Les Films Grain de Sable

Documentary charting the rise of Chinese art following the death of Mao, and how some artists embraced Western styles while other critiqued it by hijacking communist propaganda.

The history of how the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art of Cuenca was created. In the mid-1950s, the Spanish collector and painter Fernando Zóbel de Ayala (1924-84) becomes fascinated by the young generation of Spanish abstract artists, so he begins to collect their works to show them to the public in Toledo. Until Gustavo Torner, a young forest engineer interested in art, proposes him to visit his city, Cuenca.

A documentary about the efforts to ban the global khat trade in Great Britain that routes its way from from war-torn Somalia to the streets of London.

A misanthropic Parisian street punk learns some difficult lessons after being captured for assaulting and robbing a man in this interesting French drama. This has not been the first time young Denis Lavant has been in trouble, and this time the judge sentences him to the Coral, an experimental open community founded in 1975 by Claude Sigala, in the wilderness of the Camargue. There he encounters a group of inmates just as neurotic and messed up as he is.

This 1973 French documentary explores the conflict between modern values and material comforts in Japan and the more traditional obligations (giri) and culture which are still the real backbone of the society. Among the topics touched on are the Osaka Expo, battles against pollution, and Japanese leftist movements.

Stress, harassment, violence, depression and suicide are the themes the media evoke with increasing frequency when it comes to the world of work. Jean-Michel Carré spent over a year conducting a basic investigation into how the French relate to work and the way it is organized by new management methods. The film seeks to gauge the cost in pain or pleasure when an employee manufactures, resists, creates, finds fulfilment or breaks down.

Since Russia was brought to its knees in the 1990s by crippling debt and the grip of the oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin has made it his mission to return superpower status to Russia. While not partisan to Putin's wrongs, this insightful doc examines the logic and motivations of Putin's vilified regime, and why he is so loved in his homeland.

"Philip Priestley's acclaimed film charts the history of Stax Records, the influential soul and blues record company founded in the 1960s by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Featuring music by an impressive roster of stars, including Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Carla Thomas, The Soul of Stax chronicles the performers' rise through the industry and popular culture, the role played by many of them in the Civil Rights movement, and the label's eventual decline." - bfi.org.uk

At 63, Jawad Bashara has spent more than half his life in exile. But when Islamic State troops set out to obliterate the Sumerian origins of our civilization, he decided to return to Iraq and take action. With renowned archaeologists and 3D technicians from all over the world, he is redoing the path that brought mankind into history, 3500 years before Christ. In order to better safeguard and share it, they have set themselves the mission of immortalizing our common heritage in 3D and virtual reality.

Documentary made with the patients of wards 15 and 17 of the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital in Paris in 2008-2009.

A man recollects the conflict in the middle east through his personal memory. In this short documentary, Amiralay reflects on the first time he heard of Israel. Through recorded conversations with filmmaker Mohamed Malas, both Amiralay and Malas share their own unique stories and experiences about Israel and Israeli occupation. In the company of fellow Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas, the ground-breaking director Omar Amiralay revisits the ruins of the destroyed Golan village of Quneytra, occupied by Israel and then abandoned following the 1973 war.

80 years ago, Marseille's Old Port was the scene of a tragic event that is still largely unknown today: the roundup and total destruction of the Saint-Jean district, on Hitler's own orders. "The Forgotten Round-up" draws on the memories of some of the last direct witnesses to the tragedy, and follows the investigation of Marseille lawyer Pascal Luongo, grandson of one of the victims.

Morabeza - this word, the expression of lack and pain, appears as a response to the pains of the Cabo Verde archipelago. Luciano, a tourist guide to the Châ da Caldeiras volcano, will be our guide. He has never left Fogo Island, and confides to us how he needs to get out of there. His daily chores: walk up the volcano, take care of his grapes and feed the cattle. In his spare time he accompanies his father, on the violin, with his Reco-Reco, a plain comb he scrapes a plastic tube with. The trip he invites us to take with him will also be his tour, an initiation journey in the heart of his country and culture.

Home to a fifth of the world's population, the newly-minted superpower will soon be the largest economy on earth. Yet it remains little understood in the West. This three-part documentary offers a bold step towards overturning that ignorance. With the most sumptuous production values possible, it skilfully glides from historical enquiry to current analysis in a deep yet accessible tour de force. Timely, comprehensive, and magisterial.