• Alan Greenberg – Land of Look Behind (1982)

    1981-1990Alan GreenbergArthouseCaribbean CinemaDocumentaryUSA

    Synopsis:
    In this documentary on the Rastafarians in Jamaica (homeland of the Rastafari par excellence — the late Bob Marley), director Alan Greenberg interviews some Jamaicans whose conversations suggest that the smoking of ganja, the worship of Haile Selassie (the former Ethiopian emperor) as a god, and the goal of Jamaican self-realization is their own kind of unified field theory. A young, poverty-stricken teenager listens to the reggae music on his radio as though it will magically lead him to a better future, and a pineapple cutter living in the “baddest” area of the island dreams of fomenting tourism in his exotic surroundings. The May, 1981 funeral of Marley himself brought Christian and Rastafarian beliefs together in tribute to the island’s hero, providing one of the most poignant vignettes in the Land of Look Behind.Read More »

  • Khyentse Norbu – Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2016)

    2011-2020ArthouseBhutanKhyentse NorbuMystery

    This art-house movie is a good example of a mix between the interest in the magical aspects of Buddhism and the dissolute nature of the jungle (in contrast to and as a reflection of the contemporary world). There have been many influences cited here, from Satyajit Ray and Hiroshi Teshigahara, to Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The last name in particular is definitely a good reference, though Khyentse Norbu lacks the particularly tender, yet realistic way in which the Thai director understands the jungle.Read More »

  • Dalibor Matanic – Kino Lika (2008)

    2001-2010CroatiaDalibor MatanicDramaPolitics

    Quote:
    A godforsaken mountain village is the only home that a young football player, a miser peasant and a fat girl have. This isolated part of the country finds itself in the middle of the referendum for or against the EU. Our characters couldn’t care less – they are absorbed in their problems. The young football player who accidentally killed his mother doesn’t want to join a rich foreign football team and is willing to risk his father’s love because of it. The lonely fat girl is so desperate for a friend and for a lover that she will end up seeking both in the pig-sty. The miser peasant will find out that the real misery is in loneliness.Read More »

  • Júlio Bressane – Sedução da Carne (2018)

    2011-2020BrazilDramaExperimentalJúlio Bressane

    A delicate and tenacious writer, widowed three years ago, engages in frequent conversations with a parrot. However, she’s always observed by a large portion of raw meat.Read More »

  • Buddhadev Dasgupta – Uttara AKA The Wrestlers (2000)

    1991-2000AsianBuddhadev DasguptaDramaIndia

    In the pastoral expanse of rural Bengal, in Purulia district, single railroad workers and best friends Balaram (Shankar Chakraborty) and Nemai (Tapas Pal) spend their days wrestling on a hill with little work to speak of because the fact that their flag station has only a couple of trains to be flagged off or signalled to.Read More »

  • Rouzbeh Rashidi – Phantom Islands (2018)

    2011-2020ExperimentalIrelandRouzbeh Rashidi

    Synopsis: Phantom Islands is an experimental film that exists at the boundary of documentary and fiction. It follows a couple adrift and disoriented in the stunning landscape of Ireland’s islands. Yet this deliberately melodramatic romance is constantly questioned by a provocative cinematic approach that ultimately results in a hypnotic and visceral inquiry into the very possibility of documentary objectivity.Read More »

  • Yulene Olaizola – Paraísos artificiales AKA Artificial Paradises (2011)

    2011-2020DramaMexicoYulene Olaizola

    Synopsis:
    Luisa is 25 years old and fighting a heroin addiction. Having escaped the city she finds herself seeking repose in a fading beach resort that rests on the lush seaside hills of Veracruz, Mexico. Inhabitants and conversations are sparse, but Luisa finds a quiet companionship with 50-year-old local Salomon, an alcoholic widower who spends his days smoking marijuanaRead More »

  • Jacqueline Zünd – Almost There (2016)

    2011-2020DocumentaryJacqueline ZündSwitzerland

    Three men, three continents: Bob, an American, Steve, a Brit and Yamada, who is Japanese, dare to take on new beginnings and personal journeys – in the autumn of their life. Impressive cinema with images that remind us of the loneliness and melancholy in Wim Wenders’ films.

    Quote:
    It’s evening in an empty parking lot, and we see the motorhome in which a retired man will go on a long journey and leave his old life behind. He runs through a checklist of all the things that need to be done before he leaves his hometown. Although clearly a metaphor for taking stock as the end of life approaches, it is used with subtlety. Read More »

  • Fridrikh Ermler – Ona zashchishchayet rodinu AKA She Defends the Motherland (1943)

    1941-1950DramaFriedrich ErmlerUSSRWar

    (kinoglaz.fr)
    On the first day of the war fascists brutally killed the little son of a peasant woman Praskovya Lukyanova before the mother’s eyes. Her husband was also killed. Praskovya leaves the village. She goes to woods, organizes a partisan detachment and takes vengeance on the enemy.
    The film was restored at the Gorky Film Studio in 1966.
     The authors of the film were honored the Stalin’s Prize of the USSR.Read More »

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