In 1974, at the peak of their talents and careers, some of the most celebrated American Rhythm & Blues and soul acts of the time, including James Brown, B. B. King, Bill Withers and The Spinners, traveled to Kinshasa. They came together in Zaire’s capital with the most renowned musical groups in Southern Africa, such as Miriam Makeba and Afrisa for a three-day long concert. Most of the American performers, emboldened by the African-American liberation movement, were visiting Africa for the first time, and they let themselves be inspired by their African roots.
A musical about a helicopter pilot who arrives at a hospital and dances trough the corridors with a heart transplantation of a woung woman, threatened by deportation.
Is he the village idiot or a genius in disguise? 17 year ols Nói drifts trough life on a remote fjord in the north of Iceland. In winter, the fjord is cut off from the outside world, surrounded by ominous mountains and buried under a shroud of snow. Nói dreams of escaping from this white-walled prison with Iris, a city girl who works in a local gas station. But his clumsy attempts at escape spiral out of control and end in complete failure. Only a natural disaster will shatter Nói’s universe and offer him a window into a better world.
Iron Pussy decides to take a commission from the Thai government, who usually deems her indecent for her publicly supporting the sex industry. But they cannot deny her ability to scrap the crimes with beauty. An undercover operation takes her to a remote mansion where she not only discovered ilegal activities, but also her past, and her first love.
A video of a performance in a London warehouse. A shouting match between two people, the most elementary form of human expression, showing primary emotions like fear and anger.
A dark winter night in the Portuguese countryside. A hostess bar where another working day is starting for the family who manages it – the father, mother and two daughters, the girls who entertain and seduce her clients. A world of false appearances and in which the dreams of a different life will end up falling to pieces. Because the fther, for whom a deal has gone badly, will be forced to sacrifice his younger daughter, and will thus end up tearing his whole family apart…
Agustina is a pretty young girl, single, high-born and very much her own boss. She has a passion for other girls like herself. She has no doubt that in order to satisfy the impulses of love, the participation of the proud male species is not only useless, but harmful. Young Franville, aware of Agustina’s firm convictions against the opposite sex, and madly in love with her, decides to conquer her disguised as a woman.
Struggle is a film about the struggle for existence, to earn a living, to subsist, to survive. Struggle takes place in the realm of work: on strawbery fields, in factories, in offices, in cars, on the street. The protagonists are: a woman, a strawberry picker from eastern Europe who comes to Austria to build a better existence for her and her child- and a man, a Viennese real estate agent. Briefly there is hope for meaning in life.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons of Robert S. McNamara is the story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary Of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, one of the most controversial and influential figures in world politics. From the firebombing of 100.000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo in 1945 to the brink of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis to the devastating effects of the Vietnam War, The Fog of War examines the psychology and reasoning of the government decision-makers who send men to war. How were decisions made and for what reason? What can we learn from these historical events? Combining extraordinary archival footage, recreations, newly declassified White House recordings, the film is a disquieting and powerful essay on war, rationality, and the nature of history itself.
A New York pharmacy and the feelings of the people who have run it, putting their heart and soul into it, for two generations: the Gardini family. In March 2002 the old building where the family has always lived with the pharmacy on the ground floor is knocked down. The last day of business, the emotional farewells of the (regular) costumers, clearing out the shop and, in the end, the demolition of the building to make way for a skycraper.
Experimental documentary about life and death.
An ambitious 10 minute single take Revolution tracks over the activities at a special fund raising event to buy books for a library. All appears calm and well until dogs die, electricity cables cross, giant books topple, mouths start to bleed and things generally go awry.
Import: Olga, a young nurse in the Ukraine, dreams of a better life in the West. She emigrates to Austria and becomes a cleaning lady in a geriatric hospital, where an 82 year old patient proposes to her. Export: Paul, a young Austrian security guard in search of a reason to get up in the morning, heads east with his stepfather to try his luck. They end up in the Ukraine, where alcohol and girls are abundant.
Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle on 20 November, 1971. The lonely figure of Kinski appears in the spotlight on an empty stage to recite his own text, Jesus Christus Erloser. The performance marks the realisation of a project which had preoccupied him for more than ten years. This is the age of the hippy movement; the musical Jesus Christ Superstar is a sensational success. But Kinski’s Jesus Christus Erloser is no hippy happening. It is intended as an intensely emotional reading, concentrating purely on the actor’s voice. A document, not just about a generation that was questioning authority, that had a difficult relationship to art ‚ but also about an artist at a particular point in his career.
Princess Betty sleeps in a narcoleptic stupor. The king appeals to his subjects to wake her, and several respond: Uncle Henry VIII, Aunt Victoria, an emotional alien, a witch and a handsome prince. This worthy Prince Charles lookalike has to leave his royal suburb to save the princess, but will Betty be wakened with just a kiss? Drawn in Indian ink, this animation sets the Perrault classic in Cloutier’s disjointed, anachronistic and playful universe.
The adventures of Poppy. Is she perhaps a little crazy and irresponsible? Or is she in fact deeply sane and sensible? Either way, everybody falls in love with her, for better or for worse‚Ķ Mike Leigh’s new film revolves around Poppy, a teacher from north London whose life, at first glance, seems to be full of complications.
I. Rossellini in collaboration with J. Shapiro, R. Gilbert, and A. Byers sound out the creative possibilities in the area between film and art. With the use of a magnifying glass, insect terrariums visitors can find out everything about the sexual lives of flies, worms, and lightning bugs on small monitors: I was always fascinated by the infinite, strange and ‘scandalous’ ways that insects copulate, says Rossellini.
Ray Ruby’s Paradise, a classy go go cabaret in downtown Manhattan is a dream palace, run by charismatic Ray Ruby, with expert assistance from a bunch of longtime cronies, sidekicks and colourful hangers on, and featuring the most beautiful and talented girls imaginable. But all is not well in Paradise. Ray’s facing imminent foreclosure. His dancers are threatening a strip-strike. Even his brother and financier wants to pull the plug. But the dreamer in Ray will never give in. He’s bought a foolproof system to win the Lottery. One magic night he hits the jackpot. And loses the ticket… A classic screwball comedy in the madcap tradition of Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges.
