La Garoupe

When asked to make a documentary about her friend’s mother—a Parisian astrologer named Juliane—the filmmaker sets off for Montmartre with a Bolex to craft a portrait of an infectiously exuberant personality and the pre-war apartment she’s called home for 50 years.

Presented by Grimposium and Uneasy Sleeper. Blekkmetal is a documentary about the one-off 2015 festival celebrating the origins of Norwegian black metal. Featuring exclusive interviews and footage of Enslaved, Taake, Aeternus, Gehenna, Helheim, Old Funeral, Kampfar, Hades Almighty and Gaahls Wyrd performing classic and rare songs from their catalog, Blekkmetal features an all-Canadian production team including director David Hall (alumnus of Concordia University), metal studies scholars Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia University) and Jason Wallin (University of Alberta), and mobile media scholar Owen Chapman (Concordia University). Blekkmetal is co-produced by the festival’s organizers Ivar Bjørnson, Jannicke Wiese-Hansen and Kirsti Rosseland.

The people of Antiquity had little problem with nudity and would not find graphic depictions of sexual acts as morally suspect or obscene. But Christianity changed perspectives, bringing in notions of shame and the negation of the body. This documentary looks at the erotic in art over the last two thousand years.

Eu, Punk

Extranjeros de sí mismos

From his childhood in a modest family in the Pyrénées to his unexpected career as a porn actor in the 1970s, the film traces the life of Claude Loir, who set out to fully embrace life. His homosexuality and curiosity guide him through encounters that lead into the shadowy, liberated circles of a pre-AIDS era, caught between conservatism and sexual freedom. Loves and lovers, flamboyance and fragility… the film offers a striking portrait of a fearless, hedonistic man navigating desire, identity, and society’s constraints.

Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It’s a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Travelling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerising film is a feast for the eyes. The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism features the sell-out exhibition The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 that began at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and ended at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.

In this tribute to the eternal allure of an ancient myth, colourful fins and swimming pools fill the lives of five modern-day women who strive to embody the mysterious siren as part of a growing “mermaiding” subculture.

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

México-raised and currently Chicago-based artist Sofía Fernández Díaz details her process of adorning found objects and handmade textiles with beads, dyes, and melted wax to imbue them with new meaning, and to give them patitas.

An examination of why the James Bond films have proved so popular including a discussion between the four actors who have played Bond, an interview with Cubby Broccoli and contributions from the directors, production designers, special effects and stuntmen.

Jonathan Ross delves into the world of James Bond and meets with new and former cast members who reveal humorous stories and anecdotes in a series of interviews. All the 5 Bonds at the time are featured, though only Lazenby (reflecting in the usual frank, self criticizing manner), Moore and Brosnan granted an interview. Connery and Dalton are featured through some unused footage from LWT's 30 years of James Bond program. The ever faithful Desmond Llewelyn turns up in character as well as some other less related peeps like Christopher Lee, Paul McCartney and the ultimate playboy: Hugh Hefner -- who all give an interesting perspective on the worlds most famous spy.

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Artistic experimental documentary short that explores the universe of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Sensorial experiences, the perception of the body, forms and tactile sensations are mixed and reflect the human race as part of the cosmos, getting lost to find itself. Art, stripped of its virtuous image, as an action of the common human being, the expression of living things, runs from the mechanical repetition of movements and attitudes.

The video revolution of the 1970s offered unprecedented access to the moving image for artists and performers. This Is Not a Dream explores the legacies of this revolution and its continued impact on contemporary art and performance. Charting a path across four decades of avant-garde experiment and radical escapism, This Is Not a Dream traces the influences of Andy Warhol, John Waters and Jack Smith to the perverted frontiers of YouTube and Chatroulette, taking in subverted talk shows and soap operas, streetwalker fashions and glittery magic penises along the way.

The extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five legendary filmmakers who went to war to serve their country and bring the truth to the American people: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Based on Mark Harris’ best-selling book, “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.”

This BAFTA nominated documentary tells the story of some of the brightest mathematical brains of a generation. Each year, exceptionally gifted teenagers from over 90 countries compete for medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad. The film follows a group of brilliant teenagers as they battle it out to become the chosen six selected to represent the UK.

Paying tribute to artist Noah Purifoy and his Outdoor Museum, Matthew’s film ‘A Desert Moment with Noah’ rapidly animates 78 still Super 8mm images like a slideshow gone haywire. Exploring the of elasticity of time, the film manipulates the essence of a moment as it periodically pauses to allow the viewer a space with various objects, surfaces, and textures within Purifoy’s Joshua Tree sculptural environment.

Georgian director Otar Iosseliani prepares his film Jardins en Automne. Nothing is conventional in the filmmaker's system: Julie Bertuccelli portrays the gestation and production of a film that seems to follow the freest and most unpredictable poetic intuitions of its creator. The constant and hilarious arguments with the producer, Martine Marignac, a Michel Piccoli transformed into an old woman, and the director's peculiar filming system, in which he signals his actors to start with a whistle, paint a picture of one of the most unclassifiable cinematic experiences in contemporary cinema.

Cinéastes de notre temps : Norman McLaren