Koodal
1970 · 15m · Documentary
"Visionary post-war modernist Tyeb Mehta channels the nightmares of the nation in Koodal, at once the artist’s self-described “autobiography” and a profound meditation on collage, crowd control, cinematic subjectivity and the violence buried within every glorious act of foundation." -- Sarkari Shorts
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Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
1927 · ★ 7.5
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
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2004
A vehicle of consciousness navigates the vertiginous labyrinths of San Francisco. ROMAN CHARIOT was filmed over several months with a spy camera mounted on filmmaker David Sherman's son's baby carriage.
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The Story of the Swastika
2013
In the week when Hindus celebrate the holy festival of Diwali, this documentary tells the story of one of their faith's most sacred symbols - the swastika. For many, the swastika has become a symbol synonymous with the Nazis and fascism. But this film reveals the fascinating and complex history of an emblem that is, in fact, a religious symbol, with a sacred past. For the almost one billion Hindus around the world, the swastika lies at the heart of religious practices and beliefs, as an emblem of benevolence, luck and good fortune.
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Chinese Ping-Pong
1972 · ★ 6.5
An experimental sports film made partly during the Scandinavian Open Championships in Halmstad in 1970, partly during the Chinese players' exhibition tour in Denmark immediately after the SOC. First of all, it is a film about their style, about the artistic culmination that is ping-pong at its best, it records China's comeback into the international sports world.
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Pride
2021
Set in Charlottesville during the early 1990s, "Pride" follows an aspiring writer as she finalises stories for the latest issue of "Pride", a student run newspaper at the University of Virginia. Over a hectic two-day period, she puts the finishing touches on the upcoming issue. Despite the looming deadline, she moves with a calm confidence.
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Palna's Daughters
2007 · ★ 6
A film about memory, identity and the overwhelming power of love. One-year-old Devi was found starving at a railway station in Delhi. The police took her to Palna, an orphanage, where she lived for a year. When Devi learned to talk she often wanted to talk about Amma, her first mother. In the film, the 6-year-old Devi journeys to her own past, as her family adopts another daughter from Palna, a baby sister for Devi.
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The Satanic Verses Affair
2009
Twenty years ago, novelist Salman Rushdie was a wanted man with a million pound bounty on his head. His novel, The Satanic Verses, had sparked riots across the Muslim world. The ailing religious leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, had invoked a little-known religious opinion - a fatwa - and effectively sentenced Rushdie to death. This film looks back on the extraordinary events which followed the publication of the book and the ten year campaign to get the fatwa lifted. Interviews with Rushdie's friends and family and testimony from leaders of Britain's Muslim community and the Government reveal the inside story of the affair.
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Paleo Impulse
2018 · ★ 10
Paleo is a video clip shoot at the famous homonymous music festival in the French canton of Vaud in Switzerland, where many hippie-techno-pagans gather every summer since 1977. The editing style is a tribute to the reworking of psychedelic theories and the New Age proliferation within rave culture in the early 90s from the perspective of the late second decade of the new millennium. In the footage, the ritual ingestion of psychedelics is symbolically replaced by a liberating dance through a powerful fast montage that epitomizes the frenzy of intoxication achieved through psychedelic plants. A revival of a revival of a revival.
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Death Metal Murders
2005 · ★ 10
Murder, rape, satanism and necrophilia is the staple diet of millions of teenagers who listen to the lyrics of extreme heavy metal music. This World investigates the potential links between "death metal" and a series of gruesome crimes around the world. In Italy a group of young death metal fans formed a satanic cult called the Beasts of Satan. At least four gruesome killings resulted. But death metal musicians deny that they have any responsibility for the actions of people who profess to be their fans. With exclusive access to the families, one of the killers and graphic police footage, the film tells the inside story for the first time. We hear from the musicians, the children and the parents from Oslo to California and ask just how far can music go in its ability to shock, and just how damaging might it be?
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Phoolan
★ 10
Phoolan is a documentary film about the extraordinary life of a village girl, gang-rape survivor, bandit leader, and finally parliamentarian. This is the story of one woman’s fight against incredible odds for justice and dignity. Known as India’s Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi is considered by many to be one of the most extraordinary and controversial women of our time.
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Taxidrome
2021 · ★ 10
To fly a – way from/out of death, don’t hire a taxidermist but take a ride in this taxidrome! Series of 41 Moving Images - this analogy is possible being conservation at its core rescuing what really matters in the world, like nature, habitats, science and art. It is vital. Yet in a continuously changing environment, the flipside of conservation becomes and here it is where the vital feature of conservation becomes its lifelike trait, a fictive life, a fake life. The embalming process consists of 1) imparting a balmy essence to the dead body, as in the ancient world, 2) by filling its blood vessels with formaldehyde to prevent putrification, as in the modern world, although recently with more regard towards more natural treatments, as for instance in bio-art. To embalm also means to “preserve from oblivion”, and “to cause to remain unchanged”, “to prevent the development of something”.
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American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
2009 · ★ 6.4
American academic Norman Finkelstein discusses foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East.
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