A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.
Like his father, Tom is a real estate agent who makes his money from dirty, and sometimes brutal, deals. But a chance encounter prompts him to take up the piano and become a concert pianist. He auditions with the help of a beautiful, young virtuoso pianist who cannot speak French - music is their only exchange. But pressures from the ugly world of his day job soon become more than he can handle.
A New Mexico cattle man and his strong-willed daughter clash over land and love.
A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.
A group of tenants living in an old house are confronted with having to move out due to a renovation project the city has undertaken. The tenants decide to unite and come up with a strategy, but in the process—while the landlord and his aggressive attorney are chasing them—the tenants transform into the opposite of who they once were.
What To Do In Case of Fire? tells the humorous and touching story of six former creative anarchists who lived as house squatters in Berlin during its heyday in the 80s when Berlin was still an island in the middle of the former eastern Germany. At the end of the 80s they went their separate ways with the exception of Tim and Hotte, who have remained true to their ideals and continue to fight the issues they did as a group. In 2000, with Berlin as Germany's new capital, an event happens forcing the group out of existential reason to reunite and, ultimately, come to grips with the reason they separated 12 years ago.
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.
The Salt Mines explores the lives of Sara, Gigi and Giovanna, three Latino transvestites who for years have lived on the streets of Manhattan supporting their drug addictions through prostitution. They made their temporary home inside broken garbage trucks that the Sanitation Department keeps next to the salt deposits used in the winter to melt the snow. The three friends share the place known as "The Salt Mines".
Impelled by a spirit which still preserves a patina of idealism, Alfredo arrives to Madrid with the intention to create "a performance that is free, straight from the heart, capable of making people feel alive". His concept of what acting should be begins beyond the stage, out in the streets face to face with the public. Outdoors, in any town square, in a park or in the city's most commercial street, Alfredo and his troupe November start the show; demons to provoke passers-by, displays of social conscience, actions taken to the extreme to put the forces of law and order on full alert. There are no limits, no censorship; only ideas which are always valid so long as the public ceases to be the public and becomes part of the show swept by surprise, fear, tears or laughter. Theater as life, life as theater… there is no longer any difference.
A young woman, Abby, makes a deal with her younger brother Danny, allowing him to seek refuge at her apartment after an illegal job gone wrong. However, as days pass, she begins to question the faithfulness of his side of the deal, as well as the oddly intimate relationship he shares with his mannequin-shaped package.
Two chipmunks have made a cozy little home for themselves in the wood-burning stove of an empty cabin. They sleep in a matchbox, wash up in an empty acorn shell filled with water and look at their reflections on the back of a spoon, which serves as their bathroom mirror. They even have a staircase made with a pocket comb. Invading their space are Mickey Mouse and his dog Pluto, who are all set for a swell vacation. They don't reckon on the two squatters. Pluto immediately discovers the presence of these two pests, but Mickey never finds out. All he knows is that when he tries to light the stove, the matches go out; he doesn't know the chipmunks are blowing them out. Soon, Mickey is outside chopping wood, while Pluto is alone with the chipmunks. Pluto wants blood, but he'll end up with a bottle of ketchup.
A squatter is remanded in custody for trespassing. In a long conversation, her mother manages to irritate the investigating detective so much that the daughter is able to escape (for the time being).
After a hugely successful debut novel, Stewart Paylor is supposed to be delivering chapters of his new book. Unbeknownst to everyone around him, including Cynthia, his literary agent/girlfriend, Stewart has writer’s block and has not written a word. His life goes even further astray when he returns home from a vacation to find a homeless mother, Cassandra, and her two children, 12-year old Jake and 9-year old Vera have been squatting in his house, with nowhere to go.
Filmed for television at the legendary SO36 Club in Berlin, 1983.
Nine-year-old Karo grows up with her parents in an Amsterdam commune in the Seventies. She leads a carefree existence in this utopia-for-adults. Everything is shared in the squat, but not everyone is able to honor these ideals. Karo gets confused because of the internal conflicts that start to divide the group. Karo slowly realizes that nothing can stay the same forever.
"For Sale! Including 500 violent stone throwers from Hell", was the message from the controversial squat 'Ungdomshuset' in Copenhagen, Denmark. The film takes a balanced look behind the barricades and follows the definitive last year in the life of the squatters before all was demolished in March 2007 and riots broke out in Copenhagen.
A squatter spends his days with his dog in a decrepit, abandoned house until a discovery entices him out.
A poor homesteader fights back when he's targeted for extinction by a powerful rancher and his gang of hired thugs.
A taxi drives through the city of Berlin. Its driver is a punk, left and a well-known figure in the autonomous scene. The stations of his trip are the most important places of the autonomous scene: all in the struggle for survival. The last evictions have not yet been processed and the next ones are coming right up.