• Charles Atlas – Hail the New Puritan (1987)

    1981-1990Charles AtlasQueer Cinema(s)United KingdomVideo Art
    Hail the New Puritan (1987)
    Hail the New Puritan (1987)

    Quote:
    Employing a documentary treatment with a fictional script, Atlas presents a time capsule of London in the spring of 1985. Michael Clark, hailed as the rock star of British contemporary dance, is cast as a successful young choreographer. The film charts a half-typical, half-imaginary day in Clark’s life, beginning with a dream sequence.

    Clark’s vigorous day includes an interview with a dance critic in a surreal skit featuring members of The Fall; a cemetery filming for an underground featurette; an erotic encounter in a mirrored bedroom; a nightclub scene; and dancing to exhaustion at home alone. The heart of the film centers on 12 principal dance sequences set in rehearsal, photo session, performance, and nightclub scenes.Read More »

  • Dmitrii Davydov – Kostior na vetru AKA The Bonfire (2016)

    2011-2020Dmitrii DavydovDramaRussia
    Kostior na vetru (2016)
    Kostior na vetru (2016)

    This is a film from Yakutia (AKA Sakha republic, part of Russian Federation). There exist separate film industry producing movies on a regular basis. Most of them, including this one, are on the native yakut language. These movies have local screenings in cinemas of the region, sometimes they also have some presentation on russian and international film festivals. This film in particular was shown at Busan International Film Festival 2016 and imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival 2016 in Canada where it wan «Best Feature Drama» award. It was also nominated for APSA- Asia Pacific Screen Award.

    When a young man kills his cousin in an accident he is overcome with guilt and, in his grief, commits suicide. His father Ignat, a responsible and devout widower, is left reeling and seeks redemption for his son’s actions. He meets a neglected boy and finds comfort looking after him. But the father of the boy who was killed becomes intoxicated with revenge.Read More »

  • Christoph Schlingensief – United Trash AKA The Slit (1996)

    Christoph Schlingensief1991-2000ComedyCultGermany
    United Trash (1996)
    United Trash (1996)

    Africa, … Land of the infinite sun, of curly hair and the smell of diesel oil. German soldiers on a mission from the United Nations. For General Werner Brenner (Udo Kier), a dream comes true: the new crematorium, the multicultural children’s playground and, above all, the old V2-Rocket from the Führer! Here, where people are still “crude and simple”, every German can display his abilities! But after a couple of days, Brenner’s unbreakable optimism starts to crumble…Read More »

  • Kevin Jerome Everson – The Island of St. Matthews (2013)

    Kevin Jerome Everson2011-2020DocumentaryExperimentalUSA
    The Island of St. Matthews (2013)
    The Island of St. Matthews (2013)

    Years ago Kevin Jerome Everson asked his aunt about old family photographs. Her reply—that “we lost them in the flood” was the catalyst for this film, a poem and paean to the citizens of Westport, Mississippi, the hometown of the filmmaker’s parents.Read More »

  • Yoshishige Yoshida – Ningen no yakusoku AKA A Promise AKA The Human Promise (1986)

    Yoshishige Yoshida1981-1990DramaJapan
    Ningen no yakusoku (1986)
    Ningen no yakusoku (1986)

    Synopsis:
    Yoshida returned to feature filmmaking after a hiatus of thirteen years with this brave and moving film about the struggle to maintain dignity in the face of old age and approaching death. The Human Promise reaffirms Yoshida’s ability to deal with difficult and even taboo topics by exploring the question of euthanasia with a profound sensitivity and subtlety. The film’s unusually frank meditation on death is anchored by the restrained performances by its veteran actors, including Rentaro Mikni, who starred in several of Yoshida’s earlier works, including A Story Written on Water. The Human Promise’s use of water imagery enriches a motif central to the rich ambiguity at the heart of Yoshida’s cinema.Read More »

  • Hugo Fregonese – Black Tuesday (1954)

    Hugo Fregonese1951-1960Film NoirThrillerUSA
    Black Tuesday (1954)
    Black Tuesday (1954)

    PLOT: Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to the electric chair, taking with him Peter Manning – a bank robber and cop killer who was to die right after him. Taking several hostages along, they try to get their hands on the loot from Manning’s robbery to finance their escape from the country.Read More »

  • Gail Dolgin & Vicente Franco – Daughter from Danang (2002)

    2001-2010DocumentaryGail DolginUSAVicente Franco
    Daughter from Danang (2002)
    Daughter from Danang (2002)

    Synopsis:
    Separated at the end of the Vietnam war, an “Americanized” woman and her Vietnamese mother are reunited after 22 years.Read More »

  • Laurent Heynemann – Faux et usage de faux (1990)

    Laurent Heynemann1981-1990DramaFrance
    Faux et usage de faux (1990)
    Faux et usage de faux (1990)

    Fleeing fame, the writer Anatole Hirsch decides to publish his new book under the name of his cousin, Martin Bassane. This book wins the Prix Goncourt. A film inspired by the story of Romain Gary.Read More »

  • Iradj Azimi – Les îles (1983)

    Iradj Azimi1981-1990DramaFantasyFrance
    Les îles (1983)
    Les îles (1983)

    Quote:
    “The abstraction of the story and the concrete presence of the natural settings apprehended with a beautiful sense of the frame infuse a mythical dimension to this worthy successor of Jean Epstein’s Breton films.”

    “This is Azimi’s third film in Brittany, he has already shot Les jours gris in 1973 in Dinan and Utopia in 1978 in Cap Fréhel.
    “Here everything overlaps: the sea, the sky, the flat orange of the sun, the clouds and the foam around the rocks, the salt. Only the island tears.”
    (auto-translated)Read More »

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