A companion piece to Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care About Us (NYFF57), King of Sanwi continues Akosua Adoma Owusu’s exploration of Michael Jackson as a global pop icon. Here, Michael’s long affinity with the African continent—from the Jackson 5’s arrival in Senegal in 1974 to Michael’s coronation as an Ivorian king in 1992—is captured in vibrant, fuzzy archival video, made visceral by Owusu’s funky audiovisual collage and richly material direct animation effects.
A companion piece to Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care About Us (NYFF57), King of Sanwi continues Akosua Adoma Owusu’s exploration of Michael Jackson as a global pop icon. Here, Michael’s long affinity with the African continent—from the Jackson 5’s arrival in Senegal in 1974 to Michael’s coronation as an Ivorian king in 1992—is captured in vibrant, fuzzy archival video, made visceral by Owusu’s funky audiovisual collage and richly material direct animation effects.
2020-09-17
8
A lion decides that a new king shall take on the reins of Azad Nagar when he retires. When he retires a donkey is chosen as the king of Azad Nagar.
Someone from another planet crashed on Earth and evil is chasing him, and then love appears, and it defeats evil through an amulet.
Russia, January 25, 1725. "Give it all...". The emperor's weakening hand was able to write in his will only these two short incomprehensible words that kept Russia in a bloody struggle for the crown for a century.
Exploring the relationship between man and technology, this day-in-the-life story concentrates on a computer programmer, inundated by technology, living a secluded lifestyle in Laurel Canyon with his two dogs. He struggles to maintain any real connection with friends, colleague or family, outside of communicating with them over the phone or computer.
A man lurks the night alleys, killing people at random, he feels nothing, no emotion, and no pain; when he meets a graceful widow he must confront what it means to be human.
A man is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. When his wife is murdered and his son kidnapped and taken to Mexico, he devises an elaborate and dangerous plan to rescue his son and avenge the murder.
As John T. Wrecker continues his task of protecting a group of refugees from a virus, the threat of something new and even more dangerous grows ever closer in the form of monstrous mutants.
Ty was a frustrated toy salesman until his collaboration with three women turned his stuffed animals into a defining '90s trend. This behind-the-scenes look at history's biggest toy craze is a wild story about what—and who—is valued in this world.
As a result of a successful conspiracy against Menshikov, Peter II is prematurely recognized as an adult and is in a hurry to be crowned in Moscow. The Dolgoruky brothers gather for this celebration. There were eight of them - all-powerful and influential representatives of the ancient Rurikovich family - and among them the beautiful Ekaterina, the daughter of the huntsman Alexei.
In this prequel to the animated series The King's Avatar, Ye Xiu enters into the pro gaming world of Glory, and competes in the first Pro League series tournament.
When a young Master Ip stops a kidnapping, he ignites a turf war with a ruthless human-trafficking ring. In retaliation, the gang kidnaps one of Ip Man's close friends, forcing him to face the group's brutal boxing champion head-on.
While under heavily armed guard, the dangerous convicts aboard a cargo ship unite in a coordinated escape attempt that soon escalates into a bloody, all-out riot. But as the fugitives continue their brutal campaign of terror, they soon discover that not even the most vicious among them is safe from the horror they unknowingly unleashed from the darkness below deck.
In hustle and bustle of urban life, we sometimes don't know our neighbors next door. And in the village, everyone knows each other and lives with the joys, troubles, and worries of a neighbor, like one big family. That's why a person is pulled to their small homeland, to their roots. The one who forgets their roots experiences a burdensome emptiness and dissatisfaction with their achievements in life.
A retired assassin is pulled back into action when his friend uncovers a dangerous conspiracy at the heart of the South African government.
A teenage girl makes a wish that shrinks her to the size of her childhood toys, which magically come to life.
Noah Holiday lives his life being constantly reminded of a tragic event that occurred while he was a baby in 2004. During his rough times alone, Noah rediscovers his long lost childhood teddy bear; however, what once brought him great joy now has a mind of his own and has sinister plans in store for him.
On her first assignment aboard Air Force One, a rookie Secret Service agent faces the ultimate test when terrorists hijack the plane, intent on derailing a pivotal energy deal. With the President's life on the line and a global crisis at stake, her bravery and skills are pushed to the limit in a relentless battle that could change the course of history.
An ex-CIA operative is thrown back into a dangerous world when a mysterious woman from his past resurfaces. Now exposed and targeted by a relentless killer and a rogue black ops program, he must rely on skills he thought he left behind in a high-stakes game of survival.
This is the only feature directed by the famed French painter and sculptor Martial Raysse. In keeping with the revolutionary spirit of the time, the movie has no plot to speak of and appears to have been largely made up on the spot. We follow the cat man into a bizarre fantasy universe presented in negative exposure that reverses color values (black is white and vice versa) and written words. The cat man steals a car and then picks up a young girl he promises to take to “Heaven.” Heaven turns out to be a country chateau inhabited by several more animal mask wearing weirdoes...
A vehicle of consciousness navigates the vertiginous labyrinths of San Francisco. ROMAN CHARIOT was filmed over several months with a spy camera mounted on filmmaker David Sherman's son's baby carriage.
On the island of Tanna, a part of Vanuatu, an archipelago in Melanesia, strange rites are enacted and time passes slowly while the inhabitants await the return of the mysterious John.
A surreal post-apocalyptic drama by Patrick Kennelly inspired by the clipping. album “Splendor & Misery”
Colossal explores the complexities of grief and the process of grieving as understood through the myth of a Man as he ventures through shifting landscapes ruminating.
Basically an artist is also a terrorist, the protagonist thinks in an unguarded moment. And if he is a terrorist after all, then he might just as well be one. Not an instant product, but an experimental feature in which diary material is brought together to form an intriguing puzzle.
A proto-music video: three minutes of experimental animation set to the tune of Romeo Nelson's 'Head Rag Hop'.
Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's mammoth film follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City. The film was intended to be screened via dual projector set-up.
Several Portuguese creators occupy the director's chair in this collective short film shot during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown in an unfolding of personal perspectives.
In The Watchmen, pulsating orbs, panopticons, roadside rest stops, and subterranean labyrinths confront the scope of human consequences and the entanglement of our seeking bodies.
Iranian Iradj Azimi directed this French historical drama re-creating events depicted in the famous 1819 painting The Raft of the Medusa by Jean Louis Andre Theodore Gericault (1791-1824). The ill-fated voyage of the frigate Medusa begins when it departs Rochefort for Senegal in 1816. After striking a sandbar off the African coast, 150 civilians row safely to shore, but Captain Chaumareys (Jean Yanne) orders 140 soldiers and sailors onto a raft (minus supplies) and has it cut loose. Only 14 survive from the 140, creating a scandal back in France. Gericault (Laurent Terzieff) later talks to three of the survivors while researching his painting. Work on this film began in 1987, but sets destroyed by Hurricane Hugo caused delays, so the film was not completed until 1990. However, it then remained undistributed until an incident in which writer-director Azimi slashed his wrists in front of French Ministry of Culture officials.
In the final days of the American Civil War, an emigre Hungarian military officer attempts to map the situation of the enemy. Many veterans of the 1848 War of Independence in Hungary fought on the northern side. Experienced Fiala, Boldogh who struggles with homesickness and the reckless Vereczky all experience their enforced emigration in different ways and news of impending peace elicits different reactions from them all.
On stormy night in an ugly urban landscape, Ciro Norte, a scientist with wild hair and thick glasses, straps himself to a chair he's has fashioned with wires: lightening strikes, convulsing him. It seems his experiment has not worked. The next day, he drives his jalopy to a bar, sits alone, and weeps. But suddenly, a vortex sucks him into a dream state where he wanders, escapes man-eating fish, confronts his doppelganger, walks through a field of giant flowers, and comes upon Venus herself, buried up to her shoulders in sand. She is a giant, and she takes him to her breast. He wakes from the vortex, back in the bar, his mood transformed.
The shadows of screams climb beyond the hills. It has happened before. But this will be the last time. The last few sense it, withdrawing deep into the forest. They cry out into the black, as the shadows pass away, into the ground.
The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.
Begotten is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth.
A meditation on freedom and technological approaches to manifest destiny.
Michael Gondry's examination of childhood love is replete with his trademark surreality. One evening at the turn of the century, Stephane discusses with his brother the end of the millenium, but also girls, particularly Aurelie, a classmate with whom he is secretly in love. The following day, Aurelie has a letter to give to him....