TAJOMARU is the famous 'bandit' of the forest from RASHOMON. Whoever kills Tajomaru inherits his name, status and sword. A royal brother leaves his kingdom to protect the princess he loves, only to find a series of harrowing adventures along the way which lead him back to where he came from, and then disinheriting his past to become the bandit TAJOMARU.
'Backstory' investigates the highly skilled art of 'Rear Projection', a widely used tool in film making in the mid 20th century employed in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo or Marnie. In 'Backstory' Lewis invites the Hansard family, which has been instrumental in the provision and development of Rear Projection for hundreds of Hollywood productions over several decades, to tell their own story of the heyday of the techniques and their decline and disappearance as the they are replaced by new technologies and new tastes in visibility.
In 1964, Yuwali was 17 when her first contact with white men was filmed. Her group of twenty women and children were the last aboriginal mob living traditionally, without any knowledge of modern Australia, in the Great Sandy Desert. Now 62 she tells the story behind this extraordinary footage.
Berlin 36 is a 2009 German film telling the fate of Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann in the 1936 Summer Olympics. She was replaced by the Nazi regime by an athlete later discovered to be a man. The film is based on a true story and was released in Germany on September 10, 2009. Reporters at Der Spiegel challenged the historical basis for many of the events in the film, pointing to arrest records and medical examinations indicating German authorities did not learn Dora Ratjen was male until 1938.
The beautiful and dangerous lesbian slave trader Druscilla practices all the customs of Ancient Rome - everything in Excess. But even excess can have its limits and the punishments can be very severe if she crosses the line and risks falling out of favor.
In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called the Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world. Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, the Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how the Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life. (Storyville)
It's 1949 and Tiananmen Square is a mess. Overgrown with weeds and thoroughly dilapidated it looks like hell, but it's where Chairman Mao wants to hold the Founding Ceremony for the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. And so TIAN AN MEN recounts the heroism, the struggle and the sacrifices of a People's Liberation Army unit as they...clean up and re-decorate the Tiananmen Gate? (Description by Subway Cinema)
The action takes place in a small Ural village beginning the War. The protagonist returns to his native place several years after the war and finds out that he is considered missed in action. The story about people whose quiet life was ruined by the War. The film reveals the tragedy of the whole nation.
In an attempt to unravel a mystery, a team of internationally renowned climbers and explorers join forces with archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians to climb into unexplored cave complexes that humans had not entered for hundreds if not thousands of years. What they find inside will rock the Himalayan world and re-write the history of this remote and mystical region.
In September 1909 a small group of determined girls gatecrashed a Boy Scout Rally and asked for 'something for the girls'. That simple action inspired a movement that now boasts ten million members in 145 countries. In this film we look back at the extraordinary story of guiding past and present, with the help of some amazing archive footage and interviews with famous former Brownies and Guides, including Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Dame Kelly Holmes, Kate Silverton and Shappi Khorsandi.
Rio de Janeiro, April 18, 1945. Brazil's foreign policy aligns closely with that of the United States and opens a brief period of democratic rule after the end of World War 2. For years, hundreds of people were arrested and tortured by the Vargas regime. But with the external pressure, several political prisoners gain freedom.
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day. A semi-biographic film, in four chapters, about a family spanning from 1948 until recent times. Combined with intimate memories of each member, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labelled "Israeli-Arabs," living as a minority in their own homeland.
This film looks back at the twisted world of hate, fear, sexual transgression and mind-control of one of the world's most notorious villain's, Charles Manson. He once had dreams of a Hollywood recording career. Fame was elusive, so he chose infamy. This is the story of how one man transformed a harmless group of hippies into a gang of brutal murderers. What evil lurked in this strange man's heart?
Historians have long speculated that thousands of wooden ships plied a Maritime Silk Route from the Middle East to China, braving long distances on white-capped seas, but time and the deep ocean have destroyed any evidence . . . until now. In 1998 German engineer Tilman Walterfang found a shipwreck from the 9th Century blanketed by intact gold, silver and ceramic items. As we uncover clues and reveal the story of the wreck, reenactments transport us back in time to an age of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor, when vicious seas ravaged wooden boats like matchsticks. Through interviews with maritime archaeologists and ceramic experts we bring these characters to life by examining unique items recovered from the wreck and painting a vivid picture of glorious 9th Century Tang China. We reveal where the treasure now lies, in high security storage in Singapore.