Narrator
Self
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
"Solovky Power" is a documentary about the first Soviet labor camp created by Lenin in 1923. Solovky was established in a complex of ancient monasteries on a cluster of islands off the remote White Sea coast. Though its name derives from the Russian word for nightingale, the title of the film echoes the term 'Soviet power', stressing the fact that from the very beginning the Soviet penal colonies were a world unto themselves.
In Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.
In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
The Other Side of Carnival (2010) is a 45-minute award-winning documentary that explores Carnival's social and economic impact on Trinidad & Tobago. With more than 60 interviews from professors, medical staff, police officers, government officials, students, tourists, every day locals and more, The Other Side of Carnival is able to highlight that while Carnival is an exciting occasion, it is a festival that creates turmoil, which is not widely visible...or is it just simply ignored? Known as "The Greatest Show on Earth", this documentary captures the roots of Carnival and how far some go to keep the original idea alive, and how others attempt to integrate change. Consummating over two years of research and interviews and with the coordination of a multi-national crew (Trinidad & Tobago, US and UK), The Other Side of Carnival does not pass judgment on Carnival in Trinidad & Tobago, but aims to bring an awareness of the type of influence that Carnival has on the population.
After Prisoners of the war and On the Heights all is Peace, this film concludes Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's trilogy on the first world war. From the emblem of totalitarianism to individual physical suffering, the directors use this representation of man's rampaging violence to draw up an anatomical inventory of the damaged body and examine the consequences of the conflict on children, from 1919 to 1921. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the human body, they try to understand how humanity can forget itself and perpetuate these horrors.
A Bit of Scarlet excavates clips from Britain's cinema archives to create a moving and humorous testament to the closeted gay and lesbian images from filmmaking's earliest days.
A biographical documentary following the life of a young Japanese priest and bar-owner.
This short film recreates the experience of Sylvie, a battered woman who seeks shelter in a Montréal transition house. Faced with the threat of violence, loneliness, the lack of financial resources or information about services, the victim is often understandably reluctant to seek help. Emphasizing the importance for women of speaking out, the film also points out the role of the transition house in putting victims of abuse in touch with appropriate legal and social services.
Tongue-in-cheek look at the French Riviera, especially in summer when it overflows with tourists. Reviews its history and famous visitors; displays its faux-exotic buildings, its crowded beaches, its trees and monuments; and, pokes fun at the colors women wear and the vagaries of fashion. The film celebrates the use of "Eden" as a place name, suggesting that paradise comes to the coast after all are gone, perhaps only on a remote island beach.
This documentary, filmed over a 10-year period, centers on the debate over censorship as it follows Vancouver's Little Sister's Bookstore and its 20-year struggle with Canada Customs over the seizure of books. In the face of bigotry, bombings and repeated book seizures, it wages the most important legal battle in history against Canada Customs.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, hundreds of artists gathered to pay honor to the work of Puerto Rican artist Myrna Báez. La otra intención (The Other Intention) is an observational documentary that travels through the work of Myrna while visiting artists, such as Petra Bravo, Deborah Hunt, Yiyo Tirado, Gustavo Castrodad, the theater group Y no había luz, among others, to accompany them in their creative process of re-interpretation.
Through interviews with both victims and instigators, Nanfu Wang, a first-time mother, breaks open decades of silence on a vast, unprecedented social experiment that shaped — and destroyed — countless lives in China.
Akerman spends a brief period on her own in an apartment by the sea in Tel Aviv. She films from the apartment and in her narration she talks about her family, her Jewish identity and her childhood. She wonders whether normal everyday life is possible in this place and whether filming is a realistic option.
Molly Ivins was six feet of flame-haired Texas trouble. She was a prescient political journalist, best-selling author, and Bill of Rights warrior. She took no prisoners, leaving both sides of the aisle laughing and craving more of her razor-sharp wit. It's time to raise hell like Molly!
The film is set to the music of Franz Schubert and is very strange. Much of it consists of disembodies arms and legs all moving about to the music. There are also folks in body suits moving rhythmically to the tune. Occasionally, there are shots of a guy in full color with multiple exposures.
A woman takes time in private on a tiny island in Helsinki to contemplate a loss that has caused sudden changes in her life. This tragedy has challenged her to see the world in a different light. A light that is driven by a force of nature.
Witness the awesome power and the unimaginable destruction of explosive volcanoes, ground-buckling earthquakes, and deadly tornadoes as you head into the field with scientists who risk their lives exploring the origins and behaviors of these fearsome natural disasters.
Together with African small farmholders Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist, has been fighting against the spread of the desert for 30 years and challenges ideas of conventional reforestation with his simple yet effective method.
A charming story about a West Indian girl who moves to 1950s London. Marcia has spent most of her 11 years living with her Jamaican grandmother but is sent to damp, dark London to start a new life with her parents. Missing her gran terribly, Marcia is surrounded by bullying schoolgirls, racism on TV and a jealous younger brother... Only her favourite pop star will help her feel at home. Concrete Garden is a wonderfully observed graduation film from director Alrick Riley. With warm performances from a young cast and exquisite detail in the production design, this tender short film powerfully evokes the trials and tribulations faced by kids settling in 1950s Britain.
A director feels he is about to lose himself to the market forces and thinks that the only way he can protest is by making a political film. He contacts Thomas Hylland Eriksen, who will become his mouthpiece and articulate what is wrong. But along the way the director becomes distracted by another person, a young, fumbling girl reminiscent of himself.
Spoiled Yuen Si Si, the naive daughter of an affluent merchant, lives her cosseted life dreaming of meeting her idol, the heroic Qin Ge. When her father decides to marry her off, she runs away in search of Qin Ge, with her fiancee in pursuit. What she doesn't realise though is that her kung-fu skills are not what she thinks they are and that the outside world is far less chivalrous that she expected.
Kelby Unger is a young man from a dysfunctional family that lives with his girlfriend Amelia Gates and has sleeping problems with dreadful nightmares. When he proposes Amelia, he coincidently receives a phone call from the warden of the prison of his hometown telling that his father had just died from heart attack. He decides to return to Bisbee for the funeral and Amelia goes with him. Kelby and Amelia lodge at his mother's house and he meets his slut sister Trish, his former friends James Lilly and the policeman Wally and his unknown uncle Tom. When Wally has a nervous breakdown with the name of Joshua, Kelby is haunted by the evil past in Bisbee.
David Tennant talks to Craig and Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers about a 30-year career that has seen them become one of Scotland's most iconic bands.
When he tries to arrest a suspect, a police captain find him dead. Investigation will uncover a counterfeiting ring.
Zaire, January 1993. Rachel's family, an 8-year-old French girl, lives in Kinshasa in a house overlooking the Congo River. A sensual and intimate film about memory, writing and forgetting.
Aya, a journalist, is in the process of observing a murder case. The dead body is found in a dream forest. But this murder is not just an ordinary murder. There is a mist of mystery in it. The case drags her further and further into horror
A profile of the remarkable life and career of tennis legend Billie Jean King, both on and off the court.
Set in a rural Québec village in the dead of winter, Jean-François, a single father, works at a deserted bowling alley at night and in a rundown motel during the day. His daughter, Julyvonne, never leaves their home. Jean-François isolates her in fear that contact with the outside world will scar her the way it has him.