OVID’s April Lineup: Two docs on War in Gaza, Wang Bing’s Complete Trilogy, Three Yakuza classics, Pablo Larraín (with Gael García Bernal), French & Czech costume dramas & much more!

This April OVID presents 25 new films and 16 exclusives.

Exclusive premieres include the final two installments of Wang Bing’s monumental YOUTH trilogy. These immersive film festival favorites capture the exploitation of garment factory laborers in China. The complete trilogy is only available on OVID.

OVID also premieres the film that represented Palestine in this year’s Oscar race for Best International Feature, FROM GROUND ZERO, a collection of shorts that convey devastating loss and civilian resilience in Gaza, exec produced by Michael Moore. Plus, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL: A LETTER TO GAZA by Mohamed Jabaly, the third film by the Palestinian filmmaker to join the platform.   

Yakuza classics include a neo-noir by Samurai movie veteran Eiichi Kudo that captures the height of ’80s decadence, YOKOHAMA BJ BLUES. Also, an avant-garde anime, TAMALA 2010, described as “Hello Kitty meets David Lynch in outer space.” (Boston Globe)

Dramas on the way include EMA by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín (El Conde, Maria), hailed as an “exuberant yin to the stately yang” (TimeOut) of his Jackie Kennedy biopic. Plus, LOST ILLUSIONS, a sumptuous adaptation of Balzac’s epic novel about the birth of modern media. 

Full details on April’s complete lineup are below.

Image above from Rashid Masharawi's FROM GROUND ZERO, premiering on OVID on April 11th.

Tuesday, April 1

Mona Lisa is Missing – The Man Who Stole the Masterpiece
Directed by Joe Medeiros
First Hand Films | Documentary | France | 2012

The story of the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, his 84-year-old daughter who thought he did it for patriotic reasons, and the filmmaker who spent more than 30 years trying to find the truth. How did an unassuming housepainter from Italy pull off the greatest little known art heist in modern time?

“Startling yet charming moments… Medeiros is at his best when he lets the story play out to his quirky, well-constructed narrative.” —Rebecca Romani, KBPS 

Wednesday, April 2

Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini
Directed by Charly Wai Feldman
EPF Media | Documentary | Germany, UK | 2023

Sara Mardini, once a competitive swimmer in Syria, became Europe’s most celebrated refugee after saving 18 people’s lives. After working as a rescue volunteer in the Mediterranean, she is accused of people smuggling and faces a 25-year prison sentence. We follow her fight for justice and journey of self-discovery against the backdrop of Europe’s refugee crisis. 

** Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2023

“Inspirational… plenty of compassion.” —Maryam Philpott, The Reviewers Hub

This is Home
Directed by Alexandra Shiva
Film Sales Company | Documentary | US & Jordan | 2018

The urgent and beautiful story of Syrian immigrants who resettle in Baltimore in the US. Upon their arrival, they have eight months to find jobs, learn English, and become self-sufficient, all while they are still processing the upheaval of adjusting to a new country and dealing with the aftermath of the horrors that they endured in Syria. In the middle of this process, President Trump issues his travel ban on all refugees for Muslim-majority countries, and overnight their lives become more perilous than they could have imagined. Director Alexandra Shiva empathetically affirms the decency of a displaced community desperate for help within a country increasingly hostile to them.  

** Winner: Audience Award, World Documentary Competition, Sundance Film Festival, 2018

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, April 3

Ema
Directed by Pablo Larraín
With Mariana Di Girolamo & Gael García Bernal
Music Box Films | Feature | Chile | 2019

Adoptive parents Ema and Gastón are artistic free spirits in an experimental dance troupe whose lives are thrown into chaos when their son Polo is involved in a shocking incident. As her marriage crumbles in the wake of their decision to abandon the child, Ema embarks on an odyssey of liberation and self-discovery as she dances and seduces her way into a daring new life. From world-class director Pablo Larraín (Jackie, Maria) comes another psychologically acute exhumation of Latin American life featuring an unforgettable heroine who electrifies everyone and everything around her. This is the fourth film by Pablo Larraín to join OVID.

“Exhilarating, daring and deeply human… It’s the exuberant yin to the stately yang of Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie… full of the pheromones of sexual discovery and the piss and vinegar of toxic relationships… It’s heady and euphoric – a picture of pure freedom.” —Phil de Semlyen, TimeOut

Friday, April 4

Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza
Directed by Mohamed Jabaly
Watermelon Pictures | Documentary | Norway | 2023

Exiled above the arctic of Norway and refusing to accept the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy, Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly insists on telling heartfelt stories from his hometown Gaza. Despite his statelessness and having only limited connection to his family abroad, he manages to channel support from his friends and his own creativity, adhering to his motto, Life Is Beautiful. And throughout it all, he fights for his rights with integrity, community, and a smile for the world. This is the third film by Mohamed Jabaly to join OVID.

“[Jabaly] finds his hope somewhere deep and unshakeable, and he expresses this hope with his camera. Palestinian cinema is rarely this hopeful.” —Boston Hassle

“A compelling, often shocking and timely account of the deeply personal impact of global destabilization.” —Screen Daily 

SVOD PREMIERE

Tuesday, April 8

The Fruitless Tree
Directed by Aïcha Macky
Andana Films | Documentary | Niger | 2016

Aïcha Macky’s fearlessly personal documentary breaks the silence on a taboo topic in Nigerien society: the ostracism faced by married women who don’t or can’t have children. Speaking out about her own struggles with infertility—which in Niger is always attributed to women, never men—Macky works to shatter the stigma surrounding childlessness and offer hope to other women suffering in silence.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, April 9

La Camioneta
Directed by Mark Kendall
The Film Sales Company | Documentary | US, Guatemala | 2012

This doc follows the extraordinary second life of one decommissioned school bus as it travels from 3000 miles from Pennsylvania to Guatemala, where it is repainted and refurnished as one of the brightly-colored camionetas, which bring a majority of Guatemala’s population to work every day. From the perilous journey to its new destination to the violence and extortion tactics that face camioneta drivers and fare-collectors, this is an intimate and surprising look at a repurposed and resurrected American cultural object.

“Rich in detail and character observation… An intimate and vivid report on a surprising connection between North and Central America.” —Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

“In Kendall’s hands, this businesslike storyline becomes a metaphysical fable for the globalized world.” —Ela Bittencourt, Guernica

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Four Paths to Dignity: The Struggle of Guatemalan Midwives
Directed by Gabriela Chaim Tumax
EPF Media | Documentary | Guatemala | 2022

Guatemalan midwives confront innumerable challenges as they battle racism and a health establishment that strives to prevent them from providing care that is culturally appropriate. Although the midwives provide important services to their communities, they are opposed by a government that seeks to eliminate their practice. This film reveals their activism and the struggle to gain recognition by the medical establishment.

“A fascinating exploration of a group fighting for their right to exist. The film not only highlights their struggles but stresses the importance of their work to the community.” —Video Librarian

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, April 10

Full Time
Directed by Éric Gravel
With Laure Calamy
Music Box Films | Feature | France | 2021

Julie, a single mother raising two children in the suburbs of Paris who works in the city, is thrown for a loop during a transit strike. Without the train, Julie can’t get to her job as the head maid at a five-star hotel, nor to an interview for a better job she has lined up. Anchored by Calamy’s powerful performance, Full Time is an impossible race against time and a kinetic thriller assembled from the everyday obstacles faced by working parents everywhere.

“One of the best recent movies about work, and it approaches the subject with sharply analytical specificity.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Friday, April 11

From Ground Zero
Directed by Rashid Masharawi
Executive Producer Michael Moore 
Watermelon Pictures | Documentary | Palestine, France | 2024

Palestine’s Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, From Ground Zero is a collection of stories from 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through the war in Gaza, presenting a unique perspective on the current reality in the territory, which Israel began bombarding after the brutal attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Gaza has been leveled since, with over 40,000 Palestinian deaths and nearly 2 million displaced.

“It’s not simply about watching the destruction of lives and buildings, but of dreams and aspirations… From Ground Zero quietly demands your empathy.” —Richard Whittaker, Austin Chronicle

“A miraculous act of creativity amidst unimaginable circumstances.” —Farah Cheded, Film Daze

“Captures this moment in history in a way that a moment like this in history hasn’t been captured before.” —Jill Goldsmith, Deadline

** Toronto International Film Festival 2024

SVOD Premiere

Tuesday, April 15

Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space
Directed by t.o.L
Deaf Crocodile | Feature | Japan | 2002

This Japanese avant-garde animated film was written and directed by the two-person team t.o.L (“trees of Life”), known individually as K. and kuno. Inspired by Astroboy, Hello Kitty, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Takashi Murakami’s postmodern art movement Superflat, this futuristic techno fever dream is a savage take on modern consumer culture.

“Throughout this ingenious film, Tamala hopscotches across centuries in 2D and 3D animation… An equally impressive techno futuristic score complements and eloquently interprets the animation.” —KDHX

“Hello Kitty meets David Lynch in outer space.” —Boston Globe

OVID Exclusive

Wednesday, April 16

Film About A Father Who
Directed by Lynne Sachs 
Cinema Guild | Documentary | USA | 2020

Over 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Lynne Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings. As the startling facts mount, she discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.

Critic’s Pick! “[A] brisk, prismatic and richly psychodramatic family portrait.” —Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

“Formidable in its candor and ambition… one chapter in a continuing stream of work by an experimental, highly personal filmmaker.” —Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor
Directed by Lynne Sachs 
Kino Rebelde | Short film | USA | 2018

Lynne visits Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer and Gunvor Nelson, three multi-faceted artists who have embraced the moving image throughout their lives. From Carolee’s 18th Century house in the woods of Upstate New York to Barbara’s West Village studio to Gunvor’s childhood village in Sweden, Lynne shoots film with each woman in places where they find grounding and spark. Shot on Super 8mm and 16mm film.

Contractions
Directed by Lynne Sachs 
Kino Rebelde | Short film | USA | 2024 

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. Contractions takes us to Memphis, Tennessee, where the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic is contemplated. We hear an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist movingly lay out the high stakes. In a place where women can no longer make decisions about their own bodies, performers “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.

** MoMA’s Doc Fortnight 2025 

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home
Directed by Lynne Sachs 
Kino Rebelde | Short film | USA | 2020

In July, 1971, language poet Bernadette Mayer made Memory, a multimedia project in which she produced over 1,100 photographs and 200 pages of text. In conjunction with Siglio Press, Poets House invited poets to read from the work each day during the month of July, 2020. Lynne took this spark and ran with it, all the way to Mayer’s childhood home in Ridgewood, Queens.

“Reminds me of the Cornell film Centuries of June where he got the young Stan Brakhage to come out to Queens and film. It is totally flowing in the style of Bernadette — the watch faces, the people passing on the sidewalk, the man with the long hair and headband, the black chain, the doorknob …. the leaves.”
—Lee Ann Brown, Editrix, Tender Buttons Press 

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Lynne Sachs filmmaker page on OVID.

Thursday, April 17

Youth (Hard Times)
Directed by Wang Bing
Icarus Films | Documentary | France | 2024

The second installment in Chinese director Wang Bing’s monumental series chronicling the lives of migrant garment workers in the Zhili district of Huzhou City, this film follows struggles of the workers and highlights a growing solidarity. But the workers also recognize that they are up against the forces of capital and the state. A striking portrait of young lives in an alien environment that’s radically different from the rural homes so many of them come from. 

“Pointed and purposeful, both in its scope and its techniques… Along the way, Wang captures the kind of camaraderie and interpersonal drama that makes it worth the wait.” —Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

“Wang’s work has never shied away from criticizing a modern, consumerist nation for failing to live up to the supposed socialist ideals of its revolution, but rarely has one of his films so nakedly called out the collusion between state and commerce to ensure the powerlessness of average citizens.” —Jake Cole, Slant 

** New York Film Festival 2024
** Locarno Film Festival 2024
** Toronto International Film Festival 2024

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, April 18

Youth (Homecoming)
Directed by Wang Bing
Icarus Films | Documentary | France | 2024

The final installment in Wang Bing’s ambitious trilogy on the young workers of Zhili, shot over five years. In contrast to the previous films, here Wang focuses more closely on a handful of characters. We follow them on their journeys back to their families, riding packed trains, navigating perilous mountain roads, and celebrating weddings. A fitting end to the series — a quieter and more intimate film, and a powerful record of the unseen young labor force that drives garment production at a steep personal cost.

“A wondrously insightful dilution of a generation caught on the periphery of industrialization… a long-form homage to all the things that pushed us away from the family home and all the things that draw us back.” —Anna McKibbin, Little White Lies

“A genuinely sorrowful film about how deeply the churn of industry has worked its way into people’s bones.” —Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

** New York Film Festival 2024
** Toronto International Film Festival 2024
** World Premiere, Venice Film Festival 2024

Wang Bing filmmaker page on OVID.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, April 22nd – Earth Day

The Elk Forest
Directed by Ane Helga Lykka
First Hand Films | Documentary | Norway | 2021

Intimate and warm, The Elk Forest explores the need to feel a sense of belonging in a fragile, shrinking community. The elk hunt has always had a sacred aura to the people living in Engerdal, a small village in Norway. The hunt for the biggest animal in the forest brings the hunters closer to each other, and is a yearly main event in the village.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

A Shepherd
Directed by Louis Hanquet
Andana Films | Documentary | France | 2024

In the French Alps, far from everything, Felix looks after his herd, living for months in a mineral and inaccessible world where an invisible being prowls: the wolf. Solitude shrouds his days in the mountains, filled with caring for lambs, fencing and poetry.

“Immaculately composed.” —Filmmaker Magazine

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, April 23

Where God is Not
Directed by Mehran Tamadon
Andana Films | Documentary | France | 2023

Taghi, Homa and Mazyar were arrested and interrogated by the Iranian regime. All three testify with their bodies, with their gestures and tell what it means to resist, what it means to break. Is there any hope that the torturer will one day reconnect with his conscience?

“Tamadon’s film is as much of a personal story as a political one, depicting the chasm between survivors’ trauma and the audience’s understanding, movingly lingering on the unresolved nature of these memories.” —Off Screen

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, April 25

Eighteen Years In Prison
Directed by Tai Katô
With Noboru Ando, Asao Koike, Tomisaburo Wakayama
Radiance Films / MVD | Feature | Japan | 1967

Trying to survive in the ruins of post-war Japan, Kawada and Tsukada run afoul of the police after stealing valuable copper wire. Kawada is arrested and sent to prison, but Tsukada uses their gains to start a yakuza gang. Facing violent inmates and a cruel warden, Kawada vows to escape and stop his former partner. Tai Katô directs this epic prison story with characteristic visual flair, while gangster-turned-movie star Noboru Ando delivers a stunning performance charged with real-life gravitas.

“Deeply attuned to how a nation’s men seek to mend their collective wounded masculinity in the wake of a humiliating defeat on the world stage… masterful.” —Slant Magazine

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Japan Organized Crime Boss
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
With Noboru Ando, Bunta Sugawara, Koji Tsuruta, Tomisaburo Wakayama
Radiance Films / MVD | Feature | Japan | 1969

Two major yakuza factions from Tokyo and Osaka battle over control of Yokohama, using local gangs as their proxies. Amid this violent struggle the head of one of the local gangs is released from an eight-year prison sentence. The feud forces him into action, but he learns that those pulling the strings have political connections and that he is up against overwhelming forces.

“If you’re eager to see why Kinji Fukasaku is a master of gangster films, Japan Organized Crime Boss is the perfect start.” —Inside Pulse

“With brains, brawn and cool, cruel style to spare, Japan Organized Crime Boss is a fantastic entry point to Fukasaku’s earlier movies.” —Far East Films

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Yokohama BJ Blues
Directed by Eiichi Kudo
With Yusaku Matsuda
Radiance Films / MVD | Feature | Japan | 1981

When his police detective best friend is killed, down-at-heel private eye and part-time blues singer BJ gets the blame. He must start his own investigation to clear his name, but what he uncovers is a tangled web involving crooked cops, drug-dealing gangsters, the city’s underground scenes, and his own past. A loose remake of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye that also draws from Visconti’s Death in Venice, this was Matsuda’s break with his action hero image. Samurai movie veteran Eiichi Kudo relishes his chance at directing a neo-noir that captures urban Japan at the height of 1980s decadence.

“A wonderfully quirky and atmospheric neo-noir.” —Blueprint Review

“Both an ode/reimagining of Altman’s adaptation of The Long Goodbye, but done with enough Japanese 1980s Yakuza decadence and malaise to be something entirely new.” —The Movie Isle

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, April 29

The Bohemian
Directed by Petr Václav
With Vojtech Dyk, Elena Radonicich, Barbara Ronchi
Music Box Films | Feature | Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia | 2024

In 18th century Italy, aspiring opera composer Josef Mysliveček makes his mark in sophisticated Venice society as “Il Boemo,” his talent and charm winning over socialites, impresarios, performers, and many women. The Bohemian follows Mysliveček’s most prolific decades, composing numerous works in the genre of Italian opera seria, and befriending Mozart — though their relationship is tested when a life-changing commission comes between them. Winner of six Czech Lion Awards, including Best Czech Film and Best Director, and selected as the Czech submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, this lush biopic commemorates an underappreciated musical great.

“An old-school, sumptuously appointed musical biopic … This is costume drama of a traditional, ornately brocaded stripe, a classical music lesson for classicists.” —Guy Lodge, Variety

Wednesday, April 30

Lost Illusions
Directed by Xavier Giannoli
With Benjamin Voisin, Cécile de France, Vincent Lacoste, Gérard Depardieu
Music Box Films | Feature | France | 2022

Lucien de Rubempré is an ambitious and unknown aspiring poet in 19th-century France. He leaves his provincial town, arriving in Paris on the arm of his admirer, and makes a new friend in another young writer, Etienne Lousteau, who introduces him to the business of journalism where a salon of wordsmiths and wunderkinds make or break the reputations of actors and artists with insouciant impunity. Lucien agrees to write rave reviews for bribes, achieving material success at the expense of his conscience, and soon discovers that the written word can be an instrument of both beauty and deceit. A sumptuous adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s epic novel, Lost Illusions is a ravishing vision of the birth of modern media.

“Illuminates the dank frenzy of the 19th-century attention economy with an eye on our own post-truth era. Lost Illusions is sensational. Nobody paid me to say that. Well, actually, The New York Times did, but you should believe me anyway.”  —A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Complete list of films premiering on OVID this month (in alphabetical order):

A Shepherd, Louis Hanquet (2024) 
Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor, Lynne Sachs (2024)
Contractions, Lynne Sachs (2018)
Eighteen Years In Prison, Tai Katô (1967)
Ema, Pablo Larraín (2019) 
Film About A Father Who, Lynne Sachs (2020) 
Four Paths to Dignity: The Struggle of Guatemalan Midwives, Gabriela Chaim Tumax (2022)
From Ground Zero, Rashid Masharawi (2024)
Full Time, Éric Gravel (2021) 
La Camioneta, Mark Kendall (2012)
Life is Beautiful: A Letter to Gaza, Mohamed Jabaly (2024) 
Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini, Charly Wai Feldman (2023)
Lost Illusions, Xavier Giannoli (2022)  
Mona Lisa is Missing – The Man Who Stole the Masterpiece, Joe Medeiros (2021)  
Japan Organized Crime Boss, Kinji Fukasaku (1969) 
Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat In Space, t.o.L (2002)
The Bohemian, Petr Václav (2024) 
The Elk Forest, Ane Helga Lykka (2021) 
The Fruitless Tree, Aïcha Macky (2016) 
This is Home, Alexandra Shiva (2018) 
Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home, Lynne Sachs (2020)
Where God is Not, Mehran Tamadon (2023)
Yokohama BJ Blues, Eiichi Kudo (1981)
Youth (Hard Times), Wang Bing (2024)
Youth (Homecoming), Wang Bing (2024)