UK/Brazil
Director: Lucy Walker

Winner of more than a half-dozen top prizes from Sundance to Berlin, this rightfully exalted documentary about the transformative power of art is one of the most inspiring films this year. Acclaimed filmmaker Lucy Walker (Blindsight, Countdown to Zero) travels with cutting-edge Brazilian artist Vik Muniz deep into the world’s largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio to create a large-scale art project using garbage as his material and the spirited trash pickers as his muses.

English, Portuguese with subtitles, 98 min.

Mexico
Director: Jorge Michel Grau

When the patriarch of a down-on-their-luck family collapses and dies, the discovery of a woman’s finger in his stomach has the police scratching their heads. Meanwhile, the dead man’s family worries about where their next meal will come from in his absence. In this delectably horrifying tale of survival in Mexico City, the chilling revelation of how this family procures its food is the first of many shocking twists to come.

Spanish with subtitles, 89 min.

Turkey
Director: Selim Günes

With his father in prison and his mother forced to travel to a distant town every day for her job, 9-year-old Hasan must care for his younger siblings and supplement his mother’s income by selling hot drinks to weary winter travelers. First-time director Selim Günes, recognized internationally as one of Turkey’s most gifted still photographers, infuses his film with a visual artistry befitting the delicate drama of a boy struggling to survive a cold winter’s day, one hour at a time.

Turkish with subtitles, 82 min.

USA
Director: Travis Senger

Multiple-award-winning documentary White Lines and the Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug recalls the Bronx in the early 1980s, the old-school days of hip-hop, and the dangerous underworld at the legendary club Disco Fever.

27 min.

USA/South Korea
Director: Beomsik Shimbe Shim

In a sinister hospital, modification of physical beauty is not at all what you would expect in The Wonder Hospital

12 min.