For the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale-seven equidistant degrees in an octave-are practically tuned.
A young drag queen from Andalusia exposes the difficulties of adding aspects of her homeland culture to her artistic expression.
Chan Kwai-sheung visits the brothel with So Tung-bo while his wife, Lau Yuk-ngo, is sleeping. As this is the first time Sheung did this, Ngo wants him to suffer and so makes him wear a lamp on his head. During the Lantern Festival, the Emperor has fun with his officials. After a few drinks, Bo says that Ngo has lost the virtues of a woman. Ngo immediately appeals to the Emperor. All the women there, including the Empress, say that Bo should be punished. Bo is unhappy and invites his cousin, Kam Cho, seduce Sheung to make Ngo unhappy. Sheung, a philanderer, schemes to take Cho as his concubine. Ngo finds out and beats him. Bo urges Sheung to divorce Ngo. Ngo is furious and lodges a complaint with the imperial court. The Emperor allows Sheung to have a concubine. Ngo pleads that she would rather drink poison than let Sheung take a concubine. Feeling remorseful, Sheung drinks the poison after his wife. Fortunately, the queen has switched the poison with vinegar. The couple reconciles.
A folklore professor becomes unwittingly possessed by the ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning. But when The Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense dispatches a team of agents to investigate, a cursed samurai sword sends Hellboy to a supernatural dimension of ghosts, monsters, and feudal mayhem. Now while pyrokinetic Liz Sherman and fishboy Abe Sapien battle one very pissed-off dragon, a lost and cranky Hellboy must find his way home.
Piesne Liptova
The magic of the dances of Mexico. A tour of Sinaloa, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Nayarit and Veracruz in one place.
Mark Gatiss explores and celebrates Dracula, an icon of popular culture, asking just why we keep coming back to the count.
Ľudoví umelci
What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)
Six part TV series where Karpo Godina filmed common folk, showing the world of people who have filled their lives with hobbies and skills of their own making. It features gold panners on the river Pek, a shepherdess who plays music on a leaf, a football fan, a potter, and an unusual orchestra.
AWAKE is a short experimental documentary about a liminal moment in the calendar - midwinter - observed by the inhabitants of a small rural village in England. A time outside time, magic is everywhere and anything is possible. Bearing witness to this turning point, the inhabitants gather for a wassail - a centuries old thanksgiving ritual in which folk gather to honour the slow return of the sun and bless the apple trees whose fruit are essential to the village ecosystem, not least the crumbles, juice and cider that sustains them throughout the year.
Kandráčovci & Čechomor
This documentary visits cities and towns and captures stunning landscapes along Europe's majestic Danube at Christmastime. Locations covered include Passau, Germany; Salzburg, Oberndorf, the Wachau Valley, and Vienna in Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Budapest, Hungary. Along the way the viewer learns relevant history.
An anthropological research on the survival of the supernatural in traditional culture. Shot in different locations in southern Italy, the documentary focuses on the link between the cult of the Madonna and ancient rites related to female fertility.
No one could spin a yarn to make a sale like Ray Lum. Twenty years after their initial meeting, Bill Ferris returned home to Mississippi in the early ‘70s with a camera. The result reveals a look back at the colorful rhythms of Ray’s life—at home, at the auction, joking with strangers outside country stores— and provides a glimpse at Southern manhood, friendship and loss. Now nearly Ray’s age when they first filmed, Ferris has become a Grammy Award winning documentarian and renowned folklorist. Using never before seen 16mm footage and new animations, OKAY, MR. RAY is a short documentary film about how even the tallest tales help us keep the memory alive of the ones we love.
Exploring the obsessive, compulsive, and competitive side of the dance world, Seize deconstructs the festive, enchanting, and imperfect image of Quebec folklore. It is through the synchronicity of movement, concomitant rhythms, the appropriation of space, and tangible coincidences that the jiggers convey their passionate obsession with this art.
Stephen Fry embarks on a journey to discover the stories behind some of the world's most fantastic beasts that have inspired myths and legends in history, story-telling and film.
Hrály dudy
Estráda
"If it Won’t Hold Water, it Surely Won’t Hold a Goat" is an intimate meditation on the subversive nature of goats and their effect on the people who spend time with them. Centered on the story of the legendary Goat Man - a nomadic figure who spent most of his life walking the roads of Georgia with a wagon pulled by a herd of goats - this experimental documentary weaves together an interview with a goat farmer, footage of the daily rituals Johnson enacted with her own herd, and a poem about the Goat Man’s experimental and spectacular life.