Feature-length documentary as part of Pierre Perrault's Abitibian Cycle. The filmmaker questions the past and present of Abitibi and draws up, face to face, the promises of colonization in the 1930s and the great disappointment caused by the closing of the land in the 1970s. There are witnesses to the heroic era, including the cultivator Hauris Lalancette, as well as extracts from films by Father Maurice Proulx (1934-1940).
A documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are portrayed and/or interviewed: Leacock, Wiseman, Maysles, Pennebaker, Reisz and others.
Images of love and freedom personified by a man who like to travel, a man who has made a profession of doing nothing and who constantly comes up against the structures of a society he rejects.
"Montréal under the snow and the cold winter. It is the period of the year when the garage owners strike it rich. The automobile at the service of man? This small opus would rather show the contrary. This is one in a series of eight films titled “Chronicle of Everyday Life,” a project that filmmaker Jacques Leduc took four years to realize, and whose goal was to revisit Direct Cinema at a moment when it was already heavily “contaminated” by mainstream TV." - Anthology Film Archives
"This documentary depicts a canoe being built in the traditional manner. Cesar Newashish, a 67-year-old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve North of Montréal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots, and gum. With a sure hand he works methodically to fashion a craft unsurpassed in function or beauty of design. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native Peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is free of spoken commentary but text appears on the screen in Cree, French, and English." - Anthology Film Archives
"This feature documentary is considered to be the forerunner of the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. The film offers in inside look at 3 weeks in the life of the Bailey family. Trouble with the police, begging for stale bread, and the birth of another child are just some of the issues they face. Through it all, the father tries to explain his family's predicament. Although filmed in Montreal, the film offers an anatomy of poverty as it occurs throughout North America." - NFB
"This film is one of the first French Unit productions of the “Société Nouvelle/Challenge for Change” program. When an old area of Montréal is to be demolished to make way for a new low-income housing development, is there anything the residents can do to protect their own interests? The film documents such a situation in the Little Burgundy district of Montréal and shows how the residents organized themselves into a committee that successfully influenced the city’s housing policy." - Anthology Film Archives
A first look at Strobus / Banksiana: a musical and visual work supported by two important protagonists of the Quebec forest: the white pine and the jack pine. Duu's second album, first double album : each half is distinguished by its sonic palette, its writing style, and the type of conifer that surrounds it. This short documentary offers an intimate glimpse into the creator's journey through the paths that led him to conceive this personal diptych, where he embraces his duality in this visceral desire to celebrate nature every day.
Michel Brault, l'instinct de vue
After the death of her adoptive father, a young filmmaker delves into his video archives only to realize that she never filmed him—except once, by accident. As the end of the world approaches, she now sets out to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary… which, too, is destined to disappear.
The author of the documentary comes to the village of Tverregion, where he was not been for about 20 years. Happy memories of his childhood holidays in this village, about his friends and relatives become sad, as now there are desolation and devastation in these lovely places. The different fates of its inhabitants, who 20 years ago were carefree boys and girls, make us think that a human life depends not only on external circumstances, but also on himself, on his mood, efforts and his own outlook!
This interactive documentary recreates a time and place that only exists in the memories of Iranian Kurds who are forced to live in diaspora around the world. Many people died during the events recounted here and in the years that followed.
Details the atrocities committed by the communist authorities against the local population of Bessarabia in the years 1940-1941 and 1944-1991.
There are different ways of casting away stones and gathering stones together. The artist Felix Buch puts up his sculptures of stones in Moscow streets. Their outlines suggest human figures tensely walking somewhere and at the same time waiting for some revelation. To him this is the essence of Exodus. Once a biblical legend, the image of the Hebrew people who escaped Egyptian captivity for an uncertain future has long become a universal metaphor. The writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya believes that the Exodus theme is very important in Russia today because “the seventy years of Soviet rule were a stunning exodus from one country that had gone out of control (the Russian Empire) on to a new country that failed (the Soviet Union)”. That “exodus” remained incomplete. Felix Buch is an artist, not a philosopher. Arranging stone figures in Moscow streets becomes a sort of happening, and this film gives viewers an opportunity to take part in this artistic improvisation.
Anatoly Ganne is sixty two years old. For thirty three years he’d been in prison. During his life Ganne followed thieves' concepts: not to have any family and home - so that there was nothing to take away. Now he is settled in Moscow, got married and has a son. But Moscow authorities are trying to take away his house.
Vicky, a young Chinese mural painter, works at the Warner Bros. World construction site in Abu Dhabi. In a moment of heightened emotion, Vicky, her friends, and a filmmaker come together in a fleeting shared space, weaving dreams and imaginations. As the narrator reflects on the daily lives of Vicky and her friends, she strives to unravel the subtle, enigmatic bonds that connect them.
Take A Spectacular Journey. It Starts Right Here... Arabia: Sand, Sea & Sky Take a stunning tour of Arabia's natural world- a land of vivid contrast and splendor. Your journey begins in the magnificent coral reefs of the Red Sea where barracuda, giant mantra rays, and sharks comb the fertile waters. Then, high in the cliffs of the great mountain barrier, you will be fascinated by the complex social behavior of a troop of baboons. As you descend into the foothills, thousands of migrating birds converge, including the flamboyant Abyssinian Roller which will dazzle you with its brilliant feathers and swooping aerobatic dives. Finally, travel by camel across the immense sculptured desert, as the Bedouins have for more than thirty-five hundred years on an expedition you will never forget in ARABIA: SAND, SEA, & SKY.
Eli began transitioning from female to male in January 2015 and began hormone treatment at the end of that year. Filmmaker and friend, Sarah Jenny Johnson, was keen to document the positive aspects as the physical changes of his transition were starting to occur. ELl is the first in a series of short films about his experience.
This highly controversial documentary, aired as part of the CBS Reports series, ostensibly covers the growing influence of the LGBT community in San Francisco circa 1979. Critics have rebuked the program for its characterization of the sexual practices of gay men, while organizations such as the Moral Majority referenced it in campaigns against gay rights ordinances.
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