TGV, 30 ans de vitesse
For the first time in the history of the Games, the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will take place - just a few weeks apart - outside the stadium, in the heart of Paris. On 28 August 2024, the bottom of the Champs-Elysées and Place de la Concorde will be transformed into the impressive backdrop for a ceremony that will feature a parade of 4,400 athletes from approximately 184 Paralympic delegations from around the world.
On Sunday 8 September at Stade de France, the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games officially drew 11 days of competition to a close. Called Paris est une fête, the ceremony, directed by Thomas Jolly and designed by Romain Pissenem, paid tribute to the 4,400 athletes who took part. But the ceremony also highlighted the history of electronic music and of Paris as a city of celebration and culture.
A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from some of Britain's greatest poets.
Yu-rye Kim, she began studying literature late in her life and debuted as a poet at 67. Now 86, she still carves her life through poetry and recitation. Her unwavering creativity fills each day with the truth of a life fully lived.
This new intimate documentary looks at the extraordinary journey of the 75-year-old American rocker, who has come back from everything, and especially from the worst, but with his capacity for wonder intact.
Iggy Pop reads and recites Michel Houellebecq’s manifesto. The documentary features real people from Houellebecq’s life with the text based on their life stories.
Poet John Betjeman is shown visiting locations including Vauxhall Park, Aldersgate Street station, Camden Town and Hatfield, where he recites a handful of his poems.
Dieu peut se défendre tout seul
Mike Tyson escaped a life of poverty and petty crime to make a name for himself, becoming the youngest Heavyweight Champion of the World and a household name—but his rise was followed by a very public fall. In this remarkably candid portrait, the boxer addresses his controversial past, including the rape charge that sent him to prison and his struggles with substance abuse, while also detailing his ultimate recovery and comeback.
À corps perdus
This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
When asked a question on politics, late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once answered: “I write about love to expose the conditions that don’t allow me to write about love.” In TWO TRAVELERS TO A RIVER Palestinian actress Manal Khader recites such a poem by Mahmoud Darwish: a concise reflection on how things could have been.
Based on the real life story, the director turned his camera towards the real world of Âşık Veysel, the great poet who wandered around the Anatolian villages.
The French female pioneer of immersion journalism, Maryse Choisy, who infiltrated in 1928 the prostitution underworld of Paris. Posing as a chambermaid, a lesbian bar dancer and more, she wrote a very successful and scandalous book about that avant-garde experience, and changed her mind about this world and these women's difficult condition.
One Irish Rover, a documentary focusing on the words and music of Van Morrison, was broadcast in 1991 on BBC 2 Arena TV special and on A&E cable television program. It is a series of live songs with commentary by Morrison about music and poetry, it has some truly amazing performances. It includes the footage of Morrison and Dylan in Greece, Georgie Fame at Ronnie Scott’s, John Lee Hooker, The Chieftains and Danish Radio Big Band.
Edgar Morin, un penseur à Paris
Seamus Murphy’s documentary examines Irish writer Pat Ingoldsby’s unique world. Ingoldsby’s poems and candid anecdotes bear witness to a visceral relationship with his beloved Dublin, fellow Dubliners and anything that catches his interest. Personal challenges, a sensitive humanity and a lifetime as a maverick have taught him to harness reality and reach well beyond it to avenge the banal with absurd magic. It heals him as it does us.
Through the experiences of two women in Paris and London, Ghost Dance offers an analysis of the complexity of our conceptions of ghosts, memory and the past. The film focuses on the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who observes, 'I think cinema, when it's not boring, is the art of letting ghosts come back.' He also says that 'memory is the past that has never had the form of the present.'
With her short red hair, expressive face, vitality, and playful acting style, Shirley MacLaine stands out in the Hollywood pantheon. Driven by a volcanic personality and iron discipline inherited from classical dance, she has constantly reinvented herself, from the girl next door to the eccentric old lady she plays on screen today, proving at 91 that there is a place for actresses of all ages. A refreshing portrait featuring film clips and archival footage, particularly those in which this talk show regular exercises her sharp wit.