Koan IV

Annette Philo brings us to the Scottish landscape and its associated dream-like mystique. With gentle overlays, vivid purples and blues, and alluding to the hidden graves of the last of the Knights Templar, Philo’s depiction of bluebell island lulls us into a contemplation on the duality of what we see for ourselves, and what is cultivated as cultural, historical and national identity.

An investigation about human intervention in nature, from the subjective point of view of the camera, the environment and its transformation are observed.

Some images of the landscape and the spaces that house them. "Every single entity contains an adumbration or landskip of the whole Universe" (Jan Baptist van Helmont, 1650). Images becoming life—life becoming images.

Home is where we grow up or settle permanently. And this home is always shaped by nature. Today, we human beings change and shape this more than any law of nature. HEIMAT NATUR is a visually stunning journey through the nature of our homeland, from the peaks of the Alps to the coasts and the depths of the North and Baltic Seas. In between is a cinematic foray through steaming forests, shimmering moors, over rose-blossoming heaths and the colorful cultural landscape around our villages and towns. In extraordinary images this nature is shown from its most beautiful side, examining the state of the native habitats. Slow-motion and time-lapse photography as well as intimate shots of familiar and unfamiliar species, some filmed for the first time, making the film a cinematic nature experience for the whole family.

"I was visiting Jerome Hill. Jerome loved France, especially Provence. He spent all his summers in Cassis. My window overlooked the sea. I sat in my little room, reading or writing, and looked at the sea. I decided to place my Bolex exactly at the angle of light as what Signac saw from his studio which was just behind where I was staying, and film the view from morning till after sunset, frame by frame. One day of the Cassis port filmed in one shot." -JM

Valérie Jouve is a weel-known photographer, and Grand Littoral is her first film. Out the outskirts of Marseille, in a landscape criss-crossed by motorways, railways and srubland paths, some figures that seem to be from her famous photos passby and bump into each other. They act as our guides in a tour without beginning or end. How do you look at a place without taking possession of it? How do you describe characters without confining them within a given plot? How do you make the transition from still shots to moving pictures? this brief, musical film leaves us asking these and other unresolved questions.

In the Aysén region dwell a population of 90000 isolated souls sharing the harsh landscapes of an area about the size of England. Here where beauty seems to be on first-name terms with fear and danger,in a place where the immensity of nature can never be dominated, the setting hesitates, along the expanses, between sparkling colours and the black and white of the snow and the water. The day-to-day images intermingle with a story of mythological aspect; that of the timeless quest for the Lost City of the Caesars, a city of gold built 500 years ago by the conquerors.

A travelogue along the scenic highways of Cape Breton Island—particularily along the Cabot Trail near Keltic Lodge.

Garden designer Lynden B. Miller explores the life and career of Beatrix Jones Farrand (1872-1959), America's first female landscape architect.

Wildlife Bring the exotic beauty of this island paradise into your home with the vibrant sights and sounds of exotic wildlife, ancient water pools, mystical temples, and traditional Balinese music. Sacred Sites Visit the mother temple of Besakih and absorb the serene beauty of the ocean temple at Tanah Lot. Water Temples Experience the magic of a beautiful stream as it flows through acres of ancient pools adorned by intricately carved statues and fountains. Review Transforms your television into a mesmerizing and peaceful journey through glorious, exotic locals. Filmed in High-Definition, gentle background music and 5.1 surround sound add to the immersive experience. --New Age Retailer

The goddess Diana and her two attendants traverse the rugged terrain of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains in pursuit of the elusive wolf. An Engraver (Matthew Barney) furtively documents their actions in copper engravings and provokes a series of confrontations. The characters communicate through dance, letting movement replace language as they pursue each other and their prey.

A mysterious web of international shortwave radio towers once dominated the Tantramar marshlands near Sackville, New Brunswick. For almost 70 years the RCI shortwave towers broadcast around the world. Due to budget cuts, the site was decommissioned in 2012 and dismantled in 2014. Examining themes of identity and memory, the film captures images of the towers over four seasons in various weather conditions, accompanied by the voices of residents and technicians narrating accounts of hearing radio broadcasts emanate from their household appliances.

This video creates an awareness of the different forms of beauty found in cities. Explains that art, not luxury, is necessary and that nature enriches cities. Shots of San Francisco, Rome, and the Gold Rush town of Columbia, California. The film extols the modern outdoor shopping mall, enhanced by public art and parks, as an important aspect of civic architecture and design.

The first mountains that the Amsterdam-based Colombian artist and filmmaker Ana Bravo Pérez saw in the Netherlands were black. In this experimental work, she follows the stench of the coal in the port of Amsterdam back to its origin: an open wound in northern Colombia. The mine is located in the territory of the Wayuu and has a huge impact on the indigenous people.

A trip behind and beneath the street-level skin of the city on the hidden paths of industrial history and once-and-future transit.

A portrait of Eric Lyons and Span, under the scrutiny of Ian Nairn, as well as the residents of their estates.

Prémonition

Take an epic voyage over the remote island nation of New Zealand, the last habitable landmass to be discovered on the planet. No bigger than the state of Colorado, this small country offers an incredibly diverse landscape view that changes dramatically with each mile. From snow-capped mountains to sandy beaches, and from the glacier-carved Fiordland National Park to the crater lake of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand is a land of extremes. It's a place where fire clashes with ice and people are always pushing the limits.

Take a cross-country flight over Ireland's natural wonders and ancient ruins. In this spectacular overview of the historically significant Emerald Isle, we soar over Neolithic tombs of the Celtic era, medieval castles of the Vikings, and modern cities humming with life. From the tower that inspired a novelist to the ancestral home of a famous stout, we explore the sites, the people, and the milestones of this unique gem of Western Europe.

Latest installment from the on-going collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson & musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Paul's Super8 films, shot entirely in New York City, channel the blissed out states of color drenched psychadellia explored by Brakage as well as lovely black and white still life's that reminisce on Ozu's 'pillow shots' & Chantel Akermans monumental portrait of Pre-Giuliani New York 'Letters Home'. Jefre's music is culled from the same sessions that launched his 2007 release on Students Of Decay 'Shinning Skull Breath', (the two share a track in common). Billowy clouds of distorted guitar expand out into long passages of muffled static and fuzzed out melody.