The Pan-American Highway is a road that connects two continents and twelve countries. Along the 15,000 km of the historic original route between Laredo (Mexico) and Buenos Aires (Argentina), you encounter people with their destinies, destinies, life goals, and hopes. Like a needle, the longest road in the world pierces from north to south. This stirring, contrasting, and informative documentary shows intimate and moving moments—completely authentic, natural, close, and touching. It takes the viewer on a journey through different cultures, where one's own existence often depends on just a few cents. The film illustrates the mindset of the Latin American population, who can often sum up the unvarnished reality in a single sentence. It shows neither staged scenes nor does it chase after tourist attractions.

In z’Alp, Thomas Rickenmann interweaves majestic landscapes of the Swiss alps, overland travel as animals and their minders move together uphill, and the intimate spaces of family life. He shifts seamlessly among these elements to impart an experience of annual treks from valley to mountain that have been playing out for centuries in Switzerland. Each year, farmers shift their livestock to fields at higher elevations, following the spring as it rolls up moun- tainsides and thus allowing the lower fields to regrow in time for the livestock’s autumn return.