Riding the Highline

Based on the idea that drugs have influenced some of our greatest minds (Poe, Baudelaire etc.), this film documents just how influential drug experiences have been on the minds of great writers, poets and thinkers.

This film is dedicated to Mas-Félipe Delavouët, the poet discovered by Lawrence Durrell, who wrote 14,000 verses in Provençal over a period of thirty years, and who died on November 18, 1990. "The sky, history and Mediterranean and Provençal myths are the inexhaustable wellspring of this man rooted down there, near Salon-de-Provence" (J.-D. Pollet). "Mas-Félipe Delavouët wrote five books in Provençal, 14,000 verses. A sort of "Odyssey". Of myths. What is stunning in him is that he always talks of disappearances. Cities, works, men, writings, television, etc., everything has to disappear. In order to be reborn. No pain. A sort of hand-to-hand of man and nature. During the filming, I would simply throw out some words... For example, one time I said "creation" and he said: "creation doesn't exist..., creation is before me..., I can only read creation"; this sentence describes Delavouët perfectly (J.-D. Pollet, 1989 and 1993).

Poetry, literature, painting and old film clips converge in this lyrical, unusually designed film essay about Le Moulin, the Taiwanese poets’ collective which protested in the 1930s against the cultural superiority of the Japanese occupier and the domination of realism in poetry.

When Robert Lax was approached in the early 1980s about doing a video documentary on him, he had only one condition—that it be focused on his creative work and not a biography of his personal life. “Let’s keep it simple and about the work, with maybe some comments on it. No baby pictures PLEASE!” This documentary is an attempt at an introduction to the important works of poet Robert Lax.

Brothers Erik and Sigvard live by old traditions - they grow their own food and bake their own bread. The only time they leave their family farm is to buy tobacco and to see the king and queen visit Växjö, but they once biked to nearby Gislaved.

Poetic stroll in the work of Jean Genet.

Reading out loud one poem of Andrés Eloy Blanco, titled “Pleito de amar y querer” (Battle between loving and caring).

Documentary about the poet, writer and playwright Hilda Hilst, considered by critics as one of the most important voices of the Portuguese language of the twentieth century. Through the use of personal sound and image files, interviews, meetings and fictional interventions, we will seek the memory and the presence of Hilda Hilst in her daily life at Casa do Sol, the farm where she lived in Campinas.

A short documentary about the rapidly disappearing era of heritage movie palaces and the film going experience once offered within those hallowed walls.

A lost chapter in black British film: extraordinary rushes from a documentary showcasing talented members of the black community.

A child of the Beat Generation, Gérald Leblanc conjoined urban-ness and American-ness, wandering and belonging, far beyond the boundaries of taboo. In so doing, he helped propel Acadia into the modern era.

Vignettes of the New England Steam features the films of noted rail photographers Albert Michaud and William P. Price, as they document the handsome steam power (and the occasional pesky diesel) of the Grand Trump, Central Vermont, Boston & Maine, and New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroads. The mostly color and mostly 16mm production begins with the Grand Trunk in New Hampshire, then moves to the Central Vermont in the White River Jct vicinity, and the Boston & Maine and New Haven, primarily around Boston. Many wheel arrangements are featured, as is the passenger and freight rolling stock of the era ...including truss-rodded clerestory-roofed wooden maroon passenger cars on the B&M! So come along with Clear Block Productions as we journey back to the late 1940's and early 1950's to witness Steam's Final Stand in the Northeast in Vignettes of the New England Steam.

Jerry Macri's Pennsylvania Railroad is huge, 4300 square feet of big time four track mainline! In fact this may be the largest home layout ever built! This HO layout runs from Chicago to New York and can handle more than 1200 pieces of rolling stock. It takes a train 25 minutes to run across the layout. Along the line there is a massive steel mill and a 30 foot deep Horseshoe Curve-- two signature elements of Western Pennsylvania. The Pennsy began in 1990 in a 2800 square foot basement. But then Jerry decided to add more layout space and more house and even a patio above. So the layout is now 3 inter-connected rooms with about 50% of the scenery completed. There are more than 20,000 trees on the layout. This is a prototype-based HO layout with a lot of freelanced scenic elements. Creating realistic and evocative scenes is Jerry's favorite part of the hobby because this helps him remember special times and places from his youth in the late 50s and early 60s.

This uneven and uninspired documentary of Africa is a collection from various stock footage. Female dancers in mod clothes dance on the Eiffel Tower in comparison to the primitive dances of native Africans. A lone runner trains for a marathon, and a few animals are shown in their natural habitat. Commentary and modern jazz and pop music help to make this seem much longer than 66 minutes.

Rubén tries to describe the color blue as "The color of dreams, of art, of the ocean and of the firmament", thereby unleashing half a century of poetry.

First film of Juan José Ponce’s trilogy about Federico García Lorca. Lunas de Nueva York looks back on Federico’s trip to New York in 1929, an essential journey for his life and career.

Third film of Juan José Ponce's trilogy about Federico García Lorca.

A poetic journey about the life and work of Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos.

Through dramatization and interviews with her colleagues, this film captures the life and work of famed Puerto Rican poet Mercedes Negrón Muñoz (also known as Clara Lair).

Hasan Hourani, a Palestinian poet and illustrator, died aged 29 in Jaffa while trying to rescue his nephew from the sea. Shortly after, the filmmaker Mais Darwazah discovers his drawings and poems and feels drawn to Hourani's world— a universe outside space and time; a place of wonder, discovery, and freedom. Motivated by this kinship, Darwazah embarks on a journey to her homeland, Palestine: a place she has never known.