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True Story is a streaming platform dedicated to the the art of documentary storytelling.

Helena Třeštíková: A Moment in Time Lapse

We're excited to present this collection 'A Momement in Time-Lapse', dedicated to the work of Czech filmmaker Helena Třeštíková, who has spent over 40 years making what she calls 'time-lapse documentaries', a long-form, longitudinal form of filmmaking, which often sees Třeštíková spending many years with those she films.

Třeštíková describes that "the purpose of a time-lapse film is to offer the audience an expanded experience of the world and to offer the protagonists such an interpretation of their lives, which they could accept as their true life stories."

All of Helena's films are made in the Czech Republic, chronicling ordinary lives, capturing their extraordinary moments.

Sami's Odysseys

In Ethiopia’s labyrinthine capital Addis Ababa, Sami spent long 19 years to translate Greek and Roman myths on an ancient laptop to Amharic, the Ethiopian official language. Director follows a man pursuing his inexplicable dreams in the service of literature. After years of solitary labor, will he succeed in getting his manuscript published in modern-day Ethiopia? A true bibliophile’s gem of a film.

“a reflection on the very human desire to contribute something to one’s society, to live a life that leaves something behind.” - African is a Country

Stuntwomen

Being thrown down a flight of stairs, hit by a car or beaten up is the everyday life for stuntwomen. We follow Virginie, Petra and Estelle during training sessions and on film sets in France and the US. What does all this pretend-violence do to their bodies and minds? There is always a trade-off between the desire to perform as realistically as possible and their own boundaries. Scenes with cars are spectacular, but the roles in which they are beaten up are much harder to watch. Few action movies have female heroes so they usually play the role of victims. Stuntwomen are hired to endure violence, while the task of their male colleagues is to inflict it.

"Elena Avdija’s revelatory and nuanced documentary shines a light on the incredibly brave performers who face physical and emotional battles on and off screen" - Guardian

Calvinia

CALVINIA follows a 40-year-old man who returns to his hometown in rural South Africa to visit his elderly father. His journey oscillates between memories of his childhood on a sheep farm in the 1980s and present-day images of people and places from his past, still familiar but weathered by the passage of time. A journey of self-discovery unfolding in concentric circles, CALVINIA evokes the nostalgia of childhood memories within the complex socio-political realities of a fractured society.

"A generous and elegantly constructed film, made of encounters, moments of solitude and flirting, mixing the past with the present, in a journey that feels like a farewell." - Visions du Reel

Downstream to Kinshasa

For two decades, the victims of the Six-Day War in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been fighting in Kisangani for the recognition of this bloody conflict and demanding compensation. Tired of unsuccessful pleas, they have finally decided to voice their claims in Kinshasa, after a long journey down the Congo River.

“A documentary about Sisyphean persistence in the face of institutional indifference,..riveting.” - New York Times

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