In Natpwe, the feast of the spirits, co-directors Tiane Doan na Champassak and Jean Dubrel have produced an immersive, seemingly timeless document of an annual Burmese trance ritual that dates back to the eleventh century. Shot in Super 8 and 16mm in sooty black and white, the film conveys the astonishing sense of liberation of tens of thousands of bodies and minds — a mass expression of faith, but also a rapturous respite from societal intolerance.
A portrait of the Swedish director Roy Andersson, dealing with obsessions of the film maker considered as the origins of his last incredible project : Songs from the Second Floor. 20 years of reflection and creation, 4 years to shoot a masterpiece with a unique way of filming. A meeting with the Nordic Kubrick, rebel with a cause : responsibility and humanity.
A remote and wild island on the west coast of Scotland is home to a small group of people that live in deep connection with the land, the sea and the weather. For different reasons, they left their city life to escape their inner demons and to live as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.
The closed microcosm of garage co-ops, where the socio-economic environment has blended with personal space, provides a step back in time. Men are still boys, but their tinkering is both the trade and hobby of individual entrepreneurs, since self-exploitation as leisure time activity is a time capsule where neoliberalism has enclosed the postindustrial proletariat. Inventors, geniuses, crazy scientists, and men with golden hands - you will find them in garages.
P. Adams Sitney, Professor of Visual Art at Princeton University, wrote a short essay for Artforum International "Medium Shots: the films of Morgan Fisher" in which he describes the film "()." "Fisher's most recent film, (), succeeds astonishingly where Frampton's parallel effort, Hapax Legomena: Remote Control (1972) failed; it uses aleatory methods to release the narrative unconscious of a set of randomly selected films. () is made up entirely of "inserts" from feature films organized according to Oulipian principles. Inserts were usually shot by assistants when star actors, large crews, or expensive sets were not needed. These include details of weapons, wounds, letters, signs, tombstones, machinery, games of chance, timepieces, money, and even intimate caresses.
A short film that shows Boundless, Surreal objects that are juxtaposed with our present World. Cars, Motorways, noise of our modern society; A giant city in the distance - all that shrouds this lonely and forgotten island of Dreams. Filmed at the Emeryville Mudflats near San Francisco.
A poor family struggles to create a small field to cultivate in the middle of a marsh, until nature takes its toll.
There is romance in every corner we turn. In this sequel to the documentary, Old Places, Old Romances takes us on a journey to experience Singapore through the collective voices of ordinary Singaporeans. Through their voices, we hear personal stories from members of the public who shared their anecdotes on radio. Everyday spaces come alive with these special memories, which are bonded forever with these places. Old Romances is a journal of love letters to places that we grew up with.
Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. Thousands more like them can't tell their stories.
Obsession, love, money, and postage. Freaks and Errors: A Rare Collection, is the first, independent documentary film that reveals the rarely seen, expectedly eccentric and surprisingly large world of stamp collecting.
This profile of storied trumpeter of jazz, Tiny Davis, and her cohort pianist-drummer, Ruby Lucas, is an amalgam of artifacts about the two women, accompanied with poetry by Cheryl Clarke.
Derek Jarman's film portrait of American writer William S. Burroughs was shot in September 1982 during his first visit to England to attend the legendary Final Academy events at the South London Ritzy Cinema. These were Burroughs-themed art and performance nights curated by Psychic TV. Jarman’s film shows Burroughs on Tottenham Court Road signing autographs with fans and inside a shop buying alcohol. The industrial soundtrack by Psychic TV features a sample of Burroughs repeating "boys, school showers and swimming pools full of 'em'". Additional footage shot by Jarman during Burroughs' visit is reported to have been confiscated by Scotland Yard in 1991 and remains lost. Jarman and Psychic TV would continue to collaborate (“magic bound us together” Jarman wrote), with Jarman directing the music video for Catalan and staring as the spokesperson in the Psychic TV video A Spokesman for the Temple of Psychick Youth.
"It's simple! We do as we're told." This disconcerting reply comes from a Swedish employment office employee when asked how the country’s most unpopular government agency works. And that’s not all: in this creative documentary, case workers, receptionists and psychologists reveal how the Swedish employment system is failing. They complain about inadequate software and mystifying error messages, excessive caseloads and demoralizing results—on average, each case worker helps just 10 people find work each year, and only one in 10 clients will find a new job. To assure the anonymity of the interviewees, they're all represented by cardboard puppets. Thanks to visible puppeteers, expressive eyes and recognizable gestures, these puppets quickly take on the appearance of real people. The result is a fascinating, comical and artistic study of human strategies to get along in an irrational bureaucracy.
In this short film's four segments, "Bowery Beautician", "Chutes", "Home Brew", and "Girth Control", the viewer is shown how certain conveniences and inventions aid the user.
A trip to the Valley of Salazar, in the Navarrese Pyrenees. People united for the love of the earth. A story full of hope. People transformed by an encounter.
The Broken Brothers Brass Band visits the Andrés Muñoz Garde public special education school in Pamplona. And through their interaction with the workers, the volunteers and even the beneficiaries, the work that is done there is revealed, the universe that is hidden there.
This John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series short highlights the film preservation efforts of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Several scenes from early newsreels are shown.
Les D'Arcy is a living legend. At 89 years old, he's obviously not received the memo about slowing down, and is going for gold, literally. He's headed to China to compete in the over 80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. A seven time world champion, he still lifts weights to train - something he's been doing for decades, after surviving a sickly childhood. Of course compared to some, Les is a spring chicken. Australian legend Dorothy deLow is 100, and finds herself a mega celebrity in this rarefied world. She'd better watch out though- Texan Lisa Modlich is fifteen years her junior and is determined to do what it takes to win her first gold. Director Hugh Hartford follows eight players from five countries, as they prepare to compete in this extraordinary sporting event that is as much about the tenacity of the human spirit as it is about taking home the title.