1961 - the year when Swedish UN soldiers are in the crisis-ridden Congo and Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash. Swedish film's biggest hit, "Are there angels?", has its premiere with Christina Schollin in one of the roles. Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space and the Volvo P 1800 appears on the roads. Ewy Rosqvist is a rally ace and in April the regal ship Vasa is lifted up after 333 years at the bottom of Stockholm's stream. In August, the Berlin Wall is built and outside the Stockholm archipelago, Radio Nord broadcasts music and news.
1963 - the year when the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. Sweden suffers from an smallpox epidemic - hundreds of thousands are vaccinated, and several thousand are isolated. Colonel Stig Wennerström is arrested for spying for the Soviets. John F Kennedy is murdered in Dallas, while Martin Luther King has a dream about the future, "Villervalle i Söderhavet" is shown on Swedish TV.
Sabattus is an old town and like any old town it has its history of inhabitants, tragedy, and conflict. There's a house in Sabattus, though, unlike any other. The owner reports that the property experiences strange sightings. Shadowy figures, strange balls of light, and the sounds of being followed are all common occurrences at this house. Join investigator Nate Brislin as he documents the strange goings-on at the Sabattus house. Hear the story from the eyewitnesses, and embark on an expedition that dares to ask: are there phantoms in America's Pine Tree State?
The pursuit of happiness (and the display of happiness on social media!) has become a veritable cult. Happiness has become a social imperative, just like slimness, beauty and success. To better understand this obsessive quest for happiness, journalist Marie-Claude Élie-Morin takes an in-depth and personal look into this seemingly pervasive trend that sometimes leads to painful consequences.
How can an artist discover abstraction by the beginning of the 20th century and nobody is noticing? A woman, misjudged and concealed, rocks the art world with her mind-blowing oeuvre. Hilma af Klint was a pioneer creating her first abstract painting in 1906, four years before Vassily Kandinsky. But why was she ignored? Why are her paintings not available on the market? This first film on her is about her life and work, the role of women in art history and the discovery of an art scandal. Her quest for meaning in life and a boundless thinking led into a timeless, outstanding oeuvre.
Carla Haddad Mardini was born with bombs blasting at the worst period of the Lebanese Civil War. She embarked on a career in the humanitarian field where she experienced a meteoric rise, quickly holding leadership positions, first at the ICRC and now at UNICEF in New York. One of her greatest successes is to have overcome the challenges of combining harmonious family life with an intense professional career.
A bold documentary in a measured style about the modern-day quest for meaning and personal growth.
The Chinese global machine has been invited to revitalise the ailing Swedish town of Kalmar. The town's mayor has invited a Chinese company to build a trade centre and 300 homes, but all does not go to plan. An amusing and deeply relevant film, which shows the fault lines that emerge when the tigers of the developing world try to expand into Europe.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is credited as being the World’s Greatest Living Explorer. Among his extraordinary achievements, he was the first to circumnavigate the world from pole to pole, crossed the Antarctic on foot, broke countless world records, and discovered a lost city in Arabia. He has travelled to the most dangerous places on Earth, lost half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and was nearly cast as James Bond. But who is the man who prefers to be known as just ‘Ran’?
Because of the poor employment situation in Finland, many families and single people decided to move to Sweden to seek employment in the 1960s and 70s. The move was considered temporary and it affected people’s ways of making themselves at home in the new country; they did not even try to adapt or learn the language of the country. At that time, the nicknames “Finnjävel” and “Hurri” were well-known to Swedish-Finnish youngsters: In Sweden, they were regarded as Finns; and the other way around. As neither nation’s citizens approved them as their own, the Sweden Finns had to create their own identity. But what kind of lives do these immigrants’ children and grandchildren live today? Jonas Karén was born in a Finnish family in Husby’s suburb 1980.
Spiritual Revolution examines Eastern Spirituality in the West: its origins, forms, and the many ways it has evolved and been embraced in the United States as a philosophy and an ethical approach to life. The film explores various forms of Hinduism and Buddhism through interviews with a Whos Who of spiritual leaders, swamis, gurus, Zen Masters and Tibetan Lamas as well as scientists, psychotherapists and scholars.
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition headed for the South Pole and disaster. Shackleton's Captain reveals the truth behind the spectacular survival of all the crew and shows how one man's extraordinary skill and unsung heroism made it possible: Frank Worsley, Captain of the expedition ship, Endurance.
The 1958 finals, held in Sweden, saw the emergence of a new superstar in Pelé. This 17 year-old wonder player led the Brazilians to a final triumph over the host nation 5-2.
On a journey through the interior of the earth, we learn about the life and dreams of a swiss explorer who searches for caves and underground rivers in a sector marked by violence and armed conflict in Colombia. This underground labyrinth is a metaphor about a dark past, buried deep within the soul, where old war wounds heal with the infinite passage of time.
We followed Said Belhaj when he showed his good friend Dani Andrada around on the Swedish west coast for ten days. They climbed some of the old classic routes and also tried some of the projects the area has to offer. We tried our best to capture the spirit, surroundings and the atmosphere around their visit here.
Tim Bergling, better know known to his millions of fans as Avicii, is at 24 already one of the world's best known and loved DJ:s. He plays sold-out venues all over the world and his name on the line up guarantees an almost insane audience response. But Avicii is also an artist with a conscience and together with his manager Ash, he is dedicated to fighting global hunger. This film follows Avicii during his Spring 2013 tour of Australia, where the profits went straight into their charity project "House for Hunger".