In 2003, a group of young artists quietly carried out an audacious experiment: they built and furnished a hidden apartment inside a bustling shopping mall, slipping in and out unnoticed for years. What began as a daring act of urban mischief soon evolved into something far more profound. As they secretly documented their lives behind the walls of consumerism, the space transformed into a refuge — a place of friendship, creativity, and resistance against the relentless pulse of commercial culture. Blending humor, tension, and unexpected emotion, this remarkable true story explores how a simple hidden room became a powerful statement about community, art, and belonging. Through rare footage and firsthand accounts, the film reveals the risks they took, the bonds they forged, and the quiet rebellion that turned an ordinary mall into an extraordinary sanctuary.
Pulls back the curtain on the world's top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying, no matter the cost. Few among us are immune to the thrills of a good buy. Whether you’re partial to designer handbags, mall brand clothing hauls, high-tech gadgets, or whatever’s on the shelves as you browse your favorite megastore, there’s always another item for sale that feels like it’s just right for you. And as it turns out, that’s all by design. In this film, the architects of our collective desire for endless consumption reveal how corporations are hell-bent on increasing profits, how they convince unsuspecting consumers time and time again to part with their money, and what happens when all of our discarded purchases make their way to landfills. Commentators who witnessed the inner workings of corporations from Amazon to Apple sit down to talk about the unsavory practices their former employers are still using. But while we’re all being encouraged to quench a bottomless thirst for more stuff, it’s the future generations and our environment that end up paying the price.
The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the 'Chinese Dream.' This observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all. Behind all, the ideology used in China to acquire acquiescence from the lower class workers in the factories, restaurants, resorts, etc who are sold a dream of one day being able to join the elite classes if they work hard enough. Almost mesmerizing with its cinematography, akin to the dreams of consumerism and the narratives of wealth that are being sold to the underclass workers, the film nicely illustrates the Chinese economy of the present.
A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It's a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It's about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.
Blending humor, tension, and unexpected emotion, this remarkable true story explores how a simple hidden room became a powerful statement about community, art, and belonging. Through rare footage and firsthand accounts, the film reveals the risks they took, the bonds they forged, and the quiet rebellion that turned an ordinary mall into an extraordinary sanctuary.