Naive Cinema

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Pontormo and Punks at Santa Croce

Severo

Poslední revoluce

Cesta za tancem

A fictional documentary that portrays the city of Dakar, Senegal, as we hear the conversation between a Senegalese man (the director, Djibril Diop Mambéty) and a French woman, Inge Hirschnitz. As we travel through the city in a picturesque horse drawn wagon, we chaotically rush into this and that popular neighborhood of the capital, discovering contrast after contrast: A small African community waiting at the Church's door, Muslims praying on the sidewalk, the Rococo architecture of the Government buildings, the modest stores of the craftsmen near the main market.

Tommy’s Train is a story about imagination, drive, and the power of a dream. Once existing as a tourist attraction in the city of Anacortes, Washington, Tommy Thompson’s Railway ran every summer from 1987 until 1999. The genuine steam locomotive and coaches were all hand built by Tommy in his garage workshop, and he maintained and operated the railway with his family.

Short combining fiction and documentary.

A series of ten shots, three minutes in length, of various locales in Munich.

Short discussion between two friends about a strange man they used to know.

It is the story of an old man - Gulam - and the cherry tree which grew in his garden. As the story opens, the village children consider Gulam their best friend. But as the war wears on, Gulam directs his kindness and affection to his cherry tree, shielding the tree from the children who are starving. In the process, Gulam becomes very aggressive and eventually is seen as the enemy of the children. The movie shows how war can destory even the most tender and gentle feelings, as well as the most basic moral values of being human.

In Natpwe, the feast of the spirits, co-directors Tiane Doan na Champassak and Jean Dubrel have produced an immersive, seemingly timeless document of an annual Burmese trance ritual that dates back to the eleventh century. Shot in Super 8 and 16mm in sooty black and white, the film conveys the astonishing sense of liberation of tens of thousands of bodies and minds — a mass expression of faith, but also a rapturous respite from societal intolerance.

The vertiginous progress of modernity has caused the spaces that humanity previously inhabited, now remain forgotten.

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

40,000 years in the making: Kogonada's video essay created for The Connected Series.

Barcelona, Spain, June 1977. A chronicle of a demonstration held to demand the repeal of a 1970 Francoist law criminalizing homeless, prostitutes and homosexuals.

In Mexico, a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced and discriminated against, Lupita, a survivor of one of the worst massacres in the country’s history, finds her voice in a movement led by indigenous women. The film intimately follows Lupita, a Tzotzil Maya woman, as she takes on the responsibility to be the spokeswoman of her people. Part lyrical testimony, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the world.

Un viernes santo

Documentary about three outstanding internationally recognized and awarded young professionals: sculptor Levon Tockmadjian, violinist Rouben Aharonian, Chess International Grand Master Rafael Vahanian. The film discovers some aspects of creative process.

Armenian artist Hakob Hakobian repatriated from Egypt. There, far from his native land he was painting portraits trying to find in the faces of his models Armenian features. In Armenia he is painting also landscapes and even just the sky. Working in his studio he tells about his friends-repatriates. They by themselves, or their parents had survived during the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915, and were dispersed all around the world. We see Hakobian's friends back in Armenia at their work: an old farmer with his big family, a driver, a gas-stove expert.