The rejection of the project for a new, more socially just constitution by the Chilean people in 2022 has reignited the conflicts that have plagued the country for five decades. On September 11, 1973, in a bloody military coup, General Pinochet ended the socialist revolution launched by President Salvador Allende, legitimately elected in a democratic election. The subsequent dictatorial regime with fascist features brought great violence and terror to the Chilean people. The accompanying neo-liberal economic system, which made the country one of the richest in the region, led to an ever-widening social gap in society, which in turn fell into a kind of passivity. In 2019, long after the dictator was voted out of office and the democratization that followed, a new social movement is shaking the prevailing order. From Allende's socialism to Pinochet's fascism, this historical fresco in documentary form returns to the origins of the rupture.
Equal parts documentary, essay, and narrative,"Captain Elliot's Circle" is mostly a poetic interaction with an obscure corner of Chinese and British history. Constructed using primary source documents about the taking of Zhoushan, Britain's first choice for a seaport, in the late 1830s,this movie uses Captain Charles Elliot's reluctance to brutalize the Chinese to reflect on the cyclical nature of history and the power structures that move it. The long takes used throughout function to illustrate the dramatically different ways in which people who lived in the mid-19th century perceived time. Additionally, it represents the psychological effect of living on an island regardless of what era you were born in.The last third of the movie focuses on a young woman whose strange day job has taken her far away from the island of Zhoushan generations after Captain Charles Elliot was last there. "Captain Elliot's Circle" was shot on location in Zhoushan and Hangzhou.
In 1892, Ellis Island, in New York Bay, became the main gateway to the United States for immigrants arriving increasingly from Europe. The story of immigration to the United States from 1892 to 1954, an enthralling polyphonic narrative that embraces both small and great history.
Mike and I spent 2 months in Tramore, County Waterford, Ireland in the fall/winter of '92. We had been on the road since the summer, and planned to be gone for another year or so. We made a video to send home to our friends and family in the States as a Christmas card. This is the part of the video where we took our friends on a tour of Tramore.
At the beginning of the last century, in the ancient city of Jiangnan, three teenagers from declining families became good friends.They were Qu Qiubai, Zhang Tailei and Yun Daiying who would later become the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Qu Qiubai is the highest-ranking CCP leader who died at the hands of the enemy; Zhang Tailei is the highest-ranking leader who died on the front line of the battle; the "China Youth" magazine founded and edited by Yun Daiying turns 100 this year. The film tells the story of the "finding" life of three teenagers...
Set in 1739, Nader Shah's undefeated army is attacked by Sikh rebellions. Nadar demands their arrest to no avail. Five civilians are hired to play Sikh rebels but over time, they learn the Sikh way.
This personal film is made up of landscape photos from the archive of the director's father, through which he returns to his life while exploring the material possibilities for creating "landscapes": the film itself is exposed to the effects of yeast, salt, leaves and seaweed. By reacting with the film emulsion, each foreign element creates a new and different image quality, while the noise on the soundtrack underscores the fragility of incomplete memories.
The black death had devastating effects in centuries past, but what actually caused it and how many lives did it take? The world has not seen a disease outbreak like it before or since. This film tells the story of skeletons recently unearthed in a long-lost plague cemetery beneath the streets of London. Was it the Bubonic Plague, or as scientists now suspect, an Ebola-like virus?
Over 2000 Union soldiers, passengers and crew were crammed aboard the steamboat Sultana, licensed to carry 376. Graft, greed, overcrowding, a poorly maintained boat, and the Mississippi River was swollen with spring snowmelt conspired together to create a disaster. On April 27, 1865, the boat’s boilers exploded, causing the worst maritime disaster in US history.
Paris, France, 1939, at the dawn of World War II. The French resistance orchestrates an incredible operation to put hundreds of masterpieces of art, part of the artistic heritage of humanity and preserved in the Louvre Museum, away from the greedy and dirty hands of the Nazis, who are about to invade the country.
AGAVE IS LIFE is an exploration of the history of the agave plant in the cultures of Mexico and the American Southwest. Starting thousands of years ago when hunter-gatherers viewed the hardy desert succulent with it's myriad uses as a gift from the gods, agave's story is told through the lens of archaeological, ethnographic and modern day vignettes, closing with concerns about threats to the plant's future