On August 15, 2021, Afghanistan descends into chaos. In one day, the completion of the withdrawal of Western forces precipitated the debacle of the regime in place: the army vanished, the leaders fled and the Taliban took Kabul without a fight. The great Central Asian country opens a new chapter in its tragic history, twenty years after the "war on terror" launched by George W. Bush in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The undisputed masters of 40 million trapped Afghans, the "students of religion" are back and are savoring their revenge by posing as the United States' victors. Their program will surprise no one: to restore the Islamic emirate and set up the "true" sharia, i.e. a perfect world, with divine commandments applied to the letter as in the time of the prophet.
Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles on the occasion of their 2016 Gala event, 'Ed Ruscha: Buildings and Words' traces two recurring themes in the artist's 60-year oeuvre.
A Visit to Ogawa Productions offers a rare insight into the social and cinematic philosophy of one of Japan's best-known documentary film collectives. As the film reveals, Ogawa Productions' in-depth portraits of Japanese society - whether of protest movements or traditional agricultural life - grew out of an unusual commitment to integrate themselves with the communities they filmed, to the extent that their film-making literally became an alternative lifestyle.
Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.
Mary-Jo receives daily visitors in her living room. An ethnologist specialized in Darfur, her guests aren't coming to have tea only. They need crucial help that only this 90-year-old woman can give.
SCRUM follows the journey of one of the first Black college rugby coaches in the US as he builds a championship-winning team in only two years at a predominantly white Southern institution.
Through interviews with prostitutes, transsexuals, marginalized people, and the disabled, the director tells a series of stories about sexuality and feelings. An investigation that becomes a quest to explore the other side of love.
Umitori takes place in Shimokita Peninsula on the northern edge of the mainland, which was becoming a “nuclear energy peninsula”, undergoing tremendous development and serving as the home port for Mutsu, a nuclear-powered ship. Focusing on the fishermen and their stories, Tsuchimoto and his crew made their subject matter the “theft of the sea” perpetrated by giant business conglomerates. While the fishermen of Minamata were obvious victims of the mercury-poisoning tragedy, the fishermen in Shimokita were inadvertently becoming the permanent victims of another announced tragedy. Tsuchimoto interviews the fishermen, especially focusing on a stage play actor and his boat-owner family, establishing, as it became his practice, a complex reflection about the threat brought to small communities by the forces of “progress”.
A compelling and moving documentary that examines the scientific implications and values of forgiveness as well as the physical, mental, and spiritual health benefits for individuals, relationships, and societies as a whole.
Europe’s largest lithium mine is about to start operating in Trás-os-Montes, much to the dismay of the local inhabitants. Frederico Lopo induces an earthy sensuality and contrasts two geologies: that of mining prospection and machines, and that of roots and people.
Produced in collaboration with MICA-TV, Summer of Love is a public service announcement produced for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Featuring The B-52’s, David Byrne, Allen Ginsburg, Quentin Crisp, John Kelly, and others.
Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Travel across four continents, through 19 countries, and into dingy Cambodian karaoke bars, Amsterdam’s infamous red-light district, Moldovan orphanages, legal Nevada brothels, and the street corners and alleyways of metropolises worldwide for more than a glance at the fastest-growing organized crime industry in the world with the groundbreaking, tell-all Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.
Sixty percent of our body is made up of water and we also come from the water in the womb. An elderly woman dives into the sea and recovers her deepest 'I': herself as a child.
On January 8, 2020, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a shocking announcement that sent ripples around the world: they were leaving the Royal Family. To many, this sudden headline came as an overwhelming surprise, but many devoted royal watchers have seen the signs for some time. It seems like Harry and Meghan have just decided that the time and place—is now. This is Harry and Meghan: The Next Step.
A documentary about Nogami Teruyo, who for nearly half a century stood by Akira Kurosawa as a screenwriting collaborator, a script supervisor, and a companion.
Around 3,000 BC, the first territorial state in history was created with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The empire on the Nile was to exist for 3,000 years. The current section focuses on religion, temple economy and the cult of the dead and examines the reigns of Akhenaten and Ramses II. The culture of Ancient Egypt is characterized by religion, temple economy and the cult of the dead. Two pharaohs play an important role in this context: Akhenaten and Ramses II. When Akhenaten ascended the throne around 1,350 BC, religious customs in Egypt had hardly changed for almost 2,000 years. The influential priesthood was organized hierarchically and the rituals were set out in fixed rituals. The temples are not only the spiritual but also the economic centers of the country.
Sharjah airport in the 1930's showing the airport, town, Emirate and Imperial Airways staff. An early British documentary produced by many pioneers of the medium.
Ugly, Me? is a film manifesto made from a workshop for actors called Characters in Search of a Movie, in 'La pa', 'Rio De Janeiro', extended to Paris and 'Kerala' (India). Multifaceted like a kaleidoscope, the characters appear in multi-screens scenes and sequences. The images were captured with different kinds of cameras and Ugly, Me? uses this sign of the variety imposed by independent production as language experimentation. Transposing the boundaries of style, Ugly, Me? navigates in a sea of metaphors, philosophical and musical politics, from Prince Harry to Heraclitus, going through a series of authors like Rimbaud, Brecht, Nietzsche, Bispo do Rosario and Eduardo Viveiros DE Castro, capturing a contradictory and original country.