Charlie Marx and the Chocolate Factory started as an investigation of the link between politics and chocolate, at the Karl Marx Confectionary Factory in Kiev, Ukraine. Since access to the factory was denied, the project had to be re-considered, re-invented or re-enacted. Mostly made of archival footage and re-enacted performances based on the company's website, the film merges what was left of the initial idea with what has been collected and realized instead. It borrows from the genres of video art, 'Man on the street' interview, direct address, corporate film, essay, and music video, without legitimately belonging to any of them. The film unravels as a reflection on its own failure, and yet keeps on investigating what has always been at stake: the shift from public to private property (and from analog to digital technology), dialectics of permanence and change, language as a mirror of ideology, and post-Soviet oligarchy culture.
Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.
The concept of machine-made knit was known as early as the 1850s, but it was only during the 1920s that the quality of the material had improved. When the plant known as "Atlas" was introduced in 1931, the shop windows drew a lot of attention, and Aho & Soldan was ordered to make a promotional film. In this well-paced film, we see the jersey production step by step.
In 1587, more than 100 English colonists settle on Roanoke Island and soon vanish, baffling historians for centuries; now, experts use the latest forensic archaeology to investigate the true story behind America's oldest and most controversial mystery.
As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.
Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
Documents the conflicts and tensions that arise between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas.
Although the mountain volcano Mauna Kea last erupted around 4,000 years ago, it is still hot today, the center of a burning controversy over whether its summit should be used for astronomical observatories or preserved as a cultural landscape sacred to the Hawaiian people. For five years the documentary production team Nā Maka o ka 'Āina ("the eyes of the land") captured on video the seasonal moods of Mauna Kea's unique 14,000-foot summit, the richly varied ecosystems that extend from sea level to alpine zone, the legends and stories that reveal the mountain's geologic and cultural history, and the political turbulence surrounding the efforts to protect the most significant temple in the islands: the mountain itself.
Concerning Violence is based on newly discovered, powerful archival material documenting the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation in the Third World, accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.
An insider's look on the making of Penn's tennis balls, from their creation in a factory to the final stages of quality control.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
This portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India, moves through the corridors and bowels of the enormously disorienting structure—taking the viewer on a journey of dehumanizing physical labor and intense hardship.
The Tank and The Olive Tree recalls a certain number of forgotten fundamentals and sheds new light on the history of Palestine. By combining geopolitical analysis, interviews with international personalities who are experts on the subject and testimonies from Palestinian and French citizens, this documentary offers the keys to understanding what the media call the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Enough to rid people's minds of clichés and prejudices! If The Chariot and the Olivier is intended to be educational, it speaks above all of a magnificent territory, and of a people who constantly affirm that “to live is already to resist”...
The Katakai Festival, one of Niigata and Echigo's Three Great Fireworks Festivals, has a 400-year history. Held annually on September 9th and 10th in Katakai Town, it features fireworks dedicated to Asahara Shrine, filled with wishes and prayers. Highlights include Japan’s largest 'San-shakudama' and the world's largest 'Yon-shakudama,' which impress spectators with their grandeur. The small hill behind the launch site amplifies the fireworks' powerful bursts. This work condenses the festival's two-day fireworks displays. It captures the fleeting beauty of each firework, the vibrant rapid-fire starmine displays, and the grand 'San-shakudama' and 'Yon-shakudama' that fill the night sky, creating an emotional and resonant experience. Filmed in ultra-high-definition 4K/8K60P, it faithfully reproduces the grand fireworks and fine sparks. Enjoy the immersive experience with high-resolution audio at 96kHz24bit, emphasizing the fireworks' explosive sounds and echoes.
Chronicle of the 9-week strike by the kaolin workers of Plémet. The film emphasizes the particular nature of such a strike in a rural commune and in a sector of the old Breton proletariat: that of subsoil mining, almost entirely liquidated after the closure of the Hennebont forges.
An original portrayal of a small Czech village where – as the locals put it – an UFO has landed in the form of a kilometre-long silverish factory: a Korean Hyundai automobile plant. The village, hitherto famous mostly for its sauerkraut and the “Radegast” beer was thus turned into an industrial zone – the largest greenfield investment project in the Czech Republic’s history. Nonetheless, for a long time many farmers resisted selling the land upon which the factory was now standing. Eventually, they all succumbed under the pressure from the neighbours, and even the anonymous death threats. The filmmakers returned to Nošovice two years after the dramatic property buyouts, at the time when the factory has just started churning out cheap cars. Combining the perspectives of seven characters, they have composed a portrayal of a place suddenly changed beyond recognition that is playful and chilling at the same time: a politically engaged absurd flick about a field that yields cars.
A gentle love story from the harsh environment of northern Bohemia.
L'abatis
With graphic re-enactments of industrial accidents, the More High Impact Forklift Safety Video gives viewers a scared-straight lesson on the importance of forklift safety. This forklift video is great for training your forklift operators on accident awareness and prevention.
Montage film by Aymeric Caron, broadcast at the French National Assembly on May 29, 2024. “Is it a dream or a reality? » demands a little girl stunned by her injuries. It is a nightmare, without a doubt, and nothing can justify it, neither the crimes of October 7 nor the detention of Israeli hostages by Hamas. Condemning all the crimes of October 7, before and after, condemning anti-Semitism and all forms of racism is common sense. However, it seems that this needs to be clarified. Everyone present normally wishes that the surviving hostages can one day be reunited with their families and that the massacre in Gaza stops immediately. But to follow through with the process is to see things face to face, to see what has been happening in Gaza since October 7, what the Israeli army is doing, what the television channels are not showing.