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SYNCHRONOUS(nl)

SYNCHRONOUS is an intimate portrait of love and the reverse side of love: mourning. The granddaughter/maker looks idealistically at the endless love between her grandfather and grandmother. When her grandfather dies, she decides to look for answers by filming her grandmother. What happens when you've been together all your life and your great love dies? Where is the love then?

Half Elf(is)

A lighthouse keeper prepares his earthly funeral while trying to reconnect with his inner elf. Hulda and Trausti have shared a roof on the Icelandic coast for over seventy years. Her love of books is matched by his love of stones. When he tells her he wants to change his name to Elf she warns him that the family will reject him. Now, as his one hundredth birthday nears and Trausti senses the hand of death upon him, he is searching for an elf’s coffin…

The Fire and the Rose(en)

A documentary on the life and work of the composer Sofia Gubaidulina.

Philip Glass: Looking Glass(en)

This documentary captures the overflowing energy and activity of one today's greatest composers, Philip Glass, and allows us to follow him from New York to London and from Paris to Boston. He speaks about his beginnings, his moving to Paris for two years of intensive study with Nadia Boulanger, his meeting with Indian musician Ravi Shankar and director Robert Wilson, who had a deep influence on his career. The film also shows him at work on the last details of his opera The Sound of a Voice, directed by Robert Woodruff and conducted by Alan Johnson. Éric Darmon's camera, with its poetic shots and original framings, takes us for a musical journey into seven months of the life of the composer who, rising from the underground scene of the seventies, brought on a revolution in modern theater.

Hail Bop! A Portrait of John Adams(en)

Shot over the course of a year, this intimate portrait of provocative composer John Adams presents scenes of the artist at work and at play against the backdrop of dramatic American landscapes that reflect the themes of his music. Though he has a number of credits to his name, Adams is best known for his unconventional opera "Nixon in China," which explores the former U.S. president's meeting with Mao Zedong in 1972.

Grandad(en)

Follow the tender and fascinating life of Mallory B. Winstead, the fearless and visionary army veteran and family man.

Line by Line - a film on the composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler(de)

A cello piece A punt ride Thoughts about music and composition The eight lines of Ernstalbrecht Stiebler’s cello piece Sequenz 2 alternating with his thoughts about slowness, space, reduction, repetition, resonance, liveliness and emotion A cinematic continuum

A Shape of Time - the composer Jo Kondo(en)

Jo Kondo (*1947) is one of the most interesting composers of contemporary music in Japan. His music is composed intuitively and at the same time it is highly abstract. Without clear directionality and at the same time not without form. For a Japanese audience it sounds “Western” and in the West it is regarded “Japanese”. A music in between categories. Like Kondo’s music the film is shifting between places and directions: a concert in the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, an elaborate sushi bar in Tokyo, a CD-production in a Cologne radio station, the Zuisenji temple in Kondo’s neighborhood in Kamakura. Kondo wants his music to appear “normal”, without spectacular surface or narrative elements. A concept of “normality” you may also find in the films of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who – like Kondo – spent most of his life in Kamakura.

To B or to B Flat - the composer Boudewijn Buckinx(en)

Who gets the idea to write “Nine unfinished symphonies” - one of them perhaps the shortest Symphony in music history? Or "1001 sonatas’ - each lasting about a minute but in total being one of the longest pieces ever written? Like a postmodern Erik Satie the Belgium composer Boudewijn Buckinx is using music history as a playing field. The classical music audience is irritated, the avant-gardist wrinkles his nose... "Daisies in a Meadow" - that's how Buckinx described his "1001 Sonatas” for violin and piano, They play a leading role in our film, in the supporting roles the Spanish sun and the Belgian rain. The latter, however, did not show up at the set - just as you always have to be prepared for surprises with Boudewijn Buckinx. "Why is my music so simple? - Why is my music so complex?" With a wink, Buckinx gives various answers to these recurring questions. The portrait of an immensely productive artist who is radically taking his own path.

Pōneke Classical Sessions(en)

Short documentary about a group of young musicians in Pōneke, Wellington who are trying to decolonise the classical music space.

Accept(cs)

Reich: Three Tales(en)

We Are Your Grandfather(ru)

A family of British descent settled in the Russian countryside is investigating its grandfather's mysterious death. One small step for men, women, children, dogs, and pigs - one giant leap for humanity.

Olivier Messiaen: The Music of Faith(en)

Olivier Messiaen played a leading role in the evolution of 20th-century music. In this classic interview, the late composer talks on topics such as his love of nature and his fervent Christian faith, two themes that profoundly shaped his work; his views on rhythm and tonal color; his relationship with his mother, the poet Cécile Sauvage; and his professorship at the Paris Conservatoire. Film clips of Messiaen improvising on the organ and notating birdsong for his compositions—plus excerpts of his music, some of which are performed by his wife, the celebrated pianist Yvonne Loriod—provide a deeper appreciation of his special genius. (79 minutes)

The Conductor(en)

Leonard Bernstein’s protégée Marin Alsop reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.

No Ideas But in Things - the composer Alvin Lucier(en)

“Don’t ask me what I mean, ask me what I’ve made” – inspired by this motto, the documentary accompanies the American composer Alvin Lucier (1931 - 2021) on concert travels to The Hague (Netherlands) and Zug (Switzerland). Lucier explains and comments on his œuvre – from his early live electronics performances (MUSIC FOR SOLO PERFORMER,1965 and BIRD AND PERSON DYNING, 1975) up to the premiere of his ensemble piece PANORAMA 2 in 2011. One of Lucier’s key works, I AM SITTING IN A ROOM (1969), is introduced as a central structuring device in the film. At home in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier offers rare insights into the beginnings of his pioneering works, his time as a member of the Sonic Arts Union, his relations with John Cage and David Tudor, as well as his teaching practice at Wesleyan University.

Letter to the Engineer(es)

A short documentary film about the director's relationship with his deceased grandfather.

The Lost Paradise(en)

He is the most performed contemporary composer in the world. And yet he rarely ventures out in public, prefers to keep quiet about his music, feels at home in the forests of Estonia and generates therewith - perhaps involuntarily - the impression of a recluse, which is attributed to him again and again: Arvo Part. In The Lost Paradise, we follow him over a period of one year in his native Estonia, to Japan and the Vatican. The documentary is framed by the stage production of Adam's Passion, a music theater piece based on the Biblical story of the fall of Adam featuring three key works by Arvo Part. The world-renowned director Robert Wilson has brought this work to the stage in a former submarine factory in Tallinn. Tracing their creative process, the film offers rare and personal insights into the worlds of two of the most fascinating personalities in the international arts and music scene.

Choreography for a Camera and Dancers(sh)

The first experimental dance film from Croatia, which pays homage to the pioneer of experimental and dance film Maya Deren and her "Study in Choreography for Camera" from 1945. The theme of the film is inspired by a composition by Ivo Malec "Miniatures for Lewis Carroll", and the dance is performed by the members of the Studio for Contemporary Dance who, in black suits and white surroundings, seem to float in the space captured by the eye of the camera.

From There to Here(zh)

After his cancer diagnosis, an old man is given six months to live. His granddaughter’s camera gently captures his sense of belonging in China — the place he left behind but never forgot — and the story of his family in Singapore.