By showing the performances of the Ayrudzi troupe in Armenia, the film acquaints the audience with one of the most interesting phenomena of national culture – shadow theatre.
By showing the performances of the Ayrudzi troupe in Armenia, the film acquaints the audience with one of the most interesting phenomena of national culture – shadow theatre.
2016-01-01
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A five-year visual ethnography of traditional yet practical orchestration of Semana Santa in a small town where religious woodcarving is the livelihood. An experiential film on neocolonial Philippines’ interpretation of Saints and Gods through many forms of rituals and iconographies, exposing wood as raw material that undergoes production processes before becoming a spiritual object of devotion. - A sculpture believed to have been imported in town during Spanish colonial conquest, locally known as Mahal na Señor Sepulcro, is celebrating its 500 years. Meanwhile, composed of non-actors, Senakulo re-enacts the sufferings and death of Jesus. As the local community yearly unites to commemorate the Passion of Christ, a laborious journey unfolds following local craftsmen in transforming blocks of wood into a larger than life Jesus crucified on a 12-ft cross.
Howard Finster, the grandfather of the Southern Folk Art movement was a pioneer that showed the world that Art can thrive outside of museums and galleries in ordinary places and in everyday objects. He took what others might deem trash or obsolete and turned it into something contemplative. He opened Paradise Garden for the world to enjoy, a true testament that Art comes to life, when people are able to interact with it. Howard Finster showed the world that objects surrounding us can take on a new life, in a sometimes-magical way, and communicate messages that can lead to transformation.
This documentary examines the life and art of Lonnie Holley, a self-taught African-American artist based in Birmingham, Alabama. It follows Holley as he builds a sculptural environment out of discarded materials and found objects in the Birmingham Museum of Art’s sculpture garden. His art is by turns profound, playful, and deeply moving. As the garden grows piece by piece, Holley is revealed as a man who has overcome a tortured past. Growing up poor and black in the 20th century American South, Holley worked to overcome prejudice and deprivation by using art to explore his life and ideas. The camera captures the artist’s process and reflections as he gathers materials, creates pieces, interacts with others, and relives the joys and sorrows that forged his unique and genuine artwork.
Two storytellers put forth their versions of the story of Shravan Kumar. The art for the film uses painted images from a wooden portable shrine called a Kaavad. The film is a collaborative work between traditional Kaavad storytellers and Kaavad artists from Rajasthan, together with the filmmaker. Combining lush animation with live-action, the film is an interpretation of two stories which are forever fused in the act of telling and retelling.
Chewing gum sculptures, a wealthy gallerist, a notorious murder case, and the segregated south - it's all part of Nellie Mae Rowe's boundless universe. This World Is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist's world and her life spanning the 20th century.
A film documenting the soulful art, environments, and voices of self-taught artists on the back roads of the American South.
Li Shouwang is the leader of a blind storytellers team, learned storytelling at the age of 19. His childernare living hard in other cities. Li's money amost goes to his children's pocket every year. But with urbanisation, the storytellers have lost almost all their audience. As the conflict between the storytelling team and the village team intensified, his son, who was far away from home, became the only spiritual sustains... When he was excited that his son would be taking his family home for Chinese New Year, what's await is a sigh.
In Zongolica's Mountain Range, in the mexican state of Veracruz, naturally dyed wool yarn and excellent quality textiles are produced. Women are the ones in charge of working and teaching the art of weaving textiles with the waist loom technique. Everyday with perseverance and wisdom they masterfully wave their lives and future.
Deaf artist James Castle drew on his upbringing in rural Idaho as well as his profoundly silent inner world to create haunting paintings, sculptures and collages. He often used found objects and homemade tools to bring his vision to life. This documentary relies on interviews with Castle's family, art historians and prominent members of the hearing-impaired community to explain his inspirations, techniques and lasting legacy.
Heading out west to her Grandma's birthday celebration, Lynda Barry and Kevin Kling record their adventures along the way.
Filmed 2 years before his death, this documentary portrays New Brunswick folk artist Joseph Sleep (1913-1978) in his later life. He was born at sea and worked with and around boats, fish, carnivals, and animals most of his life. While convalescing during an extended period in the Halifax infirmary in 1973, he was encouraged to paint. What began is therapy and a pastime developed into a way of representing a lifetime of images and experience
A documentary based upon the lives of outsider folk artists Ronald and Jessie Cooper. They became artists in their mid-fifties while living on disability after having lost their Kentucky country store, enduring multiple heart attacks, and being seriously injured in an automobile accident. The story is told through the voices of their four children as well as pioneers of the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, KY who gave the Coopers their start. The film is an account of their life tragedies and triumphs based upon the messages told throughout their artwork.
The remarkable story of Howard Finster
The concert film, which includes performances by amateur performers, as well as famous artists from North Korea, includes folk songs and dances.
An account of the many assassination attempts suffered by dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975), perpetrated between 1936 and 1964, taking as a starting point the short story entitled 'La verdadera muerte de Francisco Franco', an ucronic fantasy published in 1960 by the Spanish writer Max Aub (1903-71), who fled Spain after the Civil War (1936-39) and established in Mexico in 1942.
A documentary that explores the life of one of the world's most populated cities from its streets. Shot in 2009-2012 (before and during the Egyptian revolution, and ending with the most recent presidential elections), the film explores the country's collective identity, inherent struggles, and the sentiments that lead through the historic changes taking place in Egypt today. For his third documentary, Egyptian/ American filmmaker Sherief Elkatsha rides through the congested streets alongside a diverse cast of characters-from taxi drivers to ambulances, from traffic cops to private citizens-capturing the unspoken codes of conduct, frustrations, humor, fatalism, and life-or-death decisions of driving in a city where the only rule is: there are no rules.
Now you can relive the story of Black Caviar - the horse of a lifetime by taking the ride alongside the moments that made it happen. It is the story of a journey that defies belief, because quite simply it’s about belief. Twenty-five straight victories as seen through the eyes of the trainer Peter Moody and Black Caviar’s jockey Luke Nolen in an exclusive personal and open account of what actually happened in racing’s field of dreams. As the momentum built, a wave of salmon and black washed over a nation of fans who just wanted a glimpse of the fastest horse on the planet. In this historic reflection of Black Caviar’s spellbinding career, it now becomes more than a glimpse - as cameras take you inside the stables, inside the stalls and inside to the story of Australia’s most watched racehorse. And every race can be seen again on a bonus DVD with more than ninety minutes of memorable extras. Experience the triumph and celebrate the stunning career of an Australian icon.
They are the first and the last, those who imagine stories and give voice to the characters who live them. However, they never speak. But now, they emerge from the shadows of a poorly lit room and tell their secrets, their tricks, their influences; they tell their own story, that of those who face the blank page, the absolute nothingness; that of those who are the true authors, those who create and destroy entire universes. They are the screenwriters.
Putin’s Olympic Dream is about the rapid transformation of the city of Sochi. In just a couple of years it has to be refashioned from a nostalgic Soviet holiday resort, filled with gorgeous sanatoriums, into a modern Russian city. The Olympic Winter Games are held here in February 2014, and literally everything and everyone has to yield in order to turn this status project of President Putin into a success.
Diary of a Times Square Thief documents a journey of discovery: the search for the writer of a mysterious diary that the filmmaker found on Ebay. This manuscript describes the adventures of a young man who, in the late eighties, left the Midwest of the United States to go to New York to realize his big dream: to find a publisher for his work and become a writer. He fails, and the diary gives a frank and confronting account of the author's subsequent downfall. This is where the diary ends; its last pages have been cut out with a knife. Diary of a Times Square Thief consists of small, intimate portraits of some of the colorful characters described in the diary, who could have known its writer. Through these encounters clarity gradually emerges about the fate of the talented but failed author, and about the value of chasing dreams. In addition, the film paints a vivid picture of the world-famous Times Square area when it was still a dramatically brutal urban jungle.