Herself
An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)
The film recounts an experience, that of a director and his two actors at grips with a play: from the first meeting to the initial readings, the rehearsals done at home, the ones done on stage and finally the first performance. But an experience that took place in the peculiar situation in which the whole of Italian culture found itself in the days between the first and second wave of the pandemic, when it really seemed possible to restart and the feeling of euphoria was accompanied by the illusion that the worst was behind us. Once again we were suddenly checked in our desire for beauty, for life.
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
“La Fontaine d'Aréthuse” opens with what has been described as a “shimmering wash of sound in the piano, octave leaps in the left hand passing above and below repeated chords in the right,” a tune which apparently suggests the splashing waters of a fountain. The story “told” by the music involves a naked water goddess on the river shore, who is pursued by a hunter, before disappearing into thin air to join her water once again. (IMDb)
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
A video puzzle using mathematical principles and prime numbers, daring the audience to decode it's journey.
Beautifully filmed by New Zealand nature photographer Richard Sidey over the past decade around the polar regions, Speechless: The Polar Realm is a visual meditation of light, life, loss and wonder at the ends of the globe. This is the second film in Sidey’s non-verbal trilogy which is comprised of: - Landscapes at the World’s Ends (2010) - Speechless: The Polar Realm (2015) - Elementa (2020)
The motions and gestures of military riot police, slowed down while performed by dancers, are surprisingly beautiful. Menace and violence estranged from context and time looks eerily strange, and all too familiar. In this gallery piece, Isaac Chong Wai somehow anticipates, a year early, key images of the Hong Kong protests.
Phnom Penh-based dancer Prumsodm Ok—a Cambodian-American and pioneer of the first Cambodian gay dance company Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA—demonstrates the meticulous form of Khmer dance. This short draws a parallel between the nature of film as a time machine and the dancing human body as both fundamentally dynamic and temporal. Within the frame beckons a prayer for healing and empowerment in the face of violence and conflict.
Two men, an aged farmer and his deaf-mute son, live in a remote area, isolated from civilization. Though sharing the same roof, problems, and sorrows they remain very distant from one another. Their attempts at conversation turn to misunderstanding if not conflict. Father thinks his son is abnormal and childish. Son sees his father as insensitive and crude. Can the two men find their way into understanding one another?
Young people dive into the sea by jumping off a manmade wooden raft, while a small boat loaded with passengers passes by.
A military horseback riding event from 1897.
Released on October 4, 1896 in Lyon ( France ) under the title “ Fêtes de l'inauguration du monument de Guillaume Ier à Breslau : II. - Le voile tombe (Lyon républicain, 4 octobre 1896)”. (catalogue-lumiere.com)
Panorama of Nice from the deck of a ship.