Les voitures d’eau (The River Schooners)
Through their anecdotes and their actions, the artisans of Île-aux-Coudres tell us about the science of wooden boats at a time when iron ships are invading the St. Lawrence river. After a disastrous boating season, the filmmaker questions the economic and political future of an entire culture. This last film of the trilogy witnesses the end of the era of wooden schooners and of the men who knew how to build and pilot them.Read More »
The ten-part American Cinema series is superb entertainment for movie fans who want to acquire a deeper understanding of the history, development, techniques, and genres of the USA’s best export. It richly employs first-person interviews with modern directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, actors, and a slew of other movie craftsmen. Each one- hour episode is liberally seasoned with film clips and includes archival interviews with dozens of the late greats of the first half of this century. Every self-labeled movie buff should watch this fine series.Read More »
A collection of 11 short poetic psycho-geographic portraits of cities and spaces from artist Dominique Gonzelez-Foerster, who’s cinematic 2007 solo show at Musée dArt moderne de la Ville de Paris will be supplemented in 2008 by the Unilever commission for the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern (joining Carsten Holler’s slides, Olafur Eliason’s sun, and Doris Salcedo’s crack amongst many other prestigious past projects).Read More »
Vincent Ward weaves drama with documentary to unravel the extraordinary story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman who welcomed the young filmmaker into her home in 1978. Ward made the observational film In Spring One Plants Alone about Puhi’s day-to-day life in the remote Urewera Ranges. By then almost 80, she was obsessively caring for her schizophrenic adult son Niki, whose violent fits terrified her. In this new cinema feature Ward sets out to unravel the mystery that has haunted him for 30 years: Who was Puhi?
And why was she so obsessed with this last remaining son?Read More »
A rural American town suffering economically from factory closures finds an unconventional route to recovery with the help of MASS MoCA.Read More »
In Mexico, families have passed down the tradition of distilling agave for generations. Discover how this delicate plant has carried the weight of a nation and the people trying to protect it.Read More »
Marker’s concern with war’s effect on civilians has been a feature of his work since the 1960s. This politically direct tape looks at the function of media for a viewership that has been stripped of a homeland. In the vandalized ruins of an army barracks in Roska, Slovenia, lives a community of Bosnian refugees. What they know of world events comes from a unique video workshop run by fellow refugees who pirate signals from CNN, Radio Sarajevo, and Sky News. The young production team, most of whom had no prior experience with program making, underline how the warring factions’ abuses of media make them suspicious of all news output; at the same time, they exhibit sincere aspirations to provide a genuine documentary of refugee life.Read More »
A personal and vibrant coming of age story about a young artist’s determination never to surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings. At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by being an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its sweep on her canvases creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past. ‘Inocente’ is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America: children. The challenges are staggering, but the hope in her story proves that the hand she has been dealt does not define her, her dreams do.Read More »
7.4 million Hongkongers have lost their freedom and the younger generations that protested were beaten, battered, and arrested without just cause by the Hong Kong police. Yet, it has all been remarkably well documented, for those who have not chosen to turn a blind-eye. Recent documentaries like Days Before Dawn and We Have Boots have done excellent work recording the street protests and the violent tactics used to suppress them, but the shocking brutality exposed in this film surpasses them all. Your heart will ache and your jaw will drop after watching Kiwi Chow’s Revolution in Our Times, which opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles.Read More »