“La Zerda and the songs of oblivion” (1982) is one of only two films made by the Algerian novelist Assia Djebar, with “La Nouba des femmes du mont Chenoua” (1977). Powerful poetic essay based on archives, in which Assia Djebar – in collaboration with the poet Malek Alloula and the composer Ahmed Essyad – deconstructs the French colonial propaganda of the Pathé-Gaumont newsreels from 1912 to 1942, to reveal the signs of revolt among the subjugated North African population. Through the reassembly of these propaganda images, Djebar recovers the history of the Zerda ceremonies, suggesting that the power and mysticism of this tradition were obliterated and erased by the predatory voyeurism of the colonial gaze. This very gaze is thus subverted and a hidden tradition of resistance and struggle is revealed, against any exoticizing and orientalist temptation.
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
...Her son-in-law, Ippolit Matwejewitch Worobjaninow, is a former nobleman and a dandy who is currently wasting away as a small town magistrate in charge of civil marriages. He eagerly takes up the quest to find the treasure. Meanwhile, over the years, the twelve chairs have been dispersed all over the country. However, Worobjaninow is not the only one in pursuit of the treasure. Hot on its trail are Ostap Bender, a clever and colorful conman, as well as Father Fjodor, a priest to whom the wealthy aristocrat has also confessed her secret. Thus begins a wild chase that ranges from North to South, West to East, across water and land, from the country to the city.
All Wally Mellish, an ex-convict in 1960s Australia, wants to do is live a quiet life with his girlfriend Beryl. Unfortunately when two police officers come around to disturb this, a misunderstanding quickly becomes out of control, resulting Wally, Beryl and her child being trapped in their house, surrounded by armed police under the impression that Wally is holding everyone hostage. Events quickly spiral into a media circus as, through the siege, Wally - inadvertently - manages to become a symbol for the anti-war movement.
Martin, an ex-Parisian well-heeled hipster passionate about Gustave Flaubert who settled into a Norman village as a baker, sees an English couple moving into a small farm nearby. Not only are the names of the new arrivals Gemma and Charles Bovery, but their behavior also seems to be inspired by Flaubert's heroes.
An aspiring actress has lost considerable weight to land her first movie role, but what the director didn’t tell her was that it includes a nude scene. Reluctant to do it, she embarks on a personal journey that unveils secrets once hidden under her weight, as she discovers emotional nudity is just as revealing as taking her clothes off.
Sara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.
A woman is delighted to have given birth to a baby girl but her life is turned into a nightmare when she goes missing. The police mount a frantic search but to the woman's horror she finds out that it's herself who is the main suspect.
The 1970s in the former Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe: The native people is going against the white suppressors. As the war reaches the most distant villages as well the two friends Florence and Nyasha join the fighters and assume new names: Flame and Liberty. But the war is not as easy as they thought...
In the moment when Belgrade industrialist Života Cvijović had dreams to marry off his son Milorad, Doctor of Philosophy, to a minister of transport's daughter, a telegram from Milorad's professor from Heidelberg arrives, saying that he wants to visit them. Bad luck is that Velimir, a poor student, was financed by Milorad, and studying under his name received a diploma.
When Mandie Shaw is thrust into Miss Heathwood’s School for Girls, she struggles to grasp the school’s new rules and the finer points of high society. As Mandie tries to stay out of hot water with Miss Heathwood and discover what the headmistress seems to have against Christmas, she stumbles upon a mystery in the school’s forbidden attic. Will Mandie ignore the warning to flee or try to get to the bottom of the strange noises beyond the boarded-up doors? Uncovering the truth may lead to telling a lie, but it might also unlock the memories of a long-forgotten Christmas.
Eleven-year-old Monica Shah is a brainy schoolgirl whose science fair project about growing raspberries becomes a touching emotional crusade. After her dad leaves and her mother falls into a funk, Monica decides it's her job to rescue the family.
Yerma is desperate to have children, so when a psychic advises her to look outside her marriage to conceive, what can she say but yes?
Johnny St. James was a young seminary student who lost his wife to a drunk driver. With his reason for living gone, John lost his faith and turned to alcohol. Ten years later, John is finally read to get his life back on track. With his best friend Hickey ('Eric Roberts') in tow John attends his first AA meeting. He soon finds that his road to recovery tested when he runs into the man who ran down his wife.
"White Water" is a short drama about lumberjack country. Nell Shipman plays a girl in love with nature and animals. One day she meets a crippled boy, who sings for pocket change. When she finds out that the boy is badly malnourished, Nell Shipman takes him under her wing and finds work for his elder brother. Then one day disaster strikes when the boy, who can't swim, falls into the river and is carried downstream. Nell Shipman jumps in a canoe and paddles frantically to reach the boy before the current takes him to the rapids, where mortal danger awaits.
A young Marshallese boy, Labro, wakes up one morning anxious for his grandmother to fulfill her promise of buying him ice cream. She agrees, but demands that he do some work first, commanding him -- with a sweep of her arm -- to "clean up all the garbage everywhere." As Labro goes out the door of his rustic shack, he realizes that one of his zoris is missing. His grandmother, angry because he has yet again lost one of his flip flops, gives him an ultimatum: "Do not come back to the house until you have zoris on both of your feet." So Labro begins his quest under the hot island sun to clean up 'everywhere' and to find his other zori...
A group of young people residing in Alexandria suffers from the governor’s tyranny. As they try to get rid of him, they launch a campaign to ridicule him by drawing caricatures and distributing them everywhere, until someone proposes an idea that changes the course of events.
Co-directed by Blackwood and Julien, the first full-length feature film by Sankofa Film and Video offers a radical and necessary interrogation into what constitutes 'post-colonial' identity at a time of political and social restlessness in Britain. Set within an isolated desert landscape contrasted with recognizable scenes of the intensity of family life, this vanguard work demonstrates the richness and variety of the black experience; it is a poetic and hard-hitting commentary on the complexities of race, gender and sexuality.
Two actresses take us through a series of 'raps' and sketches about what it means to be beautiful and black.