The Story of an Encounter is a documentary that captures the unexpected encounter between México and Cirque du Soleil creators in the mist of the creation of LUZIA, Cirque du Soleil next big top show. It is a cultural and intimate story of the meeting of creative minds seen through personal interactions and relationship building of the show creators. Filmed in Mexico City, Tijuana, Oaxaca and Montréal, this series features: Daniele Finzi Pasca (Co-author and Director of LUZIA), Patricia Ruel (Direction of Creation), Simon Carpentier (Composer), Eugenio Caballero (Set and Props Designer) as well as Majo Cornejo and Rodrigo de la Mora (Musicians).
Self
This Traveltalk series short showcases the Mexico City police department's various units as they participate in a yearly festival. Included are a marching band, a parade of patrol cars, the motorcycle unit, equestrian unit, and the department's pistol team.
People across the world are fleeing hunger, climate disaster and violence. The Vertical Border looks at what happens when forced migrants head to the US-Mexico border to claim dignity and rights, but arrive to a hostile welcome.
A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil
A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her world and she finds herself in the universe of QUIDAM, where she is joined by a playful companion, as well as another mysterious character who attempts to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling and the terrifying.
Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth - it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.
From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.
Corteo, which means "cortege" in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.
Icarus is the main character of Varekai, who falls to the ground, breaking his legs as he does. He is suddenly in a strange, new world full of creatures he has never seen before. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, this young man sets off on an adventure both absurd and extraordinary.
The feature-length documentary Fakir portrays the success of fakirism in Brazil, Latin America and France. This circus art origin show is presented and analyzed through archives that reveals the success of these presentations with their pain resistance championships and the great public presence, including politicians and government officials. Fakir spans current footage from contemporary artists who keep this art alive in performances and shows.
A group of children in the Mayan town of San José Oriente spend their days riding motorcycles and playing soccer, but one of them has other plans. Shot during the Creator's Lab 2023 in Yucatán, México, under the consultancy of Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
The film portraits the stage previous to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, from the end of Porfirio Díaz´ government, the social volatility, the ephemeral government of Madero and the presence of the working class in the figures of Villa and Zapata, until the signing if the Constitution of 1917. All of this through moving images, filmed during those events mainly by the Alva brothers, filmmakers of that time. Those images let us perceive the contradictory and shuddered glance of the people of that period.
Luis Rivera, the best Mexican high jumper of the history, seeks to inspire a generation by qualifying for the Olympic Games as he finishes his doctorate studies. Injuries threaten his dream while his younger brothers follow in his path and example.
This Traveltalk series short visits two of the most important cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Errol Morris confronts one of the darkest chapters in recent American history: family separations. Based on NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, Morris merges bombshell interviews with government officials and artful narrative vignettes tracing one migrant family’s plight. Together they show that the cruelty at the heart of this policy was its very purpose. Against this backdrop, audiences can begin to absorb the U.S. government’s role in developing and implementing policies that have kept over 1300 children without confirmed reunifications years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In this documentary film a team of researchers examine the social contexts that influenced the emergence and permanence of heavy metal music in Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Peru. Colonialism, dictatorships, terrorism and neoliberal exploitation serve as points of reference for how heavy metal in the region has been directly linked to each country's social and political context.
Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.
In the heart of Durango, the Low Biker community has forged a unique bond through a shared love for cumbias and custom bicycles, uniting neighborhoods across the city in a vibrant, collective passion. Amid the joy of their culture, they face the harsh realities of discrimination and prejudice, navigating daily challenges from a society that struggles to accept their way of life.
Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.