“The Glorious Pain” is a documentary film which features the journey of a small classical Vietnamese opera (Tuồng) troup and one of the very few left, as they travel and perform through the Western Vietnam countryside. The Royal characters, behind the closed curtains are commoners and peasants who struggle to make ends meet. The troup is on the verge of disbandment because the main artists were going through a hard time. What future awaits the troup and its artists? Would it disappear in the same way as many other traditional art forms?
In the far reaches of the North, wolf and bear come head to head. Winter has been long. The melting ice reveal scattered carcasses in the Swamp: a feast worth fighting for. The bears must fatten up before Winter comes again, the wolves must strengthen their pack. The Swamp has been their battleground for decades, who will rule the North?
He gave us an unforgettable and unique childhood. What was the great Russian storyteller really like? A documentary film about Eduard Uspensky.
This short documents the important role played by bread in the daily life of the city of Paris.
Waldemar Januszczak explores the impact of Mary Magdalene's myth on art and artists. In art all Christian saints are inventions but Mary Magdalene has been the subject of more invention and re-invention than any other.
In the shadow of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, a young girl, Manu, and her mother lovingly breed a colony of bees. Meanwhile, as Manu’s activist father protests the construction of a giant telescope on the mountain’s sacred ground, a group of scientists study the landscape in preparation for our inevitable relocation to Mars. Ambitiously linking the earthbound and the cosmic, the intimate and the expansive, director Sarah J. Christman tracks these existentially fraught narratives with an acute attention to time, scale, and historical consequence. As her monumental images gather force, Swarm Season takes on a potent allegorical dimension.
A French singer from a small Indie rock band, narrates this intimate and personal journey through her artistic life, her changes and deep emotions lived with her band.
Executive produced, conceived, directed by Larry Locke. An intermittently amusing look at the world of professional bowling is offered in Larry Locke's docu "Pin Gods," which interweaves the stories of three ambitious, if slightly bizarre, men.
Douglas Davis presents his interpretations of The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Napoleon in the triptych style of the finale of the Abel Gance version of the latter.
In the spring of 2015, with her 80 years of age, Eloísa prepares to participate in a new celebration commemorating October 17, 1945. 70 years have passed since that feat of the working people. Everything is fresh in Eloísa's memory, also that night in 1944 when she became a witness to a secret meeting in the mansion where she worked as a service staff. There was Colonel Juan Domingo Perón fighting a duel with the representatives of the economic power of the time who proposed to condition his actions. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the staff debated the current employment and political situation.
Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank fought twice in the ring, but it was in this special TV documentary that they fought their most entertaining battle of all - as Gladiators!
After Noisey Atlanta, Noisey Jamaica and Noisey Chiraq, comes a documentary hosted and co-directed by Mike Skinner (The Streets) that takes the temperature of the rap scene in Israel and Palestine. During Noisey Israel Palestine we meet Tamer Nafar, also known as the godfather of Palestinian hip hop who founded the group DAM, Ohad Cohen who after being a regular in the Tel Aviv rap scene as a teenager then moved towards ultra orthodox Judaism, but still has ambitions to be a famous rapper, and Ben Blackwell, who is part of the fascinating Hebrew Israelite community of the desert town of Dimona. Plus many other MCs from all different backgrounds including Subliminal, Saz and Rebel Sun.
A documentary on the precarious lives of the koolbari, who carry goods on foot across the mountainous borders from Iran's northwestern Kurdish region.
A communist and a capitalist recall their voyage into a wilderness of leisure time. A domestic cycle of breaking into houses, chasing the ghosts of parties past, and trying to conceive … but what? The waters ice over, ready to incubate. Something new is being born.
Hilmano van Velzen, the "Homeless Poet" wants nothing more than to become famous with his poetry. But his addiction and character get in the way.
Ilya learned street-smarts in the harsh realities of Russia's Far North, book-smarts in literature class, and the strength of the fist from a father who strived to raise a son following the straight and narrow. His days consist of berating a subordinate and lamenting the days of Stalin; his nights-of scraping metal and composing obscenity-riddled poems. Ilya longs for a life more becoming of his stature, but unbridled personal demons present a major obstacle to his dreams of conquering the nation's capital.
Eight lesbian and bisexual women who work as prostitutes, strippers, porn stars, and phone sex workers discuss how they negotiate their jobs, intimacy with lovers, and values. With "sexperts" Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Scarlot Harlot, and Joan Nestle who provide insight into the historical presence of queer sex workers.
In a quiet and snowy Chechen village, mother tells her daughter about the return of Zara – their relative, who left this place 20 years ago. Outside, the whole world is hidden in a thick white fog. For both women, the upcoming meeting is a bright event in their dull daily life that they are very much looking forward to.
In early 2020, this would have been a documentary about freshman initiation rituals, but a pandemic and three months confined at home end up changing the author and the direction of this project.