The Matica slovenská (a mostly government-sponsored cultural, academic, and archival institution) employed Karol Plicka (1894-1987) as its ethnographer, who was able to make documentary shorts from about 1926. He obtained funding from the President’s Office in 1928 to produce an hour-long documentary about village life, Through Mountains and Valleys (Po horách, po dolách). It was awarded a Gold Medal at the International Exposition of Photographic Art in Florence and received an Honorable Mention at the International Venice Film Festival in 1932.
The story always begins with death. Jason McPherson loses his life in shocking circumstances after being taken to Notting Hill Police Station - the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) begin an internal investigation into the ‘incident’. Jason’s family is devastated and then angered when they discover what happened. Using exclusive CCTV footage and rare access to an IPCC Commissioner the film lays bare the impact of a death in police custody. The search for the truth by Jason’s sister runs parallel to the filmmaker’s investigation of light. This radical documentary film combines moving testimonies, poetry and a political analysis of state violence. Emotional and disturbing, ‘Po Po’ is more evidence that the IPCC are complicit in the lack of successful prosecutions of police officers for deaths in their custody. In the end, what emerges in the light is the need for resistance.
Going Our Way 2 follows the adventures of young scouts spending summer at a camp in the middle of the idyllic Slovene Alps. Because the heroes from the first film, Aleks, Jaka and Sleepyhead, are almost grown up now, the scout leader charges them with new responsibilities and assignments that also involve taking care of a group of mischievous 10-year-olds, which proves to be quite a feat. sequel of Going Our Way.
Known for his unmistakable cascading strings and recordings such as Charmaine, Mantovani enthralled the world with his sublime arrangements. This is the story of the man and his music.
A wealthy, western business man ruled by technology must survive a thousand kilometer journey across rural China to escape a deadly virus that has decimated the country.
A young law student, Abby Porter, suspects that her sister, a stripper, may have been murdered. She discovers an illegal network of cross border plastic surgery centers providing crude, but inexpensive cosmetic surgery to young women in the United States.
Bootlegger/cafe owner, Johnny Franks recruits crude working man Scorpio to join his gang, masterminded by crooked criminal defense lawyer Newton. Scorpio eventually takes over Frank's operation, beats a rival gang, becomes wealthy, and dominates the city for several years until a secret group of six masked businessmen have him prosecuted and sent to the electric chair.
The Prophet's Son combines action, drama, and romance as it addresses teen violence, dating, pregnancy, gangs, drug abuse, family conflict, and politics inviting nuclear war. As society crumbles, faith in God becomes the only path of hope.
A First World War veteran reaches a backwater village in Kuttanand, India as a Postman. He delivers money orders and letters to the family of soldiers, becoming a symbol of happiness. But everything turns upside down, as the Second World War begins.
Marc Hill is the attorney for Emmet Devrey, a real estate developer with a past, who is being blackmailed by his former partner Sam Baggett. When Sam's unfaithful wife Marge cooks up a scheme with her used car salesman lover Jeff Calder to bilk both Devrey and her alcoholic husband, Sam is killed and Devrey is accused of the crime. Mark is called to prove his employers innocence.
In 2002, ROH was founded with several precepts in mind: sportsmanship, respect, and, of course, honor. These ideas were expressed in the Code of Honor and that code was embodied by a handshake that preceded and followed each match. Enter Christopher Daniels, the man who declared from day one that he would not follow such a code, that he rejected those ideals, and as he built a Prophecy around him, worked to decimate what the code stood for. Whether he was facing Bryan Danielson & Low Ki in the first ever main event or Samoa Joe in a World Title Challenge, Daniels denied the handshake with every fiber of his being. Yet with a forced absence and battles against the likes of Claudio Castagnoli and CM Punk, things changed...
Featuring all 26 entries in the official filmography, this is the world's first complete DVD edition of the short films by the legendary Czech Surrealist filmmaker-animator Jan Švankmajer. Technically and conceptually astonishing in their own right, these films are also as remarkable for their philosophical consistency as for their frequently mind-boggling imagery. This package also includes a bonus short, Johanes Doktor Faust (1958), the longer cut of 'The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer' with a new introduction by the Quay Brothers, the documentary Les Chimeres des Švankmajer (2001), interviews with Jan and Eva Švankmajer and examples of their work in other media. There's also a chance to see some Švankmajer special effects, created when he was banned from directing his own films.
Basketball superstar and wildlife advocate Yao Ming travels to Africa to help spread awareness about the cruelty of poaching. Yao sees for himself the evidence of a losing battle, where Africa's giants are senselessly slain every day for their tusks.
The papacy of St. John Paul II left an indelible mark on the American continent. Driven by his singular conviction of a "United American Continent "under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe, his papal travels from Argentina to Alaska generated massive crowds, shaped an entire generation, and ultimately changed the course of history. Long celebrated for his role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, John Paul's crusade for human rights and religious freedom also transformed the West. John Paul II in America explores the Pope's pivotal role in the fall of dictatorships in Chile, Haiti, Paraguay and Brazil. From celebrations of World Youth Days with millions to pastoral visits to the favelas of Brazil; from his historic 1998 visit to Cuba to his tireless defense of works rights and indigenous peoples-John Paul II in America, narrated by Andy Garcia, captures the raw emotions and spontaneous thrills of this remarkable pontificate.
Footage of the Great East End Anarchist Battle.
Document about folk ceramic products from Moravian Slovácko and Wallachia.
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.
A young drag queen from Andalusia exposes the difficulties of adding aspects of her homeland culture to her artistic expression.
In the summer of 1961, a group of young Italian anthropologists made a clandestine journey through Spain, in order to record popular songs that supported anti-Franco resistance. As a result of their work, they were prosecuted and their recordings were censored. Sixty years later, and guided by Emilio Jona, aged 92, the last living member of that group of travellers, we recover the unpublished recordings and reconstruct the journey, today, across an emotional and political landscape, regaining historical memories through these songs, as relevant today as they were then.
This documentary takes a look at gargoyles, the stone or cement creatures that adorn the lofty tops of buildings. Thought by some to contain the trapped souls of the condemned and believed by others to ward off evil, these adornments are sources of curiosity even today.
In the frigid waters off of Russia’s Bering Strait, Inuit and Chukchi hunters today still seek out the giant sea mammals that have provided their people with food since time immemorial. It is known, that the whale hunting today is controversial and subject to international criticism and regulations. But the Inuit and Chukchi hunt is permitted by international law because of the whaling is the foundation of their culture and their life. The contemporary story of elders Aleksandr and Aleksei blends seamlessly with that of “the woman who gave birth to a whale” and other ancient myths, told here in vivid animation, in this ongoing struggle for survival and preservation of a traditional lifestyle in one of the most remote places on earth.
In a remote mountainous village elderly people no longer deemed productive are stoned to death.
From the book by the same name by Ninni Ravazza, "Diario di Tonnara" tells the story of the towns, villages, communities and adventures that dictate the daily lives of the tuna fishermen in Italy.
Walker takes us on a personal journey into a world of myth and imagination that he learned from his grandmother. He travels from the Moors of Devon and the Highlands of Scotland to the brooding Celtic landscapes of Ireland and the intimate hills of Cape Breton, in his search of this potent “otherworld” of the imagination.
Children parade through the streets of Hinton St George in Somerset on the last Thursday of October. Children have hollowed out pumpkins or mangelwurzels, a type of animal fodder turnip to make lanterns following a tradition in this part of West Somerset that coincides with Halloween. Punky or Punkie Night is thought to date from the turn of the 20th century or perhaps medieval times chanting rhymes and following a Punkie King and Queen.