2023-10-20
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The enigma of the personality cult is revealed in the grand spectacle of Stalin’s funeral. The film is based on unique archive footage, shot in the USSR on March 5 - 9, 1953, when the country mourned and buried Joseph Stalin.
A Kellergasse – the cellar lane – is one of the distinguishing cultural and physical features of the winegrowing region Niederösterreich – Lower Austria. There are more than a thousand of them. Until recently, wine was not only stored in the Kellergasse, but pressed and fermented there as well. Today, the Kellergassen have less to do with occupation and more with recreation. A documentary by Georg Riha follows a year in the life of this valuable cultural legacy.
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro during its world famous Carnival, far from the beach and the touristic clichés, there is an explosive contest between neighbourhoods. This old form of carnival features teams of futuristic gladiators that are a surreal mixture of play and menace. A tradition that has its roots in ancient European carnival traditions and in African rituals, they look like visitors from another planet.
The making of the samba school parades, with the construction of the great cars, the decorations being spread all over the city and the hand-crafted tailoring of the costumes by apt hands that stitch together colourful and glowing materials.
In rural Kosovo, identical houses are built for family members working abroad, in the hope that they will one day return to settle in their old homeland.
The traditional healers in the Swiss and French mountains.
A panorama of Brazilian popular music from the 60s and 70s through the musical group Novos Baianos. A retrospective of the community lifestyle adopted by its members and the influence inherited from singer João Gilberto.
The Mangueira slum is the scenario where Tantinho and the old samba composers remember stories about the slums and samba.
In Papua New Guinea, pig tusks and shell money are currencies which can buy most things. Henry Tokubak’s dream is to create the first bank where traditional money counts as legal tender.
Traditions during Easter holidays in the remote village of Grešnica. The film was a research project of the newly opened Ethnological Museum to preserve the disappearing customs at least on film for future generations.
A documentary recording the lives of Khon students in their last years of study. They spent six years under the rules of the military regime after the 2014 coup d’etat. The coup granted the regime power to change many things, especially education which became more focused on the monarchy and royal glorification instead of basic human values. While the world is becoming awakened to human rights, the military regime deems them against their own values. The shooting of the film began at the time of the king’s succession, shortly after which there was a great social awakening in Thailand. Meanwhile, the authorities used state violence and oppression in an effort to eliminate dissidents, even when they were just high school and university students.
What is tradition? This is the question posed by yodeller and food researcher Meinrad Koch from Canton Appenzell. In search of an answer, he embarks on a journey.
At the forests of Östergötland, where land meets sea, rests the old castle Herrborum. Here lives count Magnus Stenbock, 92, according to his own ideas about what is appropriate and what is not. Film-maker Helena Nygren is fascinated by the count and the castle, and is allowed to film on the condition that she takes the role of companion lady. Over one year, Helena returns several times to take part of count Magnus Stenbock and his servants life on castle Herrborum in Östergötland. Time stands still on the castle, and in the movie Helena wants to preserve the fairy tale feeling she gets when she steps into these ancient surroundings. The count is a strong personality with strong opinions and a great interest in history. All kinds of people come to his castle to savor the special atmosphere and follow the old fashioned rules of etiquette. Helena transforms from an observer to a lady who participates in the social games on the estate, where everything moves around its own time axis.
A stunning and intimate portrait of the Arhuaco indigenous community in Colombia. In 1990, in a celebrated BBC documentary, the Arhuaco made contact with the outside world to warn industrialized societies of the potentially catastrophic future facing the planet if we don’t change our ways. Now, three decades later, with the advances of audio/visual technology, we go back to the Snowy Peaks of Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria to illuminate their ethos against the backdrop of an increasingly fragile world.
Six o'clock in the morning, the sun rises behind the Djurdjura mountain. With precise gestures, learned since childhood, Ouardia raises the water, crouches down to splash his face with cool water. Soon her baby will be born. Hadjila, the traditional midwife, prepares herself internally to help the mother complete the transition from separation. This film talks about the knowledge surrounding birth that Kabyle women have passed down for centuries; knowledge that European women seek to rediscover in order to reclaim this founding passage of our lives.