The great Polish opera diva Maria Foltyn created her greatest performance in Stanislaw Moniuszkos Halka, with which she toured worldwide - she was applauded by Stalin and admired by Castro. Today, when she is losing her voice, she has decided to give way to her successor. The film Viva Maria! is a tale of passion, sacrifice and devotion, and is an extraordinary story of passing down a voice.
The Hawaiian Spa Resort in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, was heavily damaged by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. This documentary accompanies their famous Hula dance troupe at their tour through Japan and shows the rebuilding of the resort. The film team also goes with one of the dancers to her former home in the evacuated zone near the Fukushima I nuclear power plant.
Vera and Gabriel, an elderly couple, navigate through past and present, telling their own life story. Their remembering, rendered in images from family archives that confound themselves with images of the present, suggests a personal diary on love and death.
Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb is a documentary film reviewing the music and career of Pink Floyd - a complete case study of the work of Pink Floyd on record, film and in performance. Drawing on rare concert films and penetrating interviews with the critics this is the definitive exploration of the Pink Floyd phenomenon. This documentary film will fill in the missing piece for the serious music collectors and at the same time will delight casual music fans exploring Pink Floyd for the first time.
After a 15-year hiatus, The Yellow Monkey, one of Japan's greatest rock bands, reunites in 2016 and goes on tour. They vow never to break up again. Director Daishi Matsunaga of Pieta in the Toilet and Pyuupiru captures them on and off stage examining what they did during their absence and where they are going.
Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade, in this suspenseful on-the-ground documentary.
Follows the evolution of the female fronted superhero characters in comics from the 1940s and up to today. Detailing the influences of what made the characters and how they impacted on the comic book world.
After Saddam Hussein had the Kuwait Oil wells lit up, teams from all over the world fought those fires for months. They had to save the oil resources, as well as reduce air pollution. The different teams developed different techniques of extinguishing the fires. Man's emergency creativity can be seen at it's best.
Cleaning up a weird scientist's messy study is a chore four kids decide to make short work of on a Saturday morning! The kids file animals into drawers according to their species, 'til they discover a replica of a dinosaur. They hesitate to dispense with the oldest creature on earth by filing it in the "EXTINCT" drawer! However, they soon find many surprises in store, including disagreement as to what creature actually is the oldest on earth, from four wisecracking and argumentative cockroaches eavesdropping from a shelf!
An unconventional portrait of painter Frida Kahlo and photographer Tina Modotti. Simple in style but complex in its analysis, it explores the divergent themes and styles of two contemporary and radical women artists working in the upheaval of the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
Filmmaker Julia Pimsleur used to make up elaborate lies about her brother Marc, rather than explain that he had dropped out of college, turned his back on his Jewish heritage and moved to a Christian commune in Alaska. She and her mother initially feared that Marc had joined a cult. This documentary traces Julia's efforts to understand his conversion and to revive their relationship, despite her fundamentalist brother's disapproval of her bisexuality. Julia travels from New York City to her brother's religious community, where she and Marc search for common ground and discover the meaning of family.