Emilienne and the Passage of Time

William Wells Talks About The Island(en)

William Wells defends the viability of Fogo Island and expresses his apprehension about the exodus of young people.

A la porra(es)

Là, où le temps s’est arrêté(fr)

The Echo(es)

In the remote village of El Echo that exists outside of time, the children care for the sheep and their elders. While the frost and drought punish the land, they learn to understand death, illness and love with each act, word and silence of their parents. A story about the echo of what clings to the soul, about the certainty of shelter provided by those around us, about rebellion and vertigo in the face of life. About growing up.

The Cheese & The Worms(ja)

A documentary that records the daily life of a mother with a limited life expectancy and a grandmother, directed by the daughter, Haruyo Kato.

Soms. Elles i Beget(ca)

Les doléances(fr)

Women 50 Minutes(zh)

A representation of queer and feminist imagery that was mainly shot in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, remote and developing areas in southwest China, and metropolitan cities like Beijing from 2000 to 2004 to document the social changes in contemporary China. The director sympathetically and erotically represents a variety of women, including women as laborers, women as prayers, women in the ground, women in marriage, and women who lie on the funeral pyre with their dead husbands. Her camera juxtaposes the mountains and rivers in old times, the commercialized handicrafts as exposition, the capital exploitation of the elders’ living space, and the erotic freedom of the young people in a changing city.

La détresse au bout du rang(fr)

The Grove(en)

Exploring the reports of a spectral mansion on the outskirts of Rougham, a village in the Eastern county of Suffolk. The film delves into local folklore surrounding these sightings as villagers recount their haunting experiences against the desolate backdrop of rural Britain. It reflects on themes of memory, place, and the fading tradition of oral storytelling, evoking the eerie atmosphere of a fractured England and our growing disconnect from the natural environment.

Bad Axe(en)

A real-time portrait of 2020 unfolds as an Asian-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.

Golden Thread(pt)

In a small town in the countryside of Paraná, its pioneers recall the early days there, while sharing a common love: coffee.

The Short Autumn(en)

A meditation on an Alaskan autumn.

Ghuza da Sher(en)

The story of Nisar Ahmed Khan, told through his children and the people he served, a spiritual guide whose followers still visit his tomb on his birth and death anniversaries. And alongside how his family spends a few days at the village keeping his traditions alive.

Our Little El Dorado(pl)

The village commune is struggling with huge debt incurred by it's overambitious mayor, who once suffered a personal tragedy. Did this affect his overly ambitious actions? A warm and humorous observation of the life of a village near Krakow.

El puente(es)

The efforts of a community to build a bridge which would allow their children to go school during the rainy season.

When the Cows Come Home(en)

When the Cows Come Home introduces audiences to Tilly and Maggie, a pair of cows that musician, journalist, artist and cow whisperer, Andrew Johnstone has befriended and subsequently saved from slaughter. The garrulous herdsman is enthusiastic to expound his views on animal husbandry, bovine communication and the vagaries of life in general, before the film walks us back through the events that have shaped the singular farmer-philosopher. From personal family tragedy to warring with Catholic school authorities, innovating in Hamilton’s nascent music scene to creating guerrilla art installations; Johnstone’s life has had a truly idiosyncratic trajectory. Mental health issues may have seen him retreat to life on the farm, but the film makes clear its subject’s restless inquisitiveness is far from being put out to pasture.

A Hakka Song(zh)

A song is heard in the distance. It comes from the Hekeng village, famous for its ancient earthen buildings, also called tulou. It is where the last original Hakka families live amidst the exodus of those looking for a more modern environment. Among them there is Zhang Zhouyin, an elderly man concerned about the state of the village's temple; or her daughter-in-law, Wei Yi, who spends her entire day guiding tourists through these awe-inspiring houses. And then there’s young Zhang Weibo, her son, who manages to find joy even in the simplest of things... Hekeng: a place frozen in time whose songs have endured for centuries.

Farrebique, or the Four Seasons(fr)

Farrebique, the first feature-length effort of French documentary filmmaker Georges Rouqier, is widely regarded as his finest film. Rouqier concentrates on a single French farm family, following them through the four seasons. As in the works of Robert Flaherty, the human characters and the land surrounding them are "one", and Rouqier never misses an opportunity to parallel their lives with the eons-old phases of nature. The final symbolic images of Spring, achieved through time-lapse photography, are almost unbearably beautiful. The winner of several festival awards, Farrebique nonetheless did not immediately result in an outpouring of financing for Rouqier's follow-up films (this was a common problem in the financially strapped French film industry of the 1940s). Perhaps as a result, Rouqier did not make his sequel, Biquefarre (filmed in the same region, with some of the same "actors"), until 1983.

Baix la garrofera(es)