By the River(2019)

Notes about identity(es)

One Ticket Please(en)

A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.

Reila(nl)

The Zodiac(en)

The history of the infamous serial killer known as the ‘zodiac’ in the late 1960s. It takes you through his kill rampage and to the case that still to this day has not been cracked.

Silo(es)

The best kept secret of The Andes will be revealed… For some, he is the thinker that set in motion a spiritual and political movement that passed through borders and extended from Argentina to India. For other, he is the leader of a sect, a skillful manipulator and demagogue. For most, he is still a mystery. Through this feature length documentary film we try to tell the life and work of this extraordinary person, posing a disturbing question: Who is Silo?

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory(fr)

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Mild Madness, Lasting Lunacy(fr)

This walk in the daily life of several psychiatric institutions, allows us to meet extraordinary people who let us enter their privacy.

One Second in Montreal(en)

A silent succession of black-and-white photographs of the city of Montreal.

47 Days, Sound-less(en)

47 Days, Sound-less by Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Trinh Thi is a film that explores the relationships between sound and silence, vision, language, colours and their absence. Nguyễn identifies “peripheries”—including natural landscapes used as backdrops, uncredited characters and soundtracks from American and Vietnamese movies—that reveal more-than-human perspectives. Offering new ways of looking and listening, 47 Days, Sound-less invites audiences to reflect on the inextricable relationship between a place and its inhabitants.

To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View(en)

A 60th anniversary retrospective documentary on the influence and context of the 1962 film, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Song 5(en)

SONG 5: A childbirth song (the Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964 to 1969).

Night and Fog(fr)

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

The Talk(en)

“The Talk” showcases the experiences of three LGBTQ+ youth learning about sex health under an inadequate Canadian sex-ed curriculum. Each subject opens up about their knowledge surrounding sexual health, gender identity, the not so honest information they were taught in their classrooms and its impact on their self-image.

A Road in India(en)

Life on the road in India, showing the traffic, people and animals.

Temples of India(en)

Hindu temples at Benares and Belur and the mythologies associated with them.

Berliner Ballade(fr)

Some months after the fall of the Berlin wall, during the time of federal elections in Germany in 1990, Chris Marker shot this passionate documentary, reflecting the state of the place and its spirit with remarkable acuity.

The Perfect Circle(it)

Earth to earth, water to water. The body weight of a newborn child is up to 85 percent water, but in adulthood, the ratio can be cut into half. In a way, people dry up as they grow older. In Claudia Tosi’s documentary, people drink water, watch the rain and wait for their death. The Perfect Circle depicts a man and a woman, Ivano and Meris, who spend their final days at a hospice in the hills of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy. Their illnesses are in the terminal stage and they know that death is only a matter of time. But the ever-nearing end may fleetingly be forgotten, like when they close their eyes and get lost in the music – until the bodies being carried out next door once again remind them of the inevitable. Death also becomes a part of life for the patients’ loved ones, who want to spend the last available moments with the soon to be departed.

Liminality & Communitas(fi)

After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.

Paparazzi(fr)

Paparazzi explores the relationship between Brigitte Bardot and groups of invasive photographers attempting to photograph her while she works on the set of Jean-Luc Godard's film Le Mépris (Contempt). Through video footage of Bardot, interviews with the paparazzi, and still photos of Bardot from magazine covers and elsewhere, director Rozier investigates some of the ramifications of international movie stardom, specifically the loss of privacy to the paparazzi. The film explains the shooting of the film on the island of Capri, and the photographers' valiant, even foolishly dangerous, attempts to get a photograph of Bardot.

The Romance of Celluloid(en)

Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the movie going public has in going to the theater, are presented. They include: the production of celluloid aka film stock, the materials used in the production of which include cotton and silver; construction crews who build sets including those to look like cities, towns and villages around the world; a visit with Jack Dawn who demonstrates the process of creating a makeup design; the screen testing process, where many an acting hopeful gets his/her start; the work of the candid camera man, the prying eyes behind the movie camera; a visit with Adrian, who designs the clothes worn by many of the stars on screen; and a visit with Herbert Stothart as he conducts his musical score for Conquest (1937). These behind the scenes looks provide the opportunity to get acquainted with the cavalcade of MGM stars and their productions that will grace the silver screen in the 1937/38 movie season.