The Shadow of Heaven

Several fragments of one day in Leningrad in the autumn of 1989, refracted in the imagination of the artist.

Shows masked mental patients enacting various schizophrenic symptoms as they were understood at the time. A disturbing film that raises questions about the condition and treatment of its subjects. (archive.org) “Abstract: This film describes and demonstrates four types of schizophrenia. Filmed at various New York institutions, it shows patients singly and grouped in large, outside recreational areas. Some patients are blindfolded. Symptoms shown include: social apathy, delusions, hallucinations, hebephrenic reactions, cerea flexibilitas, rigidity, motor stereotypes, posturing, and echopraxia.” (Guide to Mental Health Motion Pictures)

A tribute to the poet Patrizia Cavalli

A short film showing a rehearsal and live performance by Jeanne Balibar. Costa would go on to make a feature-length documentary with the same title and subject matter in 2009.

Plague: From the Latin word “plaga” meaning 'blow', 'wound'. Meaning: Massive, sudden appearance of living beings of the same species that cause serious damage to animal or plant populations. Abundance of something harmful.

Very brief view of Man Ray and his friend Ady Fidelin while at a seaside resort

Home movie from Man Ray featuring dancer Jenny gyrating in black and white.

A late period home movie with Man Ray and his lovely friend Juliet Browner lounging together in the US. Man Ray had returned to America when the Germans occupied France.

Two instants separated by 99 days conflict with each other.

A glimpse of life as seen through young people at a Zimbabwean children's home.

A dramatized approach to the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) through the recreation of some of his works and the staging of various aspects of his thought and his life.

Blanca Luz Brum traveled an unusual path, through twentieth-century Latin America, actively participating in the intellectual, political and artistic movements of Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. It is today a symbol of female emancipation in Latin America. The versions about her life are varied and dissimilar, the testimonies of those who knew her, full of contradictions.

A man reads a letter from his away girlfriend while he contemplates on some memorable places in Jakarta, where they had spent time together.

A languid, beautifully shot collection of landscapes, edited into a whimsical and touching film.

Bodega Bohemia

Pablo Neruda’s life unfolds and becomes the basis for the symbolic representation of his poem “Barcarola”, intermixing live action, still footage, computer images, dance and poetry.

Michael Strunge and other young Danish poets, accompanied by images of night-time Copenhagen.

An experimental documentary exploring a sinister theory surrounding the death of Cleveland baseball player Ray Chapman in 1920 and the subsequent rise of the Yankee dynasty.

In 1244, Jelaluddin Rumi, a Sufi scholar in Konya, Turkey, met an itinerant dervish, Shams of Tabriz. A powerful friendship ensued. When Shams died, the grieving Rumi gripped a pole in his garden, and turning round it, began reciting imagistic poetry about inner life and love of God. After Rumi's death, his son founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling dervishes. Lovers of Rumi's poems comment on their power and meaning, including religious historian Huston Smith, writer Simone Fattal, poet Robery Bly, and Coleman Barks, who reworks literal translations of Rumi into poetic English. Musicians accompany Barks and Bly as they recite their versions of several of Rumi's ecstatic poems.

Spring comes every year and brings us hope for recovery and development. But time is inexorable and fleeting. Not for everyone will come next spring ...