Home of Your Own

In Black and White(en)

An attempted evocation of the tradition of British printing, in a series of dramatised impressions: the discovery of a new method of printing in France and its development in England. The beauty of language is illustrated by excerpts from the works of Shakespeare and Dickens.

Air Parade(en)

A brief history of British aviation and the development of both civil and military aircraft. Made for the Festival of Britain.

Model Flight(en)

An introduction to the sport of flying model aircraft. Made with assistance of the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers.

The Happy Family(en)

When the Government decide to build a Festival of Britain exhibition site, everything goes to plan, all except the fact that the main road and the pedestrian subway into the site, are blocked by a little corner shop, which is owned and run by a Mr. Lord and his family. When the Lords refuse to be bought off, and decline the compensation offered by the authorities. the police and the bailiffs try to evict them, only to come under fire from the family, who have barricaded themselves inside the shop.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(fr)

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Das Dorf der Freundschaft(de)

A German Documentary about the “village of friendship” that was created by American Veteran George Mizo to help the Vietnamese kids suffering from the Vietnam War.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Dubrovnik(sh)

A film describing the political history of Dubrovnik and the history of its architecture, painting, literature and science until the end of Republic of Ragusa.

The Beauty of the Adriatic(sh)

The Beauty of the Adriatic was created as a promotional tourist film, but through its unusual and even bizarre formal devices it overcomes the promotional function. The narrator of the film is constantly communicating with the viewer, exclaims and inserts jokes, and we also see him in the film as a guide entertaining us with various gestures and movements. In the film there are also interspersed humorous animated scenes, an interview with Hamlet, poetic sequences and stylized scenes such as one where the camera is "looking for" the lost guide.

Dubrovnik Summer Festival(sh)

Zvonimir Berković decided to present the Dubrovnik Summer Festival on film in an imaginative manner. He set scenes from the most popular plays of the Festival across various locations in Dubrovnik, so Pero Kvrgić acts Negromant's monologue from "Dundo Maroje" while interacting with vendors on the local marketplace, and in the dreamy atmosphere of Lokrum forest fairies are performing a scene from Držić's "Grižula".

The Sea, Reefs, Letters(sh)

The intellectual and the sensual are combined in this essay presentation of the work of the painter Ivo Vojvodić from Dubrovnik. Through the presentation of three frequent motifs of Vojvodić's painting - the sea, reefs and letters - Berković touches upon the emigratory fate of Vojvodić's family in desire for a home and the Ragusan ideal of freedom.

Fondations(fr)

Mathieu Collette, a passionate blacksmith, renovates an abandoned heritage building belonging to the City of Montreal to create a blacksmithing school. Sixteen years later, after turning the building into an internationally renowned center for the transmission of living heritage, Mathieu is threatened with eviction for obscure administrative reasons, in the very year of Montreal's 375th anniversary. What could possibly justify putting one of Quebec's last blacksmiths out on the street, as the bearer of an unparalleled social and heritage project? Filmed over several years, this documentary traces Forges de Montréal's fight against the disappearance of a part of our collective memory.

Shaka(en)

Showcasing breathtaking footage of mountains and waves around the world, Shaka follows snowboarding world champion and renowned athlete Mathieu Crepel as he faces the biggest challenge of his life: to surf the legendary waves of Jaws Beach, Hawaii.

The Way You See It: With Peter Mansbridge(en)

Peter Mansbridge travels the country to talk to Canadians about what's on their minds on the eve of an election.

When Romero Met Del Toro(en)

Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro in conversation with George Romero.

El palenque de San Basilio(es)

Documentary about Palenque de San Basilio, a town built by African slaves who espaced in Cartagena de Indias, and have preserved for centuries their rites, their music and their language.

Silent Asylum(zh)

A film director interviews Burmese refugees about their experiences encountering oppression and cruelty in their homeland, and reads aloud poetry about the destruction of Hiroshima by atomic bomb.

Palestinian Women(fr)

Palestinian women, the often-forgotten victims of the Israeli-Palestinian war, are here given a voice by Jocelyne Saab. The film was commissioned by Antenne 2 (France), but it was censured while still in the editing stage and never shown. This print was specially made for this retrospective by the conservation centre at Cinemateca Portuguesa.

Christmas at the Front(en)

Poignant scenes of Allied troops enjoying their Yuletide rations at the first Christmas of WWI.

Les Larmes(fr)