The Japanese sword ... prized as much for its exceptional beauty as for it's deadly cutting ability. It has endured for a thousand years as the pinnacle of Japanese culture. Now you can enter a world rarely seen by outsiders. To experience the true story of the Art of the Samurai Sword. A story told in the swordsmiths own words that separate the myth from the fact. Follow the swordsmiths dream of creating a masterpiece. From the quest to making an ancient steel to forging a blade equal to those of the Kamakura, a medieval period that produced the greatest swords in history.
Over the years they herded their animals up the mountain. But that custom had to be adapted to the economic proposals of the present. His world is extremely simple for the dizzying gaze of the city. They work day by day to generate a plate of food and in no way do they contemplate another place to live other than their mountain. There they were born, there they will die. Only two hours by car unites them with Santiago de Chile. So close so far.
“Soy Huao” is a film that is installed in the Toca family to watch from them and through the contemplation of a camera -which manages to become invisible-, a world organized by its own values and rules that far from any idea of consumption and urban well-being, it moves with very different customs in the midst of nature and survival in the face of vegetation loaded with a dense forest, the tropical humidity of the climate, and the variety of species of small animals. A plane that visits them every so often, connects the Huao community with the world. How long can a community that has struggled so hard to preserve its freedom resist the influence of the world as we know it?
Stories of Change is a 2008 documentary film by BRAC Pathways of Women Empowerment. The documentary focuses on the lives of five women aging from 16 to 60, coming from different walks of life, from different professions, religions and regions of Bangladesh.
Waila, the contemporary dance music of southern Arizona's tribal communities, is often called "chicken scratch." Played at tribal functions, this fun, lively music offers relief from the hardships of reservation life. Waila! Making the People Happy explores the history of the music and looks at the Joaquin's, a family of musicians, and their journey from a remote tribal village to performing at Carnegie Hall.
One million on the run in the jungles of Eastern Burma. One visionary community fighting to save their own. The award winning documentary, Crossing Midnight, is set on the border of Thailand and Eastern Burma. Crossing Midnight tells the story of a remarkable community of refugees from Burma working against incredible odds to help their own.
The inspiring story of award-winning band Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women -- how they left their day jobs in mid-life and realized their dreams. With their potent combination of sassy lyrics and fierce playing styles, the trio Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola, and Andra Faye have entertained audiences for over 25 years. HOT FLASH chronicles how the trio overcame personal struggles and industry stereotypes to emerge as one of the most well-known blues bands playing today. A true insider's look into the band featuring original footage and photographs from the band's personal collection, interviews with current and former band members, as well as with record company executives and music critics, and concert footage of their performance at the historic Ram's Head in Maryland and the Wolf Trap in Virgina.
This documentary demonstrates that Timbuktu was a leading cultural, economic, scientific and religious center that made a significant and lasting impact on Africa and the entire world.
First shown on TV in 2011, this film is the fascinating story of British Rock Star Gary Numan. From his early meteoric success through mid career crisis and near catastrophe to his renaissance and subsequent evolution into industrial overload. Includes contributions from Trent Reznor, Phil Oakey, Little Boots, Andy McCluskey, Noel Fielding & Martin Mills. This is the story of Reinvention. This DVD edition includes over 45 minutes of extra previously unseen footage. The 45 minutes extra are a mixture of new interviews with Gary and extended footage from sections on the original (longer versions of guest interviews for example), plus scenes that didn't appear on the original at all.
Just a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance have retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside the buildings and met the residents.
Monika Delmos's documentary captures a year in the life of two teenage refugees, Joyce and Sallieu, who have left their own countries to make a new life in Ontario. Joyce, 17, left the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid being forced into prostitution by her family. Sallieu, 16, had witnessed the murder of his mother as a young boy in wartorn Sierra Leone.
When the Oglala Sioux Tribe passed an ordinance separating industrial hemp from its illegal cousin, marijuana, Alex White Plume and his family glimpsed a brighter future. Having researched hemp as a sustainable crop that would grow in the inhospitable soil of the South Dakota Badlands, the White Plumes envisioned a new economy that would shrink the 85% unemployment rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They never dreamed they would find themselves swept up in a struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights, and common sense.
"What we were trying to do was the ultimate form of architecture, which was predicting how society would use space, land and time." Curtis Schreier, ANT FARM Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm is the first film to consider the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm, best known for its iconic land-art piece Cadillac Ranch. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive multidisciplinary work that questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. Incorporating breathtaking archival video, new footage shot over ten years and animation based on zany period sketches, this film is about the joy of creation in a time when there were no limits. —Beth Federici
The emotionally charged story of Susan Greenberg who, at 19, killed her abusive boyfriend. After 19 years in prison, she seeks to have her sentence overturned based on a California state law that allows women convicted of murder to ask a judge for release based on evidence of "Battered Woman Syndrome."
This film tells the complex story of men in prison, victims of crime, and an artistic partnership that helps break down barriers between them. As prisoners, victims, and victim advocates collaborate on a mural about healing from crime, their views on punishment, remorse, and forgiveness collide, sometimes harshly. But as the project progresses, mistrust begins to give way to surprising moments of human contact and common purpose. The project challenges each side to recognize and respect the other’s essential humanity and worth – a small, but significant step toward a more healing and restorative form of justice
This documentary offers rare interviews with over 15 major Asian-Pacific American women poets. Organized in interwoven sections such as Immigration, Language, Family, Memory, and Spirituality, it is a sophisticated merging of Asian-American history and identity with the questions of performance, voice, and image.