Snelweg NL

This installment of Land of Opportunity explores the impact of real estate and federal policies on urban communities. Inspired by Richard Rothstein’s ‘The Color of Law,’ this film focuses on Kansas City’s Highway 71 project and reveals how the city’s urban renewal efforts displaced 10,000 families.

Since the days of Apartheid, Main Reef Road has linked Johannesburg, its suburbs, and the outlying villages and gold mines of the region. Now the people of means flee the more remote reaches of the Road for the suburbs. Who remains along this once heavily travelled highway? Who slaves for the mining companies today? Filmmaker Nic Hofmeyr takes to the road to meet them. South Africa's history echoes in their stories, and in the very landscape.

Historic construction footage, photos, and newsreels help illustrate Grand Coulee Dam's construction, engineering challenges, and regional impact including power and irrigation. Produced by the Bureau of Reclamation and shown at the dam's Visitor Center.

As the first woman in Europe to found a private space company, Hélène Huby sets out to challenge the dominance of SpaceX. In doing so, she enters a global race in which Europe barely has a foothold. But this is about more than technology: whoever controls access to space also shapes the order of our world. Over the course of several years, the film follows Huby through negotiations, setbacks and the lead-up to a crucial first rocket launch in the United States. Between airports, conference rooms and ever fewer moments with her family, it becomes clear what this ambition demands. As she tries to change the system, she risks becoming part of it herself.

After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghanistan has drawn growing international attention for its enormous reserves of rare earths and strategic minerals essential to the global energy transition. The country is believed to hold more than €1 trillion in resources, including copper, lithium, cobalt, iron, uranium, chromite, mercury, and rare earth elements, as well as valuable gemstones and gold. Often described as the “Saudi Arabia of minerals,” Afghanistan has become the focus of a geopolitical race for supplies. While Europe and the United States remain hesitant to engage with a regime accused of serious human rights abuses, countries such as China, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, and India are already positioning themselves in Kabul to secure access to these critical resources.

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The British Railways modernisation programme of the 1960s radically changed the rail network, and the British Transport Films unit and the TV news were there to capture it. Compiled here is never before released colour footage of Southern steam at Waterloo (with Nine Elms depot), all the major London stations, The Blue Pullman and early diesels, The Golden Arrow and Night Ferry service, goods and mail, steam on the Metropolitan Railway and building the Victoria Line.

Set against the escalating realities of environmental displacement in the Philippines, Langit Lupa interweaves the lived experiences of two distinct communities in Luzon grappling with recurring floods. In Biñan, a determined mother creates a makeshift learning space inside a crowded evacuation center for her displaced children, while in Macabebe, a resilient student navigates treacherous waters just to reach a school slowly sinking beneath the tides. This film highlights the quiet strength, endurance, and hope of families forced to adapt to a world reshaped by climate change.

A 1,000-year disaster leads to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity after devastating floods washed away the homes and lives of Eastern Kentuckians. Faced with a daunting recovery, the governor and Team Kentucky rise to the challenge by building back on high ground – changing the face and the future of this Appalachian region.

This short film portrays people that live near a highway

Once free to farm in the most remote part of the Himalayas, today the people labor on the ambitious road to Zanskar, which will soon connect both sides of their valley. Their days are devoted to breaking rocks with sledgehammers, dynamiting sections of cliffs and smoothing piles of sand and gravel by hand. Along with impoverished laborers from India, they toil endlessly to complete this colossal project designed to modernize the region, and it comes at a huge cost. They’ve already relinquished much of their land and herds to focus on the project, and their lives are filled with uncertainty. They worry about their future when the road is finally finished, and when the world can easily access their region. There will be unexpected freedom and opportunities to live in greater comfort… but the harmonious and delicate balance they’ve achieved over generations - despite the extreme climate - will be lost.

With dreams of colonising Mars and beyond, billionaires such as Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos are fuelling a boom in the space industry. But many criticise the pollution and resources needed for such an endeavour. By promising humanity’s survival through an escape into space, New Space may be contributing to the destruction of our planet.

Renato Nicolini is travelling along the Grande Raccordo Anulare. The traffic flows behind him like thoughts that have been triggered in a logic of free association. His story consists of memories and connections that span esoteric suggestions, city-planning considerations, and metropolitan legends.

The Heroes of the Massacre River is a powerful documentary that chronicles the stories of the pioneers behind the construction of the historic Canal of Ouanaminthe, a project that united Haitians across the nation and the diaspora. This film celebrates the groundbreaking efforts of key figures, centering on Dr. Bertrhude Albert, Dr. Naismy-Mary Fleurant, architect Wideline Pierre, economist Etzer Emile as well as dedicated canal workers Milourie Sylfrard, Theodore Johnson and Joseph Pressoir — all guided by the investigative journey of Max Angie Clervil. It also serves as a commentary on the complexity of colonialism and borders, tracing the role that the Massacre River continues to play in the history of Ayiti.

Romania is on the last place in Europe in terms of highway kilometers, but on the first place in the number of deaths in road accidents. Entrepreneur Stefan Mandachi builds 1 meter of highway on his private property.

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Bosnian Croat writer Miljenko Jergović and Serbian writer Marko Vidojković replace one another by the steering wheel of Yugo, a symbol of their common past while driving on the Brotherhood and Unity Highway that stretched across five of six republics of Yugoslavia.

Germany's first Open Source movie. A gonzo style documentary.

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge...