A fragment of the Berlin Wall in the centre of Riga.
A fragment of the Berlin Wall in the centre of Riga.
1991-01-01
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Some of the most iconic images in Latvian visual history were taken 30 years ago, when the so-called Singing Revolution took place. This documentary that includes well-known and previously unseen 35 mm footage, is about those who took these shots, told in their own voices, their own emotions and memories.
This lost classic, shot on 16mm in a wintry Berlin in 1993, explores the origins of the German trance scene. Featuring interviews with fresh-faced selectors including Laurent Garnier and MFS Records founder Mark Reeder, the documentary also feature footage from the city's iconic Love Parades in 1991 and 1993.
After the end of the Cold War, the Baltic was viewed almost as a quiet backwater. A nice place to visit to see charming Hanseatic cities and sandy beaches. But since the war in Ukraine the Baltic sea, bordered by eight European Union countries as well as Russia, has become a hot spot of world geopolitics. And tensions are high.
DocuDrama about 13th century pre-Christian culture. Danish spy Lars enters the tribal lands of the Baltic peoples, where he takes part in religious rites, cruel forays, gets high during the Summer Solstice, becomes slave to the Couronians and even fights the crusaders. Who were the last pagans of Europe and how did they live? It is a unique trip into the textures of the past and into the unknown lands of the Baltic Tribes.
Located on the shores of the Baltic Sea, between Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad is a piece of Russia in the heart of Europe. A curious territory, isolated from Moscow after the fall of the USSR, today transformed into a military fortress facing NATO. In Kaliningrad, headquarters of the Russian Baltic fleet, there are 30,000 soldiers, hypersonic missiles and nuclear capability.
Does Europe also have its own animistic heritage, like Pachamama in South America and Shinto in Japan? If so, which one? In the Misty Lands, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, a sacred fire is lit on the winter solstice to celebrate the return of the sun and ancient beliefs that have been forgotten in the rest of Europe for thousands of years. Sophie Planque and Jérémy Vaugeois decided to take a journey on bicycles to experience the Baltic winter and meet the people who keep their ancestral culture alive. A unique heritage that reinforces a deep relationship with nature.
Unustatud rahvad (1970 - 1989) by Estonian composer Veljo Tormas is based upon six Balto-Finnic peoples traditions. Collegium Musicale choir brought the songs to different sides of Baltic coasts to liven current citizens connections for fleeting past and strengthen their identity.
The War Diary is a contemporary road movie that confronts history with the current reality of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia. An extraordinary document leads Hakob Melkonyan to undertake the journey of a lifetime:
In 1989, thirteen GDR scientists and technicians set off from East Berlin to the Georg Forster research station in the Antarctic. During their expedition the Berlin Wall fell on November 9th. Cut off from the images that go around the world, the men can only experience the historical events passively. When they returned in the spring of 1991, their homeland was a foreign country. The documentary reconstructs the thoughts and feelings of the East German researchers on the basis of eyewitness accounts, diary excerpts, letters, film material, grandiose landscape shots from the location of the action and unique photos to make the consequences of the events tens of thousands of kilometers away on the small GDR expedition in the middle of the eternal ice tangible.
Berlin, 1989. Helena and Louise are happy in their relationship if it wasn't for this huge wall separating them. The only solution is writing letters. But what the two of them don't know is that Stasi officer Bernd who works for the surveillance department, is enjoying their constant letter exchanges as his daily bed time story. While Bernd has yet to figure out how to read between the lines, his assistant Eberhardt grows suspicious and desperately tries to open Bernd's eyes. But maybe Bernd isn't as oblivious as Eberhardt thinks he is. While the officers are playing hide and seek with Louise's and Helena's letters, the women are already in the midst of escaping. Nothing can stop them now. Except for maybe...the Fall of the Wall?
Set in Milan in the summer of 1989 against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the film follows four frustrated individuals whose lives intertwine because of the loss of a planner.
On the verge of retirement, Commissioner Gintas must undertake the investigation of a series of heinous murders, a dangerous task that could expose the many dirty secrets of several prominent members of the social elite of a small Lithuanian town.
Three years before the end of the Soviet occupation, a new juvenile inspector arrives in a small, quiet Estonian town. With each step, the town's secrets and hidden tensions begin to unravel, and it's clear that this place holds more than meets the eye.
The film tells the story of the events during the night of January 19 to 20, 1990, when the Soviet Army invaded Baku and its surroundings and killed many civilians.
October 2003, Alma and Lila Levy are excluded from the Lycée Henri Wallon in Aubervilliers solely because they were wearing a headscarf. What follows is a deafening political and media debate, justifying in most cases the exclusion of girls wearing head-scarves to school. February 2004, a law was eventually passed by the National Assembly. "A thinly veiled racism" is about this controversy since the affair of Creil in 1989 (where two schoolgirls were excluded for the same reasons) and attempts to "reveal" that maybe what hides behind is the desire to exclude these girls. This film gives them a voice as well as others - teachers, community activists, feminists, researchers - gathered around the group "A School for You-All" fighting for the repeal of this law they consider sexist and racist ... This movie was censured in Septembre 2004 in France.
Profile of seminal punk group The Clash.
Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim preacher, founded a Qur'an school for girls in Damascus, Syria when she was just 17 years old. Every summer, her female students immerse themselves in a rigorous study of Islam, in addition to their secular schooling. A surprising cultural shift is underway-women are claiming space within the mosque, a place historically dominated by men. Challenging tradition, Houda insists education for women is a form of worship. Using Qur'anic teachings, she encourages her students to pursue higher education, jobs, and public lives, while remaining committed to an interpretation of Islam prioritizing women's role as wives and mothers. In a world rarely seen, The Light In Her Eyes tells the story of a leader who challenges the women of her community to live according to Islam, without giving up their dreams. Shot right before the uprising in Syria erupted, the film is an exclusive look at a social movement thriving in a country controlled by a repressive regime
SNIPERS: BULLETPROOF deconstructs and analyzes the little known sniper events that have occurred when no other course of action was possible. The people who planned the takedowns, or pulled the trigger, share their techniques and bring to light the many factors that had to be considered in each mission: terrain, wind speed, temperature, elevation changes... all are critical to taking out targets considered bulletproof. A sniper has one chance, one breath, to rise to the occasion and save the day... if they miss, there may never be another opportunity. As these never told before stories unfold, the viewer also learns about the high tech gear each sniper carries on their classified missions.
Α few years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, an unknown physicist from Eastern Germany, who was not interested in politics, is the most powerful woman in the world. Her teacher in the small town where she grew up remembers that she was the smartest student he ever had. Those who have worked with her claim that “Merkiavelli” exercises power without moral barriers, just as Machiavelli taught. A journalist, who knows her well, claims that she uses the methods of a Mafia godmother. In 2008, the German Chancellor was asked to handle the international financial crisis. The countries of the South were placed in the test tube. “If I had to write a book on the Shock Doctrine at this moment,” says Naomi Klein, “it would be on Greece.” How did Merkel manage to impose German hegemony in Europe?
Over 350,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent fuel rods are in temporary storage on site at nuclear power complexes and at intermediate storage sites all over the world. More than 10,000 additional tons join them every year. It is the most dangerous waste man has ever produced. Waste that requires storage in a safe final repository for hundreds of thousands of years. Out of reach of humanity and other living creatures. The question is, where? Together with Swiss-British nuclear physicist Charles McCombie, who has been searching for a safe final storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste for thirty-five years, director Edgar Hagen investigates the limitations and contradictions involved in this project of global significance. Supporters and opponents of nuclear energy struggle for solutions whilst dogmatic worldviews are assailed by doubt