Silent Stories

This FitzPatrick Traveltalk short visits the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, and Marrakesh in Morocco, as well as the city of Algiers in Algeria.

Voyage à Tombouctou

By meeting his former comrades in combat, the film follows the journey of Yves Mathieu, anti-colonialist in Black Africa then lawyer for the FLN. When Algeria became independent, he drafted the Decrees of March on vacant property and self-management, promulgated in 1963 by Ahmed Ben Bella. Yves Mathieu's life is punctuated by his commitments in an Algeria that was then called "The Lighthouse of the Third World". The director, who is his daughter, returns to the conditions of his death in 1966.

From her roots in Southern Italy to her landing in Bologna, the trans leader Porpora Marcasciano relives her self-discovery, from a negated identity to battles for human rights.

A documentary that shows a body in social and family isolation, but the distance is not caused by the coronavirus, but by being a transvestite. Renata Carvalho is a character of herself, her voice tells us the historicity/transcestrality of her body and the structural transphobia.

"A country without artists is a dead country... I hope we are alive..." It is in this film by Fawzi Sahraoui produced by the RTA in 1985 and filmed a few months before the painter M'hamed Issiakhem 'turns off this sentence is spoken. A very interesting docu-fiction in which Issiakhem delivers himself with finesse, passion and generosity.

Julia is a young transgender woman who left her home country of Lithuania. Now living in Germany, she walks the streets of Berlin, working as a prostitute to survive. This documentary revisits Julia over a ten-year period of her life.

Filmed on location, Flandrien tells the story of the Flanders region of Belgium. Rich in history, full of flavor and adventure, Flanders abounds with captivating visuals. Cycling is central to the lifestyle and culture of the area. From the onset, the question arises: What is a Flandrien? The journey strips away the layers to discover and understanding where, why, and within whom the Flandrien spirit lives. Along the way, the treasures, triumphs, and tragedies of Flanders are revealed. Flandrien shares insights from some of the cycling greats of Belgium and around the world who devoted their lives to a sport so ingrained in the culture it is inextricable.

The essay by René Vautier, "Déjà le sang de Mai ensemençait Novembre", starts with the recapitulation of the representations of Algeria throughout the history of visual arts in France in an effort to explore the causes for the quest for independence.

Set in a small town in the region of Tamil Nadu, in southern India, the film follows the days and works of a hijra family. Silky, Mahima, Trisha, Durga, Kuyili, Priyanka, Vasundhara and Yamuna, under the firm protection of their guru Lakshmi Ma, deliver snippets of their marginal but sovereign existence. From a millenia-old sacred tradition to getting by every second, "Guru" composes with them a poem of intertwined voices in which the world is a tough playground, where the third gender is primarily the resistance force of a life shared.

How do humans and animals see each other? Dominique Loreau captures astonishing exchanges of “views” between people and animals who coexist in the city, in farms, slaughterhouses, zoos, museums, or in a dance rehearsal room. In The Eyes Of A Beast questions the permeable boundary between man and animal.

One afternoon, four young people meet and share experiences about being bisexual in a world marked by heteronormativity.

Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits.

Two bodies and one mind, this is the extraordinary story of one pair of conjoined twins in today's world.

By ending the life of Jean Senac on August 30, 1973 in Algiers, his assassins believed they would silence him forever. They were wrong since his voice is a little louder every day. Witnesses to these craze: the publication of the complete works of this great poet, the countless conferences and radio broadcasts devoted to him and finally the production of films such as "Jean Sénac, the blacksmith of the sun". The moving and overwhelming testimonies of those who knew him, the unpublished film archives, the generous voice of the poet on the radio, the discovery of his travels in the territories of poetry and politics make this film a precious document on the life of Jean Senac.

An unprecedented look into the psyche of Karel Sabbe in his attempt to finish the legendary Barkley Marathons. As the first documentary focusing on a finisher, it unveils Sabbe's mental fortitude and physical resilience in tackling the brutal course. Through intimate interviews and captivating footage, viewers gain invaluable insights into the mindset required to endure the grueling challenges of the Barkley.

The rules are simple in Senegalese wrestling: First man down, loses. The sport derives from ritual manhood trials and has developed into a national sport with packed stadiums and huge prizes. Today, the fight is supplemented with bare knuckle boxing but without any protection. The 22­-year-­old cattle herder Ndoff has been chosen to compete in an annual talent event in Dakar, and faces a possible breakthrough as a pro wrestler. LAAMB is the story of a sport filled with myths and extreme voodoo rituals, and a modern tale about fighting one’s way out of poverty.

From the beginning, Hergé's work, Tintin's creator, was conditioned by the ideology of his publisher, the weekly child supplement of a Belgian Catholic newspaper. An exciting analysis of the political meaning of the adventures of Tintin.

"Djazaïrouna", produced by the cinema service of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), is a montage film intended to inform the international community at the UN in 1959 on the objectives pursued by the Algerian resistance during the war of 'Algeria. Independence in Algeria (1954-1962). In 1959, Djamel-Eddine Chanderli and Mohammed Lakdar-Hamina produced Djazaïrouna (Our Algeria) from images taken by René Vautier and Doctor Pierre Chaulet. This film, completed a little later and will result in the film “The Voice of the People”. This documentary on the history of Algeria through a montage of current events, traces the political and military actions of the A.L.N, the demonstrations of December 1960, and the attack on a fortified French base on the border between Algeria and Tunisia.

Georges Remi, known as Hergé, a complex and complicated artist, created Tintin, one of the most famous characters in the world. With exceptional access to the archives of Studios Hergé and Moulinsart, this documentary looks at Remi's life and the way he changed the art of comic.