Julie Høj Thomsen// United Kingdom Ali came to Denmark in 2011 to seek asylum. After two and a half years his case was rejected, and since then he has lived 'underground' as undocumented migrant in Copenhagen. The film explores Ali's experiences of life as 'illegal' migrant in Denmark. It deals with the conditions of ‘rightlessness’ and ‘deportability’ and how these conditions influence Ali’s general experience of time, place and belonging.

Sebastian Lowe //Denmark Where I Am is Somewhere Else is a short experimental film completed in 2016. It explores how taonga pūoro practitioners (traditional Māori instruments) come into dialogue with the voices of the atua, or the multiple deities. This film accentuates how taonga pūoro practitioners utilise their senses to imagine, empathise and furthermore resonant with something in the environment, before turning these experiences into music.

Ines Ponte// Manchester Set in the highlands village of Katuwo, the film is an intimate portrait of the day-to-day life of a family living in an agro-pastoralist farm in Namibe, Angola. Through the filmmaker's request to her host Madukilaxi to put her skills into the making of a doll, the film addresses a twofold notion of labour taking place in the dry season: their shared doll-crafting and making a living.

Lana Askari// Manchester Fleeing the war in Syria, this documentary follows Mihemed, a journalist from Kobane, as he renegotiates his future whilst living as a refugee in Iraqi Kurdistan. Unable to cover war stories any longer, Mihemed works for an NGO in the refugee camp he lives in order to support his family. Mihemed dreams of returning to his hometown Kobane, now a symbol for the Kurdish fight against ISIS.

Rao Nadeem Alam// Pakistan Presents students from three different schooling systems in Pakistan. The diversity of aspiration and creation of ideal future professions is dependent on nurture is presented in visual form.

Inge van Rijswijk// Manchester This is a short documentary about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It reveals 'El Camino' through the experiences of the filmmaker and the people she meets along the way. The film sets off with the question what is it that triggers people to embark on this trip. Along the road, the pilgrims experience different emotions and express their insights. Arriving in Santiago de Compostela has a different meaning to all of them.

Josep Perez// Spain Pemba is a Himalayan Sherpa, the Nepalese ethnic group famous worldwide for giving support to western mountaineers on the highest peaks in the world. However, Pemba has never climbed a mountain; she is a folk singer who fled her country years ago due to the civil war in the 1990s, and that now has a new life with her family in Catalonia, Spain. Twenty years later, Pemba decides to return to her hometown, Goli, a tiny village located in the heart of the Himalayas .

Jan-Holger Hennies// Germany A view of Berlin as experienced by a woman and two men in distinct situations of homelessness. Whether being forced into constant movement, making begging into a 9 to 5 job, or writing a musical about the always recurring routines: Stadtgeister [Urban Minds] provides an intimate look at the actions, thoughts and everyday life of those who often remain unrecognised.

Anouk Houtman//Netherlands Across Gender’ is an ethnographic film about the negotiation of visibility of trans people in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Focusing on personal experiences of different people who ‘cross gender’ we follow: LGBT-activists, drag performers, and students of an Islamic school for transwomen and learn about their experiences and views about Indonesian society. The stories are documented in the midst of anti-LGBT sentiments and actions in early 2016.

Ivan Golovnev// Russia This film takes us into the world of Udehe – indigenous people of the Far East of Russia. According to the census of 2010 their population dropped to 1,490 souls…

Sofia & Anouska Pancucci-McQueen & Samms// England Tucked away in the corner of an industrial estate in the East End of London is a steam baths where men meet to wash, eat and chat. Visited daily by culturally diverse groups, it’s where bathing rituals intertwine and collective memories are forged. Made by two female filmmakers, ‘The Baths’ explores masculinity in a unique setting and invites us to observe often unseen cultural traditions and social interactions.

Ivana Barišić// Netherlands Twenty years after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, filmmaker Ivana Barišić engages in a conversation with her contemporaries about the destruction of their homeland and the aftermath of this war. Following second-generation Bosnian-Dutch immigrants, this film gives insight into the complexities of displacement when home and belonging are disrupted.

Nena Hedrick// Germany Centered on a year of the production of a revolutionary East Texas prison radio show run by ex-convicts, Rattle Them Bars is an experimental documentary film with the goal of creating a multi-vocal counter-conversation about the prison system and the prison experience. This is a multi-authored story created within the rigid structure of solitary confinement and the temporality of radio broadcasts and memory.

Almut Dieden// United Kingdom Facing Fears traces one woman’s journey to self-discovery. Jackie used to sell sex for money to buy drugs. She left sex work six years ago when she got out of rehab and her recovery from drug addiction began. This film is about life’s transitions and the existential struggle of reshaping and rediscovering oneself whilst dealing with perpetual stigma and traumatic memories of the past.