The Soul of Bossales is an immersion in the heart of popular Haitian culture whose spirituality and creativity have been forged by a surge of freedom and identity affirmation. Foukifoura, Édris, Charlotte or Ramoncite, “Bossales” characters with committed artistic and political acts, give us the gripping story of a very harsh reality: material and health precariousness, political violence, neo-colonialism.
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A film about fireworks, the people who make them and the cultures behind them across the globe.
Shot in early 2004 during the commemoration of the bicentennial of Haiti, this film offers a unique light on the last days to the presidency of Aristide, former priest of the poor became apprentice dictator. It is a reflection on the history of the first black republic in the world, a nation shared between the memory of its glorious revolution and the tragic litany of despots that have overwhelmed it since its independence.
Every New Year, and in celebration of their Independence, Haitian families gather together to feast in honor of a line of ancestors that fought for their freedom. The centerpiece of the festivity is the joumou soup—a traditional soup dating back centuries ago. The joumou soup is a concretization of war and victory, oppression and emancipation, and the deeply rooted celebratory traditions of the Haitian culture.
Chez Schwartz takes us inside a year in the life of Schwartz's Deli - the unique 75-year-old landmark on Montreal's historic Main. Filmed through changing seasons, from the quiet of early morning preparation to the frenetic bustle of packed lunch times and never ending line-ups, to the more relaxed ambiance late at night - Chez Schwartz is an evocative, cinematic portrait of a small spunky deli known worldwide equally for its atmosphere and smoked meat.
With a sense of humour, this documentary questions the condition of women from the angle of the image and perception of their body, and covers the new taboos and aesthetic diktats concerning their genitals in the era of the sexual revolution and contemporary feminism.
A riveting expose about the personalities of murderers and their motives. This 72 minute film covers the McDonalds' restaurant massacre, President Reagan's assassination attempt, serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas and others.
Lazy, idle, effeminate, strikers from father to son : French stereotypes are doing well. Anglo-Saxons, very especially fond of these preconceived ideas, take delight in disseminate them accross the world. Political and cultural realms particularly adore it. Concerned about reflecting a positive image abroad, politicians do their best today for their country to regain prestige. Decoding "French Bashing" diplomatic role and consequences.
Documentary about Field Marshal P. Phibunsongkram (Plaek Khittasangka), a story about dreams that influence the lives of Thai people in many aspects. Until the peak of power with things you may not have known before!
This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.
Akerman, Monteiro, Oliveira, Ruiz, Schroeter and Wenders are among the directors he produced: Deux, trois fois Branco is a portrait of Portuguese producer Paulo Branco, between life and legend.
Venerable storytellers recount for the camera and their listeners the founding myths of Malagasy culture.
In the deep hills of northeast India, Christianity and pop culture have taken over the lifestyle and imagination of the Tangkhul tribes. Rewben Mashangva from Choithar travels through the remote villages of the Tangkhul Naga to talk to the old people and collect songs and instruments. The rhythms, melodies and lyrics form links to his own music, which he describes as Naga Folk Blues. In his traditional 'Haokuirat' hairstyle and western boots along with his 9 year old son Saka, he performs across India and South-East Asia spreading the message that some songs have no end.
Psychoanalysis in El Barrio shows the experience of Latino psychoanalysts in the United States bringing psychoanalysis to Latino communities. It features interviews with ten Latino analysts (whose heritage is from a variety of Latino cultures) as well as students. It uniquely shows some of those communities in Philadelphia, New York City, and Texas and Interviews Latinos in the street on their thoughts about therapy. And it discusses issues of culture, bias, language and transference that occur for Latino analysts and their patients. The video challenges psychoanalysts to understand the culture and economic circumstances of Latinos in the United States and to bring psychoanalytically informed therapy to them. It Is a consequence of conferences held by the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and the Clinical Psychology Department of The New School.
“Balance of Life” is a film about life’s and human kinds’ fight to find the balance between our own evolving life style and the nature of the planet we inhabit. The human race is drifting further and further away from its real roots and from what being a human is really about. The speed of development has increased to a state where humans have a hard time keeping up. We find ourselves in a situation where both our own and the planets’ wellbeing is severely threatened. As a last resort human is relying on faith to find the balance. Is faith the last defense of man or is this world guided by forces greater than us? Is this force God, evolution or just the mere sum of coincidences that formed the universe, the natural order and laws of physics?’ Watch it here (https://vimeo.com/51203265)
Keith Haring: The Message was released in conjunction with the Keith Haring retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Directed by famed designer, Madonna stylist and Haring confidante Maripol, The Message goes pretty deep into both the artist and the city and times he’ll forever be identified with: New York City, circa the 1980s. The focus, as the title indicates, is upon the “struggles that animated” Keith Haring’s work, his activism – in a word, his “message.”
Follows the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices.