Les sentiers culturels

A Night at the Garden

Archival footage of an American Nazi rally that attracted 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden in 1939, shortly before the beginning of World War II.

Trifles of Importance

Part of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series, this short shows how three seemingly unimportant things can affect people. The first is how the number 7 affects a student accused of theft charges. The second segment shows that a person's doodles can reveal personality traits. The final segment shows why certain items are on men's suits, such as lapels.

Racist Trees

Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.

The Devil's Torturer

Herbert Fux talks about his role in the 1970 film "Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält" also known as "Mark of the Devil"

Christmas in the Distance

The director documents the events leading to a reunion with her estranged father.

Ein Fenster in die Welt

Students from nine nations unite on August 7, 1950 at the Franco-German border near Germanshof, tear down the barriers and remove the border posts and barriers, which they burn in a ceremony. This act is a commitment to Europe and a protest against the arbitrariness of borders between nations.

Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars

Fracking the System is a political thriller documentary from the front lines of climate justice activism in Colorado. When a fracking mega-site gets moved from a White neighborhood to a BIPOC neighborhood, a concerned mother fights to try and stop it. This is an investigative exposé about the harms of fracking, the lengths to which the government is complacent with industrial pollution, and the nefarious tactics that the oil and gas industry uses to undermine democratic elections.

Plastic Him

A self portrait filmed with a modified PXL 2000 Camcorder. The camcorder itself records on to audio cassette tape. The tapes themselves are recycled which means I have recorded over them several causing them to slowly degrade.

Statues Also Die

Short documentary commissioned by the magazine Présence Africaine. From the question "Why is the African in the anthropology museum while Greek or Egyptian art are in the Louvre?", the directors expose and criticize the lack of consideration for African art. The film was censored in France for eight years because of its anti-colonial perspective.

The Puppeteer

The Puppeteer is a powerful, moving glimpse into the art of puppetry and the passion of a brilliant artist. The film treats viewers to Igor's street corner magic and following a dramatic turn of events, leaves us to reflect on life, art and the pursuit of dreams.

Bird

This portrait of a guinea fowl is the first clear vision I've had of the hot-blooded dinosaurs still living among us. (SB)

Worm and Web Love

WORM AND WEB LOVE begins with bracketed light, a throbbing worm in the sand and sea foam mixed with grass and oceanic detritus, soon superimposed upon the dark blue-toned face of a man, then a woman (Michael McClure and Amy Evans McClure), each seen, then on, through superimpositions of drifting smoke and the back-lit stark grid of a spider's web. The obvious affections of the man and woman, their clear display of love, is metaphored in these tenuous superimpositions, culminating in the frantic movements of the spider itself and the dance of joy of the features of the couple in loving resolution.

City Streaming

This is a film made in Toronto, in memoriam, so to speak - a memory piece, a "piecing-together" of the experience of living there. The consciousness of the maker comes to sharply focused visual music - not to arrive at snapshots, as such, but rather to "sing" the city as remembered from daily living...complementary, then, to an earlier film, "Unconscious London Strata." Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

Marilyn's Window

This stream-of-consciousness could be nothing less than pathway of the soul, as images of Marilyn's window are remembered from inside-out, its "view" interwoven with all of other windowing and the Elements of the known world.

Flight

Pun on "light" intended - that short preceding expulsion of breath perhaps the "subject matter" of this film which centers in consideration of death. It is the third tone poem film and did much surprise me by thus completing a trilogy of the "4 classical Elements." (SB)

Babylon Series #1

After a six -or seven- year study of Hammurabi's Code, original Babylonian Text and translation, I've tried to feel my way into the moving visual thought process of this ancient culture (whose numerical system is composed primarily of building materials, nails, joints and the like): this, then, is a visual music which balances the two thought processes of Structure and Nature.

Babylon Series #2

Out of the vagueries of sometime beseeming repetitive light patterns, and the delicately variable rhythms of thought process, the imagination of The Monumental and of the Ephemeral are born to mind hard as nails.

Babylon Series #3

This is an architectural garden of the variably brash rock-solid liquid-encompassing, but always imitative, human mind as it processes the given light thoughtfully. This film is about that.

Old Romances

There is romance in every corner we turn. In this sequel to the documentary, Old Places, Old Romances takes us on a journey to experience Singapore through the collective voices of ordinary Singaporeans. Through their voices, we hear personal stories from members of the public who shared their anecdotes on radio. Everyday spaces come alive with these special memories, which are bonded forever with these places. Old Romances is a journal of love letters to places that we grew up with.

O Sonho de Ser Uma Popstar

On August 31, 2002, the Brazilian pop music group "Rouge" held the first show of their career at Via Funchal, which was filmed and later released on VHS and DVD.

Bride of the Orient

After the death of his mother, a lonely farmer in rural Switzerland considers finally starting a family of his own. Eventually he pays for a bride from Thailand. The couple don't share a language, but being to know each other. However the village neighbors are suspicious of foreigners.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must prove her innocence. In doing this she plays against powerful enemies and her own past.

Bangkok Breaking: Heaven and Hell

When a dedicated rescue worker inadvertently gets caught up in the kidnapping plot of a mogul's tween daughter, he must save her from the clutches of rival gangs hunting them down with unpredictable dangers around every corner.

The Matrix Reloaded

The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.

Ever After High: Dragon Games

Dragons return to Ever After High, and so does the Evil Queen. When the most epic competition and evil scheme starts at Ever After High, Raven and Apple must let go of their story conflict and save their beloved school together.

Ikiru

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

Moments: Six

A serial killer and the detective who tracked him down find themselves in an unexpected stalemate.

The 47

Based on a true story, in late 1970s Barcelona, Manolo Vital, a bus driver, takes bold action to protest the neglect of Torre Baró, an immigrant neighborhood. His act becomes a symbol of resistance against systemic inequality during a pivotal moment in the city’s modern transformation.

Band of Outsiders

Cinephile slackers Franz and Arthur spend their days mimicking the antiheroes of Hollywood noirs and Westerns while pursuing the lovely Odile. The misfit trio upends convention at every turn, be it through choreographed dances in cafés or frolicsome romps through the Louvre. Eventually, their romantic view of outlaws pushes them to plan their own heist, but their inexperience may send them out in a blaze of glory -- which could be just what they want.

Firebrand

Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, is named regent while the tyrant battles abroad. When the king returns, increasingly ill and paranoid, Katherine finds herself fighting for her own survival.

Terrestrial Verses

A satirical take on the mundane absurdities of life in modern-day Iran, these nine vignettes illuminate the lighter side of enduring under authoritarian rule. Whether choosing a name for a newborn, graduating from grade school, getting a driver’s license, applying for a job, or seeking approval for a film script, if you live in Iran, you best come fluent in Orwellian discourse.

How Green Was My Valley

A man in his fifties reminisces about his childhood growing up in a Welsh mining village at the turn of the 20th century.

Bionic

When the progress of robotics makes Paralympic athletes the new sports stars, Maria dreams of competing against her sister. For that, she will have to enter a world of crime and violence.

Lord

Although he hates dogs, Toni is engaged in finding lost animals and then sentimentally blackmails the masters in order to obtain beautiful large amounts of money. Because of an old and ugly Pekinese that Toni cannot succeed of getting rid of, feelings of affection awake in him that surprise even Toni.

Ghost Trail

Hamid is part of a secret group pursuing the Syrian regime’s fugitive leaders. His mission takes him to France, on the trail of his former torturer whom he must confront.

The Decline of the Century: Testament L.Z.

An epic documentary of rise and fall of Ustasha regime in Croatia.

Martin (Hache)

An emotionally distant father attempts to reconnect with the son he abandoned. After his estranged son tries to commit suicide, Argentine expat Martín brings the troubled teen to live with him in Spain. But though Martín tries to reach out to his son, he's unable to bond with anyone in his life -- including his much-younger girlfriend

An Ideal Father

Michel, the jovial owner of the only café in a small Normandy town, sees his life turned upside down when his teenage daughter is murdered. The community has his back but soon rumor spreads and Michel is singled out. From the ideal father, he becomes the ideal culprit.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Mortimer Brewster, a newspaper drama critic, playwright, and author known for his diatribes against marriage, suddenly falls in love and gets married; but when he makes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts, he finds out his aunts' hobby - killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar!