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Gratian: The Real life Romanian Werewolf

The people in Izbuc, a village in the Romanian Carpathian mountains (Transylvania), think that their fellow villager Gratian Florea is a werewolf. According to an old custom, when a child is born, the midwifes call upon the spirits, to make the child hard working, beautiful, loveable or wise. It is said that when Gratian was born, the umbilical cord broke only after the midwife called forth the werewolf. This crucial moment was to influence his whole life.

Gratian: The Real life Romanian Werewolf

6.0 1999
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige

This film is a poetic composition of recorded history and non-recorded memory. Filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family was among the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. And like so many who were in the camps, Tajiri’s family wrapped their memories of that experience in a shroud of silence and forgetting. This film raises questions about collective history – questions that prompt Tajiri to daringly re-imagine and re-create what has been stolen and what has been lost.

History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige

10.0 1991
Speaking in Strings

This real-life documentary explores the passionate & energetic presence of renowned Italian violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (she moved to the Unites States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music and later studied with Dorothy DeLay at The Julliard School.) The film focuses on her professional life, starting in 1981, when she burst onto the classical music scene as the youngest (at 17) recipient ever of the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition.

Speaking in Strings

6.2 1999
Der Duft des Geldes

In Protestant Zurich, people with money avoid flaunting it. Wealth fascinates, but it also arouses jealousy. Four wealthy Zurichers are in search of happiness: one man unexpectedly inherits a large sum of money; he tells no one about it and indulges in a luxury: he finally takes the time to live. For religious reasons, a woman from an old Zurich family renounces her possessions and inheritance. A "self-made" entrepreneur is constantly expanding his international business and living the good life. A welfare recipient relives, with mixed feelings, the days when money flowed freely. For years, he has been fighting a bank to repossess his fortune.

Der Duft des Geldes

NR 1998
Leon Askin - (Über)Leben und Schauspiel. Private Anmerkungen

"The art of the stage actor and even of a stage director is evanescent. Nothing remains of it but a 'still' photograph or two (...) Not everyone can be a genius. Somebody has to be a Leon Askin - and that's me." Leon Askin, born in Vienna in 1907 , fled from the Nazis to the USA in 1940. The private Leon Askin is portrayed: his daily routine, his contact with those around him, at work. During quiet moments, he discusses his thoughts about persecution, emigration, work, discipline, success, the image one projects to the world, his identity as a Jew, loneliness, the struggle for recognition and health, life acting - and also about death.

Leon Askin - (Über)Leben und Schauspiel. Private Anmerkungen

NR 1997
The Story of the SAS

North Africa 1943. The SAS tally of enemy planes has surpassed 400. Hitler is enraged. "These men are dangerous and should be hunted down at all costs..." A precedent had been set that would never falter. The SAS was born. This is the remarkable story of Britain's elite fighting regiment. Diverse and multi faceted, it encompases the relentless spectrum of human conflict. From the inhospitable deserts of North Africa to the deep, uncharted jungles of Borneo, whether it is scaling the precipitous Jebel Akdhar at night fully laden, or abseiling through the blast shattered windows of the Iranian Embassy - The SAS continue to redifine the role of special forces worldwide. Using previously unseen footage and rare interviews, the story of the SAS provides an account of unparalleled tenacity and heroism. The SAS: Who Dares Wins.

The Story of the SAS

7.3 1999
Tom Chicago on Location

The nom d'art 'Tommy Chicago' reflects independent filmmaker Tom Palazzolo's unique status within the Chicago film community. Since 1967, Palazzolo has filtered all aspects of the Windy City through his audacious lens. This documentary captures the artist at work and play on his latest film: we see him engage street urchins in the service of his vision, teach his son that you CAN buy love, and drive cast and crew to the brink of artistic chaos. Colorful and fast-paced, the tape illuminates the vital interplay between Palazzolo's brash personal style and his filmic art.

Tom Chicago on Location

NR 1990
Under the Willow Tree: Pioneer Chinese Women in Canada

A rich and little-known part of Canadian history unfolds through the stories of the first Chinese women to come to Canada and of subsequent generations of Chinese Canadian women. It is an amazing tale of courageous women who left behind their families, knowing they would never see them again and of girls who were shipped off to the New World to marry men they had never met. These are the women who fought against the many forms of racism they faced in Canada while, at the same time, challenging sexism within their own communities. By passing on language, culture, and values to their children, these women defined what it means to be Chinese Canadian. Beautiful old photographs from family albums, the recollections of seven women who grew up in Canada in the first half of the 20th century, and the memories of narrator and director, Dora Nipp, whose grandfather came to Canada in 1881 to build the railway, create a remarkable story of stunning impact.

Under the Willow Tree: Pioneer Chinese Women in Canada

10.0 1997
Belinda

A native of Eastern Kentucky, Belinda Mason was, as she says,“a small town journalist, a young mother, a reliable Tupperware party guest” until she became infected with the HIV virus in 1987. She decided to go public with her condition and spent the rest of her life as a powerful advocate for AIDS prevention, education, treatment, and human rights. The film features Belinda talking about her own experiences dealing with AIDS and the support she found within her rural community, and includes a presentation she made with her pastor to members of the Southern Baptist Convention: “People ask me if I think AIDS is a punishment from God. I can’t pretend to fathom what God is thinking, but maybe we should look at AIDS as a test, not for the people who are infected, but for the rest of us.” Funny, down to earth, and never self-pitying, Belinda speaks with a moving eloquence of our need for a collective response to AIDS that is not crippled by racism, homophobia, fear or ignorance.

Belinda

NR 1992
Boneshop of the Heart

This highly original and thought-provoking film explores a rich vein of visual expression and American individuality through incisive portraits of five contemporary southern folk artists, four of whom are African-American. The film reveals art forms so radically different from familiar folk traditions that the artists -- "Tin Man" Charlie Lucas, Vollis Simpson, Thornton Dial, Bessie Harvey, and "Sandman" Lonnie Bradley Holley -- defy classification. Variously known as "outsider" or "visionary" artists, they create unique aesthetic forms that challenge traditional distinctions between "fine" and "folk" art.

Boneshop of the Heart

8.0 1991
Long Time Comin'

There is a cultural revolution going on in Canada and Faith Nolan and Grace Channer are on the leading edge. These two African-Canadian lesbian artists give back to art its most urgent meanings--commitment and passion. Grace Channer's large and sensuous canvasses and musician Faith Nolan's gritty and joyous blues propel this documentary into the spheres of poetry and dance. Long Time Comin' captures their work, their urgency, and their friendship in intimate conversations with both artists.

Long Time Comin'

3.8 1993
Blood Brothers: Freedom Ride

Outspoken leader Charles Perkins grew up on a reserve, separated from his relatives. He was shunned by white Australian society and his early experiences of racism spurred him to go on to university and to challenge racial inequality. One of the first Aboriginal people to graduate from university, he soon came to the forefront of direct action against oppression and injustice, leading the 1965 freedom rides that challenged apartheid practices in northern NSW. Freedom Ride takes Charles Perkins back to Moree and Walgett and uses newsreel footage and dramatic reconstructions to retrace his story. The program was directed and produced by his daughter Rachel Perkins; his son Adam Perkins plays Charles as a young man.

Blood Brothers: Freedom Ride

NR 1993
Nothing Is Forever

This documentary tells the story of the industrial heritage of the 19th and 20th centuries from the perspective of "industrial archaeology." Using drawings, photographs, and both historical and new film footage, the film focuses on the disappearance or decay of monumental inventions from the recent past, such as steam engines, old railway bridges, water towers, and factories. Industrial heritage changed the face of modern society, but now seems to have been discarded itself.

Nothing Is Forever

7.0 1990
"Tank You Vedy Much!" - The Many Faces of a Comic Legend

Andy Kaufman was one of the most original comedians of the 20th century. He definitely danced to his own drummer. He could play a shy, lovable man like Latka Gravas on "Taxi", and then turn around and play Tony Clifton, an obnoxious, crude Lounge Lizzard. He was also one of the Great "Put on Artists" of our time. He also put on the world with his wrestling fiasco involving Jerry Lawler who eventually slapped Andy out of his chair on The Letterman Show. It was all staged!! Come on along with us and follow Andy's career from early childhood, with exclusive family shots, to his untimely death at 35. Even then, his close friends didn't believe it. They thought it was another Andy Kaufman "put on"!!

"Tank You Vedy Much!" - The Many Faces of a Comic Legend

6.0 1999
The Power of Healing

Returning home to his native Emmental after travelling around the world, Jürg Neuenschwander comes across peoble who are skilled in the art of healing and tend to the sick with herbs and powers even though the law of the canton of Berne still strictly prohibits the practice of healing. Healers have become very popular. Their patients come from all walks of life: nurses, distillers, alpine farmers and computer experts alike approach healers in the hope that they will relieve or even deliver them from their sufferings. Many patients with chronical illnesses view healers as the last resort after traditional doctors have failed to help them.

The Power of Healing

NR 1995
Babel: A Letter to My Friends Left Behind in Belgium

The film narrates the day-to-day existence of a filmmaker wandering through his city (Brussels) and who has a notion to follow in the footsteps of dramatist Antonin Artaud and visit the Tarahumara people of Mexico. This is a film about intimacy and friendship. Written in the first person, it places Boris and Brussels in the centre of the universe, here represented by the crazy, vertiginous, endless spiral of the biblical Tower. It is Boris's diary and self-portrait. He plays himself on screen (as do the cast of a hundred who also allowed themselves to be “babelised“).

Babel: A Letter to My Friends Left Behind in Belgium

5.4 1991
Bowerbird: Playboy of the Australian Rainforest

The film presents one season in the life of the sometimes hard to find Satin Bowerbird - the fascinating "Playboy of the rainforest" whose imaginatively constructed arbour is designed purely for seduction. You'll see thrilling close up footage of the Bowerbird's rainforest community including echidnas, lyrebirds, sugar gliders, pademelons and the startling bright blue Lamington spiny crayfish. But you'll also meet the rainforest predators goannas, snakes, dingoes and spotted-tailed quolls as well as witnessing an amazing battle between a host of army beetles and swarming bulldog ants the largest ants in the world. But while the hero is the Satin Bowerbird, the real star is the primitive rainforest surrounding O'Reilly's Rainforest Guesthouse. The scenery, plants and animals are lovingly captured by night and by day in this intimate and revealing story of the Queensland rainforest.

Bowerbird: Playboy of the Australian Rainforest

NR 1996
Homo Sapiens 1900

Homo Sapiens 1900 is a 1998 documentary directed by Peter Cohen, about various eugenics methods that were in practice in Europe during the first part of the 20th century. Eugenics is to be the scientific credo of the 20th century. The man credited with its invention, Francis Galton, says it is based on the concept that the evolution of man is crippled by the ill-conceived - those unfit to breed. The study of eugenics thus would concern itself with distinguishing the weed from the good flowers.

Homo Sapiens 1900

6.8 1998
Where Has All the Pollution Gone?

Where Has All The Pollution Gone? exposes air pollution caused by Japan’s largest Kawasaki Steel Corp. on a scale of ten times the size of Disneyland. Since the steelworks started running, almost every local resident has been suffering from severe asthma which resulted in a 17-year long court battle with the company. Filmmaker KORE-EDA Hirokazu traces one civil servant’s involvement in the growth of pollution administration that took place during the height of Japan’s economic surge in the 60s and discloses the connection between air pollution and state policy.

Where Has All the Pollution Gone?

NR 1991
The Complaint of an Empress

This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film's central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989.

The Complaint of an Empress

5.0 1990