A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
Camera operator Noël Véry provides a commentary on footage shot during the making of The Beast.
From practicing barefoot on the streets of Lagos to performing on stage in England, twelve year old Anthony Madu leaves his home in Nigeria to study at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world. Anthony, who had barely left his neighborhood in Lagos, finds himself thrust into a new world where his wildest dream is suddenly within reach. His journey is a story of extraordinary obstacles, courage, growth, and ultimately, his search for belonging.
Somewhere in the world right now--much closer than you think--people are playing with trains. You might not see them at first, but they're there. In basements. In garages. In converted Army barracks. They're among the world's most compelling underground communities.
This film profiles Canadian actor Christopher Plummer of the Shakespearean Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. As the minutes tick by, cameras register the transformation as he dons his make-up for the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac. We also see Toronto actress Kate Reid as well as actors Len Birman and Martha Henry.
A hilarious and at times provocative film about a middle-aged American single-mother living in Switzerland and her quest to find out if she'll be invisible when she's no longer the woman with the biggest breasts in the room.
Introducing his never before seen 'leaping one-hander' to the masses on a national level, Kenny Sailors quickly grew to be a fan favorite while leading his Wyoming Cowboys to the Collegiate National Championship in Madison Square Garden in 1943. But after playing on several losing teams in an unstable, emerging league now known as the NBA, Kenny disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness only to be forgotten by the sport he helped pioneer. Now, nearly sixty years later, the multitude of people he has touched along the way have forced Kenny’s humble reemergence.
The story of lyrical genius, Martin Phillipps and his band, The Chills, is a cautionary tale, a triumph over tragedy, and a statement about the meaning of music in our lives.
Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. With her elongated, race-horse physique, she became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Because of her extraordinary movement and unique personality on stage, she became a muse to two of the greatest choreographers in dance, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. She eventually married Balanchine, and Robbins created his famous version of Afternoon of a Faun for her. She had love, fame, adoration, and was the foremost dancer of her day until it suddenly all stopped. At the age of 27, she was struck down by polio and paralyzed. She never danced again. The ballet world has been haunted by her story ever since.
Lost and Found depicts a life of a man with no homeland. 10 years ago Konstantin G fled the persecutions of homosexuals from Moscow to Finland. He lives now in Helsinki, living the different roles of his life: he is a nurse and a friend of the aged, a bright personality of the nightlife in Helsinki's gay-world, a solitary figure of the Russian community and the Orthodox Church, and as well as an intensive cabaret performer. Film is a mosaic-like journey to the loves and lives of Konstantin, where poems, songs and encounters form a picture of one passionate and unusual life. In the roles of his own life Konstantin Gontcharev.
Documentary that follows the lives of two pirates and their community on the Somali coastline; what are the incentives of the pirates, why did they become pirates, how did they grow up in a country with political chaos, war and extreme poverty? The narrative structure is built around two interweaving story-lines; one depicting the "present", the daily lives of the pirates and their community, and the second in the "past", revealing through epic animation, the unfolding of a recent hijacking.
In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. Her film immortalized her trips with Tove Jansson.
In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. She filmed the games and chores of the artist couple in their beloved hideout, the island of Klovharun.
This is the tale of a young woman, growing up in the age of the internet and turning the search for oneself into a public spectacle, allowing kids from all over the world to live their life through hers. Through her fragmented personalities you see the emergence of a new generation, in which the concept of a fixed identity has grown old.
Filmmaker Cheryl Foggo re-examines the story of John Ware, the Black cowboy who settled in Alberta, Canada, prior to the turn of the 20th century.
A "beyond the shoes" documentary on the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos.
A series of interviews which try to establish the current role of the woman in the Saudi society in relation with the recent past.
Documentary about Carolyn Cassady, her life and marriage to Neal Cassady, her relationship with Jack Kerouac and how she takes care of the literary legacy from both.
Lisa's husband, Bill, abuses her. With her sister's encouragement, she takes their three kids and leaves her husband. Bill keeps interfering with Lisa's attempts at a new life. She gets an order of protection against him, but the police can't do anything else to help her. One night Bill breaks into Lisa's apartment and shoots her. As she dies in the hospital, Lisa asks her sister to promise to take care of her three children. The sister takes the kids into her home, but Bill is still on the loose, an ever present threat.
The world’s most magnificent horsemen face an unsure future in one of the planet’s last great equine cultures. The Tibetan Buddhist region of Mustang in the High Himalaya is the Last Forbidden Kingdom and their unique heritage and remarkable spiritual bond with the horse is under threat. In a land where a man’s wealth can still be measured in horses, death defying races are the colorful back-drop for this story of the ascent of civilization in the high Himalaya. With lush cinematography, and insightful intervieww, the film also recounts the little known story of the CIA’s covert operations in Mustang, and features rare archival footage of the Dalai Lama’s flight on horseback over the Himalaya. The scholarly and perceptive voices of Dr. Sienna Craig - author of "Horses Like Lightning" and Mikel Dunham, author of "Buddha's Warriors" turn this lens to issues of globalization, fragile border politics and the precarious future for Mustang’s distinctive equine culture.