As Dimitar’s decades-long fight against enviousness, laziness and prejudice to keep the kukeri tradition in his region alive proves successful, it turns out to have really been a journey towards finding and maintaining his own inner peace all along. Told through a series of interviews and slices-of-life ranging from the tragic to the euphotic is a story of love and resilience.
Self
Part fictional documentary, part musical anthropology, scientific magic, and eco-anarchic utopian journey in a landscape of eight parts. You're Kaloyan, the sax player. Or Diana, the Gypsy dancer. You journey together through Bulgaria in search of the utopian village Dolphinovo. It's not Sofia, Paris or New York. That's why this story is rural, rustic and polyphonic. It's like a string of painted walls of village houses, folk songs and allegories. However, who is Ivo? And why does he lead you through these winter landscapes a year later?
A documentary about lamentation songs of Bulgarian funeral rites.
Every year in June, the small Bulgarian village of Balgari celebrates St Constantine with a special ritual. Initiated ‘nestinari’ go into a music-induced trance and dance on bonfires in a display of religious passion.
This film documents the Kukeri rituals in Bulgaria, focusing on the mask makers and performers who keep this ancient tradition alive. Their dedication to this agrarian custom is a visual testament to the power of tradition to provide hope and community in a time of diaspora and urbanization.
The Balkans is home to an ancient pagan tradition where magic and mystery still have a sacred place in the cosmic order. The Kukeri festival has had a strong hold over Bulgarian cultural life since the fifth century, surviving the Ottomans, Christendom and communist rule. Every winter, hundreds of terrifying figures prowl snow-capped forests and village centers in search of evil spirits to dispel from their communities.
Graying Spaniard Daniel has a healthy budget for indulging in the finer things in life. Daniel's favorite luxury is playing sponsor to younger men amid the lights and sights of Madrid's gay club scene. After Daniel shares a night with handsome Bulgarian emigre Kyril, he finds himself consumed with an insatiable lust for the charismatic foreigner. But, as their relationship takes shape, Daniel's latest conquest reveals his own manipulative tendencies.
A look at the Sun, the star that revolves at the center of the Solar System, and its representation in art throughout history.
In the uncertainty of Indonesian football conditions, Aldian is trying to survive amidst the league stoppage while Ronaldo strives to become a football athlete.
The raising of King Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose in 1982 remains one of the most significant events in the history of maritime salvage. Comparable to the recovery of the 17th century Swedish warship Vasa in 1961, the climax of this complex and expensive operation was watched by around 60 million people worldwide. But 300 reels of film recently found in the archive of The Mary Rose Trust provide additional insight into the operation.
The world of kid karting is fascinating and at the same time raises many questions. This little-known extreme sport is governed by the same rules as competitions for adults – what matters is rivalry, a place on the podium and regular training. Not all children are ready for such a sacrifice.
An expedition decided to observe the life of the beavers - nature's engineer - in the woods of the Rocky Mountains: for the first time a beaver family was filmed in its den during the course of the season.
With over 4000 minibuses pouring in at intervals, thousands of commuters and petty traders trying to scratch a living, Kampala Taxi Park gyrates with the rhythm of a typical African city. Yet in the midst of what looks like perfect chaos, travellers, and drivers still manage to find their way round. This documentary lays out the atmosphere of this amazingly busy spot, from the crack of dawn to deep in the night.
Through the spoken stories and testimonies of 4 LGBTQ+ people over 40 years old about their lives, their joys, their hopes, their struggles, and their advice, this documentary aims to contribute to an archive, to the construction of a queer history. But also to the bridging of the communication gap between generations, showing young queer people that it is possible to have a long and happy life. What are the differences and similarities between their lived experience and the one of younger LGBTQ+ people? What can we learn from them and what should we aim to overcome? What links unify this 'community' and what debates split through it? But more than anything: what does it mean to grow old whilst being gay, lesbian, bi, trans, non-binary...? What does that look like? What does the future, which is sometimes so complicated to imagine, have on hold for us?
Four generations of a Jewish immigrant family create Russ and Daughters, a Lower East Side lox and herring emporium that survives and thrives. Produced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the store, this documentary features an extensive interview with two of the original daughters for whom the store was named, now 100 and 92 years old, and interviews with prominent enthusiasts of the store including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, chef Mario Batali, New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, and 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer. Rather than a conventional narrator, the filmmakers bring together six colorful longtime fans of the store, in their 80s and 90s, who sit around a table of fish reading the script in the style of a passover Seder. - Written by Julie Cohen
This short explores the possibility that Louis XVII, son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, escaped death during the French Revolution and was raised by Indians in America.
The daily lives of the Krahô Indians, who live in Palmas, Tocantins. The film portrays the culture of the clown Hotxuá and the Festa da Tora da Batata, the most important event of the tribe.
An overview of the singer's career includes comments from manager Roger Davies and ex-husband Ike Turner, as well as Mick Jagger, Elton John, David Bowie, Mark Knopfler.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1937.
Adults share their most embarrassing teenage writings and art in front of total strangers at Mortified stage shows across the country, as the filmmakers explore what the show's popularity says about all of us.