The Shipibo-Konibo people of Peruvian Amazon decorate their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and body art with complex geometric patterns called kené. These patterns also have corresponding songs, called icaros, which are integral to the Shipibo way of life. This documentary explores these unique art forms, and one Shipibo family's efforts to safeguard the tradition.
A Weaverly Path offers an intimate portrait of Swiss-born tapestry weaver Silvia Heyden. The film captures the inner dialogue and meditations of an extraordinary artist in the moments of creation. Heyden works for over a year to create works inspired by the Eno River in Durham, North Carolina. And she shares how nature, music, her Bauhaus inspired education at the School of the Arts in Zurich and her life experiences anchor and inform her art. Heyden was a 20th century modernist whose body of work redefines the art of modern tapestry.
A new documentary that follows master Haida weaver Delores Churchill on a journey to replicate a spruce root hat discovered with the Long Ago Person Found. The 300-year-old traveler was discovered in British Columbia and DNA testing discovered living descendants in Canada and Alaska. Her search crosses cultures and borders, and involves artists, scholars and scientists. The project raises questions about understanding and interpreting ownership, knowledge and connection.
The people, the scenery and the industrial traditions of the Stroud valley and the growth of the woollen industry.
Uses high magnification photography to demonstrate the processes of converting raw fibers into woven cloth.
Set in Varanasi, an ancient city of India, Tana Bana offers a rare look at the hidden world of Moslem weavers and Hindu traders and how their lives are interwoven through the production of the silk and the beauty it creates. However, as the technology advances, the trade is threatened by computerization and globalization.
A group of Macedonian women are shown hard at work.
Richly detailed amateur ethnographic film on the agrarian economy and society in rural Punjab.
This film explores the traditional crafts of Native American tribes, specifically the Hopi, Navajo, and Iroquois. It highlights the craftsmanship of Hopi basket weaving and pottery, showcasing their techniques and cultural significance. The Navajo's weaving of wool blankets and rugs, as well as their silver jewelry making process, is also detailed. Additionally, the film discusses the Iroquois tradition of carving ceremonial masks from basswood trees. Each craft reflects the unique heritage and artistic expressions of these tribes.
Set in a Burkina Faso organic cotton weaving cooperative, a cacophonous cotton-spinning apparatus eats, digests, and takes a breath. Threads become the organs of a whirling, burping, guzzling machine animated by hands, looms, vats, cogs, and feet. Where does the machine end and the body begin? The weaving cooperative promises equitable remuneration for workers in an industry beholden to its colonial predecessor: today, Burkinabè cotton farmers live in permanent debt to cotton companies financed by European capital. By focusing on the repetitive labor unfolding within a cooperative that claims to serve its workers, Everything Here Holds Its Inverse examines the tension between empowerment and evolving oppressions. Can the ties that bind and define also set free?
Records the highs and lows of a season that came close to winning the championship. Chronicles the 40-year love affair between a struggling blue-collar city and a perfectly matched blue-collar team.
The official documentary of the Copa Libertadores Feminina 2023
Blanca and Patzi migrated from Bolivia to Argentina. They carry the lore of ancient history, the memory of a dream in Aymara, a mud brick house, the moon and the harvests. When they migrate, things change their name, their time, their place. The roots unfold in the dark tracing paths through the Earth. The community emerges in the city as a way to construct a possible present. Within the collective they weave their stories together with those of other women where they see themselves reflected and empowered. Two women, a shared journey that crosses more borders than the territorial.
Meri unearths memories about Osvaldo, her father, a militant and leader of the Workers’ Party in Argentina. Much like piecing together a shattered vase, she delves into the chronicle of the first accusation of gender violence within that organization. The story winds through both party and family archives, intertwining with the portrait of her mother, Flavia. The director reconstructs her family history, which is, in turn, the history of the party and the political history of the country. An unsettling journey of discovering and yet still loving a father who unveils his monstrous side, “Internal Newsletter” stands as a testament, reflecting on the personal and political upheavals that bind three generations of revolutionary activists.
A collection of shorts, some documentary and some fictional, showing the political climate in Argentina during the military regime of the late 1960s.
For over 4000 years, the Sphinx has puzzled all who have laid eyes on it. What is this crouching lion, human-headed creature? Who built it and why? To unlock its secrets, two teams of scientists and sculptors immerse themselves in the world of ancient Egypt — a land of pharaohs and pyramids, animal gods and mummies, sun worship and human sacrifice.
This short WWII propaganda documentary drives home the point that steel and committed steel workers can make the difference between winning and losing in modern warfare. A short sequence demonstrating the depravity of the Nazis is followed by a detailed explanation of the manufacture of Bren guns, ambulances, transport trucks and submarine chasers in Canada during World War II.
Trümpi follows Swiss jawharp virtuoso Anton Bruhin in a voyage of discovery, as he encounters the techniques and traditions of his instrument, as found across Europe and Asia.
In this documentary, Ilary Blasi shares the emotional and powerful story of the much-discussed end of her marriage.
The familiar landscapes of Cornwall take on brand new hues.