THE PERFUMED GARDEN is an exploration of the myths and realities of sensuality and sexuality in Arab society, a world of taboos and of erotic literature. Through interviews with men and women of all ages, classes, and sexual orientation, the film lifts a corner of the veil that usually shrouds discussion of this subject in the Arab world. Made by an Algerian-French woman director, the film begins by looking at the record of a more permissive history, and ends with the experiences of contemporary lovers from mixed backgrounds. It examines the personal issues raised by the desire for pleasure, amidst societal pressures for chastity and virginity. The film discusses pre-marital sex, courtship and marriage, familial pressures, private vs. public spaces, social taboos (and the desire to break them), and issues of language.
A filmmaker revisits her childhood, interweaving 16mm vignettes and her old child services documents, uncovering the truth she couldn't voice as a child.
Three brothers with no rowing experience take on the world's toughest row: a 3,000 mile race across the Atlantic with 50ft waves, exhaustion, seasickness and your two siblings - how hard can it be?
Con Traje y Sin Zapatos
In contrast to the lens that focuses exclusively on the racist traditions that are rooted in America’s social history, the moral counterweight of close, loving, friendship and collaboration, which have always been present in our history, represents “the other tradition.” This “other tradition” is a source of inspiration and presents models of behavior that are instructional and include unknown and uncelebrated legacies to be absorbed and emulated across generations of present day Americans. The documentary discusses the “better in us” a needed collective perspective in the current climate of national disunity across racial, religious, and political lines. This has significant implications for addressing public issues from immigration to health care and the myriad of governmental, educational, business, and religious challenges that we must successfully meet to weave the fabric of unity which is indispensable to survival as a nation.
After learning to 'write what you know,' in film school, Half-Filipino and Half-White aspiring filmmaker Andrew Orticio travels back to his father's village in the Philippines to understand his mixed identity.
Documentarian Jeffrey Morgan set out to the track one woman's search for the truth about her great-great-aunt's 1908 murder. But his film quickly became a fascinating study of racism, revenge and family secrets. In the process of uncovering information about her ancestor's violent death at the hands of an African-American suspect, the woman learns that her family tree might have also produced a few murderers.
In Istanbul, American writer James Baldwin muses about race, the American fascination with sexuality, insights into his interrupted writing decade in the country, the generosity of the Turks, and how being in another country, in another place, forces one to re-examine well-established attitudes about modern society.
In her attempt to escape her past, Huiju relocated to the UK over 11 months ago. However, even after moving to a new country, she found that her nightmares from Korea continued to haunt her. Determined to move forward, she made the decision to confront her memories head-on in a very contemporary way, using dating apps to push the boundaries she had set due to her sexual trauma.
Eddy L. Harris is the author of the lauded travel book “Mississippi Solo” (1988), which chronicled his canoe trip down the length of the Mississippi River, from its headwaters in Minnesota to its terminus in the Gulf of Mexico. In “River to the Heart,” Harris retraces that journey as a 60-year-old, and the film explores what he discovered about both the country that was and the country that is.
Lacey Schwartz grew up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity - despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family's explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. But when her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different. At age of 18, she finally confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but a black man named Rodney with whom her mother had had an affair.
In a nursing home, a young man visits his grandmother. As she constantly repeats that she wants to go home, his grandson visits her now empty apartment, seeking to capture memories of a fading past.
Two actresses take us through a series of 'raps' and sketches about what it means to be beautiful and black.
Documentary covering the trailblazing career and tragically short life of Laurie Cunningham, the English football star of the '70s and '80s.
Documentary chronicling the sensational life and death of British footballer Justin Fashanu. Broadcast as part of the BBC series "Inside Story".
(The) Holy Elephant
After four years away, Huiju returns home to South Korea. Exchanges with her loved ones are awkward and clumsy. Huiju turns once again to her familiar rituals: pruning the trees, preparing a sauce, tying a braid.
Traces the making of UC-Davis professor Darrell Hamamoto's first-ever Asian American porn movie ("Skin on Skin") from planning to production. Hou interviews filmmakers Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow") and Eric Byler ("Charlotte Sometimes"), professor Elaine Kim and playwright David Henry Hwang to get at whether Asian America truly needs its own "porno practices" as a way of decolonizing the community's collective sexual imaginations and confronting how sexuality and masculinity are treated in the Asian American community.
In 1970, a British film crew set out to make a straightforward literary portrait of James Baldwin set in Paris, insisting on setting aside his political activism. Baldwin bristled at their questions, and the result is a fascinating, confrontational, often uncomfortable butting of heads between the filmmakers and their subject, in which the author visits the Bastille and other Parisian landmarks and reflects on revolution, colonialism, and what it means to be a Black expatriate in Europe.
Which is faster round a racetrack - a Porsche 911 or the Yamaha R1? Would you rather have a Ferrari 360 Modena or the new Aston Martin DB7 Vantage? Which is the best road-going rocketship - the BMW M5 with Tiff Needell at the wheel or JC’s Jaguar XJR? Which of the new Japanese super tech cars is best? the Evo6 or the 22b? PLUS grimace as JC shows a Hyundai what it’s like to be eaten, marvel at the Lamborghini LM002 as it wreaks havoc on London’s traffic and check out the greatest race Silverstone has ever seen - Johnny Herbert in his Stewart Ford and Colin McRae in his full rally spec Focus...versus JC in a Cougar. (NEVER BEFORE SEEN ON TV)