Must we really forget our ancestors in order to become modern?”
In a small village of Papua New Guinea, three exceptional men rival with each other, in the field of rituals and artistic creation, in order to win over their neighbours to their own philosophical view of the future. The stakes are high, and the question is in fact identical…
In the very waters where Melville’s Pequod gave chase to Moby Dick, Leviathan captures the collaborative clash of man, nature, and machine. Shot on a dozen cameras — tossed and tethered, passed from fisherman to filmmaker — it is a cosmic portrait of one of mankind’s oldest endeavors.…
This is the story of Ching-Wen and his family.
Building a house on their island for his parents has been Ching-wen’s long time wish. But before he could finish constructing the house, they ran out of money. So now he has to leave his home, Orchid Island (Lanyu) and return to Taiwan to make more money. The film phrases reflection…
Forty years after its people were promised freedom by departing Spanish rulers, the Western Sahara remains Africa’s last colony. While an UN-brokered ceasefire put an end to armed hostilities in the territory in 1991, the Sahrawi people have continued to live under the Moroccan armed forces’ oppressive occupation, and what peace exists in the area is fragile at best. Tens…
Dakanuwa is at the most upstream part of the Nanzuxien Stream and it is one of the farthest tribes in the remote mountain. After leaving the highway and crossing a bridge which was washed away easily, we should spend two or three hours to get there. This is Arbuwu’s hometown. Before she was ten, there was no electricity, She said…
An immersive meditation on the passage of time and the persistent resonance of place, Linefork follows the daily rituals of an elderly couple living in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains. Now well into his eighties, Lee Sexton is the last living link to the distant past of a regional American music. A retired coal miner with black lung, Lee and his wife,…
Right In the heart of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is a small orphanage called “Little Heaven”. One of the orphans, Lydia, is 13 today. A truly joyful event, because she can now move to the ‘other house‘ where all of the ‘big kids’ live. Unfortunately this special day is overshadowed by the shocking news delivered to her by the…
“Live From UB” shows Mongolia through the eyes of its boldest musicians from the 1970s to today. Rock music was the catalyst for freedom, the vehicle for international curiosity, and now, the medium for Mongolian nationalism. It follows the story of today’s most promising independent band, Mohanik, as they create a new sound for their country and discover what it…
The Amis people of the coastal areas have maintained a tightly knitted relationship with the ocean, and this co-existence helps both humans and the ocean to mutually define each other. An intertidal zone is such a place where the Amis people interact with the ocean. Between the ebb and flow of the tides, there is Masia’c, an Amis word used…
This is the story of an unusual nuclear family, Roberta and Philip and the two chimpanzees they adopted, Charlie and his half sister Casey. It shows the joys and challenges of life with our closest primate relatives. The film investigates the chimpanzees’ adaptive abilities when removed from their natural habitat, their amazing mental capabilities, and the bonding love that exists…
When they emigrated to Europe in the 60’s and 70’s, Moroccans brought with them their culture and their “diseases”,they believed, caused by the spirit of their ansestors. In Europe, most North African families will include someone who is undergoing this kind of disorder. The disease may manifest differently on each person-(asthma,paralysis,epilepsy…etc).If the disease is left untreated, it might result in…
The first film in the Turkana Conversations trilogy is a multifaceted portrait of Lorang, the head of the homestead and one of the important senior men of the Turkana. Because they are relatively isolated and self-sufficient, most Turkana (including Lorang’s son) see their way of life continuing unchanged into the future. But Lorang thinks otherwise, for he has seen something…
Wulubutie is an Oroqen settlement in the northern reaches of Inner Mongolia; the name means “Lost Mountain” in the Oroqen language.
Gelibao, an Oroqen hunter, runs a horse farm in the mountains of Wulubutie, where he raises 100 horses in the old way. Though hunting has been outlawed, Gelibao will sometimes go out into the mountains on a hunt, more…
Today, the traditional “Lucha Canaria” or Canarian Wrestling is both a modern sport and a significant marker of cultural identity in the Canary Islands of Spain (situated off the coast of Africa). This sport and its relevance for the people’s identity as Canarios and inhabitants of their different islands and regions is shown in this documentary shot on Tenerife, Gran…
In Malagasy, “Mahaleo” means free, independent.
Mahaleo’s voices and music have accompanied the people of Madagascar ever since the collapse of the colonial regime. Yet, even after 30 years of success, the group’s seven musicians still keep their distance from the world of show-business, and remain deeply committed to helping their country’s development; their professions range from surgeon to farmer,…
For Chinese parents, finding out that their kid is gay usually presents a major tragedy, with the big majority utterly unable to accept the homosexuality of their son or daughter. However, during recent years a fresh rainbow wind has been blowing over the Chinese mainland: a pioneer generation of Chinese parents has been stepping up and speaking out on their…
Always appeared in the tallest building (Building 101).
Under the deepest pits (mining areas such as Haishan Coal Mine),
In the furthest sea (pelagic fishery)
In the most marginal countries (before the 1980s, they were international migrant workers) On every piece of land where our people stepped on major constructions, they have never been absent.
They played indispensable roles in…
In a peculiar travelogue, two filmmakers dive into an ancient rite of manhood in Islamic Java – the tender and raucous sport of the singing doves. When General Zainuri announces the National Perkutut Championship, thousands of Muslim men arrive at the grounds. Seven hundred poles stand in the center. Men hoist their doves – perkutut – seven meters up and…
A life documentary of a woman who was shunned for being possessed by spirits as a girl, oppressed for following superstitions as an adult, how she grows to be a great shaman who embraces the pain of all people, and how she comes to be honored as a national treasure of Korea with her outstanding artistic talents throughout Korea’s tumultuous…
Answering a video-letter from the children from Sierra Maestra in Cuba, four Ikpeng children, filmed by videomakers from their community, introduce their village—its leaders, their friends, adult work; they show their families, their toys, their celebrations and their way of life with grace and lightheartedness – in a video letter addressed to children from other cultures they are curious to…