A 1993 TV special and biography of Sean Connery featuring archive footage and appearances by Albert R. Broccoli, Michael Caine, and Michael Feeney Callan.
1/4 - In 1925, the young M’hamed El Anka replaced his master Nador at short notice. He realizes that he is far from mastering all the instruments of his art and begins a self-taught training program in Oud, the Arabic language, and religious singing in the hadra of Sidi Abderrahmane. 2/4 - In 1932, the young El Anka released 10 45 rpm records in Paris, including the first song from his composition "L'Exil". He is gradually “lightening” the Andalusian heritage. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca and wrote the famous song "El Mendouza". 3/4 - The 40s and 50s will confirm the maturity of the master, who consolidates the constituent elements of what is today called Chaâbi music. In the midst of the national liberation struggle, El Hadj M'hamed El Anka triumphs with the song "Youm El Djemâa". 4/4 - In 1962, El Anka sang of independence: "El hamdou lilah, mabqach listaâmar fi bledna". Activist, poet and musicologist Bachir Hadj Ali explains the artist’s exceptional style.
Director Thomas Heise picks up the biographical pieces left by his family, and composes an epic picture of four generations of his family, of a country, of a century.
The first of a planned trilogy. Nikola Tesla's tales as told to a female cub reporter assigned to cover him, seeking to reveal the secrets of a man who had come to be labeled a "mad scientist".
The life story of Aleksis Kivi, author of the first Finnish novel in Finnish language and (posthumously) its most successful writer.
The title of this documentary about Michael Kocáb alone suggests that art and politics will collide onscreen. Although this cinematic portrayal focuses primarily on the artistic pursuits of the protagonist — who reminisces with slight improvisation his years at the conservatoire and his performances with his band Pražský výběr — the film also maps his political and personal milestones and conveys his current world views and personal reflections on historical and political events. The documentary is playful and spontaneous and features dynamic shots with rock music that has stood the test of time.
A visually stunning and thought-provoking biopic documenting the life and career of renowned photographer Linda Troeller. Her work explores the spiritual properties of water and the intricate aspects of female sexuality. The film presents a mesmerizing narrative that gracefully blends elements of personal discovery, artistry, and feminism.
The artistic journey of Dahmane El Harrachi, born in 1925 in Algiers, bears the mark of his experience. An attentive and vigilant observer of the environment of immigrant workers, Dahmane has always avoided falling into the ambient miserabilism. From the Algerian Chaâbi, he has kept certain melodic lines and a clear propensity for sayings drawn from the oral poetic tradition. El Harrachi uses simple language, understandable by all popular sectors of the Maghreb, which partly explains its wide success. In 1949, he went to France and it was in cafes, springboard places where people come to breathe the air of the country, that he performed regularly. Elegant, with his beautiful atmosphere, the “bluesman” of the suburbs seduces, upsets and stirs consciences. Discovered late by the new generation, the creator of Ya Rayah met a tragic end, on August 31, 1980, in a car accident, on the Algiers coast which he sublimated above all else.
Brad Pitt is a singular actor in Hollywood's glamorous world, breaking through his "playboy image" and embodying American cinema's renewal. At the beginning there was a humble Midwestern aware of being a smokescreen for the illusions of his time, who has managed to keep control of his image to better serve the most talented directors of our time. To name but a few: David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Terrence Malick, James Gray and soon Damien Chazelle. This documentary dives into the brain of a complex, brilliant and endearing personality, far from the cliché of a world-famous movie icon to discover the hidden side of the most handsome man in the world.
In 30 years of a deeply committed career and 50 roles, Denzel Washington, double-Oscar winner, placed the figure of the Black man in all its complexity at the heart of the American paradoxes: from Black activist, rebel soldier to gangster torn between violence and charity. Voted best actor of the 21st century by the New York Times a few months ago, Denzel Washington, 65, has risen to the top of American cinema. As an Actor, director and producer, he has shaken up a "color line" as immutable as it is subtle. Often identified with his characters, he reveals himself to be disconcerting and paradoxical. As if he were holding up a mirror to America in which all of its contradictions and failings were reflected. A documentary that chronicles the extraordinary career of the world-renowned African-American actor.
While visiting his native country to shoot his first live-action film (PHI 1.618), animation filmmaker Theodore Ushev recounts the highlights of his life in Bulgaria and recalls the various underground artistic movements that have influenced him. Featuring archival footage, film clips and talking-head segments with friends and family, this fascinating documentary takes a personal and political dive into the teeming creative universe developed through experience with people and events by the award-winning director of LIPSETT DIARIES, BLIND VAYSHA and THE PHYSICS OF SORROW.
Klaus Kinski is one of the few German actors who has achieved international fame. He made headlines. And disappeared behind them. Kinski lived his parts 24/7. This film tells the story of a man who no longer could understand the difference or distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Witchcraft is older than recorded history and holds great truths and powers, from the natural world to the realms beyond. Witches were masters of a long forgotten world, a time when all things "paranormal and supernatural" were commonplace and its practitioners were revered in awe. It's time to put away the ideas borne of organized religious intolerance and learn the true reality of Witches, then and those that live among us today.
In Adios Amor, the discovery of lost photographs sparks the search for a hero that history forgot—Maria Moreno, a migrant mother driven to speak out by her twelve children’s hunger. Years before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta launched the United Farm Workers, Maria picked up the only weapon she had—her voice—and became an outspoken leader in an era when women were relegated to the background. The first farm worker woman in America to be hired as a union organizer, Maria’s story was silenced and her legacy buried—until now.
The American mountaineer Gary Hemming marked the era of the 1960s. The story of this "exceptional" character is intimately linked to that of the rescue of the two German mountaineers on the west face of the Drus, in 1966, a rescue which he had took the initiative. While the official emergency services of the EHM try to reach them from above, a pirate rope made up of Gary Hemming, René Desmaison, Lothar Mauch, Gil Bodin, Mike Brurke, François Guillot, the filmmaker Gérard Bauer organizes to join them from below and succeeded after a fierce struggle the rescue. The press seizes the event and elevates Gary Hemming to the rank of national hero. All the newspapers feature this big guy with a cool attitude, mismatched clothes, jovial smile and long blond hair on the front page. From then on, he was nicknamed: "the beatnik of the peaks".
Documentary about Swiss grocery store pioneer Gottlieb Duttweiler
Gérard Jugnot, une vie de comédies
Englands heimliche Hymne - Land of Hope and Glory
The film reproduces the historical moment when Cipriano Castro, then president of Venezuela, proclaimed: "The insolent plant of the foreigner has desecrated the sacred soil of the fatherland!" While the coasts were invaded by imperial forces in 1902.
Based on photographer William Yang's one man stage show, "Sadness" chronicles two diverging narratives through the use of slide photography, oral history and stylised recreation. One story follows Yang's pilgrimage into the heart of the North Queensland sugar cane fields as he investigates the murder of his uncle Fang Yuen. The other is a series of moving portraits of the many friends and lovers Yang has lost to AIDS. Director Tony Ayres skillfully weaves these two separate stories together creating a powerful testament to family, friends, love and loss. Cinematography by Tristan Milani. Narrated by William Yang.