David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest. In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since. Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife? Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.
Gilberte is a sixteen year old girl raised by her aunt and grandmother to be a demimondaine. But she's not ready for that yet, and spends her days in lessons and in teasing Mamita's old friend, the rich playboy Gaston LaChaille, and following his affairs from afar. But when Gaston throws off his latest mistress, it looks as if Gigi just might be ready to begin her destined career.
Knowing you are happy means knowing your happiness could be snatched away at any time, which doesn’t make you very happy.
On a summer evening, a dance in the village brings together young and old. Children, lovers, drinkers and troublemakers all revel under the night sky, accompanied by a variety of musical styles.
A young boy and his father live in a dull, lonely house with the shadow of mourning hanging over them both. The boy misses his mother but gets no comfort from his father's assertions that she went peacefully. This tragedy is added to by the family dog which is looking increasingly unhealthy.
A 17th-century Mexican nun defies expectations by becoming a renowned intellectual and writer during the Spanish Inquisition.
Three life-long friends work the bars in 1980s Atlantic City performing the songs of the 1960s girl groups.
Privilege is an intelligently conceived, boldly anarchic, and wickedly insightful exposition on the culturally ingrained and socially divisive malaise of isms that artificially define and characterize empowerment in contemporary society: ageism, sexism, economic elitism, and racism. Yvonne Rainer conveys texture through the intercutting of archival footage, video, and film - as well as compositional layering through the film-within-a-film structure, elliptical (and self-referential) fusion of past and present, and the filmmaker's idiosyncratic penchant for superimposed typed text.
Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.
A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair is the third feature-length documentary produced by the Empowerment Project. The shadow government of assassins, arms dealers, drug smugglers, former CIA operatives and top US military personnel who were running foreign policy unaccountable to the public, revealing the Reagan/Bush administration's plan to use FEMA to institute martial law and ultimately suspend the Constitution. Strikingly relevant to current events.
A troubled woman on the edge of divorce returns home to her younger sister after years apart. But when her sister and brother-in-law betray her trust, she embarks on a vicious crusade of revenge.
A school teacher from Tehran is preparing to attend a wedding in northern Iran. When her husband suddenly forbids her to go, she makes a choice that will place her on a painful path to atonement.
She is always on the lookout for the latest gossip — with her tabloid methods, journalist Fanny accidentally uncovers an economic corruption scandal. To keep her safe, her boss and lover Bernd sends her to a small island in the Wadden Sea. There lives the quirky bird warden Hagen.
Naga, masseur, asks doctor Sangkakala to damage his eardrums so that he no longer hears painful voices. Meanwhile there is a big conspiracy conducted by Partai Amal Syurga (Heaven Charity Party). The party chairman, Ustad Etawa, in cooperation with the importer of sheep meat, tries to manipulate the state money to benefit his party. And Partai Martobat (Repentance Party) is the bearer of political legitimacy in the country. Piton’s great ambition is to be president. For that he is trying to get as much money by using his influence in parliament, assisted by Joki Ringkik, party colleague, who desperately convincing Python to advance to the next presidential election. Pythons also uses Tikis Queenta, lobbyist, who can get into all lines of parliament and party people.
A short film.
A short film about fictional actor Maxwell McCourtney, featuring the cast and crew of 'Enduring Love'.
Like a road movie, the film accompanies a water delivery truck through the Brazilian landscapes of the Sertão region, plagued by drought. Between fiction and documentary, the driver’s trip bears witness to a determined population endeavouring to live out their daily lives, while the sterile words of politicians seem to soar over the arid lands. A collective portrait that respects the right distance.
As a woman anxiously awaits her overdue period, she performs African-based rituals of purification. She cleans house and body, and calls on the spirits (Orishas in the Yoruba tradition), receiving much needed inspiration and assurance in a dream. The film combines beautifully intimate still and moving images of the woman’s body and home space, along with playful stop-motion sequences. —Jacqueline Stewart, UCLA Film and Television Archive
The portrait of a community as they face their country's economic recession.