Wine and War

The Most Expensive Wine in the World

Lost in Lebanon

As the Syrian war continues to leave entire generations without education, health care, or a state, Lost in Lebanon closely follows four Syrians during their relocation process. The resilience of this Syrian community, which currently makes up one fifth of the population in Lebanon, is astoundingly clear as its members work hard to collaborate, share resources, and advocate for themselves in a new land. With the Syrian conflict continuing to push across borders, lives are becoming increasingly desperate due to the devastating consequences of new visa laws that the Lebanese government has implemented, leaving families at risk of arrest, detention, and deportation. Despite these obstacles, the film encourages us to look beyond the staggering statistics of displaced refugees and focus on the individuals themselves.

A Letter from Beirut

Letter from Beirut documents the filmmaker's return to Beirut during one of the lulls, three years after the outbreak of the civil war, animated by the urge to return. She is confronted by the physical, emotional and psychological ravages of the war, terrified and sorrowful, she cannot find her place in the city. In that quest, she communicates with everyday people, friends, neighbors, people riding the bus across the city's eastern and western flanks. To pace her journeying and dramatic unraveling of the film, Saab borrows the guise of a letter read in a voice-over, written by world-renowned poet Etel Adnan. A rare document from the civil war, Letter from Beirut lays bare and spontaneously how people make sense of their everyday in the midst of chaos, violence, terror and sorrow.

Waltz with Bashir

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

A Year in Burgundy

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.

Ashes

Objects of War

‘Objects of War’ is a series of testimonials on the Lebanese war. Each person chooses an object, ordinary or unusual, which serves as a starting point for his / her story. These testimonials while helping to create a collective memory, also show the impossibility of telling a single History of this war. Only fragments of this History are recounted here, held as truth by those expressing them. In ‘Objects of War’, the aim is not to reveal a truth but rather to gather and confront many diverse versions and discourses on the subject. ‘Objects of War’ started in 1999 assembling the testimonials of eleven persons. It was first shown in 2000 . It continued in 2003 with ‘Objects of War n°2’, recording seven additional testimonials. This time however, and since then, the recorded material is left unedited, shown in its integrity. The work of collecting and assembling these stories continued with ‘Objects of War n°3 & n°4’ in 2006 and ‘n°5 & 6’ in 2014.

Wine for the Confused

Wine is confusing…overwhelming even. So where do you start if you want to learn more about it? Join John Cleese on an entertaining and personal look at the world of winemaking and discover: how to find wines that taste good to you, how to make sure you get the best value and how to keep and serve wine at home.

Langhe Doc

Three characters, three stories of "heretics", three food producers who think in a different way to describe the transformation of our Country in what in “Langhe Doc” Giorgio Bocca calls the Italy of warehouses. We're in Langhe, a unique territory, universally recognized as one of the most beautiful places in Italy, fresh candidate for Unesco World Heritage but afflicted by uncontrolled economic development, urbanization, overbuilding, abandonment of the less profitable areas. Those of Maria Theresa, Silvio and Mauro are stories of people who have insight into a future they do not like and have chosen to refuse it. Their challenges are still open, they're not yet fully met and perhaps they never will: these heretics move in one direction, while the world moves in another, quite the opposite one.

Barolo Boys: The Story of a Revolution

The story of a group of friends, the "rebel boys" who made italian wine become so great, between generational conflicts, brilliant insights and never silenced controversies.

Dossier Zinfandel

For years, there has been an effort to discover the exact origin of the most popular American grape variety and wine, Zinfandel. Thanks to modern technology, forensics, and DNA analysis, the collaboration between American and Croatian laboratories has born fruit: Zinfandel is the Croatian Crljenak Kaštelanski.

Beirut, My City

In July 1982, the Israeli army besieged Beirut. Four days earlier, Jocelyne Saab sees her house burn and 150 years of family existence go up in smoke. She then takes refuge in questioning: when did this all begin? How did the Beirut people live the siege? Each place will then become a story and each name a memory.

Minerva

Severely battered from the Beirut Port Explosion on August 4th, Minerva passed away eight days later. Her son Joseph, while still grieving for his loss, sunk into a long and absurd bureaucratic path through the inept system that disowned his mother as a victim of the blast. Minerva is gone. The explosion has snatched her soul, and the city walls have not yet recognized her as a martyr. There is no poster of her smiling face among those of the victims. Their faces are memories that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Perhaps her son, devastated by her passing, seeks to etch her image into the city's memory. Perhaps he is seeking some confession to the crime. This is a place that casts out its children, whether dead or alive.

Panorama : Histoires du vin naturel

Since the arrival of chemicals in the vineyards to the commercial breakthrough of sulfurless wines, the most prestigeous french winegrowers tell us the slow revolution of the wine world. A wide point of view about viticulture, trying to define what is natural wine, to finally know « who are we drinking ».

Little Eagles

Mohammed, the son of a simple worker, lives in the city of Alexandria with his father and dreams of moving to Cairo to become a filmmaker. In Cairo, Mohammed meets Salma and Bassam and is impressed by their self-confidence. When he discovers that Salma and Bassam’s parents were left-wing activists from the 1970s, he looks for a similar sense of purpose in his own father’s life. As he compares lives, Mohammed the filmmaker discovers answers. More importantly, he is led to new questions that connect the past with the present.

Land of a Thousand Vineyards

Italy, California and South Africa are not the only places famous for their wines. Right in the heart of Europe, Austria can also look back over a past suffused with music and wine, both of which remain inseparably linked to this day.

À nos terres : Autonomia paisana

Eldorado

Drawing inspiration from his personal encounter with the Italian refugee child Giovanna during World War II, Markus Imhoof tells how refugees and migrants are treated today: on the Mediterranean Sea, in Lebanon, in Italy, in Germany and in Switzerland.

The Mostly Serious History of Wine

Early humans may have discovered wine accidentally, but now it's grown and sold just about everywhere. Jim Hodgson stops in Egypt, ancient Rome, Spain, France and other locations to trace wine's delicious history.

Mondovino

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.