Christmas abounds with traditions, from neighborhood carolers to lovingly decorated trees, but from where did all these rituals emerge? This enlightening program looks at the origins of the Western world's most popular Christmas traditions -- from the significance of December 25th and its relationship to winter solstice to the enchanting legend of Santa Claus and Prince Albert's 1841 unveiling of the Christmas tree.
Centring on the legend of the four ancient Chinese heroines, the film was a novelty for audiences at the time, as the singing performance was in Cantonese and used huangmei operatic rhythms—a popular trend in the 1960s, yet it retained traditional flavours by using operatic luogu percussion in the battle scenes. ‘Movie-fan princess' Connie Chan Po-chu not only sings Cantonese song and huangmei tone solos in the film, she also wows the audience by taking up the doumadanrole for the first time as the Tang dynasty female general Fan Lei-fa, showing off her superb operatic martial skills, together with Shum Chi-wah, inherited from Peking opera master Fen Ju Hua. Yu Kai's weaponry prowess and renowned female comedian Tam Lan-hing cross-dressing as a male general are also brilliant in this gem.
Horrible Histories Prom was a free family concert showcasing the original songs from the British television series Horrible Histories, along with classical music. It was held on 30 July 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and was that year's children's entry in the BBC's annual Proms series.
Warner Brothers looks back to the early days of talking pictures. Dwight Weist narrates film clips from five movies: "Sinner's Holiday," introducing James Cagney with a glimpse of Joan Blondell, "20,000 Years in Sing Sing," with a young Spencer Tracy and a younger Bette Davis, "Five Star Final," with Edward G. Robinson and a cameo from Boris Karloff, "Night Nurse," starring Barbara Stanwyck with a small role for Clark Gable, and "Svengali," with John Barrymore and Marian Marsh. Each movie is summarized and each star celebrated for work early in the history of sound cinema.
The Holy Week, around 1900, somewhere in Romania. The tense relationship between the Jewish innkeeper Leiba and Gheorghe, his Christian employee, reaches the point where the innkeeper decides to expel the latter. Revengeful, Gheorghe promises Leiba that he will return on Easter Night to “settle” his accounts. This threat comes as a last straw against Leiba’s attempts to cohabit with his hostile, anti-Semitic environment. From then on, Leiba will struggle distinguishing between the real danger and the one fabricated by his anxieties, engaging onto a path of transformation leading to extreme consequences.
Before the Liberation, during the years of the exiled Bulgarian revolutionaries in Romania, the Major and the Prime Minister once shared the same ideals, the same home, and even the same woman. Today, the Major orchestrates a conspiracy to overthrow the government led by his former friend, the Prime Minister. The head of state must be assassinated, and the Prince – dethroned. The woman is part of the plot, but she will try to prevent the fratricide.
About an international brigade that fought during the years of the civil war in Donbass. About how people of different nationalities, dreaming of a peaceful life, begin to rebuild the destroyed economy.
A film based on the biography of the famous Russian balalaika player Vasili Vasilevich Andreev (1867-1918), a self-taught virtuoso musician, who brought balalaika to the concert stage.
The former reputed lover and bon vivant Petr Vok from Rožmberk was widowed at the age of sixty-three. The loss of his much younger wife is hard to bear and it seems that nothing in his life will please him anymore. His loyal friends and servants do everything possible and impossible to cheer him up, but sometimes interesting situations arise, such as when they get him a guaranteed real mermaid. Will anyone be able to cure the master of his lethargy?
Inhospitable at the best of times, the snow-covered mountainscapes of Eastern Anatolia constituted a fatal frontier for many war exiles after the battle of Sarikamish in 1915, and provides a canvas laced with beauty and threat for this bone-chilling survival yarn, the superb debut feature of Alphan Eşeli. Starting out with three characters – a refugee mother and daughter and their grizzled guide – the film traces their daunting trek across this barren terrain to safety, with the Russians encroaching and other stragglers, including a pair of wounded, frostbitten Ottoman soldiers, all orbiting the same burnt-out village they find in their path. Puncturing its aura of ghostly impasse with some shocking narrative reversals, and constantly prickling with the mutual dread of strangers in gruelling extremes, the movie stakes out hugely credible ground next to established Eastern Front war classics (In the Fog, Come and See) while remaining thoroughly its own beast. (Source: LFF programme)
The Ark and the Darkness will be the most Biblically accurate, photo-realistic representation of Noah’s Flood ever released in theaters. Co-produced by award-winning Sevenfold Films, Director of Genesis: Paradise Lost, this film takes photo-realism to the next level. In cooperation with experts from Answers in Genesis, Liberty University, and Genesis Apologetics, this film reveals just how Noah’s Flood unfolded, how the dinosaurs were involved, what happened after, and also reviews how the judgement of Noah’s Flood parallels end times.
A BBC Timewatch documentary examining history's first major attempted terrorist attack. His attempt to blow up Parliament has seen Guy Fawkes go down in infamy, but the attempted coup was about much more than just one man. Hatched by a group of 13 conspirators, the 1605 plot came after decades of simmering religious tension in England. Fed by an atmosphere of fear and alienation, a group of disaffected young Catholics decided to assassinate King James I and the entire political establishment. Now with the help of CGI to recreate early 17th-century London, see how much damage would have been caused by the explosion, while dramatic reconstructions uncover the men behind the plan and explore what drove them to radicalism.
The underseaa world is an unseen battleground. Join Dr. Robert Ballard, former naval intelligence officer and discoverer of the RMS Titanic, as he reveals how the race for global domination as eon from the deapest reaches of the ocean. Using rare archival footage and fully animated recreations, this fascinating documentary examines the technology behind Cold War nuclear subs along with other recently declassified defense systems, such as SOSUS, the U.S. Navy's top-secret sound survelliance network. Sea Spies also looks at the key historical developments that influenced twentieth century warfare and features interviews with marine experts as well as high-ranking military officials.