Tattooed hands gently glide over a rock face, probing it with the tips of the fingers. Three women, arms raised to a high boulder, appear to be in prayer. Hidden in a cave, two others stare at their bloody palms. Touching Rocks depicts bouldering as a pagan ritual.
Basically this is a commercial for Hollywood's Lido Lounge and for MGM contract players. The Lido is a large watering hole; we visit one afternoon with an orchestra playing, all sorts of stars and would-be stars sitting at tables near the pool alongside paying customers, and bathing beauties parading and diving. The Lido's manager, Reggy Denny, introduces the stars in the audience. He's sometimes interrupted by someone who does a bit, sings a song, or otherwise entertains: most of these are novelty acts. By the end, everyone's having a swell time.
Death in the Garden of Paradise is an intensely personal meditation on the murder of the filmmaker's father and sister in Lahore by an unknown intruder. The disassociation caused by traumatic loss and the impossibility of knowing the identity of the killer flow seamlessly into the film's aesthetics so that familiar sights become strange, shopkeepers and passing pedestrians become suspects, and sound is fragmented and distorted. Architecture and haunted spaces, deserted gardens, photographs and paintings are both metaphors and physical locations in this elegant elegy to mortality
Directed by Hajir Dariush.
In order to rectify the poor bus accessibility at Slussen station in Stockholm, the city council, as per the municipal board’s recommendation, erects so-called ‘bus traps’ on the street.
Vacation slides are as much the butt of jokes as airline food, VCR clocks, and glamour shots. Americana artist Robert Townsend would disagree. With an interest in vernacular photography—in which amateur photographers shoot everyday images—Robert finds some vacation slides and becomes creatively smitten with one lady who appears in numerous photos, whom he thinks has a “superstar quality.” As he immortalizes her world in paintings that are outsized celebrations of the mid-century era, Townsend finds himself picking up clues and setting upon a quest to learn more about this happy mystery woman and her Kodacolor life. It’s a gorgeous and fascinating film celebrating an incredibly talented artist and his middle-American muse in cat-eye glasses.
Biodun is Nigerian. In this animated documentary, he tells the story of his journey on foot from Lagos to Paris, how he survives with a container (un bidon) and thanks to his courage. With his amazing patter, he transforms the events into extraordinary adventures.
Lucy Jarvis -- the plucky camerawoman known for becoming the first Westerner to film inside communist China -- breaks barriers once again with this exclusive look at the world-famous Musée du Louvre, a place that previously barred access to all filmmakers. Charles Boyer is your host on this personalized tour of the museum's most prized possessions, including works by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vermeer and Van Eyck.
The film reports on the return of Soviet units from Czechoslovakia (CSSR) to their stationing areas in the GDR. It depicts the reception by the population of the GDR.
Filmed and edited in intimate vérité style, this movie follows visionary medical practitioners who are working on the cutting edge of life and death and are dedicated to changing our thinking about both.
Wylie carries a telescope through the streets of Los Angeles to offer passersby a new and closer look at a familiar object: the moon. Because everyone needs to keep looking up. Because it is a beautiful and wondrous sight to behold the body of the moon.
The film shows the manufacture of a luxury edition of "Mein Kampf" on real parchment, handwritten.
The 5th anniversary of the inner-German wall to West Germany and West Berlin is on the agenda. The necessity of erecting the border is illustrated by comparing the situation in 1939 and the situation in the summer of 1961 with regard to the "threat of intervention" by the Western powers. Berlin people and GDR border guards are interviewed.
Short film about the Battle of the Aisne in 1918
The 15th "Paul Hornick" Tank Regiment Cottbus, a unit of the "Heinrich Rau" Air Wing in Trollenhagen and the People's Navy are presented. In addition to the introduction of the units and a biographical outline of the namesakes, the garrison towns of Rostock, Cottbus and Neubrandenburg are also presented - urban and economic development in the region as well as cultural life.
In the spring of 1965, Polish citizen Sheybal visits the town of Genthin. He knows his way around the sugar factory. He had to work there as a prisoner of war during the Second World War. He suffered a life-threatening accident. Now he is looking for the people or their relatives who helped him.
La Grève des ouvriers de Margoline
The film shows the various stages of the Stahlhelm's integration into the NSDAP and the Third Reich.
Promotional short for the film "The Sandpiper".
Marcel Duchamp alternates between scrutinizing the camera, and smiling and nodding in response to what seems to be a large crowd of off-screen admirers trying to get his attention. Occasionally he puts his fingers to his lips, indicating that he is not supposed to talk.