Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.
This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.
An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and followed their lives for a year. The artists, from villages in Ghana, Gambia and Congo, were the subjects of Africa! Africa! touring across Europe, but they have unbreakable roots to their homeland and their families. Schmiderer lovingly portrays his heroes, who tell their stories about themselves, their art and what it means to them to be African with captivating honesty. The interviews are interwoven with dance scenes and colourful vignettes set to authentic music.
The Our Gang kids put on a circus in the barn to raise money to help Porky's family pay the rent and avoid getting evicted.
Dumbo is a baby elephant born with over-sized ears and a supreme lack of confidence. But thanks to his even more diminutive buddy Timothy the Mouse, the pint-sized pachyderm learns to surmount all obstacles.
Beyond the lights and magic of the ring, this documentary follows the lives of the main stars of comedy: clowns.
Stuck in a car with his mother, Loïc opens up a sensitive conversation : he no longer wants to walk on the footsteps of his clown parents. As he's asking her to remove his makeup, his mother Marianne must then accept her son's new start.
A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil
Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way. (Storyville)
On behalf of "oppressed bugs everywhere," an inventive ant named Flik hires a troupe of warrior bugs to defend his bustling colony from a horde of freeloading grasshoppers led by the evil-minded Hopper.
Une histoire complètement cirque
In the magical world of La Nouba, dreams become reality and talent turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. La Nouba is, literally, a waking dream come true – clowns, ballerinas, trapeze artists, an incredible BMX bicycle act – and much more.
Le Cri du Caméléon
A renowned circus dog is the only one left behind after her traveling show leaves town. In a stroke of luck, she is found by Billy, a kid from the city who has just moved to town, and he takes her to live at a farm among a quirky cast of farm animals.
Tucked away in northern Indiana, the city of Peru, Indiana is the circus capitol of the world. Thousands of visitors and townspeople come to this town for two weeks to see the annual amateur circus. Performed by only the local kids, fueled with the rich history and culture of the circus in Peru, this show is anything but amateur.
Short dramatised documentary showing the ups and downs of daily life on a circus farm. “The only light comes from the flames of the funeral pyre that consumes a dead circus elephant shortly after its corpse has been unceremoniously dragged across a field by 50 carthorses.” (BFI)
A tiger escapes from a circus truck as it passes by a small town, and hides itself in the surrounding woods. This throws the town into a panic and everyone wants the animal killed immediately, except for the daughter of the sheriff. She wants to capture the tiger and put it in a zoo, thereby saving the tiger's life. Her determination starts a nationwide campaign among children to raise the money to buy the tiger from the circus, but first, she, her father and an Indian tiger trainer must find the tiger before the National Guard do, who have orders to kill it on sight.
A family must use a magical box of Animal Crackers to save a rundown circus from being taken over by their evil uncle Horatio P. Huntington.
Join Philemon, a young Sicilian boy whose quest for adventure leads him into an otherworldly realm. This mystical domain, a vivid manifestation of his hopes, dreams, and fears, unfolds as he delves into its deeper, darker waters. As Philemon explores this fantastical world, he encounters a breathtaking array of aquatic performances that captivate and intrigue, each act revealing a new facet of this dream-like expedition.