Mali Blues

A documentary exploring Denmark's secret to happiness. “Hygge" has exploded in popularity amidst growing division and distrust around the world, but the Danish word and its definition are complicated. For those who seek happiness, this film explores the true meaning of "hygge” and how to find it.

Under a dank bridge in Kabul, Afghanistan — the country with the world’s highest rate of opium production and addiction — a squalid group of drug addicts is getting high or fiending for their next fix. Former child bride and self-proclaimed badass Laila offers salvation by inviting these lost souls to the detox clinics she runs with her brother, himself a recovered addict. Fearless and relentless in the face of a corrupt and chaotic society, Laila brings love, hope and the Narcotics Anonymous program to these victims of the global addiction epidemic.

An epic journey through the Amazon in a traditional dugout canoe comes with a surprisingly immersive glimpse into the lives of the rainforest’s indigenous inhabitants, where the filmmakers live as their hosts do – from banana broth breakfasts to basket weaving sessions – while crafting their canoe out of a large tree entirely by hand.

Every year tens of thousands of people are driven by grinding poverty and conflict to leave their homes in Central and South America and journey through Mexico towards the U.S. They brave one of the world’s most dangerous journeys, traveling along a stretch of desert called the “corridor of death,” for the chance of a better, more secure life for themselves and their families.

Over 65 years ago, when Costa Rica became the largest nation in the world to disband their military, they redirected national resources towards public education and universal health care, fostering a wide middle class and a society committed to inclusion. Since then, Costa Rica has earned the number one spot in the Happy Planet Index, a ranking of countries based on measures of environmental protection and the happiness and health of its citizens.

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut. At night, she stares up at the sky while taking lessons from a space fanatic who teaches schoolchildren about astronomy. At home, full of hope and longing, she watches recordings of the world's first female space tourist, Iranian-American, Anousheh Ansari.

When Sepideh's father died suddenly six years ago, she discovered that she could feel closer to him by watching the stars, and so her dream was born. But not everyone around her appreciates her boundless ambition.