Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-13 of 13
- August 9 2006. Three Mexican fishermen are found near the Marshall Islands, more than 5,000 miles away from home, after 9 months and 9 days adrift. They declared, "We survived by eating raw fish, capturing rain water and our faith in God". A book editor from Atlanta, and a Colombian cosmetics seller living in Mexico City, see in this story a message from God they must spread. Weeks later they all sign a contract for 3 million dollars to make a film of their ordeal. It seems that the real danger is still to come.
- At 14 my grandmother's sister disappeared from her home in Israel. Years later, she started sending my family letters with a desperate plea for contact, from a refugee camp, where she lived as an Arab. My Jewish family chose to turn their back on their Arab relative. I discovered her letters after my grandmother died and I set on a painful quest, uncovering the past. I search for my lost family in territories occupied by my country and reveal a story that could only be told in the war-torn Middle East, about one family, on both sides of a conflict.
- Guy Ritchie meets National Geographic, in this balls-to-the-wall look at flashy gangsters with a thing for fighting goldfish. Cash, a car and a mobile phone... as well as fish. A group of tough men from near Warsaw organize a new form of entertainment. Their customary meetings over alcohol and drugs start to include fights between aggressive aquarium fish, which are, of course, accompanied by bets for large sums of money. Such is the extent of this hobby that one of the characters hopes that his champion will contribute significantly to the purchase of a new Subaru. "It almost sounds like fiction: tough young men who drive fast cars and hold fighting matches to the death between aggressive goldfish. With its great cinematic style, Glass Trap makes you think of a "Godfather" spin off. The film has something sinister about it, but because of the fascination of goldfish also something innocent and surreal" -Catalogue IDFA Amsterdam
- The Zharkov family-father, mother and two young sons-belong to the Dolgan community, one of the last indigenous peoples pursuing their traditional nomadic life in the extreme north of Siberia. The children used to be sent to boarding school, where they became estranged from their family and culture, but nowadays they can get homeschooling from teachers assigned to them by the Russian authorities. Seven-year-old Zakhar and his older brother Prokopy are the protagonists in this calm, observational film. Zakhar's first year of schooling is with Nelly, a young but serious teacher. She tells him about President Putin and the importance of mathematics, and he learns classical poems by heart. Zakhar is an inquisitive and intelligent boy. Each day, he has a hundred new questions about the world, and he's surprised to discover that his teacher doesn't have all the answers. These scenes take place against a backdrop of the vast, snow-covered tundra and observations of the Dolgans' everyday activities-herding reindeer and fishing are their principal livelihoods.
- In spite of its wonderfully picturesque location in a valley in the Italian Alps, the population of the tiny village of Viganella has been reduced by half since World War II. Young people are nowhere to be seen, and tourists appear only sporadically, in the summer months. During the winter, the sun is blocked by a mountain, meaning that the village is cloaked in shadow for 83 days a year. The village's ever-optimistic mayor Pierfranco Midali refuses to think in terms of limitations, however, and has come up with an ingenious solution. To make Viganella more attractive, he wants to install a massive mirror on one of the mountaintops, to reflect the sun onto the village in the winter. In this way, the painstakingly restored village square can also enjoy a little sunlight during the dark winter months. While helicopters put the mirror in place, a German Buddhist commune established on top of the mountain in question back in the 1980s looks on with trepidation. Midali does everything in his power to make a success of his precarious plans and bring his village to the attention of the international press, even if only for a moment. A touch of megalomania is not out of place.
- On 21 September 1972, president Marcos promulgated a new constitution, in which the democratic principles of the Philippines had been laid down. In the subsequent fourteen years, however, Marcos did not take much notice of his own laws. He ignored the parliament, had opposition leaders arrested and tortured, and his other enemies killed. Together with his greedy wife Imelda and a group of friends and acquaintances, he plundered the Treasury on a large scale. Both those who committed the oppression and their opponents who survived it are introduced in this documentary. Examples are former president Corazon Aquino, but also Imelda Marcos herself and the left-wing leader Bernabe Buscayno. Illustrated by numerous interviews, a reconstruction is made of fourteen years of dictatorship on the Philippines. The film includes photographs, film and video recordings that have never been shown before.
- A camera in the hands of African Union soldiers in Mogadishu, Somalia, captures the war on the jihadist militants in Al-Shabaab.
- Diana is not the only one for whom the monthly period is no fun at all. Headaches, nausea, depression -- why is it so widely accepted that women all over the world should feel so lousy on a regular basis? And why is the subject still not openly discussed? With a keen sense of perspective, humor, and self-mockery, Diana goes in search of answers. The most wide-ranging theories put forward by anthropologists, psychologists, journalists, gynecologists, and belly-dance teachers are intercut with old-fashioned information films and animated clips. The connecting factor throughout the film is 11-year-old Dominika, who keeps the audience updated about her impending menstruation, bringing up all kinds of questions. Why is blue liquid used in advertisements for sanitary napkins? Is the pill being used to adjust our body's rhythm to that of a male-dominated society? Why do we bleed when, in nature, blood is synonymous with death? Diana's quest brings her a deeper understanding and appreciation of her body. And also of her moods, because as one expert claims, whereas women are sometimes perceived to be complaining during menstruation, it is actually the hormones giving them the courage to finally say what they really always thought.
- A portrait of three deserters from the American army, who now live in Canada. In Redemption, they speak about their memories of the war in Iraq, a war that they all now view as senseless. "Even sitting here now, I'm smelling burning flesh," one of them says. Such memories simply refuse to go away, however much the young men would like them to. If they could, they would all like to take back their decision to join the army. They also talk about the methods used to entice soldiers to join up. And we see how they now live: disillusioned, slumped on the sofa, drinking beer and smoking joints. In their early twenties, they already seem to have lost most of their youthful energy. These deserters also feel guilty -- not about deserting, but about having taken part in the war in Iraq at all in the first place. The interviews are interspersed with footage of the war and of the homes the deserters have left behind. So why did they ever join up? Boredom, unemployment, lack of self-worth. And -- above all -- the rosy picture painted of the army's role in Iraq: "I thought I would be feeding hungry children."
- Enter the universe of three mujra dancers in Pakistan as they dodge state censorship and violence to vie for stardom.
- In this lively collage of fiction, animation, and YouTube videos, rich in references to South Africa's past and present, five young students from the film department of Wits University in Johannesburg examine their personal relationship with the national anthem. Its lyrics are in five languages, which are reflected in the film. But what does it mean if you don't understand your own national anthem?, one of the students wonders. He can speak the language of the Queen, but not of his own grandmother, and laments that his grandfather felt like a foreigner in his own country. Combining their diverse experiences, the film students remix the complex South African identity and give it their own twist. They each choose their own perspective and film language. An energetic radio DJ declares that you can't unscramble an omelette. He links the fragments and brings the different voices together. The title refers to the first line of the South African national anthem, Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika, which means "God bless Africa."
- In the United States, a poetry subculture has grown up around a group of young, mostly non-white spoken-word artists. Although the work they produce is widely diverse, it tends to have a strong affinity with contemporary social reality and urban culture. The poets' work is not aimed at a mass audience, and they perform in small clubs. Each of them has found his or her own way to focus the power of the spoken word. Spitting Ink is a portrait of some of these artists. Interviews and live performances are interspersed with images of the streets of New York - not the orderly, well-to-do neighborhoods, but their lively and sometimes dilapidated backstreet counterparts, with their graffiti-covered walls, subway trains, and bars. Spoken-word artist Mike Ladd speaks about this poetry's origins and background (its roots in gospel and other forms) and about how it reached a turning point with the arrival of rap. Beau Sia creates poetry both to impress the girls and to rebut prejudices about his Asiatic roots; Celena Glenn only writes once a year, when her head is full to overflowing and dozens of poems suddenly stream out.
- West Lake Restaurant in South China's Changsha can safely call itself the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world, with its staff of 1,000 working 5,000 tables and serving no fewer than 150 ducks per day and 200 snakes per week. The words of the restaurant's staff and guests are used in the film to paint a picture of modern China: the proprietress, one of the city's 20 self-made millionaires, speaks candidly about her failed marriage; a bridegroom-to-be who is celebrating at the restaurant explains the modern Chinese customs associated with the wedding party; and a waitress visits her poor parents in the countryside. Through these scenes, we gain insight into the unique combination of the ancient religious values and the new capitalist values with which China is stepping into the 21st century. What becomes very clear is that not everyone is set to benefit from the economic boom. In an approach comparable to Jia Zhang-ke's in his portrait of a theme park called "The World," by focusing on the microcosm of the West Lake Restaurant, this film manages to gain a perspective on the huge changes China is going through.