Touaregs in Their Country

A BFI collection of 7 short films from the USA, England and Italy scored for Piano, Guitar and String Quartet.

A shy teen wants to ask out a girl on a date - but how can he know what she'd like to do, or what kind of activity would be best suited for getting to know her?

The subject is two grotesque-looking human beings who are sitting on the deck of a ship. The two weird individuals sit cross-legged and do the bidding of a man in oriental costume. The point of the film seems to be directed at the fact that the bone structure of the two subjects makes them look like monkeys or apes, and the spectators seem to be trying to get them to behave like monkeys, that is, scratch themselves, etc.

Inventor Jacob Ellehammer's first attempts at flying.

This scene is a part of the very first film shot produced by the Manaki Brothers. Despina, the Janaki and Milton Manaki's grandmother, was recorded weaving in one high-angle shot. For no apparent reason, the first shot made in Macedonia, in the Balkans in fact, made by these two cinematography pioneers, contains peculiar symbolics: at the moment when the grandmother Despina spins the weaving wheel, film starts rolling in our country.

A group of military men uses explosives to de-root trees.

Various street scenes from Copenhagen in 1907.

An early British Kinemacolor short, in which delicate tones and shades of color are beautifully reproduced in examples of highly cultivated sweet pea flowers.

Mauss, segundo suas alunas

Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takes on an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty that serves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any human presence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse of street life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan population and imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force of a universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his camera toward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects around his apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ... Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elements that retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The city becomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting his personal mood.

Double Barrel follows surf and travel journalist Angie Takanami’s journey to Peru to document Peruvian surf guide Harold Koechlin’s dream of protecting Peru’s world-class surf breaks. After a chance meeting, the two compared tales of living through natural and human-inflicted disasters, and their dreams for sustainable surf development and tourism. Focussed in the oil-dominated town of Lobitos, Harold is working together with the local and international community and is determined to preserve the locals’ right to a clean ocean and environment to give towns like Lobitos a more sustainable future.

The arrival of King Rama V, the king of Siam, in Switzerland.

A man trots around on a horse for the camera.

Sovereign Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna and President Félix Faure, walking by, followed by their respective escorts.

Overview of the Alexandre III bridge during the World Exhibition in Paris.

The quadrille enter the arena with alguazils leading the paseíllo.

Different species of fish and frogs, inside an aquarium.

Marquesas in their sedan chairs.

Lyon, Men rescue rabbits from flood.

A crowd of spectators listen to President William McKinley's speech during his inauguration ceremony outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.