Umhlonyana Ka Mimi

Arkadia

Invalid date •English

In a world where farming is mechanized and farm animals are fed with products coming from across the globe, a young shepherd is trying to keep his practice sustainable by using ancestral ways to raise his flock.

The Drunkmen’s Marseillaise

August 2024 •Spanish

In the summer of 1961, a group of young Italian anthropologists made a clandestine journey through Spain, in order to record popular songs that supported anti-Franco resistance. As a result of their work, they were prosecuted and their recordings were censored. Sixty years later, and guided by Emilio Jona, aged 92, the last living member of that group of travellers, we recover the unpublished recordings and reconstruct the journey, today, across an emotional and political landscape, regaining historical memories through these songs, as relevant today as they were then.

Mondo Topless

November 1966 •English

Completely topless. Completely uninhibited. The craze that began in San Francisco is now exploding across the USA and Europe.

Lonely Trees

January 2017 •Kurdish

Darên bitenê is a fascinating documentary exploring the “dengbej” musical heritage of the singers, poets and storytellers from Northern Syria’s region. Featuring a stunning scenery of poetic landscapes, the film is interlaced with stories of Kurdish and Assyrian songs that narrate the long history of love and suffering of this semi-autonomous region.

Mickey's 50

November 1978 •English

"Mickey's 50" is a 90-minute special that aired on The Wonderful World of Disney on November 19, 1978. The special was made to commemorate the 50th birthday of Mickey Mouse and highlights many moments in his career.

Donald Duck's 50th Birthday

November 1984 •English

Donald is shown in both animated and costumed form, interacting with emcee Dick Van Dyke and other cast members. The film not only shows Donald's life, but also depicts an extensive international tour that Donald went on in 1984 as well as showing various celebrities of the day wishing Donald happy birthday. The tour culminates in a parade in Donald's honor at Disneyland.

Arcadia

October 2017 •English

A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.

The Last of the Sea Women

September 2024 •English

On the shores of Jeju Island, a fierce group of South Korean divers fight to save their vanishing culture from looming threats.

ciao Aracà

September 2020 •English

"...a charming depiction of life as I knew it with my grandparents in my own village..." Clara Caleo Green, Cinema Italia UK "The sum of the individual fates and life choices paints a picture, the validity of which extends far beyond this village." Joachim Manzin, Black Box This documentary records the thoughtful and emotional confrontation with time, change, loss and hope related by the members of a small community in the idyllic Ligurian countryside who are dealing with a rapidly changing agricultural industry, transformed by globalisation and technological advances and an increasing number of foreigners buying the empty houses in their village. Forgoing the use of music and voice over, the film lets Aracà's inhabitants tell their own stories and allows the audience to dive into the rich soundscape of the ligurian alpine countryside.

The Two Horses of Genghis Khan

October 2009 •German

An old, broken morin khurr (horse head fiddle) compels renowned Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi to take a road journey to Ulan Bator and the steppes of Mongolia.

In the Lands of Mist

March 2024 •French

Does Europe also have its own animistic heritage, like Pachamama in South America and Shinto in Japan? If so, which one? In the Misty Lands, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, a sacred fire is lit on the winter solstice to celebrate the return of the sun and ancient beliefs that have been forgotten in the rest of Europe for thousands of years. Sophie Planque and Jérémy Vaugeois decided to take a journey on bicycles to experience the Baltic winter and meet the people who keep their ancestral culture alive. A unique heritage that reinforces a deep relationship with nature.

The Birth of Saké

April 2015 •Japanese

Through the unrelenting winter in the north of Japan, a small group of workers must brave unusual working conditions to bring to life a 2,000-year-old tradition known as sake. A cinematic documentary, The Birth of Sake is a visually immersive experience of an almost-secret world in which large sacrifices must be made for the survival of a time-honored brew.

The Way of the Shaman Drum

January 2017 •Chinese

During the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 20th century, ethnic Manchu people were persecuted and forced to give up such cultural traditions as the shaman dance (tiao tchin, meaning "spirit-jumping" or "god's dance"). However, on Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, a farmer named Guan Yunde decided to start designing and building traditional Manchu shaman drums. At age 70, he is one of a minority of ethnic Manchu people in China's Jilin province, and one of the few people keeping the Manchu shamanic tradition alive.

it feels so scary getting old

June 2024 •English

"Cause all the music you loved at sixteen, you'll grow out of. And all the times they will change, it'll all come around", Lorde humming in her song, Stoned at the Nail Salon (2021). It gets me, 15 years old Alma, into something that she fears the most. Getting old. With the fear that she can't be as joyful as her teenage years and living the life as she supposed to be. But in this love letter wrapped in video form, I just hope Alma and her little self know that her life is her own personal space, she can do anything, personalize everything, and get creative with all of her ideas. Your life supposed to be fun according to you, and your fears should be wrong because you have all of those control upon how she's going to live her life.

Lida

March 2020 •English

"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.

Amashinga

June 2024 •English

The last sovereign Zulu King, a female British missionary, an ambitious colonial official and a young Welshman are all voiced by actors to make AMASHINGA a beautiful and epic explanation of the British invasion of the Zulu Kingdom in 1879.

Half Elf

September 2020 •Icelandic

A lighthouse keeper prepares his earthly funeral while trying to reconnect with his inner elf. Hulda and Trausti have shared a roof on the Icelandic coast for over seventy years. Her love of books is matched by his love of stones. When he tells her he wants to change his name to Elf she warns him that the family will reject him. Now, as his one hundredth birthday nears and Trausti senses the hand of death upon him, he is searching for an elf’s coffin…

30 Years of National Geographic Specials

January 1995 •English

Celebrates 30 years of televised specials by The National Geographic Society.

Shipibo Konibo: A Rite of Passage

October 2005 •English

In Peruvian Amazonia, for the first time in many years, a Shipibo–Konibo community prepare to perform the Aneshiati ceremony: a time of dance, song, festive clothing, and drink—including the sacred tea ayahuasca.

Trampa Para Duendes

Invalid date •Spanish