Journey Along the Silk Road

The Silk Road(en)

The NHK Tokushu and China's CCTV documentary series The Silk Road began on April 7, 1980. The program started with the memorable scene of a camel caravan crossing the desert against the setting sun, with Kitaro's music and a sense of timelessness. It was the start of an epic televisual poem. The first journey described in the series began in Chang'an (now Xi'an), at the eastern end of the ancient route. On 450,000 feet of film, the NHK crew recorded the path westward to the Pamir Heights at the Pakistan border and this material was edited to make 12 monthly broadcasts. In response to viewers' requests that the series be extended to cover the Silk Road all the way to Rome, sequels were made over the next 10 years. Seventeen years after the program was conceived, the project was completed.

The Yellow Cruise(fr)

The Yellow Cruise is a French documentary film initially directed by André Sauvage and taken over by Léon Poirier following the intervention of André Citroën. The film was presented in Paris in 1934. André Sauvage was hired by the Pathé-Natan company to follow the yellow cruise through Asia. In 1931 and 1932, forty-two men, including Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, scholars and doctors traveled thirty thousand kilometers on the Silk Road through the Middle and Far East, in caterpillar propellants. Together, despite the bad weather, the difficulties of the terrain, the mechanical failures and the political conflicts, they reached Beijing on February 12, 1932. André Citroën who asked to see the film, dissatisfied with the result, bought it from Bernard Natan and entrusted the editing by Léon Poirier, who had filmed La Croisière Noire in Africa in 1926. This film will mark the break in the film career of André Sauvage.

Silk Road Ghosts(en)

Silk Road Ghosts takes the viewer off the beaten path as I ply a circuit, following in the footsteps of the ancient conquerors, passing through some of the more remarkable parts of Central Asia's Silk Road. From Almaty in Kazakhstan, I set out towards a daunting rendezvous with the Darvasa Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. Along the way I dot many of the road's pivotal locations, bearing witness to its myriad ghosts which served to glorify the annals of our planet's history.

Mysterious China: Marco Polo's Silk Road(en)

Part two of the Mysterious China series chronicles Marco Polo's adventures and discoveries along the Silk Road as he heads toward the Mongol Empire in China. This documentary reveals the pivotal trade route as experienced and written about by the 13th-century explorer. Follow the tracks of the Venetian adventurer -- one of the first Westerners to journey into China -- and uncover the mysteries of the Silk Road.

Goran the Camel Man(en)

A short documentary film about the ordinary life of an extraordinary wanderer. Goran, or Roland Charles, is a Swiss who travels around his gipsy caravan together with his dogs, goats and camel following the route of the legendary Silk Road. For almost 30 years he has been living his dream. He has traversed Mongolia, Iran, Turkey, Italy, France and more. The film was shot in Georgia and presents a fragment of his unusual life.

A Rota: Silk Road(pt)

Internet Urban Legend(ja)

A collection of 11 various urban legends from the internet.

Silk Road(en)

Philosophical twenty-something Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, a dark net website that sells drugs, while DEA agent Rick Bowden goes undercover to bring him down.

Secrets of the Silk Road(en)

The Silk Road, one of history's most famed trade routes, linked China to Europe, the Middle East and India and was traveled by such legends as Alexander the Great, Marco Polo and Genghis Khan's Mongol warriors. Follow in the footsteps of the iconic figures and see how the road's ancient past is wrapped up in the fast-changing world of modern China, particularly the country's remote western region.

Imperial Princess(fr)

Iulia lives alone in Monaco since her father left, who returned to Russia due to sanctions against their country. She no longer attends school. She feels increasingly lonely and threatened.

The Soldier's Lagoon(es)

Retracing Simón Bolívar's liberation campaign across Colombia, searching for The Liberator's ghost in the high altitude marshlands.

Star Academy : après la vie de château(fr)

Marbled Golden Eyes(en)

Zoologist Maya Perry of the Detroit Zoo waxes poetically about returning the Puerto Rican Crested Toad back to the wild.

The Words Women Spoke One Day(fr)

1962, at the end of the Algerian War, Algerian independence activists are released from Rennes prison. For one night, filmmaker Yann Le Masson films them. They tell him their vision for the future of Algeria and the place women must occupy in the new society to be built. Fifty years later, with the soundtrack missing, Raphaël Pillosio sets out to find these women. Two deaf people set about lip-reading the women filmed by Yann Le Masson, revealing snatches of sentences, words cut short by the camera's shifts. An investigative film in which the few activists still alive discover their old testimonies and tell us their silent story. The reconstruction of the lost soundtrack will remain in suspense; no happy ending will come to absorb the absence, to cancel the ferocious operation of time. An essay film about cinema that depicts their disappearance, and forever keeps them alive.

Remanence(nl)

Combining two recently discovered unique archival sources, this short film evokes the lost history of a Dutch women's pacifist movement that brought women together in collective action in the 1930s.

Divisible(en)

Divisible is an educational documentary film focusing on the history and current impacts of redlining in the United States. This feature film highlights the specific case of Omaha, Nebraska to illustrate how redlining continually affects and harms people nationwide today across multiple issue areas. Told through a combination of expert and personal interviews, Divisible provides a detailed look into redlining: what happened, where it came from, who was involved, how it supposedly “ended”, and why anti-discrimination laws have not truly ended the practice of redlining or its impact.

Savons, attention terrain glissant(fr)

Objevování Dvořáka(cs)

The Punk of Natashquan(fr)

In 1981, an unusual person arrives in Natashquan, marking the beginning of an unlikely love story between this small Quebec village and the young man they call “The Punk”. Five years later, he vanishes without a trace, forever impacting the community.

Adonis(fr)

A hard-hitting documentary that tackles head-on a controversial but increasingly alarming subject: young men's obsession with the perfect body, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs to achieve it. Once the preserve of top-level athletes, the use of anabolic steroids has become endemic among teenagers and young men with a passion for bodybuilding. Daring to tackle head-on the taboo of male beauty standards, Adonis offers a field investigation into the heart of this muscle-building machine, questioning the reasons behind and the physical, psychological and social risks of this race to the perfect body. As he stages his own vulnerability, the filmmaker lifts the veil on the scale of the public health crisis that is looming.