OVID’s December Lineup: Modernism, Mysticism, Love and Marriage, Kartemquin Classics, Belarusian Folk Horror & more!

This December OVID presents 14 new exclusive films, rounding out the month on notes of romance and regeneration.

(We’re also taking a break at the end of the month, but, rest assured, our January is set to be JAM-packed!)

Full details on December’s complete lineup are below.

Image above from Nathalie Álvarez Mesén's CLARA SOLA, premiering on OVID on December 6th.

Wednesday, December 4

White Rage
Directed by Arto Halonen
First Hand Films | Documentary | Finland | 2016

This is the story of Lauri, and through him the story of other victims of both school bullying and a separate childhood trauma: victims full of white rage, which may lead to school shootings and other extreme acts of violence. The film is also about our society: a society without sufficient understanding or desire to address the emergence of school violence.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, December 5

Now We Live on Clifton
Directed by Jerry Blumenthal, Alphonse Blumenthal, Susan Delson, Sharon Karp, Peter Kuttner, Gordon Quinn, Richard Schmiechen
Kartemquin Films | Documentary | USA | 1974

Kartemquin Films is a four-time Oscar-nominated non-profit production in Chicago founded in 1966. These two shorts made 50 years ago are the first of a selection of their classic docs that we’ll be rolling out over the next few months.

Now We Live on Clifton follows 10-year-old Pam Taylor and her 12-year-old brother Scott around their multiracial West Lincoln Park neighborhood. The kids worry that they’ll be forced out of the neighborhood they grew up in by the gentrification following the expansion of DePaul University.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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Winne Wright, Age 11
Directed by Suzanne Davenport, Greg Grieco, Betsy Martens, Gordon Quinn, Teena Weeb
Kartemquin Films | Documentary | USA | 1974

Winnie, the daughter of a steel worker and a teacher, lives in Gage Park, a Chicago neighborhood that is changing from white to black. Her family struggles with racism, inflation and a threatened strike, as Winnie learns what it means to grow up white, working class, and female.

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, December 6

Clara Sola
Directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén
With Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Flor María Vargas Chaves
Oscilloscope | Feature | Costa Rica | 2021

In a remote village in Costa Rica, 40-year-old Clara endures a repressively religious and withdrawn life under the command of her mother. Her uncanny affinity for creatures large and small allows Clara to find solace in the natural world around her. Tension builds within the family as Clara’s younger niece approaches her quinceañera, igniting a sexual and mystical awakening in Clara, and a journey to free herself from the conventions that have dominated her life. 

** Cannes Film Festival (Directors’ Fortnight) 2021

“Richly imagined… In its intimate universe of the churchly and the pagan, Clara Sola conjures a memorably earthbound abracadabra.” —The Hollywood Reporter

“Spirituality, sexual awakening, touch, feel, lust at odds with religion, repression, pain, loneliness. Clara embodies it all.” —Under The Radar

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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Roads of Lava
Directed by Gretel Marin
Icarus Films, From The Cuba Media Project Collection
Documentary short | Cuba | 2024

Roads of Lava portrays Afibola—a queer, Black, feminist activist in Havana—educating her son about the harsh realities of discrimination. While preparing him for societal prejudice, she instills hope for a dignified future. —BAMPHA 

** Best Short Film, Miradasdoc Festival 2023
** Award Winner, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, December 10

Restored!

The Savage Hunt Of King Stakh
Directed by Valeri Rubinchik
With Boris Plotnikov, Elena Dimitrova, Albert Filozov, Roman Filippov
Deaf Crocodile / MVD | Feature | Soviet Union | 1980

Part folk horror, part supernatural mystery, King Stakh is a melancholy, chilling mixture of Terry Gilliam, Italian Gothic Horror, 1960s Hammer Films and The Wicker Man – and a major rediscovery for genre fans. A scholar of ancient folklore has arrived at a haunted castle to research the bloody legend of King Stakh, a murdered 15th-century nobleman whose spirit supposedly thunders through the local woodlands. The longer the young scholar stays in this haunted house, the more strange and surreal matters become. Based on the novel by Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievich, the long-unavailable King Stakh has recently been restored from the original film elements in its extended 126 min.

“A transfixing journey that will make fans of Gothic horror perk up and take notice with its unsettling visuals and overall mysterious tone… Folk horror has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years, and this is an outing ripe for discovery by modern audiences.” —Geek Vibes Nation

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Wednesday, December 11

Where Can We Live in Peace?
Directed by Judy Jackson
Bullfrog Films | Documentary | USA | 2023

An investigation of the migrant crisis through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio Martinez, the founder of ABBA safehouse in Celaya, Mexico. In response to the influx of new migrants fleeing gang violence, abject poverty, and the effects of climate change in Central America, Ignacio founded a place where the migrants could rest, receive food, and seek medical and psychological help. ABBA is also the only shelter in Mexico that cares for amputees whose injuries were sustained in falls while riding the trains north into Mexico. Now, ABBA has been donated land upon which to build Ignacio’s vision: a sanctuary for injured migrants which, in addition to providing therapy and education, will have a cultural and human rights center. Under his inspirational care, migrants are treated as human beings with dignity. In this world of nationalism and xenophobia, Ignacio’s work is vitally important.

“This beautifully and boldly shot film draws focused attention on a few brave victims as examples of the massive numbers on the move. Throughout the tragic tales told are glimmers of hope, and the strength of the human spirit shines... Required viewing.” —Peter Laufer, Author, Up Against the Wall: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon
Directed by Anna Sofaer
Narrated by Christopher Beaver
Bullfrog Films | Documentary | USA | 2024

The Chaco Canyon civilization was a major center of culture for the Ancestral Puebloans from 850 to 1250 AD. The Chacoans developed a complex society with monumental architecture, a sophisticated social organization, and far-reaching commerce driven by religion and cosmology. Through new insights of archaeologists and the words of descendant Pueblo people who hold knowledge of their ancestors to this day, we come to understand how their feats have been long obscured in a fragile desert environment—only now to be recovered through beautiful aerial footage and with the new technology of LiDAR (aerial laser scanning) revealing the true expanse of the Chacoans’ complex world.

“This film is a journey not only through history but through the very soul of a land and its people.” —Robert Redford

“The film’s collection of stunning imagery combined with flawless narration and insightful commentary from Puebloan descendants creates an experience that leaves viewers wondering about the history of the site, yet peculiarly satisfied that we are ever-so-closer to deciphering aspects of the culture that have long remained an enigma.” —American Archeology Magazine

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Thursday, December 12

The Last Pullman Car    
Directed by Gordon Quinn & Jerry Blumenthal
Kartemquin Films | Documentary | USA | 1983

In 1864, George Pullman began selling his famous railroad sleeping cars which helped him build a vast industrial empire that was supposed to last forever. In 1981, however, Pullman workers found themselves in the midst of a fight not only for their jobs but the future of the American rail car industry. One hundred years of government, union and corporate policies are traced in this engaging story. The Last Pullman Car won first prize at the Athens International Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS.

“This film is a battlecry!” —Studs Terkel

“Successfully shows the ultimately futile struggle of these union members as a group attempting to save their jobs… We must not come away with fatalistic despair, but instead with a commitment to look to the mistakes of the past and learn from them.” —Ray Pasnick, Labor Research Review 

“What´s great about this film, and many Kartemquin documentaries, is that it develops a theme that feels central to the history of Western civilization: the ordinary person called to greatness by circumstance.” —Michael Phillips, Jr., South Side Projections

“By the time the film is over it’s impossible to distance oneself from the plight of these workers who are being shunted aside by their company, by their legislators, and by society as a whole.” —Larry Kart, Chicago Tribune

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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Works for All
Directed by Mark Dworkin & Melissa Young
Bullfrog Films | Documentary | USA | 2023

Since 2011, Cincinnati has been home to a unique network of activists and unionized cooperatives. Works for All visits several of the diverse worker-owned cooperatives in the network, many led by people traditionally marginalized in the U.S. economy, and shows Co-op Cincy’s remarkable work to transform and provide training and support for these businesses. Particularly significant for the future is the effort to help convert existing businesses—where owners are retiring—to cooperatives. The film also explores the influence of Spain’s Mondragon Corporation, the world’s largest worker cooperative federation, on Co-op Cincy’s mission.

“Outstanding and inspiring… shows people taking control of their lives and challenging the basic assumptions concerning work.” —Bill Fletcher Jr., Activist, Scholar, Author   

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, December 13

Indigo
Directed by Julio López Fernández
Pragda | Documentary | El Salvador, Mexico | 2023

Three young actresses recreate testimonies of women who suffered sexual assault during the Salvadoran civil war in a fable guided by the history of Indigo, which narrates the exploitation of land and bodies in El Salvador. Once upon a time, an indigo spirit stopped in El Salvador and found the story of a country wounded and tired of centuries of violence. What surprised the spirit the most is that many wounds were still open. It was then that the spirit decided to bring together three young actresses to interpret and share the testimonies of women who were raped during the civil war in that country. This is their story. 

“Indigo discusses security and guerilla forces’ rape of women in El Salvador amid armed conflict.” —Sara Coughlin, The Bowdoin Orient

“A documentary that is undoubtedly important for the new generations of Central Americans dare to watch and analyze.” —Guillermo Fernández Ampie, Humanismo y Cambio Social Magazine

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Tuesday, December 17

Modernism, Inc.
Directed by Jason Cohn
First Run Features | Documentary | USA | 2024

Architect Eliot Noyes was one of the leading pioneers of modern design during the mid-century, post-war boom in the United States. Educated by Walter Gropius at Harvard, Noyes did more than anyone to align the Modernist design ethos to the needs of ascendant corporate America. His impact on companies like IBM paved the way for Apple and many of the other design-conscious brands we know today. Modernism, Inc. explores Noyes’ remarkable career. As he did in Eames: The Architect and the Painter, filmmaker Jason Cohn uses the story of a mid-century icon to raise contemporary questions about the role of a designer in today’s world.

“Well-researched, well-crafted and fascinating! Noyes created and forged some of the most respected, meaningful, and influential industrial design programs in the United States… The idea of beauty with utility, which was generated from the Bauhaus art movement, continues to remain vital today, and for this, we thank Noyes.” —Sabina Dana Plassa, Film Threat 

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, December 19

Regenerating Life
Directed by John Feldman
Bullfrog Films | Documentary | USA | 2023

A deep look at the underlying causes of the climate crisis, going beyond carbon emissions and the burning of fossil fuels to humankind’s relentless destruction of nature in all corners of the earth. John Feldman explores how life regulates the climate through photosynthesis and the carbon cycle, the water cycle, the dung cycle, and a vast interconnected soil network of fungi, microorganisms, and plant roots. He dives into the economic and political systems that have encouraged this destruction of Earth through the relentless quest for wealth and dominion. Feldman visits people who are working on solutions to reverse this destructive process by regenerating soils to grow healthy food and build healthy communities, pointing the way to long-term solutions.

“It’s a film of affirmation. And what it affirms, over and over, is life, not only the wonder of it but the power of it to heal our broken climate.” —Rob Lewis, The Climate According to Life

OVID EXCLUSIVE

Friday, December 20

My Love Affair With Marriage
Directed by Signe Baumane
With Dagmara Dominczyk, Matthew Modine, Cameron Monaghan, Stephen Lang
MVD | Animated Feature | USA | 2022

In this groundbreaking animated feature, Zelma (Dagmara Dominczyk, HBO’s Succession) navigates through a series of romantic encounters, each one shaping her understanding of love and marriage. With unflinching honesty, she grapples with the conflicting forces of passion and disillusionment, her own desires, fears, and insecurities, painting a raw and intimate portrait of the human heart. From acclaimed writer/director Signe Baumane (Rocks in My Pockets) along with an amazing voice cast that includes Matthew Modine (Stranger Things, Oppenheimer), Cameron Monaghan, and Stephen Lang (Avatar), this award-winning film features striking visuals, poignant storytelling and a cinematic experience that will linger in the hearts and minds of viewers long after the credits roll.

“With its fine mix of dark humor, healthy anger and self-compassion, this portrait of the artist as a young woman is the work of an inspired filmmaker.” —The Hollywood Reporter
 
“A moody, unpredictable tale of love and loss, stuffed with vivid metaphors, Soviet period detail and pedagogical sequences about the physiology of love… Remarkably beautiful.” —The New York Times

OVID EXCLUSIVE

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

Clara Sola, Nathalie Álvarez Mesén (2021)
Indigo, Julio López Fernández (2023)
Modernism, Inc., Jason Cohn (2024)  
My Love Affair With Marriage, Signe Baumane (2022)
Now We Live on Clifton, Jerry Blumenthal, Alphonse Blumenthal, Susan Delson, Sharon Karp, Peter Kuttner, Gordon Quinn, Richard Schmiechen (1974)
Regenerating Life, John Feldman (2023)
Roads of Lava, Gretel Marin (2024)
The Last Pullman Car, Gordon Quinn & Jerry Blumenthal (1983)
The Savage Hunt Of King Stakh, Valeri Rubinchik (1980)
Where Can We Live in Peace? Judy Jackson (2023)
White Rage, Arto Halonen (2016)
Winnie Wright, Age 11, Suzanne Davenport, Greg Grieco, Betsy Martens, Gordon Quinn, Teena Weeb (1974)
Works for All, Mark Dworkin & Melissa Young (2023)
Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon, Anna Sofaer (2024)