Social & External
The people behind it
When Jacques d'Amboise took a group of dancers and members of his teaching staff to China, they worked with acclaimed dancer Dou Dou Huang and more than a hundred Chinese children. Their goal: to create a special performance using a variety of dance styles - including hip-hop, freestyle jazz and traditional Chinese folk dance - that would premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre in honor of the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics World Games. Part of a month-long cultural exchange between d'Amboise's National Dance Institute and several Chinese troupes, featuring some of that country's most talented young dancers, the collaboration underscored the power of dance to transcend obstacles of culture and language.
A short visual tale about the life, works, and failures of Hanoch Piven, an internationally acclaimed artist who creates funny portraits of people from everyday objects. Through his playful worldview, Piven reminds us how to find faces in unexpected places, how to practice empathy, and above all - how to stop taking yourself too damn seriously!
Documentary short from the NFB Canada Carries On series on dancing from the different cultures in Canada.
Actress and filmmaker Robyn Adams discusses her experiences with autism, gender identity, and learning to embrace her flaws. Also, she's Frankenstein's Monster now.
BYE (AJÖ), a new dance film, is choreographed and directed by acclaimed Swedish choreographer Mats Ek. " About a woman (Sylvie Guillem) who takes leave of a certain stage in her life. It is a conversation that she has with herself that leads to new experiences.
Ida, Olympe, Jeanne and Marie dance to the music of pianos, symphonies, contemporary pieces… in ballet school studios, in the streets, even in their bedrooms. They are between 6 and 11 years old. Very fond of each other, they film themselves, comparing and giving one another support. They also tend to annoy one another, are at times envious, even rejecting each other. What is it like for a little girl to grow up in a world of intense professional and competitive dancing? Closely following the emotions and dilemmas experienced by our young characters, this film explores and probes into a territory that we’ve all navigated, though many of us have forgotten: childhood.
A couple of dancers appear one morning in a High School. It's Monday and they announce to a group of youngsters that they have five days to get up on stage and dance. A short time but a big challenge. The dance compels these youngsters to break through their roles exactly at the time of their lives when the social roles are being forged. The handsome boy is no longer the most admired, the timid one takes a step forward. Wilfried van Popple and Amaya Lubeigt are the choreographers. Professional dancers who have decided now to work with people who have never danced before. This is the challenge: five days, a class of teenagers, a microcosm in which occurs a little big bang.
This sizzling video is guaranteed to add spice to your love life. In the privacy of your boudoir do something delightfully naughty but nice for yourself and your man by following the easy step-by-step moves of GiO. According to the San Diego Times Union "We learned to walk like sex goddesses, pose like sex goddesses, dress like sex goddesses…(and) how to take off (our) clothes with panache…" GiO will put it all together for you and teach you everything you always wanted to know about striptease.
About the sensuality in Swedish folk dance and folk music. A film that blends dance, fiction and documentary material into a heated, rough and skin-like expression.
Although at first sight this might look like a simple ‘making of DANCER IN THE DARK’, the later developments in the film reveal the whole drama of Lars von Trier’s inner life during the shooting process. All his doubts and insecurities in collaborating with the crew and actors - especially actresses - are exposed. The biggest drama started when Björk walked off the set. Nobody knew whether she would be back or not. Admitting that he feels threatened by women, who can ‘make him feel embarrassed’, the director gives this documentary the nature of a personal diary. When he discusses the importance, purpose and beauty of the use of a hundred cameras in a certain sequence or the meaning of the Dogma 95 rules, the audience is witnessing the process of the artist’s search. Is the pain that the director went through during the shooting really visible in the final result, as Lars von Trier claims in this film? (from: http://www.idfa.nl/)
After seeking transcendence through shamanic rituals, Ana’s life is transformed overnight by an unexpected turn toward faith.
What happens to a relationship if a partner suddenly becomes severely disabled after an accident? For Gosia it is clear that she will stand by her boyfriend Tomek no matter what in order to let him live as normal and fulfilled a live as possible. But time and again she becomes painfully aware of her own limits, as well as of those of a society that talks a lot about inclusion but often does not seem to be ready for it. GOSIA@TOMEK is based on more than 3000 emails that Gosia has been writing to Tomek daily since his accident.
Luca Patuelli is an internationally renown Bboy dancer known as LazyLegz. He born with Arthrogryposis, a disorder that makes the use of his legs almost impossible. For the past few years, he has been the head of a Hip Hop dance program: Projet RAD, an urban dance program in which he gives people with disabilities a chance to follow inclusive classes in a safe environment adapted to their needs.
A short dance film in Pathécolor, also know as stencil colouring. The editing cuts correspond with the dancers' costume changes. More about stencil colouring at http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/timeline-entry/1218/.
La Salsa Vive is a vibrant cinematic exploration of Afro-Cuban music's history, tracing its roots from New York's lively streets to Cali, Colombia, now the global salsa capital.
After Awesome Tapes From Africa's Brian Shimkovitz found the energetic, ecstatic music of Ghanaian musician Ata Kak, the tunes became beloved around the world. It was all unbeknownst to the artist himself -- his music was even unknown to those living in his hometown in Ghana. Years of tireless searching ensued, and eventually the Los Angeles-based label owner found a lead. Ata Kak - Time Bomb follows the search that Shimkovitz undertook as well as the visit to Ghana that took place once he found him. It is a celebration of great tunes and how, when it hits the right audience at the right time, music can touch people in a way that you never imagined.
The documentary portrayed one of the most established dance companies in Hong Kong which has a history of over four decades. With a tradition of blending Chinese dance and ballet together in the training, the dance company has set sail to re-evaluate its artistic essence by adapting new physical disciplines and philosophy, picking up different cultural traces, meditation and Chinese martial arts. Through monologues of the company members, the film unveiled their fears, self-doubts, and findings in their quest to refine their dance forms and express their cultural roots. It's an uncertain journey towards the cultivation of inner peace and the essence of movement and stillness.
In the 1960s, the suburbs were meant to be modern havens for newcomers from rural France, Portugal, Spain, North Africa, and Africa, helping rebuild post-war France. Large housing complexes symbolized this ideal, offering comfort, heating, and electricity. But by the 1980s, disillusionment set in as economic crisis, unemployment, poverty, crime, racism, and police violence took hold. Mohamed Bouhafsi tells the story of a dream that didn’t last.
On a trip to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia in January 2000, filmmaker Anne Bass came across a sixteen-year-old boy who moved her immensely with his amazing natural charm and grace as a dancer. A longtime devotee of the world of dance, Bass felt compelled to give this young boy the opportunity to leave his home and follow a dream that he could not yet have fully imagined. From the serene countryside of Southeast Asia to the halls of New York’s School of American Ballet to the stage of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, DANCING ACROSS BORDERS peeks behind the scenes into the world of dance and chronicles the intimate and triumphant story of a boy who was discovered, and who only much later discovered all that he had in himself.
Christopher Reeve portrayed the Man of Steel in four Superman films and played dozens of other roles that displayed his talent and range as an actor, before being injured in a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After becoming a quadriplegic, he became a charismatic leader and activist in the quest to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, as well as a passionate advocate for disability rights and care.
Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.
Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity
The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
At three years old, a chatty, energetic little boy named Owen Suskind ceased to speak, disappearing into autism with apparently no way out. Almost four years passed and the only stimuli that engaged Owen were Disney films. Then one day, his father donned a puppet—Iago, the wisecracking parrot from Aladdin—and asked “what’s it like to be you?” And poof! Owen replied, with dialogue from the movie. Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found in Disney animation a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world.
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia.
Performance artist Marina Abramovic prepares for a major retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.
