Sinahsta Parvani
★ 8 · 1919 · 4m · Documentary
Fragments of actuality coverage of the great Hindu festival of the Kumbh Mela held in Nasik.
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Sophia, In Her Own Words
2019 · ★ 9
Using the author's personal estate, current images of places where she lived or were dear to her, and archival images of television and film; using parts of her prose and poetry always with first-person testimonies; from Porto to Lisbon, from Granja to Lagos, from the Atlantic Sea to the Mediterranean, from Greece to 25 April: the passions and disappointments of a life and work dedicated to the search for the real, freedom and justice.
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The Three Ages of a Woman
2019 · ★ 10
In the language of a film-letter intended for the future generation of his family, the author rescues his mother's story through photos and videos to prevent the next generation from going through the same ignorance he had about her.
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Journal No. 1 - An Artist's Impression
2007
In 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, Film Journal No. 1 was released in Sarajevo. Fifty years later, after the collapse of the Communist bloc, this newsreel was lost in the confusion of the fighting in Yugoslavia. In Journal No. 1 Hito Steyerl attempts to find out how the footage got lost and what was on this document from the Sutjeska studio. In the simultaneous projection of Journal No. 1 the ‘unattainability of an historical zero hour of the national identity’ takes concrete form: The lost newsreel reports on a literacy campaign as well as Muslim women confidently removing their headscarves. We listen however to eyewitnesses trying to recapture the lost content and we see the artist Arman Kulasic making a number of drawings that resemble the story-boards for the lost film. What appears to be moments of great change remain limited by subjective and uncertain memory. The film was premiered at documenta 12.
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Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
2019 · ★ 6.5
Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.
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Caribou in the Archive
2018
In Caribou in the Archive, rustic VHS home video of a Cree woman hunting caribou in the 1990s is combined with NFB archival film footage of northern Manitoba from the 1950s. In this experimental film, the difference between homemade video and official historical record is considered. Northern Indigenous women hunting is at the heart of this personal found footage film in which the filmmaker describes the enigmatic events that led to saving an important piece of family history from being lost forever.
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2006
The history of Amos, a town in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (Quebec).
More info →The Art of Nôm
2017
The Art of Nom explores an ancient and nearly extinct Vietnamese script called Chu Nom and the five scholarly artists known as Zenei, Gang of Five. The beauty, heritage and emotion of the Chu Nom characters inspire Zenei’s art. The film also examines Vietnam’s culture, history, customs, and the social impact of rapid modernization in a changing world. Art of Nom follows Zenei through their research and explorations that takes them far off the beaten path. They enter hidden library chambers of Buddhist pagodas to examine original Nom scriptures and woodblocks preserved by monks through the centuries. Led by renowned artist Le Quoc Viet, Zenei is a collective of avant-garde calligraphers forging a new path, merging contemporary visual expression with a nearly extinct script. Zenei elevates art and history to a new level of experience.
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Home and a Distant Archive
2021
A poetic, experimental portrait of four Hong Kong women in London working to digitise records of the handover agreement between the United Kingdom and China. Impressionistic and precise, personal and expansive, Cheung's elegant, eloquent work decodes history and how politics are enacted.
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The Memories of Angels
2008 · ★ 8
Documentary, poetry and essay rolled into one, this compilation of stockshots and clips sourced from NFB productions of the '50s and '60s offers a singular lesson in Montreal history - its famous figures, symbolic places, and ordinary citizens. Without commentary, the film moves from the red light district to Jean Drapeau, the Jacques-Cartier market, department stores downtown, textile factories, and the construction of Place Ville-Marie. We meet Geneviève Bujold, Oscar Peterson, Monique Mercure, and Igor Stravinsky. We hear Raymond Lévesque, Jean Drapeau, and René Lecavalier.
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