The Cellar Lanes of Lower Austria - Wine Culture and the Pleasures of Life

State Funeral

October 2019 •Russian

The enigma of the personality cult is revealed in the grand spectacle of Stalin’s funeral. The film is based on unique archive footage, shot in the USSR on March 5 - 9, 1953, when the country mourned and buried Joseph Stalin.

Pig Tusks and Paper Money

January 1999 •English

In Papua New Guinea, pig tusks and shell money are currencies which can buy most things. Henry Tokubak’s dream is to create the first bank where traditional money counts as legal tender.

How to Cook Your Life

May 2007 •German

A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

June 2003 •Mongolian

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

Pour Que Ses Jours Fleurissent

January 1983 •French

Six o'clock in the morning, the sun rises behind the Djurdjura mountain. With precise gestures, learned since childhood, Ouardia raises the water, crouches down to splash his face with cool water. Soon her baby will be born. Hadjila, the traditional midwife, prepares herself internally to help the mother complete the transition from separation. This film talks about the knowledge surrounding birth that Kabyle women have passed down for centuries; knowledge that European women seek to rediscover in order to reclaim this founding passage of our lives.

Dream of the Wild Horses

June 1960 •French

The horses in Denys Colomb Daunant’s dream poem are the white beasts of the marshlands of the Camargue in South West France. Daunant was haunted by these creatures. His obsession was first visualized when he wrote the autobiographical script for Albert Lamorisse’s award-winning 1953 film White Mane. In this short the beauty of the horses is captured with a variety of film techniques and by Jacques Lasry’s beautiful electronic score.

Rioja: The Land of a Thousand Wines

November 2023 •Spanish

By telling the human stories behind the entire value chain that gives life to the Spanish wine with the greatest international projection, ‘Rioja, Land of the Thousand Wines’ portrays a currently blooming wine region underpinned by the talent and the work of the new generations of winemakers that operate side by side with the region’s historic wineries. The film puts the focus on the match between territory and product, wisdom and tradition, and lays a bridge between the origins and the future of Rioja. An immersion into a fascinating world that, through captivating cinematography and careful editing, attempts to find the keys to understanding what Rioja wine is and what makes it so special.

A Passion for the Vine

April 2012 •English

This documentary features extraordinary people whose passion for wine led them to create another career as a vintner, including: David Coverdale, lead singer of Whitesnake and Deep Purple Dick Vermeil, coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams, and Kansas City Chiefs Tamara Mowry-Housley, star of "Sister, Sister" and "Tia and Tamera" Bob the Steer, former slaughterhouse steer Jonathan Cain, songwriter and keyboardist of Journey Carmen Policy, president of the San Francisco 49ers- Just to name a few!

Santa Fiesta

April 2016 •English

SINOPSIS / SYNOPSIS Every year in Spain, some 16,000 Fiestas are organized, during which animals are used. Honoring the Holy Virgin and the Patron Saints, and with the blessing of religious and political authorities, entire towns -including children- are involved in celebrations of unbelievable cruelty. 60,000 animals are hence abused each year during these “Fiestas of Blood”.

A Year in Burgundy

January 2013 •English

This documentary follows seven wine-making families in the Burgundy region of France, delving into the cultural and creative process of making wine. You'll never look at wine the same way again.

Stella Polaris Ulloriarsuaq

June 2017 •German

The Kalaallit people of Greenland have been intimately connected to the eternal ice for millennia. These massive glaciers stand as records of ancient eras of the planet – but recently they began disappearing. As the foundation of their traditions literally melts beneath their feet, members of the Kalaallit community work with artists to capture the images and stories of a vanishing landscape and way of life.

In the Basement

September 2014 •German

Filmmaker Ulrich Seidl explores of the dark underside of the human psyche by entering Austrian basements fitted out as private domains for secrets and fetishes.

IJswee

November 2021 •Dutch

IJswee is a documentary film about an ice club, a village and the warm winters. In the film we follow Oringers, the inhabitants of Odoorn, through the winter. The Oringers all experience IJswee in their own way. You will also see the Icecounter (Rafael van der Ziel), who builds ice sculptures and drinks frozen milk. You see the Drenthe countryside changing with the weather. You see animations, archive material and you hear the mysterious sounds of IJswee in the music of Wietse de Haan. And there are two trumpet players, who welcome winter with their music and say goodbye to it.

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.

Ashes

January 2024 •Greek

Jesa

October 2019 •English

Jesa is a Korean tradition honoring one's ancestors. The filmmaker interviewed her parents about this ritual. However, it goes totally unexpected.

Leave the Saints Alone

January 2017 •Italian

A journey through Italy across a century of popular religious devotion. Ancient and more recent saints, white and black Madonnas, devotional processions... are the expression of a need for the sacred that seems very distant from our way of being, but perhaps is not that distant at all. Today, especially in the South, but with some “isolated” locations in the North, popular faith is still a very real thing, which finds its finest expression in song and in music.

Mondovino

November 2004 •English

Mondovino (in Italian: World of Wine) is a documentary film on the impact of globalization on the world's different wine regions written and directed by American film maker Jonathan Nossiter. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and a César Award. The film explores the impact of globalization on the various wine-producing regions, and the influence of critics like Robert Parker and consultants like Michel Rolland in defining an international style. It pits the ambitions of large, multinational wine producers, in particular Robert Mondavi, against the small, single estate wineries who have traditionally boasted wines with individual character driven by their terroir.

Eagle Boy

August 2018 •English

A fearless horse bonds two men to each other and to the traditions that define their community.

Grand Cru

April 2018 •English

Pascal Marchand arrived in the mythical land of Burgundy to harvest the grapes at age 21. Now 30 years later, he is a renowned wine artist and innovator. Shot over the catastrophic 2016 season, the film is both a love letter and a cautionary tale.