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An open-ended exploration of the energies and rituals of various workplaces. From one worker to another and one machine to the next; hands, faces, breaks, toil: what kind of absurdist, abstract dialogue can be started between human beings and their need to work? What is the value of the time we spend multiplying and repeating the same motions that ultimately lead to a rest – a state of repose whose quality defies definition.Read More »
Dark” was filmed in 2013 and released in 2014 under the title “Dying of the Light”. The film was taken from me after the first director’s cut, re-edited, scored and mixed without my input.
I offered to revisit de film, cut and mix a new version at my own expense but was denied permission by the producers.
This cut was created using work print DVDs. I had no access to the original hi-res footage and unmixed sound. I used those limitations to my advantage when creating this new film.
I was working toward a more aggressive editing style when “Dying of the Light” was taken away from me. “Dark” represents the direction I was hoping to go.
“Dark” was not created for exhibition or personal gain.
It is for historical record.
– Paul SchraderRead More »
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Documentary director Yuko portrays a school violence incident from three years ago that resulted in suicides, while she was teaching classes at her father’s cram school. As her documentary project progresses, Yuko discovers a hidden truth and becomes deeply involved in the lives of the families pained by that secret truth.Read More »
Synopsis:
Set in a dystopian landscape, SCALES is the story of a young strong-willed girl, Hayat, who lives in a poor fishing village governed by a dark tradition in which every family must give one daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters nearby. In turn the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this fate by her father, Hayat is considered a curse on the village and grows up an outcast. Nevertheless, she does not surrender to this fate and fights for a place within her village. After her mother gives birth to a baby boy, Hayat must accept the brutal custom of giving herself to the sea creatures or finding a way to escape.Read More »
PLOT: A violent quarrel breaks out between a couple at midnight. Being at a relative,s house in the north of Iran, they depart for Tehran in the middle of the night, but they do not bring along their son. Something terrible happens on their way…Read More »
Synopsis:
Madrid, in the seventeenth century. Abandoned at the doorstep of a monastery, Ambrosio has been brought up by the Capucin Friars. After becoming a friar himself, he becomes an unrivaled preacher whose sermons draw crowds and earn him the admiration of all. Admired for his extreme rigor and absolute virtue, Ambrosio is certain he is safe from any temptation. But Satan has not said his final word…Read More »
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1945, a large number of Japanese orphans were adopted by families in Northeast China. With the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the 1970s and 1980s, many orphans returned to China, including Lihua, the adopted daughter of Grandma Chen (played by Wu Yanshu). In 2005, Grandma Chen, who hadn’t received a reply from her adopted daughter for a long time, couldn’t help but miss her. She went to Nara, Japan. People journey. In a foreign country, they met many returned orphans. Their lives showed another side-section of war trauma. Under cultural differences and conflicts, the journey of tracing people became turbulent. Where did the adopted daughter become the biggest in everyone’s hearts Mystery.Read More »
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Yuki lost his mother after a long illness, when his sister and him were still children. For loved ones, she is now only a distant voice, a foreign face on photos, a ghost who visits them in their dreams, an increasingly blurred memory. Munemitsu, his father, has done all he could to fill this unfathomable emptiness, even forgetting. But to no avail, given that Norie is still there, like a latent and sprawling presence, entwining the invisible bonds of the family. But who really was Norie ? To answer this question, the director Yuki asks his father to accompany him to the annual festival of the dead, to retrace the portrait of this woman—who one day—was his mother, as well as the mad love that his father carries for her. Throughout this epiphanic journey, Yuki and Munemitsu discover each other. They are no longer just father and son, but two men facing the pain of loss. The director builds, with extreme delicacy, a film on the complexity of family relationships, on transmission, on love. A poetic journey through the sprits that continue to live in the memory of others.
Elena López RieraRead More »
China is currently marked by a phase of rapidly growing urbanization. The film in this context deals with two particular cities. Yum en a derelict ghost town and Or dos a mythic city of the future, both are deserted. They exist because of completely different reasons. The film shows through impressive images how these two cities and the relation of inhabitants to these cities are developing in China in times of urban growth.Read More »