Documentary

  • Sifrid Miladinov – Galicnik (1940)

    1931-1940DocumentarySifrid MiladinovSilentYugoslavia

    Quote:
    This ethnographic and historical silent 16mm cinematic jewel was filmed in 1940 by Sifrid Miladinov – a professional photographer and amateur filmmaker from Kumanovo, a man with eclectic range of interests.
    In 16 short but precious minutes you will see what the village of Galichnik, the famous Galichnik wedding and our ancestors looked like 80 years ago – in color! – very unusual at that time. Maybe some of you will recognize your great-grandfather, great-great-grandmother, old family house, alley, tree, entrance door. Sifrid Miladinov’s film is a rare opportunity to look back in the past through authentic, original archive footage. We thank the descendants of this film enthusiast, the Miladinovi family from Zagreb, for depositing the film in our national film archive – the Cinematheque – several years ago.Read More »

  • Júlio Bressane & Eduardo Escorel – Bethânia Bem de Perto – A Propósito de um Show (1966)

    1961-1970BrazilDocumentaryEduardo EscorelJúlio BressaneShort Film

    Documentary about Brazilian pop diva Maria Bethânia, in one of her first shows in Rio de Janeiro. The film also show scenes of her daily life and meetings with other musicians.Read More »

  • Georges Rouquier – Le Tonnelier (1942)

    1941-1950DocumentaryFranceGeorges RouquierShort Film

    A short documentary about the life and craft of a French cooper. The main focus is on the two-day process of creating a wine barrel, from nada to completion. Interspersed throughout are little snippets concerning the life of the cooper whose work we follow, like mentioning his daughter’s marriage and his being involved in WWI.Read More »

  • Ki-duk Kim – Arirang (2011)

    2011-2020ArthouseDocumentaryKi-duk KimSouth Korea

    Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk bares his tortured, inebriated soul in “Arirang,” and it’s not a pretty sight. An experience that can be likened only to being stuck next to a drunk in a bar who keeps reminding you he used to be famous, all his friends are bastards and he now understands the meaning of life, pic might have proved therapeutic to make, but it’s a grind to watch, even for fans of the maverick writer-director’s work. Kim’s rep will inevitably ensure further fest bookings for what is essentially one long whine, but theatrical distribution anywhere looks highly unlikely.Read More »

  • Alexander Nanau – Colectiv AKA Collective (2019)

    2011-2020Alexander NanauDocumentaryRomania

    Synopsis
    Director Alexander Nanau follows a crack team of investigators at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they try to uncover a vast health-care fraud that enriched moguls and politicians and led to the deaths of innocent citizens.Read More »

  • James A. FitzPatrick – Glimpses of Florida (1941)

    1941-1950DocumentaryJames A. FitzPatrickShort FilmUSA

    Quote:
    This Traveltalk entry starts in Miami, which at the time of filming was still a small vacation community. We then go to Hialeah to watch the thoroughbred horses race. After short stops at The Everglades and Cypress Gardens, we are taken to Silver Springs, named after its pristine waters. Mr. Ross Allen, director of the Silver Springs Reptile Institute, is shown catching alligators and milking a poisonous snake of its venom. The venom is sent to pharmaceutical companies to manufacture snakebite serum.Read More »

  • Melisa Liebenthal – Aqui y Alla AKA Here and There (2020)

    2011-2020ArgentinaDocumentaryMelisa LiebenthalShort Film

    Here and There is an essay film that studies what being at home means. The filmmaker uses photographs, maps and Google Earth to connect places around the globe; not just from her own past, but also from the complex migratory history of her family that stretches back to Hitler-era Germany and Mao’s China. Reality and the virtual prove equally confusing: however much you zoom in, you never get closer to home.Read More »

  • Louis Malle – L’Inde fantôme aka Phantom India (1969)

    1961-1970DocumentaryFranceLouis Malle

    Quote:
    Malle later said that the film was his most personal work and the one he was most proud of, it is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of his career. It was initially inspired by a two-month trip to India in late 1967 that Malle made on behalf of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present a selection of “new French cinema” throughout the country. Filming took place between January 5, 1968 and May 1, 1968 with a crew of two, a cameraman and a sound recordist. Malle arrived in India with no particular plans and financed the trip himself. The resulting 30 hours of footage was then edited down to the 363 minutes of Phantom India. The 105-minute long Calcutta used the footage he had recorded over his three-week stay in that city. Phantom India was shown on French television and the BBC in the UK in 1969.[2][3] Many British Indians and the Indian Government felt that Malle had shown a one-sided portrait of India, focussing on the impoverished, rather than the developing, parts of the country. A diplomatic incident occurred when the Indian government asked the BBC to stop broadcasting the programme. The BBC refused and were briefly asked to leave their New Delhi bureau.Read More »

  • Cynthia Beatt & Rudolf Thome – Beschreibung einer Insel AKA Description of an Island (1979)

    1971-1980Cynthia BeattDocumentaryGermanyRudolf Thome

    Quote:
    This film with a marked ethnographic nature, which was filmed without a pre-established plan and with a script that crosses the lines of documentary and fiction, tells the story of a group of five Germans who arrive on a remote island in the South Pacific called Parapara and belonging to Vanuatu. Their aim is to prepare a publication on the lives of the inhabitants of this remote island. The tasks were personally assigned: one would study the language, another would study the fauna; another the traditions, institutions and family systems; another the plants and another the songs and stories.Read More »

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