Anya was an ordinary Moscow teenager who found a chat group of her choice online. They talked about animals, the stars and social issues. A man called Ruslan D joined the group, who set up an office space for the online group to meet. Step by step, he began to lead young people who were critical of the Putin's regime towards political activism. Ruslan D placed a camera in the meeting room, and when he had enough footage, he handed it over to the prosecutor. The police raided the teenagers' homes and they were arrested on charges of planning to overthrow the government and terrorism. Three years of legal proceedings transformed Anya's mother from a loyal follower of Putin to a hunger-striking activist. Moscow-based director Anna Shishova followed Anya and her mother's life throughout the event and eventually revealed the true identity of Ruslan D.
Little heroine, a music school student, wanders through the backstreets of Warsaw's Old Town and discovers a world to which others have no access. It is a world of extraordinariness and beauty of sounds. And these are sounds that are the most important thing for the girl – the hubbub of children, the sounds of the street, the puffing of a tractor, the tuning of an organ, the sweeping of a broom and the sound of jets flying overhead.
A fictional documentary that portrays the city of Dakar, Senegal, as we hear the conversation between a Senegalese man (the director, Djibril Diop Mambéty) and a French woman, Inge Hirschnitz. As we travel through the city in a picturesque horse drawn wagon, we chaotically rush into this and that popular neighborhood of the capital, discovering contrast after contrast: A small African community waiting at the Church's door, Muslims praying on the sidewalk, the Rococo architecture of the Government buildings, the modest stores of the craftsmen near the main market.
Here are theatrical trailers for 27 mainstream and art-house films, presented chronologically from "Tea and Sympathy" to "Outrageous!" This spectacular showcase of vintage movie trailers offers a crash course in lesbian, gay, bi and transgender (LGBT) movie history and a colorful look at nearly every major mainstream queer-themed film produced between 1953 and 1977! Archivist Jenni Olson is one of the world’s leading experts on LGBT film history — curated from her private collection of rare original 35mm coming attractions trailers, Homo Promo has entertained audiences at LGBT film festivals around the world offering a campy cavalcade of coming attractions. Please note: The condition of these original 35mm archival prints varies — enjoy the wear and tear and rest assured that they have now all been donated to the Outfest/UCLA Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation where they are now being properly cared for.
Caught between two genders, the artist Eli Leven and Ester Martin Bergsmark touch and caress each other, while they bath together in clouds of steam. A persuasive voice-off describes the often hard and painful growing process, which led them to choose to be neither males nor females. But something else entirely. While memories of adolescences scarred by homophobia and discrimination are presented, the audience is also captivated by poetic evocations of bodies, of snowy woods, water, nature, and snails: the symbol of androgyny. This movie moves the audience profoundly. It is a hymn to sexual fluidity, which reveals the search for the true self, rendered through the use of contrasting, vivid, and often acid bright photography. Intended as a television portrait of the transgender artist Eli Leven, it is a psychedelic docu-fiction, a hybrid movie inspired by Derek Jarman's Sebastian.
A filmed record of the 1978 "Alternative Miss World" beauty pageant held in a circus tent on Clapham Common in South London.
A Tibetan woman collects water near her family's yak farm and brings it back home 80-pounds full, in a ritual that takes her an hour to complete. A selection from Peabody Award-winning documentarian Bari Pearlman’s Nangchen Shorts series.
Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.
14 year-old Janiyah Blackmon wrestles with her new life in New York City as her mom tries to move her family out of the shelter system and into a stable home.
Rajah Caruth wasn’t supposed to be a NASCAR driver. As a Black kid growing up in Washington D.C., he had no connections and little representation in the industry. Determined to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a driver, he pursued the only path he saw available: virtual racing. He made a name for himself in the online world of iRacing, leveraging his rapidly growing talents and personal brand into a spot in a real-life race car. In the few short years since Caruth first got into a car, he has risen to NASCAR’s penultimate racing series, with his sights set at the top. This short documentary tells his story and follows him as he prepares for a bold new chapter in his racing career.
"Labyrinth" is a groundbreaking multi-screen 45-minute presentation produced for Chamber III of the Labyrinth at Expo 67 in Montreal, using 35 mm and 70 mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens. A film without commentary in which multiple images, sometimes complementary, sometimes contrasting, draw the viewer through the different stages of a labyrinth. The tone of the film moves from great joy to wrenching sorrow; from stark simplicity to ceremonial pomp. It is life as it is lived by the people of the world, each one, as the film suggests, in a personal labyrinth. Re-released in 1979 as "In the Labyrinth" by the National Film Board of Canada in a 21-minute single projection format.
Dimitra Koutsiabassakos is 88 years old and lives alone in the village of Armatoliko in the Pindos mountain range, on the banks of the ancient river Acheloos, named after the mythical river god who fought Heracles for the favors of a woman and who could take on many forms. Dimitra’s home is located near the place where a great dam is being built and lies right in the middle of the area destined to become a lake after construction is completed. By a strange quirk of fate, the materials used in the construction of the dam are a product of a cement company named “Heracles”, so that it seems that the age-old contest between Acheloos and Heracles continues to the present day! Dimitris, Costas and Petros decide to pay their grandmother a visit and make a documentary.
Soft boys by day, kings by night. The film follows a group of young Bulgarian Roma who come to Vienna looking for freedom and a quick buck. They sell their bodies as if that's all they had. What comforts them, so far from home, is the feeling of being together. But the nights are long and unpredictable.
Featuring exclusive access to their recent tour and their new album, this documentary reveals the fascinating world of Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.
Examines the diversity of human sexual and gender variance around the globe, with commentary by scientific experts and first-hand accounts of people who do not conform to a simple male/female binary.
A documentary special taking a look at the upcoming films making up the DC Universe. Kevin Smith hosts with Geoff Johns, as they take a look at Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, the upcoming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies.
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In February 2016, rock 'n' roll trio Thelma & the Sleaze embarked on the world's first “Intra-City Tour”. They played 31 shows in 29 days and raffled off a promotional mini-van in the process, in an unprecedentedly absurd publicity stunt that raised the bar for independent artists everywhere. Exploring the furthest of reaches of Nashville’s music scene, blazing new trails in its wake, the film follows the twists and turns, triumphs and follies of all 29 days as Thelma & the Sleaze bring their raw rock 'n' roll fury through DIY spaces, art galleries, laundromats, screen printing shops, record stores, clothing shops, candy factories, roller rinks and even a McDonald’s.
Four people - Brittany, Hannah, Nick, and Ylonda - tell their stories about how access to abortion in their community helped them empower themselves to lead lives they want to live.
Women of mature years talk about their marriage, their first time, their intimate relationship with sexuality. In the repetition of these ancestral rituals, the director questions her own lack of marriage, of children, and with it, a chain of mother-daughter relationships that is dying out.