The Shadow of Heaven(2008)

Voices & Visions: T.S. Eliot(en)

Eliot's life, influence, and poetry from the bold originality of "Prufrock" to the probing, meditative style of "Four Quartets" are explored with photos, archival footage, and discussion with friends, critics, and scholars.

Echo(en)

A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Correspondance privée sur un lieu public(fr)

Symptoms in Schizophrenia(en)

Shows masked mental patients enacting various schizophrenic symptoms as they were understood at the time. A disturbing film that raises questions about the condition and treatment of its subjects. (archive.org) “Abstract: This film describes and demonstrates four types of schizophrenia. Filmed at various New York institutions, it shows patients singly and grouped in large, outside recreational areas. Some patients are blindfolded. Symptoms shown include: social apathy, delusions, hallucinations, hebephrenic reactions, cerea flexibilitas, rigidity, motor stereotypes, posturing, and echopraxia.” (Guide to Mental Health Motion Pictures)

Introduction to Fogo Island(en)

This film introduces the Fogo Island/Newfoundland Project series which is an experiment in how film can be a catalyst for social change by serving as a direct means of communication. It gives some basic facts about Fogo Island, Newfoundland, and explains why it was chosen for the film project.

Woman(sh)

Between four walls of her apartment, a girl enjoys in intimate idleness and being her true self.

The Books and the Night(es)

A dramatized approach to the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) through the recreation of some of his works and the staging of various aspects of his thought and his life.

Decease(ru)

Spring comes every year and brings us hope for recovery and development. But time is inexorable and fleeting. Not for everyone will come next spring ...

Stuttgart, die Großstadt zwischen Wald und Reben(de)

Hans Schilling, who emigrated to Chile shortly before World War 1, comes from Valparaiso to visit his old hometown of Stuttgart after an absence of almost 22 years. His brother Georg Schilling, who stayed in Stuttgart, picks him up at the train station. He proudly shows the homecomer the prospering, Swabian metropolis, followed by impressions of the city's architecture, economy and culture.

Underwater Guest(ru)

Mounting of the film by Dmitry Frolov on the basis of documentary frames of performances of Russian ballet dancers and lifeless margins of the Russian outback. Symbolizes the slowly naked and dying Russian world.

Rumi: Poet of the Heart(en)

In 1244, Jelaluddin Rumi, a Sufi scholar in Konya, Turkey, met an itinerant dervish, Shams of Tabriz. A powerful friendship ensued. When Shams died, the grieving Rumi gripped a pole in his garden, and turning round it, began reciting imagistic poetry about inner life and love of God. After Rumi's death, his son founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling dervishes. Lovers of Rumi's poems comment on their power and meaning, including religious historian Huston Smith, writer Simone Fattal, poet Robery Bly, and Coleman Barks, who reworks literal translations of Rumi into poetic English. Musicians accompany Barks and Bly as they recite their versions of several of Rumi's ecstatic poems.

DAS ES(ru)

The long flights of spacecraft have been in the past, as well as the chronicle of accomplishments. Snatches of memory bring to us the fragments of those memories that are confused and do not leave a coherent and consistent trace. All in the past. But was it really ?!

Landscape (for Manon)(en)

A languid, beautifully shot collection of landscapes, edited into a whimsical and touching film.

Change Nothing(fr)

A short film showing a rehearsal and live performance by Jeanne Balibar. Costa would go on to make a feature-length documentary with the same title and subject matter in 2009.

Drei Frauen(de)

Dance(fr)

Home movie from Man Ray featuring dancer Jenny gyrating in black and white.

Juliet(fr)

A late period home movie with Man Ray and his lovely friend Juliet Browner lounging together in the US. Man Ray had returned to America when the Germans occupied France.

New York Portrait, Chapter I(en)

Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takes on an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty that serves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any human presence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse of street life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan population and imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force of a universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his camera toward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects around his apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ... Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elements that retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The city becomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting his personal mood.

Ady(fr)

Very brief view of Man Ray and his friend Ady Fidelin while at a seaside resort