

"The film [Birds at Sunrise] was originally photographed in 1972. Birds from my window were filmed during the winter, through to the spring, with the early morning light. I became caught up in their frozen world and their ability to survive the bitter cold. I welcomed their chirps and their songs which offered life and hope for spring. In 1984 I was part of a cultural exchange between Canada and Israel. During my visit my unfinished movie came to mind. A connection was established in my mind -- so that the suffering of the birds became, in a sense, symbolic of the Jews and their survival through suffering. [...]" -- Joyce Wieland

"The film [Birds at Sunrise] was originally photographed in 1972. Birds from my window were filmed during the winter, through to the spring, with the early morning light. I became caught up in their frozen world and their ability to survive the bitter cold. I welcomed their chirps and their songs which offered life and hope for spring. In 1984 I was part of a cultural exchange between Canada and Israel. During my visit my unfinished movie came to mind. A connection was established in my mind -- so that the suffering of the birds became, in a sense, symbolic of the Jews and their survival through suffering. [...]" -- Joyce Wieland
1986-05-18
3
7.0A foreign woman in a burqa brings her young son to a Copenhagen police station to file a complaint against her abusive husband, but the translator assigned to her seems unwilling to convey the true meaning of her words. A tense, diamond-hard film about cultural isolation and bureaucratic ignorance.
8.1Setsuko, a 55-year-old single 'office lady' in Tokyo, is given a blonde wig and a new identity, 'Lucy,' by her young unconventional English instructor. 'Lucy' awakens desires Setsuko never knew she had. When the instructor suddenly disappears, Setsuko must come to terms with what remains--herself.
0.0BLESSED BLESSED OBLIVION weaves together a portrait of masculine performativity in East Jerusalem, as manifested in gyms, body shops and hair dressing parlors.
0.0The constant movement of the wheels, threads, sprockets, feet and hands suggests restlessness, and this is paralleled by the soundtrack. The unknown woman could be Gretchen from Faust, hopelessly in love or Ariadne who gave Theseus the thread to find his way out of labyrinth or perhaps she is one of the fates, weaving destiny… Enlarged from Super-8 to 35mm, the film is very grainy, in itself an homage to the medium of film which is also emphasized by the depiction of all kinds of turning machines, both in image and sound.
Faces pass by in quickly edited, split-screen recordings. A 'structuralist' film in which the film material itself plays an important role. Grain, scratches and flickering give the film texture. The music is by Steve Reich.
0.0In her second film, MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT (1993), Essie Coffey returns to her home in Dodge City where she and the A-Team are running in the shire elections. Inter-cutting between 1993 and 1978, the film presents the fascinating contrasts of a society in transition. Some of the kids we met in the earlier film now have families of their own and are involved in education, art and sports. Others are drifting, trying to cope with alcohol and depression. Most significantly, community programs offer the possibility of dignity and self-determination. In this film, Essie shows us the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) making a real difference. Although the CDEP has now come under attack from the Federal government, MY LIFE AS I LIVE IT portrays the CDEP as providing meaningful work and services to an impoverished remote community.
5.5Women from Turkey and Mecklenburg are working together side-by-side at a fish-processing factory in Lübeck. As they work, they share stories about their lives, including their sorrows, griefs, hopes, and dreams, while expressing their longing for home and feelings of being lost in a foreign place.
A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.
Mordant, self-aware, freighted with sensitivity toward Chile’s problem, wary of caricature, disposed toward consciousness of human fallibility, it is a deft blend of fiction and documentary set in the tumultuous days leading up to the election of Salvador Allende in 1970.
7.3A rare behind the scenes look at the tragedies and bitter disappointments that plagued one of MGM's most popular leading ladies
5.8Feminism, Victoria Benedictsson, Leandro N. Alem, the Radical Party in Argentina, suicide, stunts, Edgar Allan Poe, the complicated relationship between low-budget films with a political aim and the film industry, Robert Louis Stevenson, fiction, facts, greed, gold treasures left by the Jesuits in Argentina, the 19th Century vs. the contemporary and the search for truth and wisdom are the background for this portrait of a clash between a Swedish artist and an Argentine film director.
0.0In my home town of Arlit, in the north of the Niger, Areva has been exploiting uranium since 1976. Today, much of this area, swept by sand winds, is contaminated. Radioactivity can not be seen and the population is not aware of the risks. This exploitation completely disorganized the life of the population. Part of the year, violent sand winds completely envelop the city. This wind of dust propagates radioactive substances. Everyone is looking for shelter. The city becomes calm, all activities are stopped. My father, a retired uranium mine worker, is at the heart of this film. He will dust off his memories, the 35 years of his passage to the mine. Thanks to my father, I go to meet other former workers who certainly have a say.
5.8A hip, misguided Southern California couple decide to make a difference in the lives of the homeless by giving them lollipops with a cheery slogan on the wrapper.
The Time We Killed portrays the inner life of a writer unable to leave her Brooklyn apartment on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq. Robyn Taylor tries to kick her growing agoraphobia by re-imagining her past and contemplating world events of the present. As Robyn begins to overcome the amnesia that afflicted her as an adolescent, she fears coming down with “the amnesia of the American people”.
0.0From Mona Lisa to Brigitte Bardot, artistic representation and perception of women is often shaped by traditional role models. In tongue-in-cheek fashion, director May Spils unmasks these dyed-in-the-wool structures and plays a young woman who can only fail in her attempt to paint a self-portrait.
5.9The wife of an alcoholic and mother of four (Toula Stathopoulou) is a factory worker in Corfu at the beginning of the 20th century. A fallen noble man who has fallen on hard times (Stratis Tsopanellis) wants to marry her eldest daughter (Anny Loulou) and take advantage of the family's meager earnings. He kidnaps the not-unwilling girl, and argues with her mother about the dowry. But the girl refuses to marry him when she wakes up to the fact that he is only looking out for his own interests. She then decides to start working in order to earn money to raise the child she is expecting. The film is an adaptation of the novel 'For Honor and Money' by Konstantinos Theotokis.
6.3Presents a day in the life of a few inhabitants of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands: A father and his daughter are having breakfast when the fire-brigade drive by. A woman and her child are looking at the fire and meet a married couple. The couple say hello to a man who is going out with his boat... and so on.