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Diamond Rivers

Diamond Rivers is a portrait of Geraldo Santos da Silva, part of a dying breed of diamond prospectors who still scour the riverbanks of Brazil looking for this rare gemstone. In his eighties, Geraldo continues to prospect as he reflects on the boom-and-bust cycle of the sleepy town he refused to leave. His children have long since gone, and the few remaining neighbors practice the arts of caçhaca and barrell-making, in the same way they did before the diamonds were discovered there. The wind flaps through the shutters of this near-abandoned town, and more people live under tombstones than walk the streets. The church and the market are the two remaining centers of this town, where the circus passes through every five years. Geraldo himself says, the diamond prospector has no future, no stability. He lives only for the day, but then again there are some very good days. Good days indeed.

Diamond Rivers

NR 1977
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
DENAIN, HAUT-FOURNEAU DE LA COLERE

"Denain, Blast Furnace of Wrath" was produced with very few means but the film was widely distributed until in Norway where it came to support the strike of steelworkers engaged in their country for the same fight. Only one regret: despite all my efforts to seek funding, I was never able to shoot 'USINES' which would have been the continuation and the observation of this situation triggered in the process with the closure of the Usinor site. Neither Robert, nor Pierre, nor the others, and there were many of them, were never able to speak.

DENAIN, HAUT-FOURNEAU DE LA COLERE

NR 1979
We Demand Jobs

The We Demand march of 1971 was the first recorded political action taken by queer activists in Canada. The date of this march, August 28, 1971, coincided with the second anniversary of the passing of Bill C-150 which decriminalized gay sex in Canada. Although this reform of the 1969 Criminal Code led to the decriminalization of certain homosexual acts, it did not have much of a tangible impact on the policing and surveillance of queers. In fact, the policing of sex between men actually increased following Bill C-150.

We Demand Jobs

NR 1971
Redevelopment: A Marxist Analysis

The result of a three year collaboration [1971-1974] between the Resolution film group and a number of community groups struggling to save their home and neighborhoods from "urban renewal". In San Francisco, as in most other cities, "urban renewal" means destroying minority and working class neighborhoods and building lucrative luxury developments. As usual, the key government people have been bought and paid for by the big developers. Redevelopment is a "tool" not in the "here's how to fix it" sense, but rather as an aid to understanding local issues in the larger contexts of the political-economy of the city and a variety of community organizing strategies. The film has been used and enthusiastically received by community and tenants' groups all over the country. It has proven itself as an effective means of stimulating discussion in the neighborhood and the classroom.

Redevelopment: A Marxist Analysis

NR 1974
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
Ablinga

Nothing is left of the Lithuanian village of Ablinga. Destroyed by Wehrmacht soldiers in 1941, a forest of sculptures was erected in 1972 to commemorate those who once lived here. Larger than life, the carved wooden monuments rise to the sky. In national poet Justinas Marcinkevičius’s poem they wake up again, share some last secrets and become connecting links on a timeline that knows violence and dreams of peace. Dagnija Osite-Krüger’s montage is bold, playful and sometimes brutal, her concern credible and strong. Within a few minutes, “Ablinga” puts a spell on us, becoming a monument to German guilt and the memory of the murdered ones.

Ablinga

NR 1978
養護学校はあかんねん!

This is a documentary in which the camera's gaze is surrounded by a consciousness of staring, and this consciousness brings about a clear stance in approaching the subject. The distance between the able-bodied and the disabled is made clearer here by depicting it from the side of the disabled, and the film's title, "Why are schools for the disabled wrong? The title of the film, "Why are schools for the disabled wrong? This straightforward attempt at the most basic of documentary filmmaking, how to bring the subject to oneself, succeeds in capturing the full power of film itself, not just within the genre of documentary. The film is a success.

養護学校はあかんねん!

NR 1979
Progress?

Sven Elfström (1927-2017) was a full-time manual labourer who started off as a welder at the shipyards in Uddevalla. Eventually he moved to the industrial city of Nynäshamn, south of Stockholm, to work at the manufacturing workshops of the state telecommunications company, Televerket. Elfström began shooting 8mm films at an amateur film club in Uddevalla. When moving to Nynäshamn he acquired a 16mm camera. Most of the eleven films that he made in this format are shot in Nynäshamn; the actors in these films were friends and family. The films were self-financed, shot and edited by himself, often on reversal film stock as this was the cheapest way to make a film. This means that usually neither negatives nor additional copies exist of these films, but merely one original print. UTVECKLING? starts with a fierce critique against capitalism, consumerism and man’s exploitation of the world.

Progress?

NR 1971
Home Movie

In 1974, as part of the Family Folklore Program of the Festival of American Folklife, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., put out a call for families to bring in their home movies and have portions of them copied for a documentary film. More than 100 families responded to the call, bringing in 16 mm and 8mm home movies, as well as photo albums. The result was the documentary, Home Movie: An American Folk Art by Ernst Star, then a student in the film department at Temple University, and Steve Zeitlin, a student in the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania.

Home Movie

NR 1975