The Truth About Marriage

A self-potrait of the influent Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget.

A lonely 40-year-old man sits on the balcony of a Finnish apartment building. Joonas Berghäll has learned that he will die in 14 years’ time, unless he changes his way of living or attitude towards life. Joonas wants to make a film about the state of wellbeing of Finnish men, drawing from his own experiences and mirroring the society at large. The film is built around six stories. It starts with the context of school and proceeds through the contexts of military service, custody battle, burnout and substance abuse to end on the subject of premature death caused by health problems.

Tchai is the word used by Ju/'hoansi to describe getting together to dance and sing; n/um can be translated as medicine, or supernatural potency. In the 1950's, when this film was shot, Ju/'hoansi gathered for "medicine dances" often, usually at night, and sometimes such dances lasted until dawn.

A landmark court decision in Massachusetts allows gay people in that state to marry - forcing activists, legislators, and ordinary people to reconsider how they view same-sex relationships.

A three-act film-essay about memory and the historical-cultural ties of the Finno- Ugric peoples. The first chapter is dedicated to ancient Bearese of memory, such as Karelian cliff drawings, Kalevala runo song and Khanty bear feast rituals. the second act portrays the visit of Elias Lonnrot, compiler of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, to Estonia and his meetings with local intellectuals. Part three re-enacts an ancient smelting and blacksmith ritual set to Veljo Tormis' cantata 'curse upon iron'. Filmed in 1985 in Uhtuo, Karelia; in Khantia-Mansia at the Agan river, a tributary of the Ob; and in Estonia (Tallinn, Kuusalu, Tartu, Voru, Litsmetsa in Voru county, Lullemae, Karula, Rongu, Narva, and at a bend of the Pirita river). The third documentary in Lennart Meri's "Encyclopaedia Cinematographica Gentium Fenno - Ugricarum" series.

Draussen bleiben

Thomas Haemmerli is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he learns of his mother's death. A further shock follows when he and his brother Erik discover her apartment, which is filthy and full to bursting with junk. It takes the brothers an entire month to clean out the place. Among the chaos, they find films going back to the 1930s, photos and other memorabilia.

Forty five years of marriage is an impressive anniversary. Barbara and Zdzisław could be proud of themselves if not for the fact that the husband left the wife for his lover eight years ago. But now they are together again, although Barbara claims that if it were not for his infirm legs, Zdzisław would still be chasing skirts around Kraków. Despite the past resentment, everyday problems with paying bills, an occupied bathroom and rearranging furniture, they have a hard to define bond.

An unprejudiced portrait of Spanish folklore and a crude analysis in black and white of its intimate relationship with atavism and superstition, with violence and pain, with blood and death; a story of terror, a journey to the most sinister and ancestral Spain; the one that lived far from the most visited tourist destinations, from the economic miracle and unstoppable progress, relentlessly promoted by the Franco regime during the sixties.

Cut off from his loved ones due to the strict COVID-19 lockdown at the long-term care facility where he lives, a quadriplegic rabbi is filmed by his daughter while reflecting on love, mortality and longing.

”I haven’t been in love with any of the men I have been with. I don’t know what love is.” A 66-year-old woman examines her life. We see her memories take shape through bizarre experiences at night clubs and during hotel nights spent with strangers. Those have not provided any comfort or safety for her. Rag dolls by artist Pauliina Turakka Purhonen portray the woman at the ages of 3, 5, and 60.

Early spring, 2022. Seventeen (or more) friends live through what they don't know will be a quick last few months of school, facing their final exams, closing activities, but more importantly the idea that they may never see each other again. Chapters I and II see the craziness mixed with the sense of possible loss of a friendship that surfaced quickly and may be fading all too soon.

From the immutable protocol of the Empire of Japan during Masako's wedding with Emperor Naruhito, to the marriage of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle, very much anchored in the 21st century, Stéphane Bern reveals behind the scenes of princely weddings. With rare images and thanks to the greatest specialists of crowned heads, it tells the splendor of these timeless weddings, from exceptional wedding dresses to prestigious guests, from the preparations for these unique festivities to the day of the ceremony scrutinized by the cameras of the whole world.

On November 4th, 2008, three states - California, Florida and Arizona - voted to amend their constitutions, denying and revoking the rights of same-sex couples to marry. On May 26, 2009, with Canadian allies, gay American families rally at a Vancouver demonstration to protest these amendments that persecute the LGBTQ community. Demonstration organizer Roger Chin relays the California Supreme Court's infamous decision on Prop 8. Subsequent speakers talk about couples living in exile. Weaving elements of public protest and intimate interviews, four families share their stories of how they met, their decision to escape to freedom in Canada, their Canadian experience and their dreams of returning to their home country, family and friends. In the end, the organizer celebrates the freedoms to marry that exists in Canada.

Mike and Jeanne get to know each other, meet family and friends, touch each other, sleep together, go on holiday together, celebrate birthdays and say "I love you". What complicates things between them: their relationship is based on a contract of 14 clauses that are supposed to define all areas of being together. A small video camera is their constant companion.

Three generations of the Phadke family live and work together in South Bombay. As they prepare for a family wedding, director Archana Atul Phadke, who is not in any hurry to marry, observes the shifting, often very funny household dynamics, as both her mother and grandmother wonder how they have tolerated their husbands for so long.

Naked in America follows four everyday American couples from all walks of life, as they shed their clothes and inhibitions for a week at a luxury nudist resort in Palm Springs, California. Capturing the reactions of this diverse group to their new environment, the uncensored feature-length documentary examines the American attitude towards the naked human form, and to each other.

Huelva, Spain, an isolated region lost in time. The grass, the sand and the sky are the same that those foreigners saw in the spring of 1895, when they crossed the sea from a distant country to mark the unspoiled terrain and extract its wealth, when the tower was new, when people could climb to the top of the highest dune and imagine that the city of Tartessos was still there, in the distance, almost invisible in the morning brume.

Elvis and Priscilla are one of the most famous celebrity couples of all time. But the story that lies beneath the glamorous facade is more toxic than what first meets the eye. Elvis has defined Pricilla's life. His comment that she was "young enough that he could train her any way he wanted", in the end, came true. Though their relationship was bound by true love, what were the conditions that let it flourish?

A U.S. Marine plots a terrorist attack on a small-town American mosque, but his plan takes an unexpected turn when he comes face to face with the people he sets out to kill.