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In The Land Of The Negev

An Israeli Film Service documentary, describing the two faces of the Negev: unspoiled desert landscape alongside modern Israeli settlements. The film documents the culture and commerce in Beersheba, the works in Timna Valley’s copper mines and the Aravah’s agricultural fields, and the technological strongholds of Ben Gurion University’s labs, the Wise Observatory, and Eilat’s desalination plant. Alongside the modernization, the film captures the surrounding desert nature and wildlife, the Nabataean archaeological sites in the Negev, as well as the remains of the War of Independence in Mizpe Revivim.

In The Land Of The Negev

NR 1975
Praga Farewells: Album

A documentary resembling a moving photo album that describes Warsaw's Praga district, which has its own urban legend. The least damaged area during the Second World War, its tenements and wooden houses from the turn of the century remained intact. Praga has its representative part in the Art Nouveau Śródmieście district. Its small-town soul could be seen at the back of the streets, the suburban part may be noticed on the outskirts of the city. Apparently, one could be born and die without leaving the surrounding buildings, Praga satisfied all the needs of the inhabitants. The voiceover mocks the artistic aspirations of "better people" preserved in the facades of the tenements. It appreciates the architecture of the wooden houses, the workshops of old crafters. Through the architecture, the story of the district is told.

Praga Farewells: Album

NR 1976
Behind the Curtain: Mimis Fotopoulos

Episode from the documentary series Paraskinio, dedicated to Mimis Fotopoulos, who speaks about his life and work in a monologue in front of the camera, likely improvised. We watch footage from his films, and we hear him reading aloud. Among the ruins of an open-air space, mostly used as a film studio, he initially plays the blind man from "The Counterfeit Coin", talks about his films such as "The Counterfeit Coin", "Laterna, Poverty and Dignity", and "The Little Chauffeur", and comments on that period of the golden age of classic Greek cinema. Fotopoulos wanders through the ruined studio and discusses the increased responsibilities of actors in theater and the challenges of filming while performing in plays during the flourishing period of Greek cinema.

Behind the Curtain: Mimis Fotopoulos

NR 1976
Do You Get It No. 4

Footage of a sunny village square in Sardinia leads to humorous, philosophical reflections on reality and the role of the ‘objectively recording’ documentary maker. Van Gasteren sees the square as a backdrop in his film, and the chance passers-by as extras. Then, as a ‘director of reality’, he gives an ironic commentary on what he sees. “For a moment I thought, from what source of information am I thinking up what I see. Or, did I just see exactly what I thought.”

Do You Get It No. 4

NR 1978
Kwagh Hir

Four million Tiv people form the major culture of the Benue state of southern Nigeria. They are popularly known as the greatest democrats in Africa as their society is based on fraternal cooperation between age mates rather than on authoritative chieftaincy. Men of an age work together on communal farming and house building and celebrate their achievements with feasts famed for the excellence of their music and dance. Their women create amongst the greatest dances in Nigeria within their extended family compounds. Each year, during the dry season, when there is little farm work, the leaders of the dance teams compose songs to record recent experiences and new features in their lives which they express in the rhythms and gestures of their dance.

Kwagh Hir

NR 1975
The Sun Ship Game

Flying hundreds of miles a day through wild weather with no engine requires feats of airmanship unprecedented in human history and known before only to the birds. George Moffat and Gleb Derujinsky are great pilots and good friends who compete in the sport of Soaring for speed and distance in aircraft without engines - sleek competition gliders. Both would like to win the U.S. Soaring Championship. Derujinsky relies most on feel and creative impulse to sense his way through invisible air currents. Moffat does the same but relies more on a hand calculator he constantly works in his cockpit. This film 'The Sun Ship Game', voyages with both pilots into the sky at a regional contest in Vermont and into wild weather with eighty three other competitors in Marfa, Texas. Through eight days of hard flying in skies alternately filled with brilliant beauty and black violence, their two approaches arrive at a dramatic conclusion and one of them is named the U.S. Champion.

The Sun Ship Game

NR 1971
A Farm

Magda and Paweł seem to have different expectations of life: she needs a bit of craziness, and he needs a bit of normality. Even though Magda cannot imagine living in the countryside, following Paweł's will, they decide to buy a farm near Serock. Magda and Paweł, not without problems, buy the farm from old farmers. The youngsters start to manage the homestead, at the same time they undergo some mental changes. Paweł's father dies, his mother decides to be an adviser to her son and Magda. The girl begins to trust life, however, she loses her first baby. Paweł finds it difficult to get along with the local farming club. The spouses share with us their fears, hopes and reflections.

A Farm

NR 1979
Operation Gamescan 76

This short documentary profiles the Canadian military’s organization, logistical, and security operations at the XXI Olympiad held in 1976 in Montréal. The scale of the operation was large: 16,000 troops were mobilized to provide protection for 7,500 athletes, countless VIPs, and the general public on 138 sites located in Montreal, Bromont, and Kingston. This film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the planning and synchronization necessary to mount a successful international event of massive proportions.

Operation Gamescan 76

NR 1977
Wittstock III

Part 3 of the Wittstock series also shows the surroundings of the textile factory. Older gentlemen in a pub reveal that two factories produced fabrics for the military here during the Second World War. In 1945, only a handful of handlooms remained. The contemporary witness does not say why. It was probably too sensitive to reveal the reason on camera in 1978: The Soviet occupying power dismantled many production facilities in the GDR after the end of the war and transported them to the home of the victorious Red Army.

Wittstock III

6.0 1978
Queen of Apollo

In 1970 I went to New Orleans with Noel Parmentel to shoot fragments of the “The Moviegoer.” While we were down there my daughter Elspeth and I went to visit some friends of mine whose teenager daughter was to be Queen of a fancy Mardi Gras ball. I didn’t know anything about this, but my friends thought it would be a nice idea if we filmed it. So we went over for an evening; black tie, dinner gown and all the rest of it. We changed a few light bulbs in the house and unobtrusively filmed the evening. I ended up making a 12-minute short with my daughter Elspeth taking sound. – Richard Leacock

Queen of Apollo

NR 1970
Good-bye Old Man

At the request of a dying Tiwi man and his family on Melville Island, this film was made of the pukumani (bereavement) ceremony to follow his death. The film observes the family through the long period of preparation for the ceremony, following age-old traditions. Dancing and face-painting are rehearsed, to the family’s satisfaction, and because “things should be right for this film”. For the two days of ceremony, the community moves to Carslake Beach where a smoking ritual is held to protect the participants from spirits. The cemetery poles are erected, traditional dances are performed along with personal dances by family members. Facial and body decoration is elaborate and spectacular. After saying a final farewell to the old man, the community and the family leave the Beach and return to the village where routine life resumes.

Good-bye Old Man

NR 1977