6 Portraits

Daybreak Express

January 1953 •English

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

Foster Child

March 1987 •English

Gil Cardinal searches for his natural family and an understanding of the circumstances that led to his becoming a foster child. An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this auto-biographical documentary he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her. Considered a milestone in documentary cinema, it addressed the country’s internal colonialism in a profoundly personal manner, winning a Special Jury Prize at Banff and multiple international awards.

Against the Tide

January 2021 •English

A remote and wild island on the west coast of Scotland is home to a small group of people that live in deep connection with the land, the sea and the weather. For different reasons, they left their city life to escape their inner demons and to live as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible.

This was the MARY

March 1968 •English

Short 18 minute film about QM and her last Transatlantic voyage from New York to Southampton. Joan Crawford makes an appearance and also narrates the first part of the film.

Good Grief

April 2014 •English

Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living.

Because the World Never Stops

September 2016 •Swedish

Shot live in the studio during the evening broadcast on Swedish public television, the film shows the news like you've never seen them before.

Weiss ist die Farbe der Verlierer

January 1974 •German

Short film against the oppression of women. At first, differences in education are presented and then how the relationship between women and men looks like in the professional world.

Περιπτώσεις του ΟΧΙ

September 1965 •Greek

Sketch Film #2

January 2005 •English

Sketch Film #2 (Tomonari Nishikawa, 2005, 3 min., super 8, silent, 18/24fps, b&w, USA) The second film in the series, showing my study especially in apparent shapes – a shape that cannot be seen in a single frame but only through a series of consecutive frames when projected. It was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards.

High Cities of Bone

February 2017 •Portuguese

Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum in the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated.

Land Without Bread

December 1933 •Spanish

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

Lua Morales - The Documentary

February 2021 •Portuguese

Documentary about the creative process of photographer Lua Morales, produced by the studio Bad Chinchilla.

Achtung, Kinder!

January 1983 •German

Experiments and interviews are used in order to illustrate the special duties of care when raising children with regard to their behavior in road traffic.

Black Sun

July 2019 •Portuguese

Underscored by French film legend Delphine Seyrig’s evocative recitation of a Henri Michaux poem, Maureen Fazendeiro’s film is a mysterious, multi-textured portrait of eclipse spectators in Portugal.

Maos China, Protokolle einer Revolution

January 1974 •German

Short film directed by Walter Knoop

Silent Storm

August 2019 •French

From the coast of the Atlantic to that of the Mediterranean, the director meets women whose faces recount ruined hopes. Grief finds an element of painful meditation in the movement of the waves.

Hannah Arendt, la liberté d'être libre

June 2023 •French

In a time of resurgence of social protests, political radicalization and distrust of power, Arendt's thought has never been more relevant: A critical thinker according to some or a conservative according to others, this great figure of the intellectual world remains, in many ways, an enigma. Who was Hannah Arendt?

USSR (1917-1991)

October 2024 •

Experimental short film that explores the rise and decline of the Soviet Union, from the revolutionary spark of 1917 to the challenges and sacrifices endured during World War II, until its dissolution in 1991.

The Big One

September 1997 •English

The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.

Raumerfahrungen

January 1994 •German

What advantage does space travel bring to mankind? A father and his son search for answers during a walk in the forest.