In collaboration with Lomo, an Austrian camera company, and Mubi, a global film website, Weerasethakul was invited to make a work to launch the new LomoKino, a portable motion picture camera. Ashes juxtaposes the intimacy of his daily routine with the destruction of memories and his observations of the dark side of Thailand’s social realities.
Zuhdi Al Adawi, a Palestinian artist imprisoned in the occupied territories, uses his art as his means of expression and is helped by the rest of the community and his own family to accomplish his artwork.
Sjov, inspirerende, modig og visionær. Portrættet af den britiske, mangesidige kunstner David Hockney (f. 1937) er vævet sammen af åbenhjertige interview med nære venner og aldrig før sete optagelser fra Hockneys eget personlige arkiv. Som en af de store overlevende ikoner fra 1960´erne, kan det se ud som om, Hockneys karriere startede med næsten øjeblikkelig succes, men privat har han kæmpet med sin kunst, sit forhold til andre mennesker og aids-tragedien. Så meget desto mere virker hans optimisme og eventyrlyst opløftende.
A record of the epistolary encounter between French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire and Maxim Gvinjia, former Foreign Minister of the breakaway Caucasian state of Abkhazia, Letters to Max is both a chronicle of a developing friendship and an ingenious, unusual essay film about the inherently speculative nature of nationhood.
The Philippines is visited by an average of 20~28 strong typhoons and storms every year. It is the most storm-battered country in the world. Last year, Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), considered the strongest storm in history, struck the Philipines, leaving in its path apocalyptic devastation.
An intimate portrait of Yemen as the revolution unfolds, told through the eyes of tour guide leader Kais, an intelligent commentator on the changing times in Yemen, offering poignant moments of reflection, loss, anger and hope on the unknown road to revolution. Filmed over the course of the past year we see Kais's journey from pro-President to reluctant revolutionary, joining angry protesters in the increasingly bloody streets of Sana'a.
An Anthropological Television Myth is a gloriously jagged collage of fragments culled from an independent Sicilian TV station's output in the mid-90s – the period just before the 'Berlusconi era'. But whereas the Milanese media mogul's spells as president were notable for the cynical degradation of his nation's television output, with its bawdy game-shows earning much overseas derision, the small broadcaster showcased here evidently foregrounded and documented local grass-roots political shenanigans. With no commentary or captions, the film plunges us into a lively day-before-yesterday epoch when the authorities' battles with the Mafia produced an atmosphere akin to Civil War on the streets. Virtuouso editing knits together a dizzyingly wide range of sights and sounds that consistently fascinate and impress.
A portrait of Argentine director Gastón Solnicki's family over the course of the second half of the 20th century, Papirosen follows four generations still troubled by a war that’s never spoken of. The film juxtaposes different periods with their native image formats, along with landscapes, characters and international political events, as it focuses on a singular decade of a nouveau riche Argentine Jewish family, and the new generation’s introduction into familiar traumas and vitality.
A deceptively simple set-up: the director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time. A Bucharest derby between the country’s leading teams, Dinamo and Steaua, taking place in heavy snow, one year before the revolution that toppled Ceaușescu.
An experimental exploration and celebration of the Juggalo subculture in Buffalo, New York. Long and static takes of Juggalos engaged in their favorite activities, first and foremost of which - causing mayhem. Among these seemingly random acts of the everyday, preening, sexual gratification, backyard wrestling, explosions and destruction, a tentative narrative begins to emerge.
Like the black sun of an eclipse, Antonia is a lyrical singer of exuberant and dark beauty. Recovering from a suicide attempt in a rehabilitation institution, all her family ties are irreparably broken. But her sister remains deeply affected by what happened. May they reunite once again?
Adashi, ex-member of the Japanese Red Army, narrates a story taking place in Beirut. The melancholy of war, the pain of disillusionment. A story being written and rewritten, open to interpretation. When the time comes, return to reality can only be cruel.
The personal stories of the people from all around the world waiting for a decision in an asylum-seekers centre in one of most restrictive countries in the world, Switzerland.
Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking.
A film on exile, revolution, landscapes and memory, Anabasis brings forth the remarkable parallel stories of Adachi and May, one a filmmaker who gave up images, the other a young woman whose identity-less existence forbade keeping images of her own life. Fittingly returning the image to their lives, director Eric Baudelaire places Adachi and May’s revelatory voiceover reminiscences against warm, fragile Super-8mm footage of their split milieus, Tokyo and Beirut. Grounding their wide-ranging reflections in a solid yet complex reality, Anabasis provides a richly rewarding look at a fascinating, now nearly forgotten era (in politics and cinema), reminding us of film’s own ability to portray—and influence—its landscape.
Documentary about director/artist Nicholas Ray and his time as a University professor
Erwin Romulo, the late Alexis Tioseco’s best friend, recalls the events after the critic and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc’s untimely death in their home in Quezon City. Diaz makes use of one long take to allow Romulo an uninterrupted narration of the events. The pain of recalling is palpable.
Brother Number One is a New Zealand documentary on the torture and murder of New Zealand yachtie Kerry Hamill by the Khmer Rouge in 1978. It follows the journey of Kerry's younger brother, Rob Hamill, an Olympic and Trans-Atlantic champion rower, who travels to Cambodia to retrace the steps taken by his brother and John Dewhirst, speaking to eyewitnesses, perpetrators and survivors.
Forførende, frygtløs og provokerende. Marina Abramovic har omdefineret hvad kunst er i næsten 40 år. Ved at bruge sin krop som værktøj, har hun skubbet til sine egne og publikums grænser – og til tider risikeret sit liv i processen. I THE ARTIST IS PRESENT følger vi kunstneren på nært hold, imens hun forbereder sig til en performance, mange kunstkritikere vurderer til at blive den vigtigste milepæl i hendes karriere – en ny stor retrospektiv udstilling af hendes arbejde på The Museum of Modern Art i New Work. Men For Marina, er der langt mere på spil. Det er ikke bare en mulighed for at presse grænserne for performancekunst til det yderste, men også en enestående chance for én gang for alle at svare på kritikernes evindelige spørgsmål: “Hvorfor er det kunst”?
A documentary on the influential musician Scott Walker.