The culture of volunteering has not been fully established in Georgia yet and most people don’t know where to start. Even though Georgians do a lot of things for their families and community, it is not often defined as volunteer work that is supported, respected and promoted by the community. In the country where working hours are unregulated, wages are low and social security is weak, the entire burden falls on a family. Therefore, it’s no wonder that people don’t find the time nor interest for work that doesn’t pay money. Ana Kuprava has started volunteering during the pandemic with Helping Hand, a NGO based in Tbilisi. Apart from visiting and helping the elderly, she now spends a lot of time as an ambassador, informing other young people around Georgia about volunteering to help them get involved.

The Georgian capital Tbilisi has become a magnet for young Azerbaijani artists, searching for a safe place to work and create.

A 23-year-old Ukrainian, far from home, tries to make life a little easier for Ukrainians escaping from the war. Around 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainian Darina Hlava, 23, who has lived and worked in the Polish city of Poznan for the last five years, is helping refugees find a place to live, orient themselves in their new reality, register and get help. Poznan, the fifth largest city in Poland, has become the temporary home for 40,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Once an Armenian emigre living in Germany, a young woman tries to bring change to a rural community in Armenia.

Gulay and Aybeniz, widows of soldiers who died during the two Nagorno-Karabakh wars, take us on a journey through their lives and the objects that help them navigate their loss and strength.

When memories prompt action. For most of my childhood, Friendship Park was a no-go zone, a scary place where children were not allowed to play. The voice of Narine Azaryan, Khachatur Azaryan’s daughter, the last director of the Friendship Park, takes us back to Soviet times, when the park was full of people and joy. Through the images from their family photo album, we can witness the park in a different light. For generations of Gyumri residents, Friendship Park and its arches and stage were the city’s calling card. A magical place for art and play. That changed after the 1988 earthquake. This film documents the park’s glorious past, its rebirth and reopening, the work of public and private supporters who believed the park should reclaim its role as a symbol of the city.

Ana, a 36-year-old lawyer and human rights defender with a record of more than 30 precedential court cases, is going through a trial that might become a turning point, for her personally and for the future of Georgia.

It seems that the creative use of VHS archives in an essay documentary style has become a trend in the South Caucasus...