Chile, Land of Charm

A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation - impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand - are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.

Gathered by a theater company, a small town in Chile called Villa Alegre, looks deep into its origins and myths to tell their own history through a play.

In 1973 a military coup was staged in Chile, Ernesto lived through these tough times and shares his story about what happened to him

The third installment in Dan Přibáň's series of travel documentaries describes the author's journey with his friends across South America in vehicles that are often notorious but cult in their own way. The charming dynamics of the group on screen are further enhanced by the high-quality craftsmanship.

Filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman goes in search of his revolutionary roots in Chile and in the process finds it in the euphoria of the Occupy Movement.

Documentary filmmaker Bruce Brown, himself a competition-level surfer, follows surfers Michael Hynson and Robert August on an around-the-world surfing adventure. With Brown's wry, sardonic narration and a twangy, guitar-driven instrumental soundtrack by The Sandals playing over the silent footage, Mike and Rob leave their California home to visit Hawaii, Australia, South Africa and other secluded surfing spots in a search for the surfer's holy grail that Brown dubs "The Perfect Wave.”

Concert by Víctor Jara at Panamericana Televisión in Lima, Peru, on July 17, 1973. This is one of the last audiovisual records of Víctor Jara. Two months later he would be assassinated by the Chilean military dictatorship.

Resa med en vän [Travel With A Friend] is a poetic documentary where singer-songwriter Olle Adolphson and filmmaker Eric M. Nilsson travels to Southern France and Northern Spain, where the mountains meets the Atlantic Ocean in the West and the Mediterranean Sea in the East.

In the midst of a profound social conflict, the director, a blind activist based in Canada, returns to her native Chile to follow five activists who embark on a transformative process to dignify their lives.

Images of Argentinian companies and factories in the first light of day, seen from the inside of a car, while the director reads out documents in voiceover that reveals the collusion of the same concerns in the military dictatorship’s terror.

The reception ebbs and flows as the unfamiliar landscape whirls by the window of a plane or train or car. Communication is delayed, fragmented, interrupted. Memories of a distant country.

Sir Chris Bonington’s return to Torres del Paine, 62 years after the first ascent of the Central Tower. At 91 years old, and while living with Alzheimer’s disease, the documentary accompanies Bonington in a profoundly human return: an attempt to reconnect with memories that time has erased, but that the Patagonian landscape still seems to guard. During the filming, Chris once again set foot on the territory of Estancia Cerro Guido, closing a circle between past and present, between the epic of mountaineering and the fragility of memory.

When everyone is supposed to be celebrating the arrival of a new year, the Chilean director Cristobal Valenzuela takes to the streets of Santiago to give voice to another facet, less colorful and festive, undoubtedly invisible, of this eve. Lonely pedestrians who roam the streets of the city inhabit the frame of a handheld camera that allows them to express themselves. Comments of hopelessness and tiredness, contrasting with the sky lit by fireworks, give us a glimpse to that other social image.

We look first at Westminster Abbey and the Towers of Parliament. And the sight-seeing only starts there as it continues to all the famous buildings of London.

Early film of a crowded street scene in an unidentified Indian city.

Travel films have an established format with their own conventions, history and baggage. It is a medium that has all too often sought to control, define and dictate perceptions of ”other” places. Comprised of footage shot while travelling on group excursions across Russia in 2019, An Uncountable Number of Threads is an attempt to draw out the ethical restrictions of a travelogue, while questioning how (and why) to make one. At times there is an awkward tourist-gaze, aware of its outsider position. But as a self-reflexive work that considers its own creation, it ultimately unravels, as the artist rationalises themselves out of a particular way of working, inviting the viewer into their uncertainty.

This documentary visits the towns and villages of the Alsace region of France at Christmastime. See the charmingly decorated storybook towns and learn of the unique holiday traditions and celebrations. The Alsatian landscape is covered with medieval towns, castle ruins and vineyards, and the communities of the region create a season of enchantment in their celebration of Christmas.

1917 travelogue.

1917 travelogue.

The film is a cinematic interpretation of the travel book “Armenia” by Russian poet Andrei Bely.