Cinematic Era: 2004 Vintage

Costume designer Piero Tosi discussing his involvement working on Death in Venice.

A young Japanese boy is on a quest to discover the perfect bowl of ramen to feed to his dying grandfather. Short film featured on the R2 DVD of Battlefield Baseball.

One family as an entire community Hreash House shows an extended Palestinian family living a collective existence in a concrete block in Nazareth. It shows a feast and its aftermath during Ramadan.

Emma dreams of becoming a professional soccer player and her mother is her biggest supporter. Unfortunately, her mother has not understood what soccer is all about.

On a night like any other, a homeless person listens to a presidential speech offering housing to those who need it. The next day he wakes up in a strange and radiant city. During the afternoon, a builder raises the facade of his long-awaited house. Only the facade.

A bookstore customer browses a copy of the Necronomicon and gets more than he bargained for.

A brooding detective assumes the persona of his young daughter and obsessively hunts internet chat rooms for the pedophile who killed her.

Interview with political scientist and social activist Jan Nowak-Jezioranski by film director Andrzej Wajda.

A glimpse of a dystopian future in which the cross-contamination of genetic material is completely out of control. Contamination depicts an atmospheric and ultimately disturbing world with hybrid life forms.

Part of a feature length narrative compressed 3 differnt times into 3 separate films of diminishing duration until the synoptic is synopsized (The Two Minutes to Zero Trilogy). A crime story told 3 different ways concerning the events of a two month period leading up to, and immediately following a bank robbery. The imagery has all been appropriated (the fancy, art world sanctioned term for stealing) from 4 issues of an early 1960's comic book version of the then popular, American TV show "77 Sunset Strip".

An explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant kills 56 people while the health of thousands more continue to be affected.

From their start as jazz-funk fusionists to their 1980s peak as pop-R&B stars, Level 42 blended instrumental virtuosity with irresistible hooks. In December 2001, founding bassist Mark King and members of the original band rocked England's Reading Concert Hall, playing a program of 15 fan favorites from 1981 through 1995. Songs include "Hot Water," "Love Games," "Sooner or Later," "Play Me," "You Can't Blame Louis," "The Sun Goes Down" and more.

Sit back and relax with this program that turns your TV into a virtual aquarium, complete with four unique underwater environments to choose from, each accompanied by natural sounds and peaceful music. Crisp computer animation brings the colorful marine scenes to life, and programmable options allow you to loop one scene over and over, or play all the scenes sequentially for nearly two hours of gentle entertainment.

Groundbreaking snow-sports filmmaker Greg Stump presents this classic film that captures some of the best skiing and snowboarding action ever caught on tape, with a pulse-pounding soundtrack that will have you itching to hit the slopes yourself. Stump combines his trademark humor and dazzling camerawork to bring these jaw-dropping downhill exploits to life.

Cooking with Marijuana Delicious International Cuisine and Beverages by Chef HANS. Several recipes are shared and demonstrated on how to cook with cannabis. Salads, oil, butter and even fish and pork recipes are shared and created.

This documentary examines the controversial theory that a Chinese Ming Dynasty fleet, led by Zheng He, sailed past the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the Atlantic to discover the Americas, decades before Christopher Columbus.

It doesn't take long to realize that On the Farm with Farmer Bob is not just any ol' farm. The characters from On the Farm with Farmer Bob are already nationally known, as they have been used as teaching tools in public school programs and science museums. In Cocka Doodle Doo The Right Thing a special guest has been invited to the farm. Jenny (voice of Amy Grant) is put in charge of cleaning up and receives the cooperation of everyone, except Hercules (Vince Gill). In addition to not helping, Hercules mistakes the special guest for someone unimportant and treats him poorly. Meanwhile Sam finds $20 and spends it without finding out to whom it belongs. This episode teaches the Biblical parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector as well as the practical lesson of doing the right thing.

A woman in NYC screams to find her mate.

Continuing his investigation into the intersection of culture and technology in the context of the handmade, here Arcangel explores the "mash-up," in which music fans digitally merge two songs to create unexpected hybrids. Arcangel's experiment pushes this practice into the realm of absurdity, pairing wildly different tracks based on the similarity of their bands' names.

They are patients in a psychiatric hospital in Romania and marginalized persons whose social status has been removed. You think they will only say crazy things, but you don't want them to be like ordinary people, be good, love, and even create often... It's just that all this is confined to the hospital wall. The title is a gimmick, just one sentence from a song sung by the patient in the film.

This documentary shows how Heidi and Rolland are a powerful inspiration for many in Mozambique, Africa and around the world.

Who was the real Noah? According to the Bible, Noah was a holy man who saved humankind and all the animals in a wooden ark two-thirds the size of the Titanic. But how much of the story is really fact? This programme reveals a little-known passage in the Bible that says Noah only got 270 animals onto the ark. So perhaps the idea of a smaller ark with fewer animals is closer to the truth. This programme explores the truth behind the legend of Noah and asks whether or not the story could be based on real historical figures and events. Examining all aspects of the myth ¡V the ark, the animals, the great flood and Noah himself - by using computer-generated graphics and dramatic reconstructions, the programme sheds new light on an age-old story and comes to some surprising conclusions.

Documentary about the damned VHS filmmaker Petter Baiestorf, author of over 100 visceral films.

Documentary about government policy enacted since September 11 and how it is affecting civil liberties and freedom of speech in the United States today. Produced for "The Running Man" DVD Special Edition.

In this work, I captured a fleeting moment from an ordinary day spent at a retreat with students, bringing forth a video space in extreme slow motion at 1/128 of real-time speed. This moment, which passes by without being perceived by the body, exists in the space between fantasy and reality.

Utilizing approximately 20,000 rendered effects, Lebensraum/Lifespace – Spectacle of Noise is the culmination of Kantor’s digital processing extremes and Machine Sex Action. It is a shuddering, colour-coded allegory about the colonization of our lives by the all-pervasive entertainment/communication grid. It poses the question, are we being reduced to biological machinery units by global ideological transmission devices and kinetic control systems or are we still free thinkers?

Mexican film that can be found on the Nueva Generacion 8 DVD.

Short film from Seduction Cinema.

Vaastu Marabu documents the theory and practice of the Vaastu tradition of Indian art, architecture, craft and design. One of the foremost shilpis (designer-builder-sculpter) of India, Shri. V. Ganapati Sthapati of Mammallapuram, meditates on his art and his occupation. The film shows the process of making stone idols at Mammallapuram, near Madras, of casting bronzes in Kumbakonam, and of building stone temples at Kamudhi, near Madurai and at Ratnagiri, near Vellore. It illustrates the continuity of the tradition and reveals a technology that is ancient, yet still relevant today. The film explores the process of translating inner experience into art, and invites us to experience the naked beauty of the form while understanding the metaphysical message. The art of the Vishwakarma has given form and expression to all denominations of metaphysical thought in India. The film also probes the underlying scientific and mathematical principles.

Sena Jun's concert.

A mysterious drug causes men to behave in a weird manner. When a woman tests the drug on her friend's husband, traditional gender roles are overthrown.

outtakes from the gods of times square

Limited edition (as a separate DVD) release documenting the making of Scars of the Crucifix.

Johnathan Watson live

Recorded live at Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, Japan, November 3, 2004. 1 Power Of Soul 10:43 2 Moonlight Sonata 10:54 3 Boomerang 11:52 4 Nikki's Groove 7:35 5 Frankenstein 8:43 6 3 Deuces 10:21

Stereomongrel is a twelve minute experimental film which explores the effects of two disparate worlds colliding. Witnessed through the eyes of a gifted twelve year old girl, high and low culture clash in the neutral battle field of a museum. Filmed in Super 35 mm, Stereomongrel style can be described as "hyper, supra, and marvelous real," through the use of 3-D animation, stop-motion animation, and highly choreographed tableaux or set pieces. Genres that are blended and tweaked by this uniquely hybridized film include psychological/supernatural thrillers, Italian horror movies from the 70s and 80s, and the unattainable ideals - both physical and economic - found in hip-hop music videos and fashion magazines.

Dealing with a long history of drugs and crime, a young girl struggles to fight her addiction while helping her mother confront her own.

Old fashioned riddles and answers are flashed on the screen, together with non-stop film clips of vintage comedy routines in the background. Cameos from Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges, and many more.

Dakar. A city drainage canal is the backdrop for a fierce card game between a group of young people who, to the frenetic rhythm of a djembe, play...

A woman grows up during the bubble economy in Japan. Why did her parents never speak about the past? Using a box full of photos found in her family archive, the filmmaker tries to construct one version of a family history.

The impressive building of the Moscow Hotel, erected in the heart of the city back in 1935, has been one of the most familiar architectural and historical symbols of our capital for 70 years. For the first hotel built under Soviet rule, this symbolic place was chosen - a stone's throw from the Kremlin. Its walls were mute witnesses to all the most important events of Russian history – military bombing and Victory Day parade, Stalin's funeral and the first Moscow Film Festival, fireworks and political rallies of the early 90s. And recently, because of the emergency condition, they decided to demolish the hotel, and build a new one in its place, looking exactly the same ... but only with an ultramodern five-star filling.

In 1994, Minamata disease victims held an exhibition in Tokyo where portraits of the all 1080 people who had died of the disease by that time were displayed.

An explorer stranded on a lonely planet sends messages home.

Flip, an eight-year-old boy living in the late 1960s, knows just what to do with his birthday dollar. It's his perfect opportunity to finally get one of those wonderful-sounding novelties that he's seen advertised in the back of his favorite comic book. But with so many choices (x-ray specs, rubber masks, the "U-control" monster), he'll have to summon his own wild imagination to fully explore all the possibilities.

ILONA, UPSTAIRS is a portrait of an artist; a glimpse at a butterfly who wants no association with her life as a caterpillar. In this mixed format documentary, deftly filmed in part by Albert Maysles, Ilona sings, dances, orates, paints, swims, and smells the roses, but will not, under any circumstances, face the specifics of her painful past. Melissa Hammel, the director and Ilona's downstairs neighbor, aspires to unearth some of Ilona's many skeletons in order to learn how one transitions from a place of great sorrow to a place of great joy. Sometimes Melissa tip-toes around issues, sometimes she asks directly. Repeatedly, however, she is met with a stiff arm. Perhaps the more important lessons are found in Ilona's present, as she's insisted all along.

In the 1970s, New Zealand artist Allie Eagle identified herself as a lesbian separatist and radical feminist. Her often uncompromising work included pro-abortion painting This Woman Died I Care, which was inspired by a photograph of a woman who died from an illegal abortion. In the 1980s, Eagle became a christian. Made in 2004, Briar March's first, feature-length documentary sees Eagle reflecting on her past with a more moderate outlook — she now has mixed feelings about her earlier stance on abortion.

A film about Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, his last completed symphony. It features Riccardo Chailly rehearsing the Concertgebouw. Sometimes there’s shown the orchestra playing or, more often, Chailly conducting and commenting to the players, and sometimes with voice-over while the music continues underneath. There are commentaries concerning all four movements from Henry-Louis de la Grange, Mahler’s definitive biographer, a man who probably knows more about the composer than anyone, and from Chailly. There are snippets from other works, including a large part of a performance, unusually with a baritone (Thomas Hampson), of the ‘Abschied’ from ‘Das Lied von der Erde.’ Fully ten minutes of the fourth movement is played without interruption (in a dress rehearsal with audience). There is a reference after that to the impending departure of Chailly from the musical directorship of the orchestra after sixteen years; the film was made in 2004 and he has since been succeeded by Mariss Jansons.

Is the right way always forward? Is there only one way in life we follow? Do we have a choice on that way? Can we choose our co-passengers? Are we all moving with our own average speed along this way?

Documentary about George Bush.

A Place (Playground) (2004) by Krassimir Terziev focuses on one of the playgrounds situated in a typical working-class neighborhood, built in 1983 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The environment recorded on video is characteristic of a concoction of preplanned hillocks that are cut across by canals and ponds which are linked by curved footbridges. Terziev highlights the architectural ensemble characteristic of prop-like tanks, rockets, military airplanes and canons—all arranged as if on a battlefield. The metal items painted in the same colors—yellow, red and blue—were manufactured from the materials used in the production of military equipment. Importantly, the film turns to the environment as metaphor, as it documents everyday activities in a space packed with residents who are unaware of the changing ideologies behind their urban surroundings, as communist ideology gradually gives way to capitalist consumerism.