As Dimitar’s decades-long fight against enviousness, laziness and prejudice to keep the kukeri tradition in his region alive proves successful, it turns out to have really been a journey towards finding and maintaining his own inner peace all along. Told through a series of interviews and slices-of-life ranging from the tragic to the euphotic is a story of love and resilience.
Self
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.
Part fictional documentary, part musical anthropology, scientific magic, and eco-anarchic utopian journey in a landscape of eight parts. You're Kaloyan, the sax player. Or Diana, the Gypsy dancer. You journey together through Bulgaria in search of the utopian village Dolphinovo. It's not Sofia, Paris or New York. That's why this story is rural, rustic and polyphonic. It's like a string of painted walls of village houses, folk songs and allegories. However, who is Ivo? And why does he lead you through these winter landscapes a year later?
A documentary about lamentation songs of Bulgarian funeral rites.
Every year in June, the small Bulgarian village of Balgari celebrates St Constantine with a special ritual. Initiated ‘nestinari’ go into a music-induced trance and dance on bonfires in a display of religious passion.
Graying Spaniard Daniel has a healthy budget for indulging in the finer things in life. Daniel's favorite luxury is playing sponsor to younger men amid the lights and sights of Madrid's gay club scene. After Daniel shares a night with handsome Bulgarian emigre Kyril, he finds himself consumed with an insatiable lust for the charismatic foreigner. But, as their relationship takes shape, Daniel's latest conquest reveals his own manipulative tendencies.
The life and times of Leilani Muir, the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta provincial government for wrongful sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta.
The prelude to our picture is the record of an intimate conversation between Mr. D. W. Griffith and his friend Mr. Walter Huston, which occured on an evening in the Spring of 1930. Here for the first time, Mr. Griffith relates the colorful childhood experiences which led him to the making of "The Birth of a Nation."
Monarch butterflies have brought hope to the darkest times of people's lives. In Mexico, when they arrive for Day of the Dead, they are thought to be souls of the departed. Coincidence?
This entry in the Believe It or Not series finds Mr. Ripley aboard a U.S. naval ship speaking to a group of sailors. The film he shows them includes items on a Mr. Curt Thompson, a blind telephone operator, and John R. Voorhees, who, at age 102, has voted 81 times since his 21st birthday. The finale is a demonstration of skill by Otto Reiselt, the three-cushion billiards champion.
When filmmaker Kathy Leichter moved back into her childhood home after her mother's suicide, she discovered a hidden box of audiotapes. Sixteen years passed before she had the courage to delve into this trove, unearthing details that her mother had recorded about every aspect of her life from the challenges of her marriage to a State Senator, to her son’s estrangement, to her struggles with bipolar disorder. HERE ONE DAY is a visually arresting, emotionally candid film about a woman coping with mental illness, her relationships with her family, and the ripple effects of her suicide on those she loved.
A look at the Sun, the star that revolves at the center of the Solar System, and its representation in art throughout history.
In the uncertainty of Indonesian football conditions, Aldian is trying to survive amidst the league stoppage while Ronaldo strives to become a football athlete.
The raising of King Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose in 1982 remains one of the most significant events in the history of maritime salvage. Comparable to the recovery of the 17th century Swedish warship Vasa in 1961, the climax of this complex and expensive operation was watched by around 60 million people worldwide. But 300 reels of film recently found in the archive of The Mary Rose Trust provide additional insight into the operation.
The film shows a reenactment of a traditional Sorbian Catholic wedding in traditional costume.
An expedition decided to observe the life of the beavers - nature's engineer - in the woods of the Rocky Mountains: for the first time a beaver family was filmed in its den during the course of the season.
Documentary about the movie theaters in Valencia that, since the seventies, had been closed or turned into department stores and bingo halls; dream spaces of Valencian cinephilia such as the Cine Alameda.