In Search of Wabi Sabi with Marcel Theroux

Vandales Du rail : Les graffeurs Face A La Justice

May 2023 •French

Cherry Blossom Time in Japan

March 1936 •English

In this Traveltalk short, the symbolic role of cherry blossoms in Japanese culture is explored as well as the traditional Japanese religions of Shintoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Samurai Beyond Their Dreams: Becoming the Best in the World

June 2023 •Japanese

In December 2021, Hideki Kuriyama began devoting his days to one singular goal: hoisting the championship trophy at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. How did he mold his players into one of the best and strongest Samurai Japan teams in history? A close-up documentary that looks back on Samurai Japan's path to becoming world champions, along with valuable behind-the-scenes footage captured by the team's dedicated crew.

The Witches of the Orient

July 2021 •French

The Japanese volleyball players called the “Oriental Witches” are now in their 70s. From the formation of the team at the factory until their victory at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, memories and legends rise to the surface and blend inextricably.

Roswell UFO Conspiracy: Unlocked

March 2020 •English

The most famous UFO case of all time is the alleged UFO crash in the desert of Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Did humanity make its first contact with alien life that dark starry night?

Tokyo Idols

July 2017 •Japanese

This exploration of Japan's fascination with girl bands and their music follows an aspiring pop singer and her fans, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

The Black Book

December 2020 •French

The Black Book, drafted during World War II, gathers numerous unique historical testimonies, in an effort to document Nazi abuses against Jews in the USSR . Initially supported by the regime and aimed at providing evidence during the executioners’ trials in the post-war era, the Black Book was eventually banned and most of its authors executed on Stalin’s order. Told through the voices of its most famous instigators, soviet intellectuals Vassilli Grossman, Ilya Ehrenburg and Solomon Mikhoels, the documentary, provides a detailed account of the tragic destiny of this cursed book and puts the Holocaust and Stalinism in a new light.

Dateline: Saigon

March 2017 •English

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

Silver's Uprising

May 2023 •Hebrew

Raised in an orthodox home, Amos Dov Silver dreams of becoming Prime Minister. But when the State continues to shun him, he soon finds unexpected solace in the velvety smoke of Marijuana. Spreading his new Torah, he establishes an online community using a mobile app called "TeleGrass" that turns into the largest marketplace for drugs in Israel, raising Silver to Messiah status. Through exclusive footage of Silver, his family and his partners’ investigations, as well as secretly filmed footage of Silver in the Ukrainian prison, a polarizing portrayal of the man charged with heading a crime organization emerges. Champion of the people, or a lost soul corrupted by power?

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

November 2013 •Japanese

Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.

Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations

April 1938 •German

Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.

Code 12

September 2023 •English

Melissa Tittl, investigative journalist and filmmaker, undertakes a journey to unravel an ancient code. In the tombs of the pharaohs, on temple walls and ancient sites all over the world, she uncovers not only one code but two. One code that we use today in our current mathematical systems and a second code that hints at something more ancient and much more profound. She interviews geneticists, archaeologists, biblical scholars and quantum physicists that have all picked up the same code in their work. Could this be the next part of our evolution? Melissa weaves together profound evidence that our greatest human potential is hidden in plain sight, waiting for us to understand how the universe really works.

The Codes of Gender

October 2010 •English

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

Les Derniers Secrets du Sphinx de Gizeh

May 2023 •French

Io sono nata viaggiando

November 2013 •Italian

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.

A Handful of Salt

November 2011 •Japanese

A documentary that focuses on the craftspeople who continue to make salt with a technique called Agehama-shiki that has been passed down since ancient times, and the lush natural environment of the northernmost tip of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It is also the feature-length debut of director Ishii Kaori. The process of making salt by collecting sea water and boiling it in a hiragama cauldron temporarily died out during the period of Japan's rapid economic growth following World War II, but one family's efforts to keep it alive has miraculously ensured its continuation. Salt is a vital element of people's lives. The saltmaking artisans who perpetuate their traditions represent a way forward for those of us living in this modern age.

Misha and the Wolves

September 2021 •English

A woman’s Holocaust memoir takes the world by storm, but a fallout with her publisher-turned-detective reveals her story as an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth.

It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks

September 2008 •French

The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, followed by the publishing of twelve satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that was commissioned for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, provides the incendiary framework for Daniel Leconte's provocative documentary, It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks.

Lilja 4 real

January 2003 •Swedish

Lukas Moodysson's acclaimed film Lilja 4-ever, seen by 100,000's of moviegoers is based on a real life story. The film's Lily was in fact called Danguole Rasalaites and came from Lithuania to Sweden when she was 16 years old. She was stripped of her passport and held captive in an apartment in Malmö where she was forced into prostitution.

The Killing of a Journalist

August 2022 •Slovak

A young investigative journalist and his fiancée are brutally murdered in their home in Slovakia. Their deaths inspire the biggest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism. The story takes an unexpected turn when a source leaks the secret murder case file to the murdered journalist’s colleagues. It includes the computers and encrypted communications of the assassination’s alleged mastermind, a businessman closely connected to the country’s ruling party. Trawling these encrypted messages, journalists discover that their country has been captured by corrupt oligarchs, judges and law enforcement officials. A reckoning awaits.