Guardian of the Well

Working underground in the year before the legalization of cinema in Saudi Arabia, a team of mostly women makes its first feature film. Anonymous accounts of their experience are brought together in a melancholic narration. In the spirit of first films, a filmmaker documents the production in Jeddah with his first video camera from childhood.

Sudanese-American poets and musicians engage in performances and a conversation around third culture identity and the revolution in Sudan, from which they have been physically cut off.

After the death of his Arabic teacher, an American-born filmmaker in the northern African country of Chad revisits home videos to explore the moment they started making movies together.

A young writer roams the streets of Jeddah in search of an ending to his novel about parallel worlds.

When he makes a mistake that sends his family into a financial crunch, Faisal abandons his dreams of American university to work on a chicken farm.

Residents of Tripoli, Lebanon, reckon with the legacy of an abandoned architectural monstrosity.

Nawaf, a high-school graduate in Saudi Arabia is under pressure to pick a college major. While everyone tells him what they think is best for him, he roams the city in search for an answer of his own.

Majid fights his own coach for Faiza's heart and the dream of playing international football.

Set in 1987, a young black Saudi man attempts to impress a girl by mimicking the music video of Crown, an iconic singer from that time.

Seaside fireworks, a march to the US-Iran game, and Souk Waqif festivities all make up a series of vignettes from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Meanwhile, an attendee ponders the event's significance amid a shifting of the world's centers of power.

Through metaphor, biography and stunning NASA footage, filmmaker Bentley Brown presents us with a very personal filmic essay that explores a failed relationship and sweeping societal changes in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Hot Docs)