This intimate ethnographic study of Voudoun dances and rituals was shot by Maya Deren during her years in Haiti (1947-1951); she never edited the footage, so this “finished” version was made by Teiji Ito and Cherel Ito after Deren’s death.
John Genke
as Narrator (voice)
Joan Pape
Alone, Eva Fahidi returned home to Hungary after WWII. At 20 years of age, she had survived Auschwitz Birkenau, while 49 members of her family were murdered, including her mother, father, and little sister. Today, at age 90, Eva is asked to participate in a dance theatre performance about her life's journey. This would be her first experience performing on a stage. Reka, the director, imagines a duet between Eva and a young, internationally acclaimed dancer, Emese. Reka wants to see these two women, young and old, interact on stage, to see how their bodies, and stories, can intertwine. Eva agrees immediately. Three women - three months - a story of crossing boundaries. Whilst the extraordinary moments of Eva's life are distilled into theater scenes, a truly wonderful and powerful relationship forms among the three women.
For two hundred years, the Shakers have been America's most successful utopian society. While seeking harmony, order and perfection in every aspect of their lives, they built minimalistic furniture and buildings that influenced modern design. The Shakers wrote songs of exquisite beauty and danced to the point of ecstasy during their religious meetings. Inspired by this music and dance, choreographer Tero Saarinen created Borrowed Light, a dance piece about communal life and individual sacrifice. Shot in Finland and the United States, featuring interviews and excerpts from Borrowed Light, this documentary explore the cultural legacy of this religious group devoted to creating heaven on earth.
Director Peter Judson's semifictitious tale opens a revealing window into the indie filmmaking process, capturing the trivialities, aggravations and enthusiasm that go into completing a picture. Using footage from an indie movie set, e-mails constructing a plotline about distributor difficulties and interviews with indie mainstays such as Steve Buscemi and Sam Rockwell, the film provides a riveting look at one producer's rejections and rewards.
A group of eminent experts, including the Marian Fathers, analyze Greek texts of the Holy Scripture, revelations and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The result is a new interpretation of passages of the Scripture revealing Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her extraordinary role in the divine plan for the salvation of the world.
A woman, an artist and dancer, sets out to reclaim her childhood memories shared with her late grandmother—a bond forged through their mutual passion for painting. Through the delicate recovery of her grandmother’s floral works, she engages in a silent dialogue with the gestures of an ancient practice. She conjures a fictional exchange, a spellbinding journey between dimensions. This intimate quest transcends disciplines, seeking intergenerational connection and answers.
What makes the life of a dancer? - Burghausen dance professional Patrick Grigo aka Parrish gives an insight into the last 30 years of his career. He talks about his first steps on the dancefloor and the tough path into his dancing career, his great successes and also the many setbacks, his decisions and valuable experiences. Taking responsibility has always been one of his core values and has taken him to the world's great show stages, made him a national coach and helped him to be part of the team that took the dance sport of “Breaking” to the Olympic Games. Director Julian Heinke accompanied the still active dancer on his travels and shows him from exciting angles as well as on unpublished video material from his active time.
The film presents thirteen rhythms of flamenco, each with song, guitar, and dance: the up-tempo bularías, a brooding farruca, an anguished martinete, and a satiric fandango de huelva. There are tangos, a taranta, alegrías, siguiriyas, soleás, a guajira of patrician women, a petenera about a sentence to death, villancicos, and a final rumba.
A portrait of Pope Pius XII (1876-1958), head of the Catholic Church from 1939 until his death, who, during World War II, and while European Jews were being exterminated by the Nazis, was accused of keeping a disconcerting and shameful silence.
In this hour-long documentary, Dr Janina Ramirez tells the incredible story of a book hidden for centuries in the shadows of history, the first book ever written in English by a woman, Julian of Norwich, in 1373. Revelations of Divine Love dared to present an alternative vision of man's relationship with God, a theology fundamentally at odds with the church of Julian's time, and for 500 years the book was suppressed. It re-emerged in the 20th century as an iconic text for the women's movement and was acknowledged as a literary masterpiece.
An orthodox heroine astride a motorbike. Young people breaking the monotony of a country life through stunt riding. A meeting against a Western backdrop between two universes that are at odds with each other except for their very reason for being: passion.
The collection "Moscow Golden-Domed" includes documentaries from the history of the capital. "Egoriy the Brave" about the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, whose image has adorned temples, princely and royal coats of arms, and banners of Russian troops since ancient times. The film "Reigning" tells about the appearance in Rus' in 1917, on the day of the abdication of Nicholas II, a new icon of the Reigning Mother of God. "Vratarnitsa" is a film about a chapel where Muscovites from time immemorial worshiped the icon of the Mother of God of Iberia. "The First Dean" - a story about the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Sokolniki - one of the most remarkable in Moscow. The parishioners still remember the builder and first rector of the temple, Father John Kedrov. Filmed from 1993 to 1996.
A series of musical performances showcasing the diverse facets of fado, a musical genre from Lisbon.
In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth. Science, based on scepticism, investigation and evidence, must continuously test its own concepts and claims. Faith, by definition, defies evidence: it is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science. In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress to become more enlightened and more tolerant.
A love letter to Mar del Plata made of images, times and a road trip. "The Happy Ones" is an experimental short documentary composed of past and present family footage. It portrays a place in the summer, the city of Mar del Plata, with a span of 20 years between past and present images (January 2000 and 2020). Despite the time that passed by, it's beaches, essence and people remain, always willing to keep dancing.
It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.
In the thick of a controversial war of ideas, two enlightening figures, Sam Harris, an atheist and a critic of religion, and Maajid Nawaz, an Islamist-turned-liberal activist, partake in an engaging dialogue on the state of Islam, its potential reform, the militant ideology of Islamism, and where all this lays in a secular world.
A documentary purporting to expose the space alien conspiracy that not only influenced human history... but created it as well.
A love story, portraying the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. It is a film about a woman's fight for independence, a woman trying to succeed with her own art in the extremely competitive world of dance.
At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
