De Cinema offers a carefully curated selection of compelling recent, restored, and often overlooked documentaries: films that remind us of what’s happening in the world around us. With a preference for music documentaries and politically and socially charged storytelling, each week we dive into the wonderful world of essayistic and documentary cinema.

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGH SCHOOL II is a film about Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a successful alternative high school in New York’s Spanish Harlem, 85-95% of whose graduates go on to four-year colleges. The film highlights the school’s emphasis on the “Habits of Mind” programme—weighing evidence; considering multiple points of view; seeing connections and relationships; speculating on possibilities; and assessing values.

PALESTINE CINEMA DAYS AROUND THE WORLD is an initiative by Filmlab Palestine: on 2 November, cinemas around the world will screen a Palestinian film to keep the spotlight on Palestinian stories and Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. For this fourth edition, De Cinema is screening a short (THEY DO NOT EXIST) and a medium-length (THE DREAM) documentary. Admission is free.

Who is the explorer? Who is the survivor? Who is left behind? And where? SHIFTING BASELINES looks closely at Starbase, the rocket production and launch facility of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. We witness how the vision of space travel changes the urban and natural landscape around the base in Texas. Yet not only the immediate surroundings; this results in more and more orbiting satellites all around the world.