From bespoke baubles to extravagant gifts and £615000 diamond-encrusted tree toppers, this programme meets the people supplying and buying a top-end Christmas.
2015-12-15
5
On November 30, 2017 the National Park Service and National Park Foundation will present the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting. Popular entertainers and a United States military band add to the celebratory evening.
4.5An account of the short life and the astonishing and provocative work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), seen through the peculiar point of view and the critic voices of the women who defined the paramount milestones of his existence: Gerti, his sister; Wally, his main model and lover; and Edith, his wife. A brief story of love, hate, betrayal and misfortune.
0.0A biography of Charles Wesley, father of the Weselyan Church, hymn writer, and preacher.
During another snowless winter, a famous freeride skier has a chance encounter with two kids on the street, which prompts him to dig through his grandfather's old family albums, capturing the snowy winters of the past. Immersing himself in the photos, the young man is transported to the parallel world of the winter mountains. Is winter irretrievably lost?
6.0In this true-life twist on a holiday fable, Jeremy Morris brings a whole new meaning to Christmas spirit when his extravagant seasonal display sparks a dispute with his neighbors that lands them all in court.
6.7During the worst days of World War II, the British government asks the mathematician Alan Turing to unravel the mysteries of the German Enigma encryption machine, an impossible task to accomplish without the invaluable information that Hans-Thilo Schmidt, a disenchanted but greedy German citizen, had been handing over to the French secret services since 1931.
7.5Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses and invents a unique cinema experience that will lift the veil on Olfa and her daughters' life stories. An intimate journey of hope, rebellion, violence, transmission and sisterhood that will question the very foundations of our societies.
0.0Aidil, a teenager from Maratua Island, as he prepares to inherit his father’s grouper fish farming business. Amidst natural challenges and family expectations, Aidil grows from a curious boy into his father’s true partner. This is a coming-of-age story about legacy, resilience, and the unspoken bond between father and son.
8.4The Heart of Man is a timeless tale of a father's relentless pursuit of his son -- interwoven with interviews of top thought-leaders on brokenness, identity, and shame.
5.0TIMETRAVEL_0 is an extraordinary docudrama that follows Cris McCarthy as she explores the urban web legend of John Titor, the man that came from the future. Cris searches for evidence of Timetravel and John Titor's predictions of a massive civil war. In the process of her filming, her work was investigated by authorities and eventually confiscated by the government. Its recent release has allowed it to be edited and produced.
6.0Czech painter and illustrator Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) ranks among the pioneers of the Art Nouveau movement at the end of the 19th century. Virtually overnight, he becomes famous in Paris thanks to the posters that he designs to announce actress Sarah Bernhardt’s plays. But at the height of his fame, Mucha decides to leave Paris to realize his lifetime project.
8.0An offbeat, irreverent musical documentary that tells the story of a group of Jewish songwriters, including Irving Berlin, Mel Tormé, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, Gloria Shayne Baker and Johnny Marks, who wrote the soundtrack to Christianity’s most musical holiday. It’s an amazing tale of immigrant outsiders who became irreplaceable players in pop culture’s mainstream – a generation of songwriters who found in Christmas the perfect holiday in which to imagine a better world, and for at least one day a year, make us believe.
6.1Everyone thinks of Santa Claus as a magical figure without flaws, but the men who keep his legend alive, real-bearded professional Santas, are nothing like the jolly ol' Saint Nick we've all grown up knowing. In reality, the mall Santa in your cherished children's photo has problems just like the rest of us. Even the jolliest of men fall victim to divorce, job loss, insecurity and even the occasional hangover. 'I Am Santa Claus' is a documentary that follows the lives of five real-bearded professional Santa Clauses as they anticipate and prepare the coming holiday season while showing them for who they actually are flawed, flesh and blood men who feel an overbearing responsibility to protect the integrity of the spotless, untarnished reputation of the "Red Suit."
6.5A young woman, who has inherited her grandparents' huge house, a fascinating place full of amazing objects, feels overwhelmed by the weight of memories and her new responsibilities. Fortunately, the former inhabitants of the house soon come to her aid. (An account of the life and work of Fernando Fernán Gómez [1921-2007] and his wife Emma Cohen [1946-2016], two singular artists and fundamental figures of contemporary Spanish culture.)
7.5After the World War I, Mussolini's perspective on life is severely altered; once a willful socialist reformer, now obsessed with the idea of power, he founds the National Fascist Party in 1921 and assumes political power in 1922, becoming the Duce, dictator of Italy. His success encourages Hitler to take power in Germany in 1933, opening the dark road to World War II. (Originally released as a two-part miniseries. Includes colorized archival footage.)
0.0A radical cinematic investigation into the myth of Hamlet, the avenging prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare's creature; his origins and his unending influence on many diverse cultures.
7.3David Attenborough tells the story of the discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the world's largest-known dinosaur, a brand new species of titanosaur.
6.0An archival investigation into the imperial image-making of the RAF ‘Z Unit’, which determined the destruction of human, animal and cultural life across Somaliland, as well as Africa and Asia.
5.5Young, vivacious Billie uses her charms on influential businessman Glenn Abbott in hopes of getting her secret fiancé Gil a diplomatic appointment. Meanwhile, Gil's affections meander to beautiful ingenue Kentucky, Billie's best friend.
5.5Mux spent many years in a coma in a clinic with a constant stream of television. But at least he survived a serious car accident! Now he has woken up, and he has a plan: during his time in hospital, he came up with the idea of a fairer society. From now on, Mux sees it as his task to save the world from neoliberalism and goes to France, the motherland of revolutions, with his long-term nurse Karsten and a self-written manifesto.
6.0Orenda means an invisible force, a life spirit that inhabits everything living and lifeless: people, wind, birds, rabbits, stone. The one who serves Orenda and sings to it may receive its power. Exploring the themes of guilt and grace, the destinies of two women intertwine into a tense emotional thriller set on a remote island.
7.2An animated road-movie set across the vast and barren landscape of Australia's Nullarbor Plain.
7.6Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.
6.9An unexpected bond develops between a fugitive killer and a runaway orphan on an odyssey across England.
7.01982, Poland. A translator loses her husband and becomes a victim of her own sorrow. She looks to sex, to her son, to law, and to hypnotism when she has nothing else in this time of martial law when Solidarity was banned.
5.6It's the end of the century at a corner of the city in a building riddled with crime - Everyone in the building has turned into zombies. After Jenny's boyfriend is killed in a zombie attack, she faces the challenge of surviving in the face of adversity. In order to stay alive, she struggles with Andy to flee danger.
7.2One of the key factors in Italian unification was the overthrow in 1860 of Francesco, the King of Naples and the two Sicilies, who went into elegant but impoverished exile in Rome with his Queen, Maria Sofia. This seriocomic drama follows the deposed royals as they adapt to their new lives. The former king has recognized the political finality of his deposition, but his queen has taken to traveling in men's clothing all over Italy trying to foment an uprising to restore them to the throne. She is also frantic to have a baby, an heir, but the king has become celibate as a kind of homage to his beloved mother; he spends all his time lobbying the Vatican to get her declared a saint.
A group of friends have created a brand new subculture that is taking over the streets of Glasgow. They've established their very own fight club, but this is no ordinary wrestling event - this is brutal, riotous chaos. Fights don't always stay inside the ring, people are bounced off the side of buses and thrown off balconies in pubs. They now plan the biggest show of their lives. The stakes are high, will it bring them the fame and recognition they need to survive?
5.5Lynch's first film project consists of a looping animation of six people vomiting projected on to a special sculptured screen featuring twisted three-dimensional faces.
6.8A tramp tries to earn money by playing the violin, but he’s soon facing off against the jealous competition.
8.0Joy To The World, A King Is Coming To Town, Jesus Loves Me, O Come, All Ye Faithful, Jesus, What A Wonderful Child!, Deck The Halls/Jingle Bells/Feliz Navidad, Go Tell It On The Mountain, My Heart Would Be Your Bethlehem, Walking In The Light Of God, Born In Bethlehem, Down In Bethlehem, Changed By A Baby Boy, The Greatest Gift Of All, The Savior Of The World Has Come, Glad Tiding, Let There Be Joy, From Heaven’s Point Of View, Away In A Manger, I Saw Him In The Drugstore, Reaching, Silent Night
7.3Hüsnü is a lovestruck young man determined to win the heart of his neighborhood’s beauty, Hüsniye, and enlists his friend’s dubious tactics to no avail. When a thug seizes the neighborhood deeds and forces everyone to flee, Hüsnü tries to become the local tough guy to save his community and impress Hüsniye, but his bravado draws the attention of a hired killer.
6.9A radical student is adopted by a group of young New Yorkers, serves as a catalyst to alter his and their lives. Gathering in a Manhattan apartment, the group of friends meet to discuss social mobility, Fourier's socialism and play bridge in their cocoon of upper-class society - until they are joined by a man with a critical view of their way of life.