A Time There Was: Stories from the Last Days of Kenya Colony(2009)

Grace Kelly: Destiny of a Princess(fr)

In 1956, actress and Hollywood star Grace Kelly (1929-82), then at the height of her film career, unexpectedly dropped everything to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Jinx, an American journalist and friend of the future princess, accompanied her on her journey to the wedding and covered the sensational event.

Pimento and Hot Pepper - The Mento Story(en)

Mento was the first national music of Jamaica and it begat Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae and the Dancehall music of today. No film has been made wholly about the subject and it is a little known genre around the world.

Salty Dog Blues(en)

The film looks at men and women of color in the U.S. Merchant Marine from 1938-1975. Through chronicling the lives of these men and women who, with a median age of 82, are beset with a host of life-threatening illnesses, the movie tells how they navigated issues of racism, disparities in the workplace, gender and familial relations.

Hollywood Rated 'R'(en)

A roller-coaster ride through the history of American exploitation films, ranging from Roger Corman's sci-fi and horror monster movies, 1960s beach movies, H.G. Lewis' gore-fests, William Castle's schlocky theatrical gimmicks, to 1970s blaxploitation, pre-"Deep Throat" sex tease films, Russ Meyer's bosom-heavy masterpieces, etc, etc. Over 25 interviews of the greatest purveyors of weird films of all kind from 1940 to 1975. Illustrated with dozens of films clips, trailers, extra footage, etc. This documentary as a shorter companion piece focusing on exploitation king David F. Friedman.

Tin Tan(en)

Germán Cipriano Gómez Valdés Castillo, a young radio announcer from Cuidad Juárez, succeeds in drawing attention to the pachuco movement through his character Tin Tan, laying the groundwork for a new form of binational and mass linguistic expression: Spanglish. He soon became a leading figure in theater and film on the American Continent. Singled out by critics as a destroyer of the language, he quickly won the approval of the public. His ability to improvise revolutionized the film industry. His talent as an actor, singer, dancer and comedian contributed to the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. From El Hijo Desobediente to Capitán Mantarraya, from Cuidad Juárez to Havana, from mambo to rock, the legacy of Tin Tan makes him one of the great icons of Mexico today. This film tells his story as it has never been told before.

The Deal(en)

Stop-motion animation on the arranging of marriages in 1950/60s set in the Eastern-Polish borderland. The script is based on a part of Mikołaj Smyk's diary, the director's grandfather. The biographical objects used in the animation, such as an authentic headscarf, Polish and Russian books, the copy of Mikołaj Smyk's diary and photographs help situate the story in its original environment.

Il est minuit, Paris s'éveille(fr)

René Goscinny, Our Uncle From Armorica(fr)

The career of French comic author René Goscinny was a living blend of cultures and an expression of the great importance this artist attached to the production and dissemination of sophisticated popular culture. Goscinny left behind an extremely extensive body of work: "Asterix", "Lucky Luke", "Isnogud", "Little Nick" and many more.

Terror at the Mall(en)

A documentary detailing an indiscriminate terrorist attack that left 71 dead in Kenya.

Kenya’s marathon stars in Europe(en)

For African athletes making money abroad is the big goal. But Kenyan marathon runners need to be careful – the industry is ruthless and only few make it. For years, sports managers have been bringing African athletes to Europe to run in marathons with promises of potential prize money and a top career. For many it’s a means of escaping poverty. But what price do the marathon runners themselves pay? Long-distance running is among the toughest disciplines in the world. Professional marathon runners battle over seconds in a race more than 40km long - seconds that are often worth huge sums of money. Running has become a business. The prize money for a major event can be in five figures. Participants have to be world-class athletes to win these amounts.

Kenyatta(en)

Jomo Kenyatta's death in 1978 brought to an end a political career that encompassed more than 50 years of African history. Kenyatta entered politics in the mid-1920s and then spent 17 years in exile in Europe. He returned to Kenya in 1946, and was elected president of the nationalist movement, the Kenya African Union. Arrested and imprisoned in 1952 for allegedly leading 'Mau Mau', he was released in 1961 and two years later became Kenya's first Prime Minister. In power, the man whom European settlers had once reviled as "the leader to darkness and death" was eulogized by them as a pillar of stability, while former allies challenged him by creating a left-leaning political opposition. Kenyatta weaves archival and contemporary images with interviews with friends and relatives, comrades and opponents, to create a biographical portrait of a key figure in 20th century politics, and a case study of what Frantz Fanon called the pitfalls of nationalism as a political force in Africa.

Sidney & Friends(en)

When his family tries to kill him, Sidney, who is intersex, flees to Nairobi where he meets a group of transgender friends. Together, they fight discrimination and discover life, love and self-worth.

Coming of Age(en)

A woman asks "what's the meaning of democracy?" as she looks back over the politics of Kenya from the 1960s to the 2007 election.

Chris Olsen: The Boy Who Cried(en)

In the movies since he was an infant, Chris Olsen appeared in films by some of the best directors of the 1950's. Even though he never became a famous child actor, he played a pivotal role in some of the most iconic movies of the era. Retired since the age of 14, he looks back on his life as a child actor, trying to find the thread that ties his movie roles together.

Stalin's Last Plot(fr)

January 1953: On the eve of his death Stalin finds himself yet another imaginary enemy: Jewish doctors. He organizes the most violent anti-Semitic campaign ever launched in the USSR, by fabricating the "Doctors' Plot," whereby doctors are charged with conspiring to murder the highest dignitaries of the Soviet Regime. Still unknown and untold, this conspiracy underlines the climax of a political scheme successfully masterminded by Stalin to turn the Jews into the new enemies of the people. It reveals his extreme paranoia and his compulsion to manipulate those around him. The children and friends of the main victims recount for the first time their experience and their distress related to these nightmarish events.

Hexenkinder(de)

The movie recalls children who suffered mental and physical harm both during the last century, particularly in religious orphanages, and during the time of early modernperiod witch-hunts. It shows that the mindsets and behavioural patterns of both time periods are more alike than one might think.

Torn from the Flag(en)

A sociopolitical historical documentary-thriller about the international decline of communism and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Die Mutigen 56 - Deutschlands längster Streik(de)

Emma Freese is desperate when her husband Alfred falls ill at the Howaldtswerke in Kiel. How is the family supposed to get by without their wages? The war has scarred this generation, but now things are supposed to be looking up. The workers want their fair share and are fighting for an income that also gives them room to live. In October 1956, 34,000 metalworkers in the shipyards and factories of Schleswig-Holstein walk off the job to fight for justice and their dignity. This strike is still regarded as the toughest and longest in Germany. Employers and politicians stand in the strikers' way.

Safari Ya Gari(en)

This early travelogue film, made in a Kenyan train station, captures an impromptu musical performance. Some passengers eagerly join in while others sleep—blissfully unaware of the performance taking place around them.

Memories of the Sítio(pt)

In 1952, TV Tupi, Brazil's first television channel, invited psychiatrist Júlio Gouveia and his wife, Russian writer Tatiana Belinky, to develop the network’s children's programming. The couple then asked the sons and daughters of their friends to join the cast of the newly created shows, the most prominent of which was Sítio do Picapau Amarelo. And so, Antonio Silvio, Lia, Lídia, Sérgio, and David José embarked on an unexpected journey that would come to shape the future of Brazilian television. Memories of the Sítio is a trip through the personal recollections of these actors and the story of the first television adaptation of Monteiro Lobato’s work.