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Elephant's Dream
Elephant's Dream is a portrait of three state-owned institutions and their workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interwoven stories of a female clerk in the dilapidated central post office, two colleagues at the railway station, and firemen in the only fire station provide insight into their daily lives and survival in Kinshasa, the third largest city in Africa. Read more 
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Sailing a Sinking Sea
Sailing a Sinking Sea is an experimental documentary exploring the culture of the Moken people of Burma and Thailand — a seafaring community and one of the smallest ethnic minority groups in Asia. Wholly reliant upon the sea, their entire belief system revolves around water. With stunning cinematography, the film weaves a visual and aural tapestry of Moken mythologies and present-day practices. Read more
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My Name is Salt
Each year, Sanabhai brings his family to a saline desert in India, where they harvest what they proudly proclaim to be the world's whitest salt. For months they work, using the same painstaking, manual harvesting techniques as generations before them, until the desert turns into sea and washes their salt fields away. Though hardships loom large, the film's gaze is fixed on the poetry and ritual of the family's existence. Read more
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Send in the Clowns
Armed with unique skills and an earnest desire to change the world, performers from Clowns Without Borders travel to areas of crisis to relieve stress through laughter. Send In the Clowns explores their work in Haiti before and after the 2010 earthquake. What begins as a film about artists with good intentions slowly reveals Haiti's crippling and conflicted relationship with an arguably more absurd global aid industry. Read more
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Mystic Mass
Every year, thousands of Shia Muslims meet in the town of Nabatiyyeh in Lebanon to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, killed in battle in 680 A.D. With great sensitivity, Mystic Mass documents the emotional ceremony, and provides a deeply engaging portrayal of how the mass is formed, how it attains its highest mystical levels, and how it dissolves — all within a period of twenty-four hours. Read more
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Beyond Recognition
After decades struggling to protect her ancestors' burial places, a Native woman and her allies occupy a development site to prevent desecration of sacred ground, and ultimately vow to establish the first women-led urban Indigenous land trust. Over the course of the film, their journey transforms the way viewers see cities, revealing histories that have been buried by shifting urban landscapes. Read more
NEW RELEASE
Liahona
An experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Mormon faith. The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through filmmaker Talena Sanders' personal history and connection to the church. Read more
LATEST NEWS
The DER Vault
We recently completed a 3-year effort to inventory and preserve our collection of 16mm film materials! Many of the films were transferred into the care of archives, returned their makers, or donated to local film schools and artist collectives. Read more
NEW RELEASE
Bitter Honey
An intimate and emotionally charged portrait of three polygamous families in Bali, Indonesia. For Balinese co-wives, marriage is frequently characterized by psychological manipulation, infidelity, domestic violence, and economic hardship. Read more
NEW RELEASE
Argentinian Lesson
With lush and intimate photography, Wojciech Staroń documents his family's move from Poland to Argentina. This uniquely cross-cultural yet universal coming-of-age story portrays the innocence of childhood surrounded by the harsh realities of adulthood. Read more
