Pornotropic

Journal No. 1 - An Artist's Impression

June 2007 •English

In 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, Film Journal No. 1 was released in Sarajevo. Fifty years later, after the collapse of the Communist bloc, this newsreel was lost in the confusion of the fighting in Yugoslavia. In Journal No. 1 Hito Steyerl attempts to find out how the footage got lost and what was on this document from the Sutjeska studio. In the simultaneous projection of Journal No. 1 the ‘unattainability of an historical zero hour of the national identity’ takes concrete form: The lost newsreel reports on a literacy campaign as well as Muslim women confidently removing their headscarves. We listen however to eyewitnesses trying to recapture the lost content and we see the artist Arman Kulasic making a number of drawings that resemble the story-boards for the lost film. What appears to be moments of great change remain limited by subjective and uncertain memory. The film was premiered at documenta 12.

Chuck Close

January 2007 •English

Chuck Close, an astounding portrait of one of the world's leading contemporary painters, was one of two parting gifts (her second is a film on Louise Bourgeois) from Marion Cajori, a filmmaker who died recently, and before her time. With editing completed by filmmaker Ken Kobland, Chuck Close lives the life and work of a man who has reinvented portraiture. Close photographs his subjects, blows up the image to gigantic proportions, divides it into a detailed grid and then uses a complex set of colors and patterning to reconstruct each face.

Die Mutigen 56 - Deutschlands längster Streik

April 2024 •German

Emma Freese is desperate when her husband Alfred falls ill at the Howaldtswerke in Kiel. How is the family supposed to get by without their wages? The war has scarred this generation, but now things are supposed to be looking up. The workers want their fair share and are fighting for an income that also gives them room to live. In October 1956, 34,000 metalworkers in the shipyards and factories of Schleswig-Holstein walk off the job to fight for justice and their dignity. This strike is still regarded as the toughest and longest in Germany. Employers and politicians stand in the strikers' way.

The Countess

March 2009 •English

Kingdom of Hungary, 17th century. As she gets older, powerful Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614), blinded by the passion that she feels for a younger man, succumbs to the mad delusion that blood will keep her young and beautiful forever.

Es geht um Alles

May 2008 •German

What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?

April 2004 •English

Amanda is a divorced woman who makes a living as a photographer. During the Fall of the year Amanda begins to see the world in new and different ways when she begins to question her role in life, her relationships with her career and men and what it all means. As the layers to her everyday experiences fall away insertions in the story with scientists, and philosophers and religious leaders impart information directly to an off-screen interviewer about academic issues, and Amanda begins to understand the basis to the quantum world beneath. During her epiphany as she considers the Great Questions raised by the host of inserted thinkers, she slowly comprehends the various inspirations and begins to see the world in a new way.

Sexy Money

January 2014 •English

A Europe film entirely shot in Africa? Listen to the tragic stories of unwilling sex workers who wanted to or had to leave the coldness of Europe. Warm and colourful as only Africa (in this case Nigeria) can be. A sound, committed documentary. As it should be.

A Long Journey

July 2011 •Portuguese

"A Long Journey" tells the story of three siblings who reach adolescence in the late 1960's. The documentary's storyline follows the youngest brother's travels around the world. Worried that he would enter the struggle for freedom against the Brazilian dictatorship, his family sent Heitor to London. There however, he dives head on into the "Swinging London" and, just like the European and American youth of the time period, he experiments with drugs and the mystic allure of India. In the nine years he has traveled around the world, from 1969 to 1978, he has regularly written to his family. The documentary features interviews with Heitor today, his letters and off-screen comments of Heitor's sister, Lúcia Murat, the director of the movie.

Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity

March 2014 •English

Born to Fly pushes the boundaries between action and art, daring us to join choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her dancers in pursuit of human flight.

The Great Invisible

March 2014 •English

Penetrating the oil industry's secretive world, The Great Invisible examines the Deepwater Horizon disaster through the eyes of oil executives, explosion survivors and Gulf Coast residents who were left to pick up the pieces when the world moved on.

Vessel

March 2014 •English

A fearless sea captain, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, sails a ship through loopholes in international law, providing abortions on the high seas, and leaving in her wake a network of emboldened activists who trust women to handle abortion on their own terms.

Butterfly Girl

March 2014 •English

At first glance, it is not obvious that Abbie Evans lives with a life-threatening skin disease. She is a typical teenager: moody, rebellious, irreverent, and is also strikingly beautiful. But her life is the antithesis of normal. Abbie grew up in hospitals, cared for by her protective mother. She then came into her own in honky tonks, selling merchandise for her father’s band. But just like any other 18 year-old, Abbie yearns for an identity of her own. Butterfly Girl charts Abbie’s journey towards a new understanding of how she must balance her past with her future, her parents with her independence, and her disease with her desires. But what price must she pay for that freedom?

Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story

March 2014 •English

A former U.S. Navy Seal seeks life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness living life as a transgender woman.

Seeds of Time

November 2013 •English

Seeds of Time follows agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler's global journey to save the eroding foundation of our food supply in a new era of climate change.

Wicker Kittens

March 2014 •English

Every January, the country's largest jigsaw puzzle contest is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Choose your favorite team and watch them try to put the pieces back together.

Evaporating Borders

March 2014 •English

Evaporating Borders is a poetically photographed and rendered film on tolerance and search for identity. Told through 5 vignettes portraying the lives of migrants on the island of Cyprus, it passionately weaves themes of displacement and belonging.

Que caramba es la vida

March 2014 •Spanish

In the macho world of Mariachi music, very few women can hold their own. Just like the songs they play, this film is a snapshot of life, death and the things in between - seen from a bird's-eye perspective.

Travelling with Tove

January 1993 •Finnish

In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. Her film immortalized her trips with Tove Jansson.

Haru, Island of the Solitary

January 1998 •Finnish

In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. She filmed the games and chores of the artist couple in their beloved hideout, the island of Klovharun.

China's Terracotta Army

September 2007 •English

The exhibition "Qin Shihuang: Chinese Terracotta Warriors" featuring hundreds of palace-level cultural relics featuring terracotta warriors will be exhibited at the British Museum on September 13. Today, the packing work of the terracotta warriors and horses officially started, and at the same time, the decoration work of the central hall of the British Museum (where Marx once consulted information) is also in full swing. Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite TV, China Shaanxi TV Station and British Sky TV News Channel will cooperate for the first time to live broadcast the opening ceremony of the exhibition, visits and other important activities, and show the whole process of exhibit packing, departure, exhibition arrangement, exhibition and exhibition to the global audience Live delivery.