic artists, the Neurocultures Collective, and filmmaker Steven Eastwood, who invite you into a neurodiverse world within the undulating logic of neurotypical environments.

What makes militant art great is that specific combination between the passion for the argument that characterizes activist rhetoric, and the careful observation and privileged – yet non-intrusive – access yielded by cinema when it serves as a document. The film in question follows the efforts of young Basel Adra, a resident of Masafer Yatta – an area that, following the Six Day War, has fallen under Israeli occupation – to prevent the total eradication of the Palestinian presence in the region. Villagers are routinely forced to leave their homes, and even when these evictions briefly stop, any attempts at leading a normal life are thwarted by constant terror, physical and psychological assault. In this setting, Basel meets Yuval, an Israeli journalist sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and between them develops a friendship made complicated by the common cause and the profoundly different meaning it has for each of them: Basel sees his struggle as a form of inheritance as much as an inevitable destiny, while Yuval knows that for him this is a choice he can always undo. However still, the very fact that this film exists, as the combined effort of two Palestinians and two Israeli filmmakers, gives hope that no barrier is insurmountable and that no collective wound is incurable.

Ten years after the release of his epic film Maidan, Sergei Loznitsa resumes his Ukrainian chronicles by documenting the country’s struggle against the Russian invasion. Shot over a two-year period, the film paints a monumental canvas of a nation determined to defend its right to exist, presenting a unique and ultimate statement of Ukrainian resilience in the face of barbaric invasion.

A young filmmaker studying at the Alexandria Higher Institute of Cinema (AHIC) struggles with an internal conflict; torn between his deep loyalty to his hometown of Alexandria and his burning desire to immerse himself in the vibrant film scene of Cairo, the bustling capital.

Rodica, Maria, and Patrick are Romanian expats living in Brussels. After several meetings with them, we mutually decided to collaborate on a film project. A film about the wide range of love, about the moments when we deeply strive for connection but all we manage to do is hurt each other. (Ana Vîjdea)

Zuzia, a very sensitive and artistically gifted teenager, struggles with drug addiction. Her brother, who is also the director of the film, tries to find out what happened in the whole family life that Zuzia fell into addiction.

Women’s emancipation through social and political change was part of official discourse in Socialist Romania: state-sanctioned gender equality was based on equal roles for women and men in socialist economic production. In other words, women were emancipated through work, most often in the so-called “light industry” (e.g. textile) being developed in several of the country’s cities. Taking a newspaper article about a diary kept by a textile worker from Slobozia as its narrative pretext, The Diary of Florica S is an upbeat ode to collective industrial femininity, which draws on two familiar motifs of the time: the disparity between the ‘old’ (bourgeois) and ‘new’ (socialist) orders and the main characters’ emancipatory journey from village to town.

Is art activism? Can art be feminine or feminist? The new hypersexual approach to the outdated bimbo counteracts the patriarchal society that women are still fighting.

What does it feel like to grow up in times of war? In a collaborative documentary they developed themselves, nine young Ukrainian women provide a unique insight into their lives in Ukraine and Germany. How much is left for oneself when fear for family and fellow human beings are omnipresent?

Solid as a Rock is a short documentary from the perspective of a 16 year old climate activist. In this personal story she takes you by the hand and tells you about civil disobedience as a source of hope. What propels her to protest? What is it like to get arrested? What are her thoughts on the future?

How to Disappear is an anti-war movie in the true sense of the word, searching for possibilities for peace in the most unlikely place of a war game. It’s a tribute to disobedience and desertion - in both digital and physical-real warfare.

This essayistic personal short documentary tells the story of a soldier who never wanted to be one. Choosing never to pull the trigger, his defiance leads to military prison. Faking mental illness he detours away from the front line, through a lunatic asylum back home to Belgrade on the day that NATO begins bombing the entire country.

In Spring 2022 Masha prepares to leave Russia – her homeland that has changed. It turns into chain of unexpected farewells: her mom dies of cancer, her lover flees army conscription, everything including her own old self is falling apart. Her way to cope with the grief is to fixate everything with her camera. Her anger guides her to inner emigration to the local underground scene, which became an escape for young russians. This kaleidoscope of shards chronicles not only spirit of the time, but the director's personality crumbling against the backdrop of global turmoil.

In 1919 the Italian poet, dandy and preacher of war Gabriele D’Annunzio occupied the city of Fiume. The citizens of Fiume, today called Rijeka, retell and reinterpret the bizarre story about the 16-month occupation of their city in a brutally factual yet defiantly punk cinematic journey.

When the Filmmaker is told his next film must be about crime, sex or celebrity to get funded, he takes matters into his own hands and begins shooting in his home with a cast of characters connected to his own life. Two English builders, employed to replace the garden fence, temporarily remove the barrier between the house and a Pakistani neighbour. A homeless Slovakian man charms the Filmmaker’s Colombian cleaner to let him in and tests everyone's ideas of boundaries and hospitality.

After more than a decade, Farah returns to her hometown Tripoli in Lebanon to live with her widowed aging father, Mustapha. Their generational differences often lead to clashing perspectives on the country’s political instability, making it difficult to communicate with each other. As Mustapha’s health deteriorates and the October 2019 revolution erupts nationwide, poetry becomes their chance for one last conversation.