The film traces the life and times of Wenceslau de Moraes (b. Lisbon 1854, d. Tokushima 1929), the great Portuguese writer who lived in the Far East. 1891: Moraes breaks with his mistress and leaves Portugal for Macao, never to return. 1895: While in Macao, he becomes fascinated by Japan, leaving his Chinese wife and their two children. 1912: Moraes is living and writing in Robe, in the south of Japan, as Portuguese Consul, with his Japanese wife Oyone. 1913-16: Deeply affected by the death of Oyone, Moraes quits his post and goes to live in poverty, near the tomb of his wife. However, he soon becomes involved with a young niece of Oyone’s, Ko-Haru, who eventually dies of tuberculosis. 1916-29: Moraes is transformed into a ghostly figure, wandering at night around the graves of Oyone and Ko-Haru. He writes his most mature works at this time, while his literary fame continues to grow in Portugal. 1929: Moraes dies under obscure circumstances.Read More »

Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak (1960)

Quote:
Two young people, Walter and Charlotte, are walking through a small village in Switzerland a snowy winter day. Walter introduces Charlotte to Clara, hoping to make Charlotte jealous. After saying good-bye to Clara, Walter accompanies Charlotte into her house, although she doesn’t want him to. Charlotte is hungry and cooks a steak. She asks Walter if he wants a piece of it. He says no, but she gives him a small piece anyway. He wants a kiss, and she says no. She starts to compare herself with Clara, who Walter agrees is more beautiful. In spite of this, Walter says he likes Charlotte much more, but she thinks he is lying. She notices that he is cold and shivering. She hugs him, he kisses her, and she starts kissing him. After leaving the house he accompanies her to the train.Read More »

‘Based on John Geiger’s book “Chapel of Extreme Experience”, Nik Sheehan’s FLicKeR is a fascinating voyage into the life of artist and mystic Brion Gysin and his legendary invention the dream machine, a device that projects stroboscopic light, provoking a “drugless high” and cinematic hallucinations. In this Hot Docs world premiere Sheehan captures the dynamic, supernatural world of Gysin, the queer cultural terrorist who fused science, magic and art to expand human consciousness and transcend material reality.Read More »

Synopsis
In his youth, Leah was fascinated by black magic. After her marriage and the birth of her son, she naturally continued to brew toad potions and lizard decoctions to protect the beloved child from diseases and misfortune. The cherub, now an adult, is threatened by two terrible scourges, women and war. Broths of critters are no longer sufficient and Leah must take drastic measures to deviate friends and enemies from the road of his son’s…Read More »

Leshka, 15-year-old boy lives in an isolated village on the Bering Strait, like most men in his village, he is a whale hunter. When Internet arrives in the village, everything changes in the life. The appearance of an unusual girl on a webcam site fascinates him. The protagonist’s state of being in love with an image so far away, the blurred silhouette of a beautiful stranger, leads him to the most courageous act in his life: to embark on the dangerous journey using nothing more than a tiny fishing boat through the raging waters of the Bering Strait towards an unfamiliar world in order to find his love.Read More »

Love, power, money, ghosts of empire, conspiracies, artificial intelligence and You. An emotional history of the modern world by Adam Curtis.Read More »

from IMDB:
At the beginning of a nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jim seems particularly troubled. His sponsor encourages him to talk that night, the first time in seven months, so he does – and leaves the meeting right after. As Jim wanders the night, searching for some solace in his old stomping grounds, bars and parks where he bought drugs, the meeting goes on, and we hear the stories of survivors and addicts – some, like Louis, who claim to have wandered in looking for choir practice, who don’t call themselves alcoholic, and others, like Joseph, whose drinking almost caused the death of his child – as they talk about their lives at the meeting. Written by Gary DickersonRead More »

An old teahouse in Beijing serves as the stage for a drama that unfolds over several tumultuous decades of modern Chinese history, from the waning days of the Qing dynasty to the eve of the People’s Republic.Read More »

Quote:
Single factory worker Kata, 43, wants to have a child with her long-time secret lover, a married man called Joska. He doesn’t like the idea. Kata befriends teenage schoolgirl Anna, abandoned by her parents at the age of six. Anna runs away from the local children’s home and moves in with Kata so that she can keep on seeing her boyfriend Sanyi. Kata goes to see Anna’s parents and persuades them to give the young lovers their permission to marry. Through Anna, Kata becomes interested in neglected children and decides to adopt a baby from the children’s home.Read More »