Shinto: Nature, Gods, and Man in Japan

A journey back through Dacia Maraini's and her trips around the world with her close friends cinema director Pier Paolo Pasolini and opera singer Maria Callas. An in-depth story of this fascinating woman's life. Maraini's memories come alive through personal photographs taken on the road as well as her own Super 8 films shot almost thirty years ago.

In the week when Hindus celebrate the holy festival of Diwali, this documentary tells the story of one of their faith's most sacred symbols - the swastika. For many, the swastika has become a symbol synonymous with the Nazis and fascism. But this film reveals the fascinating and complex history of an emblem that is, in fact, a religious symbol, with a sacred past. For the almost one billion Hindus around the world, the swastika lies at the heart of religious practices and beliefs, as an emblem of benevolence, luck and good fortune.

Fame driven Ken Dean becomes the subject of a documentary when he attempts to start a pornography company. Following the failure of the company, Ken uses his father's religious music to start a Christian rock band but finds himself trapped in a gay conversion cult.

For the past 4 years a devout Catholic Andre Levesque has been performing dance shows inside the trains of Montreal's underground metro. Using old school pop and rock music hits as the accompaniment to his amateur dances, he devotes his performances to Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary.

The joys of 1960s modern education - as seen at a not-exactly-typical local comp.

This was a news film with elements of reenactment. From December 1927 to 1932, 2,000 bus and train drivers were fired, provoking a strike. This film was edited out of footage shot from that strike over a long period.

A group of eminent experts, including the Marian Fathers, analyze Greek texts of the Holy Scripture, revelations and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The result is a new interpretation of passages of the Scripture revealing Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her extraordinary role in the divine plan for the salvation of the world.

A look at the Hutterites, an Anabaptist religious community similar to the Amish or the Mennonites in rural Alberta.

In the thick of a controversial war of ideas, two enlightening figures, Sam Harris, an atheist and a critic of religion, and Maajid Nawaz, an Islamist-turned-liberal activist, partake in an engaging dialogue on the state of Islam, its potential reform, the militant ideology of Islamism, and where all this lays in a secular world.

It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.

A journey into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experiences in modern day Japan. For some hafus, Japan is the only home they know, for some living in Japan is an entirely new experience, and the others are caught somewhere between two different worlds.

Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage from Japan and is otherwise known as rice wine. Women were prohibited from entering the many large and small sake breweries dotting Japan for centuries. However, times have changed and women are present on the sake scene today. In several cases, they are integral to the Japanese brewery business. The documentary depicts women who are not only enthusiasts, but also leaving their marks on the evolution of this Japanese mainstay.

Examines the implications of Christian Nationalism, how it distorts not only our constitutional republic, but Christianity itself, and asks the question: What happens when a faith built on love, sacrifice, and forgiveness grows political tentacles, conflating power, money, and belief into hyper-nationalism?

Zombies are part of pop culture, but what are they? Where do they come from? To find real zombies we visit Haiti where Zombies are an integral part of the island's cultural and religious roots.

"Heart of the Country" is the story of Shinichi Yasutomo, the extraordinary principal of a rural elementary school in Kanayama, central Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Yasutomo is a man driven by his vision for learning and his passion for educating the heart as well as the mind. The film follows Yasutomo, his teachers and staff, students and their families over the course of one entire school year. The film is also the story of the families of Kanayama. Parents and elders of this once impoverished town embrace Yasutomo's vision, but not without wary glances back to the past. This small community, bound together by love for its children, is also defined by its journey through the cultural upheavals of postwar Japan.

An orthodox heroine astride a motorbike. Young people breaking the monotony of a country life through stunt riding. A meeting against a Western backdrop between two universes that are at odds with each other except for their very reason for being: passion.

A portrait of Pope Pius XII (1876-1958), head of the Catholic Church from 1939 until his death, who, during World War II, and while European Jews were being exterminated by the Nazis, was accused of keeping a disconcerting and shameful silence.

Documentary about the history of the progressive Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota from 1915 to 1944, when the party merged with the Democrats to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

A study of England's history, with particular emphasis on the role religion has played in shaping the nation and its people. Includes scenes of Stonehenge, the sanctuary at Glastonbury, the fortress of Maiden Castle, and Bamburg Castle. (worldcat.org)

A short documentary featuring a brief overview of Bill Gothard's ministries, and some of the consequences for his followers.