May It Fill Your Soul is a film about Bulgarian traditional music, about the pain of emigration and the promise of immigration, and about a family with a century-long musical history. Bulgaria's astonishingly rich village music traditions include strong women's singing, musical instruments with roots its millennia-old pastoral lifestyle and its 500-year history in the Ottoman Empire, and its lively dancing in additive meters of 5, 7, 9, and 11 beats to the measure. These practices are presented through the lens of a musical family trained during Bulgaria's communist regime (1944-1989) to represent the best that Bulgaria had to offer the world, but who made the wrenching decision in the post-communist period to immigrate to the United States for the sake of their daughters' futures. From that vantage point they have been able to teach their art to, and "fill the souls" of, singers, dancers, musicians, and audiences all over the world.
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May It Fill Your Soul is a film about Bulgarian traditional music, about the pain of emigration and the promise of immigration, and about a family with a century-long musical history. Bulgaria's astonishingly rich village music traditions include strong women's singing, musical instruments with roots its millennia-old pastoral lifestyle and its 500-year history in the Ottoman Empire, and its lively dancing in additive meters of 5, 7, 9, and 11 beats to the measure. These practices are presented through the lens of a musical family trained during Bulgaria's communist regime (1944-1989) to represent the best that Bulgaria had to offer the world, but who made the wrenching decision in the post-communist period to immigrate to the United States for the sake of their daughters' futures. From that vantage point they have been able to teach their art to, and "fill the souls" of, singers, dancers, musicians, and audiences all over the world.
2016-01-01
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Shipibo healer Ricardo Amaringo describes how he prepares, teaches, and shares the plant medicine ayahuasca. Olivia and Julian Arévalo sing examples of icaros (healing songs) in the Shipibo language.
The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.
0.0A documentary on the surviving syncretic pagan midwinter customs of the British Isles, focusing on nine ritual celebrations ranging from the Moray Firth in the north, the Somerset Levels in the south, Humberside in the east, and County Kerry in the west. Featuring music by the Albion Band and narration by John Tams.
0.0A documentary film exploring the legacy of the Holocaust in Bulgaria and the Balkans through the personal stories of three Bulgarian Jews.
0.0An intimate documentary portrait of world-class improvisational and traditional pianist Mike Garson as he tours, performs, and teaches.
Documentary on Mozambican music, and the role it played in the country's rediscovering its national identity after centuries of colonial rule.
In December 2005, Gordon Duncan, from Perthshire, was quite simply unique as a piper of his generation. He was a multi-instrumentalist and prolific composer. Just for Gordon is a documentary about his life and the tunes he wrote that have quickly become a mainstay of the Scottish traditional music repertoire. His tunes had true significance, not just in their unique and original arrangement, but also in their very inspiration - often from entertaining occurrences in Gordon's life. His tunes can be heard at T in the Park, Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours in Canada, the Lorient festival in Brittany and the Fleadh Cheòil in Ireland. Gordon Duncan helped to put piping on the map for a whole new generation and for his pupils. The programme features the musicians that knew and played with him and those who continue to play and be inspired by his music, especially his own pupils.
9.0A film pioneer, Binka Zhelyazkova was at the forefront of political cinema under Bulgaria's Communist dictatorship. Though she remained faithful to the communist ideals she became an avid critic of the regime and brought upon herself the wrath of its censorship. As a result four of her nine films were shelved and released to the public only after the fall of the regime in 1989, and Binka Zhelyazkova became known as the bad girl of Bulgarian cinema. A provocative portrait that reveals the pressures and complexities that arise when art is made under totalitarianism.
7.8When the rain ends, life sprouts from the earth. A fruit grows and becomes the apple that gives life to the cider. Then comes the time of harvest, toasting and celebrating love. A story about the cycle of life and death, of the struggle for survival. Where the passage of time is marked by the course of nature, music and dance.
0.0From the remote, islands of Vanuatu, comes an extremely unique and rarely seen tradition, water music.
6.8An old, broken morin khurr (horse head fiddle) compels renowned Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi to take a road journey to Ulan Bator and the steppes of Mongolia.
8.0In the weeks and months surrounding the overthrowing of Bulgaria's socialist dictatorship, the public's taste for democratic discussion begs to be sated. Kiryakov's camera walks through Sofia's South Park as it turns into a hotbed for ideological debate and picketing, where citizens from all walks of life share their hopes despite the winter weather.
0.0During the Interceltic Festival of Lorient, the Grand Parade of Celtic Nations is the FIL's must-see event, a truly unique moment. Three thousand artists, traditional costumes, dancers, musicians, bagadoù, circles, pipe bands, and gaita bands from all Celtic countries parade through the streets of Lorient.
0.0In Peruvian Amazonia, for the first time in many years, a Shipibo–Konibo community prepare to perform the Aneshiati ceremony: a time of dance, song, festive clothing, and drink—including the sacred tea ayahuasca.
10.0This Documentary takes a look at the art life of Maestro "MohammadReza Lotfi", the great master of "Târ", "Setâr"; great composer of Persian traditional music and the father of art of improvisation in "Dastgâh" music. by interviewing some of the greatest Iranian traditional music maestros and his close friends such as: MohammadReza Shajarian, Hossein Alizâdeh, Bizhan Kâmkâr, Houshang Ebtehâj (a.k.a Sâyeh), Majid Derakhshâni and a lot of other great musicians, the film narrates the life of Lotfi in 4 seasons of his life, from the spring until winter.
8.0In the summer of 1961, a group of young Italian anthropologists made a clandestine journey through Spain, in order to record popular songs that supported anti-Franco resistance. As a result of their work, they were prosecuted and their recordings were censored. Sixty years later, and guided by Emilio Jona, aged 92, the last living member of that group of travellers, we recover the unpublished recordings and reconstruct the journey, today, across an emotional and political landscape, regaining historical memories through these songs, as relevant today as they were then.
This film documents the Kukeri rituals in Bulgaria, focusing on the mask makers and performers who keep this ancient tradition alive. Their dedication to this agrarian custom is a visual testament to the power of tradition to provide hope and community in a time of diaspora and urbanization.
The Balkans is home to an ancient pagan tradition where magic and mystery still have a sacred place in the cosmic order. The Kukeri festival has had a strong hold over Bulgarian cultural life since the fifth century, surviving the Ottomans, Christendom and communist rule. Every winter, hundreds of terrifying figures prowl snow-capped forests and village centers in search of evil spirits to dispel from their communities.