It's 1348. The plague has brutally hit Florence. A group of then young people, seven women and three men, rebel against the feeling of death that is about to swallow them. They flee the city and find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills. Here, between moral doubts and the tasks needed to survive, they kill time by telling each other stories until they will decide to return. The stories are varied - tragic, bizarre, funny or erotic - but common and central to all of them is the female presence.
Brash and opinionated, Christine Choy is a documentarian, cinematographer, professor, and quintessential New Yorker whose films and teaching have influenced a generation of artists. In 1989 she started to film the leaders of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests who escaped to political exile following the June 4 massacre. Though Choy never finished that project, she now travels with the old footage to Taiwan, Maryland, and Paris in order to share it with the dissidents who have never been able to return home.
Just before World War 1, the fifteen-year-old poverty-stricken Anne from a small Slovak town is sent to Prague to be a maid in a wealthy family. She meets Resi, the daughter of a noble family, who was born and raised to be an adornment and a trophy – of the house, of her family, of Austria-Hungary. Anne and Resi, two girls born in the same year, but at the other ends of the social ladder, find a soulmate in each other. They become best friends, lovers and the only light in a male-dominated world.
In the world of Major League Baseball no one has created a mythology like Nolan Ryan. Told from the point of view of the hitters who faced him and the teammates who revered him, Facing Nolan is the definitive documentary of a Texas legend.
Set in 1901, this period epic follows Willem Morkel, a Boer family man whose wife and son are murdered during the Anglo-Boer War. Captured as a prisoner of war, Willem must survive incarceration in the notorious St. Helena concentration camp and defeat the ruthless Colonel Swannell, at his own game—Rugby
Nothing - not her father, not the church - can stop unruly Angela from being with her childhood best friend turned great love, Sara. Based on a true story, Viola di Mare, presents a uniquely engaging portrait of family, community and gender roles in a 19th century Italian village.
Paulo Coelho is the world’s most translated living author, his books having sold over 165 million copies. But he was not always the inspirational global phenomenon he is today. Like the heroes in his spiritual classics THE ALCHEMIST and THE PILGRIMAGE, he long-searched for his calling, flirting with death, escaping madness, falling in love, and making rock ’n’ roll history in Brazil, all-the-while striving for success as a writer. A wild ride through a lifetime of stranger-than-fiction adventures, PAULO COELHO’S BEST STORY is a profoundly moving film that goes straight to the heart of the most beloved literary guru of our time, revealing the most incredible wonder of all: the man behind the masterpieces.
Ken Burns meets Spinal Tap in a subversive tour de force relaying the outrageous life stories of four forgotten Civil War heroes: an opium-addicted gay Colonel, an aging Chinese launderer, a nerdy escaped slave, and a one-armed teenage prostitute. Both wickedly satirical and deeply affectionate, The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek tells the "100% true" story of how these oddball outsiders saved the Union from a nefarious foreign plot, how the forces of bigotry expunged their stunning victory from the history books, and - most importantly - how meeting one's ex on the field of battle can be just the thing to re-spark a detoured romance.
The story of missionary Graham Staines who was martyred in India in 1999. “The Least of These” shares the story leading up to the murders of the Australian Christian missionary and his sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, who were helping a community of lepers in India.
Discovered at a young age, the shy, squeaky-voiced Michel'le was plucked straight from South Central, Los Angeles and catapulted into the spotlight while riding N.W.A.'s rocket ride of early success. Surrounded by industry visionaries from Eazy-E to Tupac Skaur, Michel'le quickly climbed the charts, but her musical successes were soon overshadowed by betrayal and corruption. A nearly decade-long romance with the infamous Dr. Dre pushed her into a life tarnished by alcohol, drugs and violence until her savior came in the unlikely form of Suge Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records and Dre's business partner. Friendship would turn into a courtly romance, but the union Michel'le thought they had did not end happily ever after. With children from both men and a career to protect, Michel'le's voice became silenced by Compton's biggest power players. Until now.
Two physicists discover psychic abilities are real only to have their experiments at Stanford co-opted by the CIA and their research silenced by the demands of secrecy. This is the true story of Russell Targ and America's Cold War psychic spies, disclosed and declassified for the first time, with evidence presented by a Nobel laureate, an Apollo astronaut, and the military and scientific community that has been suppressed for nearly 30 years.
1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.
The story of how, in 1970, the social activism of young UCLA philosophy professor Angela Davis led her to become involved in a failed kidnapping attempt that ended in a shootout, four deaths, and her name on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
On October 12th, 1978, New York Police discovered the lifeless body of a young woman, slumped under the bathroom sink in a hotel room. She was Nancy Spungen, an ex-prostitute, sometimes stripper, heroin addict, and girlfriend of Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious.
Ingrid and her siblings are on the run from the Beserkers who have begun invading the villages, taking over, savagely using the residents on a game where they vs a Beserker, and if they win, they get to survive - only, no one ever wins. The siblings are trying to escape the Beserkers after they violently murdered and took over their town. However, the Beserkers are on their trail, and want to put them in the game.
A documentary that chronicles the life of South African leader Nelson Mandela. Mandela is probably best known for his 27 years of imprisonment, and for bringing an end to apartheid. But this film also sheds light on the little-known early period of Mandela's life.