Bohemian, playwright, and suddenly president at the end of 1989: Czech European Václav Havel played a decisive role in shaping the history of the continent in the second half of the 20th century. Andrea Sedláčková recounts Havel's almost novel-like life, drawing on a wealth of archival material. It is a story of dramatic highs and lows, and several defining moments in European history.
5 channel video installation, HD colour with sound, 12'00-15'48". Music by Wang Wenwei. With a haunting lyricism and dreamlike narrative, The Coloured Sky: New Women II examines the secret desires and anxieties of young women as they come of age. The work captures a journey that has on one hand ended and on the other has barely begun. The ingenues, teetering on the brink of womanhood, frolic self-consciously in an artificially staged beach scene, aware of their burgeoning sexuality and its underlying power. The shadow of China's historic system of concubinage hangs over these contemporary scenes, as the idealized beauties negotiate a new social milieu in which future prospects hinge on appearance and the cultivation of male fantasy.
It's the most extraordinary feat of engineering in history, and one of the most iconic man-made structures on the planet - the Great Wall of China, stretching thousands of miles across barren deserts and treacherous mountains before finally plunging into the sea. But why did the Chinese go to such staggering lengths to build it, and what are the secrets that have enabled it to survive for over 2,000 years? Now, ground breaking science is re-writing its complex history and de-coding its mysteries to reveal that there is much more to the Great Wall than just bricks and mortar. Cutting edge chemistry reveals that the secret to the Great Wall's remarkable strength is a simple ingredient found in every kitchen, and a new survey also determines that its length is truly amazing, as we finally solve the enigma at the heart of the world's greatest mega-structure.
Whilst the first shots ring out between pro-Russian government forces and members of the opposition in the winter of 2013, young Nina leaves Crimea. She was raped by a corrupt policeman, her friend was killed, and now she seeks refuge with the protesters on Maidan Square. Revolutionary chaos prevails, and it‘s not at all clear who remains loyal to whom and which means can be regarded as legitimate in the struggle for freedom. Ultimately Nina and her tormentors come face to face again and the spiral of violence is stepped up a further notch. The film was shot to a genuine backdrop, the result of which is a multifaceted allegory on the tragedy currently playing out in Ukraine.
A response in music and film to the conflict that launched a century of war, and a celebration of the power of art to keep us sane and offer us comfort. Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 brings together three of the world's most pioneering artists: the Kronos Quartet, known for decades for their trailblazing performances and collaborations; acclaimed Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov; and filmmaker Bill Morrison, respected for his work with rare and even partially destroyed archive images.
Directed by French Director Christian Faure and released in 2014, The Law brilliantly traces three days, in late Fall 1974, of stormy debate in the French National Assembly, around a bill which would make "voluntary termination of pregnancy" legal. Behind this bill stands a lone woman brilliantly played by a remarkable Emmanuelle Devos (also in The Other Son): Simone Veil the Minister of Health in the Jacques Chirac government during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. During these three days of violent debate Veil, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, is spared nothing: political negotiations, solitude, sparring arguments, insults and violence to her family. In spite of all of this, Veil never wavers.
'The Weight of Chains 2' is a documentary film largely dealing with the effects of the Washington Consensus economic doctrine on the newly established former Yugoslav republics, but also with neoliberalism as an economic concept. Through interviews with Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone and many others, the author, Serbian-Canadian Boris Malagurski, attempts to analyze why so many people in the Balkans are disappointed with the systems imposed after the fall of socialism and how capitalism could be improved. Looking at the examples of Ecuador and Iceland, the film tries to uncover alternatives to the prevailing orthodoxies of Western economic dictates and help developing nations find their own way to shape their economies and their countries.
Michael Grade reveals the story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity who went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom.
Witnesses about to testify at the Nuremberg War Trials needed a safe place to wait. All under one roof, each with their own secrets. And the countess assigned to take care of them. What was her secret?
An effort to solve two lifelong mysteries---who was David Whiting (who died mysteriously in an Arizona motel during a Hollywood film shoot) and what was the cause of his death? And what was the mythic 'Cesar Romero joke' which all the filmmaker's classmates still remember as utterly hilarious (but nobody can recall what the joke actually was)?
Whatever Comes Next is a documentary about the curious and dynamic life of Annemarie Mahler-Ettinger.
The film portrays the painter and scholar, Annemarie Mahler. Born in Vienna in 1926, Mahler fled by herself as a twelve-year child to the United States and has since 1955 has lived in Bloomington, IN, and in the summers in Woods Hole, MA. The documentary portrays the artist's outer and inner lives, which bridge two centuries and two continents.
Two friends, eighteen-year-olds Kaśka and Magda, are graduating from a film high school. Between having fun and enjoying life, they still have to find time to prepare for the final exam that awaits them. They are tasked with preparing a film etude. When the teacher suggests a topic to them, they rebel at first. They wanted to make a film about socially important issues, about contemporary problems, they wanted to change the world, and here they get the story of some village girl from 100 years ago, who let herself be killed in a senseless way. Willing not to, they set off to Zabawa, where their heroine Karolina Kózkówna lived and died.
The Second World War is over. But after each war the human destinies are left. This film is about two of them. The former officer of the Wehrmacht. The former prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp.
Discovered at age nine and a celebrated composer by age eighteen, George Frideric Handel experienced a meteoric rise to success, with forty-two operas performed on three continents in his lifetime. As enduring as Handel's operatic work is, the prodigious German genius is best known for his oratorio Messiah. Now you can learn in poignant detail how Handel's magnum opus came to be.