Film Library
[Re-annex Délvidék] / Vissza: Délvidék [FL 1501]
The war campaign of Hungary to get back the area Délvidék in 1941, cut off from Hungary by the peace treaties after World War I.Hungary, 1941, Hungarian, 23 min, propaganda film, DVD-ROM[Re-annex Felvidék] / Vissza: Felvidék [FL 1501]
The war campaign of Hungary to get back Felvidék in 1938, cut off from Hungary by the peace treaties after World War I. Cserepy Laszlo, Hungary, 1938, Hungarian, 60 min, propaganda film, DVD-ROM[Re-annex Transylvania] / Vissza: Erdély [FL 1501]
The war campaign of Hungary to get back Transylvania in 1940, cut off from Hungary by the peace treaties after World War I. Banass Jozsef, Hungary, 1940, Hungarian, 90 min, propaganda film, DVD-ROM[Towards the East: Occupying Transylvania] / Kelet felé: Erdélyi bevonulás [FL 1502]
The war campaign of Hungary to get back Transylvania in 1940, cut off from Hungary by the peace treaties after World War I.Hungary, Hungarian, 90 min, propaganda film, CD-ROM[Voice-book] / Hangoskönyv [FL 1477]
Documentary film on the life, person and political career of Imre Nagy, the executed prime minister at the time of the 1956 revolution. Excerpts from Nagy’s diary written in Snagov are read by Gergő Kaszás and historian János M. Rainer interprets and comments on the text. Judit Ember, Hungary, 2006, Hungarian, 180 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM1000 C [FL 980]
Fire breath, pliability of metal, dancing of a hammer - all compose the universe of a blacksmith. It is cinematographically depicted like the site of genesis, when the blacksmith seems to have taken demiurgic power, casting an entire world. This is a story about how to see our immediate life, how even the mundane can acquire mythical components if seen with the right eyes. Irina Uralskaya, Russia, 2002, Russian, 10 min, art documentary, VHS12:08 East Of Bucharest / A fost sau n-a fost? [FL 1116]
12:08 pm Decmber 22, 1989 was the exact time of Ceausescu's fall from power in Romania. Sixteen years on, a provincial TV talk show decides to commemorate the event by asking local heroes to reminisce about their own contributions to the revolution. Securing suitable guests however proves an unexpected challenge and the producer is left with two less than ideal participants - a drink addled history teacher and a retired and lonely sometime-Santa Claus grateful for the company. In the farcical show that follows, the men's fanciful boasts of rebellious glory are hilariously disputed by phone-ins from viewers who recall an altogether different version of events. With entertainingly wry humour, Corneliu Promboiu's debut feature sharply satirises the short memories and inconsistencies of postrevolutionary Romania. Coreneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2006, Romanian/Subtitles: English, 86 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM1956, music, events, phenomena, atmosphere / 1956 Musiken, händelserna, företeelserna, stämmingen [FL 1503]Sweden, 1999, Swedish, radio program, CD-ROM
1956: Recollections of Witnesses and Posterity / 1956 a szemtanúk és az utókor szemével [FL 1465]
A collection of archival footage from the period: 1956-1989. Images of the revolution; BBC report; amateur footage; newsreels from 1956, 1957, and 1958; Opposition demonstrations 1988 June 16, October 23.Hungary, 1956, Hungarian, 75 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM2 or 3 Things I Know About Him / 2 oder 3 Dinge, die ich von ihm weiss [FL 686]
The family of a Nazi war criminal, sixty years after the end of the War. Hanns Elard Ludin found fame as a young officer under the Weimar Republic, after conspiring on Hitler's behalf in the German army. When Hitler came to power Ludin' s career took off; by the time he was twenty-eight, he had an army of no less than 300,000 storm troopers under his command. In 1941 he became Hitler's emissary to the Nazi's vassal state, Slovakia, and looked after the interests of the Third Reich there - including the implementation of the Final Solution. After the war, the Americans handed Ludin over to the Czechoslovakian authorities; he was sentenced to death and hanged. Ludin's youngest son, director Malte Ludin, presents a 'documentary debate' with the three generations of his large family, now scattered all over the world. Although the truth about the father's role in the war has long been on record, his widow, children and children's children argue about their family history, struggling to reconcile private memories with public knowledge. Malte Ludin, Germany, 2004, German, 87 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM26.04.86 A spring in the memory / 26.04.86: Una primavera en la memoria [FL 916]
A story about the medical facility on the island of Tarara where Ukrainian children, victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, come to undergo treatment for various rare diseases. The Cuban and Ukrainian governments signed a special agreement prescribing this connection so vital for curing the children depicted by the film. The films tells the story of Celia, mother of one the children under treatment, who has already settled in Cuba, finding a new home, being one of the first parents to bring their children to the island. The documentary also includes archival footage from the site of the Chernobyl disaster. Ariane Dos Santos Pereira, Cuba, 2004, 21 min, art documentary, VHS3 Rooms of Melancholia, The / Melancholian 3 huonetta [FL 1030]
This poetic and very sophisticated documentary is divided into three chapters, in three Rooms. In each of them, the atmosphere is determined by one predominant emotion. With very few words but with lots of eloquent cinematic means, the film speaks about basic emotional and mental states. In the first Room, we follow young boys, obedient cadets at a military school in St. Petersburg. These children of thirteen or fourteen are not here by choice: most of them come from dysfunctional families. Just by observing their morning rituals, the school's rigid discipline and their way of interacting, one gets a notion of their enormous solitude. One of the boys shifts the story to the second Room – Breathing – where we witness the doomed lives of the people of Grozny. The last Room – Remembering – crosses the Chechen border into the neighbouring province of Ingushetia, where people fight out their own tragedy. With a keen eye for detail, especially human faces, and with precise timing, the director successfully creates remarkable, emotionally loaded scenes. By combining vocals from the Orthodox Church with folk and classical music, together with pure sounds from nature, the film becomes uplifting and multilayered. Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland, 2004, English, Finnish/Subtitles: English, 85 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM300 Miles to Heaven / 300 mił do nieba [FL 675]
Based on a true story dating back to 1985 when two Polish boys, a teenager and his little brother, escaped from communist Poland to Sweden hidden under a truck. Their father was a history teacher and was fired for his political beliefs. They decided to try a better life in the West. In the film the destination was changed for Denmark. After the successful escape, they are put in a refugee camp. The officials want to send them back to Poland, but a Polish journalist, who escaped some years before, fights for their cause and in the end they receive asylum. She also helps them to contact their parents. In a dramatic phone conversation their father tells them never to come back. Although the actual heroes confirmed in 1989 that this film fully conveyed their experiences, it is not a chronicle of their escape. Rather we see the two boys in two unwelcoming worlds: socialist Poland, and the affluent yet hostile Denmark. Maciej Dejczeb, Poland, 1989, Polish, 89 min, fiction film, DVD-ROM32 Lines / Harminckét sor [FL 1652]
Letters from the prison, family memories and documents invoke the fall and Soviet retaliation of the 1956 revolution in Hungary. Anna Merei, Hungary, 2005, Hungarian, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM37 Uses for a Dead Sheep / 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep [FL 1111]
The Pamir Kirghiz are a tribe of some 2,000 people from the Pamir region of Central Asia. For the last 27 years they have lived in exile in Eastern Turkey. In 2005 an Anglo-Turkish film crew arrives in their village to work with the tribe to tell their story. In a series of scenes divided into "chapters", we see revealing interviews with the Kirghiz, see exciting and entertaining reconstructions shot on film in a variety of different cinematic styles, and comic scenes of the interaction between the film crew and the community. During this process, we learn how the Pamir Kirghiz' antipathy to Communism drove them from Soviet Russia, then later from Maoist China, and finally from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to their current exile. And as the past is explored in interview and reconstruction, we see how the Pamir Kirghiz live today in modern Turkey. The film is part historical document, part ethnographical description of a unique people, part portrait of the conflict between individual and globalised culture, and part comedy about the process of film-making. Wielka Brytania, United Kingdom, 2006, 85 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM4 1/2 [FL 1382]
Portrait of four young, disabled Senegaleze boys who support their families by begging in the streets frequented by tourists. Gianni Padlina, Switzerland, 2006, French, 54 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM6 Yards to Democracy [FL 1253]
6 Yards to Democracy revisits a gruesome incident that took place during an election rally in north India. Thousands of women from poor localities of Lucknow city, lured by the promise of free saris, had been waiting for hours in the harsh sun for the cheap six-yard cloths. A stampede occurred: 22 died and hundreds were injured. This seemingly stray happening uncovers the sordid side of Indian democracy, and connects in significant ways with the daily humiliations forced upon these women and their families. As boomtown dynamics keep pushing them further into the margins, we observe the women's struggles to keep their homes, hopes and dignity intact while petitioning an apathetic state for their dues. Nishtha Jain & Smriti Nevatia, India, 2006, Hindi/Subtitles: English, 55 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM66 seasons / 66 sezon [FL 18]
A documentary where, in the words of the filmmakers, “history comes to bathe.” Through several stories that unfold between the years 1936 and 2002, the film brings together 66 seasons at a popular swimming pool, and through this offers a unique look at 66 years of central and eastern European history. From watching World War II fighter planes, through the changing fashion styles, to the moment two lovers met, the pool has always been the social hub. With the help of old footage and some unusual recreations, the visitors join director and Kosice native Péter Kerekes in recounting their memories of the sixty-six seasons of the pool. Péter Kerekes, Slovakia, 2003, Slovak, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 86 min, documentary film, VHS89 mm from Europe / 89 mm od Europy [FL 526]
The short documentary is one of the finest statements made on the prevailing atmosphere of the Cold War in post-perestroika, post-Cold War Europe. The film sketches the transition between two different worlds: Europe and the former Soviet Union. The scene is the railway station at Brest-Litovsk. Before a train can move on from Poland to Belorussia, the wheels of each of the carriages have to be adjusted to meet the conditions of a wider gauge a difference of only »89 mm« yet symbolic for the huge transformation from one mind-set to another. Meanwhile, while the changes are being made, train passengers from France and Germany, Holland and Poland, watch the ceremony mutely as much in dismay as in disbelief. Marcel Lozinski, Poland, 1993, Polish, 12 min, documentary film, VHS8th Bullet, The [FL 1406]
experimental film Marcelo Paganini, France, 2005, English, 15 min, DVD-ROM9 Days of a Year aka Nine Days of One Year / Девять дней одного года [FL 835]
In this drama, a Soviet nuclear physicist and his professor are working in Siberia on a project when an accident leaves them exposed to incredible amounts of radiation. The professor dies, and the physicist is told that any more radiation will kill him. Still he persists on continuing the work. He becomes so obsessed with his work that he ignores his lover who is tempted by his friend. He does finally wake up and marry her. Meanwhile, the good friend teams up with him. Again an accident occurs and the determined physicist is exposed, but this time he swears his friend to secrecy until the experiment is over. Now he spends less and less time with his loving wife and she wonders what she has done wrong. It is nothing; he has gone to Moscow for a life-saving bone marrow transplant. The day before the operation, the friend bursts in with great news: the experiment was successful! Adding to the happy moment is his wife who anxiously awaits outside the operating room. Soon they receive a note from him that promises a great celebration. Mikhail Romm, Soviet Union, 1961, Russian, 104 min, fiction film, DVD-ROM9 Star Hotel / Malon 9 Kohavim [FL 1206]
In Israel's occupied territories, thousands of Palestinians work illegally as construction laborers. After an arduous and dangerous journey, loaded with blankets and bags, they cross the hills to the places where they can find employment. At night they sleep on the hillcrests in improvised huts and coffin-like sleeping cubicles, a stark contrast to the luxury apartment complexes they build by day. But they have made homes for themselves, complete with cozy pillows and even electricity from batteries they have scraped together. The filmmakers follow Ahmed and Muhammad, one a merry collector of found objects, the other a philosophical critic of the Palestinian character. Together, they share food, belongings and stories, and live under the constant threat of arrest - police, soldiers and the secret service are all tirelessly on the alert for illegal workers. With raw, handheld images, this disconcerting yet touching film documents friendship, nostalgia and the uncompromising will to survive. Ido Haar, Israel, 2006, Hebrew, Arabic/Subtitles: English, 78 min, documentary film, DVD-ROM9th Company, The / 9 рота [FL 1065]
The Soviet war in Afghanistan. The film follows a group of young recruits from a farewell ceremony with friends and family back home, through their often brutal training up to a bloody battle on a mountain top in Afghanistan against the mujahideen. In the closing episode of the film, after the final bloody fight, where most of the unit perishes, it turns out that the boys were simply forgotten at a post which not longer needed to be defended; yet the unit survivor proudly declares that they “won their war.” Fedor Bondarchuk, Russia, 2005, Russian, 126 min, DVD-ROMA Day to Remember / Wangque de Yitian [FL 1543]
It is 4 June 2005. The cineaste Liu Wei picks up his camera and sets off for Tiananmen Square and the University of Beijing with a question in his head: what day is it? As he poses this question to the various students and people that he encounters on his way, he receives countless evasive replies and the refusal of majority to recall the student protests 16 years earlier. Many affirm that they not know anything about those events and move swiftly onwards while others only stare at the camera. A Day to Remember reflects the great unease surrounding the date of 4 June and how the uprising of that period still remains taboo subject in the People’s Republic of China. Nevertheless, this film by Liu breaks with that silence and explores an entire nation’s feelings of denial. Liu Wei, China, 2005, Chinese (Mandarin)/Subtitles: English, 13 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMA Fiery Autumn in the Cold War - Hungary in 1956 / Forró ősz a hidegháborúban - Magyarország 1956-ban [FL 1508]
This documentary made by the 1956 Institute (http://www.rev.hu/rev/), presents the history of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in a global political context. It examines the processes leading to the status quo in the post-war era, the characteristics of the Cold War and the antecedents of the revolution both in Eastern-Central Europe and in Hungary. The film depicts foreign reactions as well as the political considerations and conduct of the Great Powers. Recently rediscovered contemporary news footages from American, French, German and Russian archives further enrich the visual content of this documentary. Judit Kóthy, Judit Topits, Hungary, 2006, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, German, French, Romanian, Italian, Slovak, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMA Road to Mecca – The Journey Of Muhammad Asad / Der Weg nach Mekka – Die Reise des Muhammad Assad [FL 1538]
In the early 1920s Leopold Weiss, a Viennese Jew, travelled to the Middle East. The desert fascinated him, and Islam became his new spiritual home. He left his Jewish roots behind, converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Asad. He became one of the most important Muslims of the 20th century, first as an advisor at the royal court of Saudi Arabia, and later translating the Koran into English. Asad was also a co-founder of Pakistan and its ambassador to the UN. The director follows his fading footsteps, leading from the Arabian desert to Ground Zero. He finds a man who was not looking for adventures but rather wanted to act as a mediator between East and West. A Road To Mecca takes this opportunity to deal with a heated debate on the nature of Islam and its role in today’s world. Georg Misch, Austria, 2008, English, German, Ukrainian, Arabic, Spanish/Subtitles: English, 92 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMA Tornallom [FL 1444]
A Tornallom is a documentary about the struggle to defend de irrigated area used for cultivation known as La Huerta de Valencia. It shows us images and testimonies of the events that occurred between September 2002 and March 2003, when more than 200 residents of La Punta (in the Huerta area) were evicted from their houses. The villages were demolished and the fields bulldozed to make room for the ZAL (logistics activities zone) of the Port of Valencia, which is planned to take up around 600,000 square meters, most of the area of La Huerta. “A Tornallom", is what the agricultural workers of La Huerta call the way they swap work amongst themselves. For heavy agricultural tasks workers usually help each other, pooling their efforts to do the work on one person’s field and going on to another the next day until all the work is done. That's working ‘a tornallom’: work in exchange for work. Enric Peris, Spain, 2005, Spanish/Subtitles: English, 48 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMA Village Romance / Falusi románc [FL 1561]
A dead-end village, one time home of a lesbian community that decided to leave the city. By today little of the community remains. One of them, Mari, lives in poverty but in a very expensive house. She falls in love with M., the poor Roma woman and mother of three next door, who lives miserably with her drunken, abusive husband. Although heterosexual, M. returns Mari’s love, fueling the contempt of the village, which already hates her badly enough for being a Roma. “I have never been loved for who I am” she says. Now she waits for her husband to leave her, so that she and her children can move in with her lover. Bódis Kriszta, Hungary, 2006, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMA World on Display [FL 1467]
In the spring and summer of 1904, the eyes of the nation, and the world, were focused on St. Louis, Missouri, site of a world’s fair commemorating the Louisiana Purchase Centennial. The St. Louis World’s Fair, largest and grandest of all international expositions, displayed America’s economic and artistic resources, the latest technological developments, and models for urban planning. The Fair’s organizers also brought more than 2000 indigenous peoples to St. Louis to live in “authentic” villages, reflecting both the social Darwinism of the age and America’s new role as an overseas power. A World on Display uses reminiscences of elderly Missourians who went to the Fair, interviews with historians, archival motion pictures, and many never-before-published photographs to locate the St. Louis Fair in the social, political and cultural context of American society at the beginning of the 20th century. Eric Breitbart, United States, 2005, English, 53 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMa.k.a The Annotation / Et Cetera… [FL 967]
The movie depicts the wars that have marked successive generations of Russians. The inevitability of conflict is slowly grasped as images compiled from a century of wars anonymously cycle before us as certainly as each generation matures. It is a poetical interpretation of war as the unavoidable fate of human beings. The movie is made up of a montage of archival footage from the first world war up to the present conflict in Chechnya. Andrei Osipov, Russia, 2001, Russian, 24 min, art documentary, VHSAbandoned town, The / Napusteni grad [FL 846]
A film about the life of the Italian minority in Croatia (and former Yugoslavia) told through the story of Piemonte (Zavrsje), an almost completely abandoned and ruined town in Istria. Gigi was among the rare ones who stayed in the town when Tito's Yugoslavia demanded that the Italian minority choose between the two homelands. Today, some 50 years later he's still the only "citizen" of the abandoned town. Magdalena Piekorz, Croatia, 2002, Italian, 18 min, art documentary, VHSAbduction of Fire, The / Похищение огня [FL 348]
History of the creation of the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. The film traces the different itineraries of its emergence - from the foreign agents who cooperated with the Soviet secret services, particularly Klaus Fuchs, to the research institute headed by Igor' Kurchatov. The film combines interviews, archival material, and extracts from fiction films such as "Vybor tseli" (Choice of Purpose, Igor' Talankin, 1974) and others. Vera Storozheva, Russia, 2001, Russian, 160 min, documentary film, VHSAbortion, Right or Wrong? [FL 1455]
Every year, throughout the world, fifty million women have abortions and about thirty five thousand of these abortions are being performed in the Netherlands. Abortion is being legalized in the Netherlands thirty years ago and abortions have since then been carried out safely and in safe surroundings. The right to have an abortion in the Netherlands now seems so fundamental that it is difficult to imagine that it is still not a fundamental right in many countries in the world. This film shows the course of an average day at the oldest abortion clinic in the Netherlands. A seventeen year old girl tells her story and women that used to demonstrate at the clinic against abortion now come to the clinic with their own pregnant daughters. Has this acquired freedom changed personal and social attitudes? Is a woman’s decision to have an abortion any less painful now than it used to be? Sherman de Jesus, Netherlands, 2005, Dutch/Subtitles: English, 60 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAbout Dogs and people / O psoch a l'ud'och [FL 652]
In 1988. when Miso Suchy immigrated to America, he did not know a word of English. The film "About Dogs and people" reflects his experiences with "the mute," and is filmed almost without words. Dogs are mute animals, yet according to the director they can tell a lot about the society in which they live. This metaphorical film shows the accuracy of the saying that dogs are a reflection of the people who owe them. Miso Suchy, Slovakia, 1993, English, 44 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAbout Georgi Dyulgerov / За Георги Дюлгеров [FL 693]
A documentary surveying the life and works of the famous Bulgrian filmmaker, Georgi Dyulgerov, featuring his students at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts and members of his team from different productions.Bulgaria, Bulgarian, 33 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAbout Jean Rouch. Bernard Surugue in conversation with /Patrick Leboutte / A propos de Jean Rouch. Conversation Bernard Surugue/Patrick Leboutte [FL 1106]
An interview with Bernard Surugue, Jean Rouch's colleague, rich in details and anecdotes about their common work, demonstrating profound respect and friendship of the two men. NB: Bernard Surugue introduces each film by Jean Rouch in this series. Patrick Leboutte, France, 2004, French, 29 min, VHSAcademician Ivan Pavlov / Академик Иван Павлов [FL 168]
Film about Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, physiologist, researcher into the nervous system and reflexes, Noble prizewinner. The film tells of Pavlov's scientific career, his discoveries and their impact on medicine and psychology. Georgii Roshal', Soviet Union, 1949, Russian, 103 min, fiction film, VHSAcademy of Mr. Kleks, The / Akademia Pana Kleksa [FL 736]
An adaptation of a novel by Jan Brzechwa. 10-year Jaś Niezgódka begins his studies at a strange boarding school located in an old palace. The pedagogue, Mr. Blot, is not merely a teacher, but also an alchemist and a dream-interpreter. He lives on colorful confetti-like “freckles” that are provided for him on a weekly basis by Filip the Barber. When he runs out of “freckles”, he shrinks. Meanwhile, Jaś embarks upon several adventures and discovers the secret of Filip the Barber. The latter desires to ruin Mr. Blot and his Academy. Eventually he succeeds by sending robot named Adolf into the school. Partially animated and with numerous songs, this children’s film was widely acclaimed and seen by over 14 million spectators in movie theatres. It is filled with allusions, mainly to “Star Wars” and “The Muppets”. Krzysztof Gradowski, Poland, 1984, Polish/Subtitles: English, 158 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAdisa or a Thousand Years Story / Adisa O La Storia Dei Mille Anni [FL 15]
A voyage among men, women, and children of the Romany people in Bosnia Hercegovina, documenting the reality and the present life in a country still wounded by the consequences of the war. Massimo D. D'orzi, Italy, 2004, Serbian/Subtitles: English, documentary film, Beta SPAdjusted Conversation with Ferenc Merei / Kiigazított beszélgetés Mérei Ferenccel [FL 1627]
A film made by the daughter of Ferenc Merei, founding father of one of the schools of psychology in Hungary, about his involvement and commitment during the 1956 revolution. Anna Merei, Hungary, 1996, Hungarian, 28 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAdmiral Nakhimov / Адмирал Нахимов [FL 204]
Historical costume film set in Russia in the year 1853. After the victory of the Russian fleet led by Admiral Nakhimov over Turkey a strong anti-Russian coalition is created. Nakhimov comes back to defend Russian positions. Vsevolod Pudovkin, Soviet Union, 1946, Russian, 89 min, fiction film, VHSAdmiral Ushakov / Адмирал Ушаков [FL 173]
Historical costume drama about the creation of the Russian Black Sea fleet in 1779. Unwilling to stay at court, Fedor Ushakov receives the permission of Count Grigorii Potemkin to go to Kherson to build the fleet. Despite the raging plague, and the skepticism of the foreigners, he starts to build the fleet, inspiring everybody around him with his enthusiasm. The fleet goes into battle against Turkish ships and wins. A chain of other victories follows, Ushakov becomes a Rear-Admiral. The film was followed by the sequel 'The Ships from the Bastions' (1953). Mikhail Romm, Soviet Union, 1953, Russian, 102 min, fiction film, VHSAdopting a New Homeland [FL 1451]
The film tells the story of a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922. Makry (Fethiye - Kayaköy) in Turkey turns out to be Nea Makry (New Makry) in Greece, a new homeland. By this film, people in Nea Makry started to question their feelings towards the Turkish people. They started to share their feelings of the past, present and future. They are the people from the 1st to 3rd generation of population exchange who suffered the sorrow of immigration, force to leave their homeland and move to a new country, and who grew up with the sorrowful stories of their predecessors. The transformation of prejudices into friendship of the people of two cultures that stay apart because of the history they did not create and could not change. Enis Riza, Turkey, 2006, Greek, Turkish/Subtitles: English, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAdvantage / Авантаж [FL 443]
The action takes place during the socialist period in Bulgaria. The central character, nicknamed the Cock is an artistic personality, a man of strong character known as the king of the pickpockets. His keen sense of personal freedom comes up against the universally accepted norms of behavior. The Cock likes a game, adventure and danger, while socialist society needs obedience. The Cock makes a stand against this order; he does not want to play his games according to rules. He is telling the story of his last 20 years: his imprisonment, his love affairs. To him love is a fateful meeting of two persons and has nothing to do with philistinism. The Cock is an amiable chap though being an adventurer, trickster, and an artist by nature, irresponsible and asocial. In the mean time he wastes his gift on virtuoso thefts and monumental banquets which regularly land him in jail. In the jail the imperfect correctional methods and the chaos reigning in his own soul induce him to betray his fellow inmates. In the end the filmmakers allow him to die a dignified death. During an escape attempt before dying he saves the life of a child. His dream of life comes to an absurd end. Georgi Dyulgerov, Bulgaria, 1977, Bulgarian, 138 min, DVD-ROMAelita: Queen of Mars / Аэлита [FL 218]
Based on Alexei Tolstoi's story Aelita. Engineer Los' creates a spaceship to travel to Mars in, and takes off. He is accompanied by Red Army soldier Gusev, who dreams of accomplishing a socialist revolution on Mars, and detective Kravtsov, who suspects that Los' murdered his wife and is trying to escape. The revolution on Mars fails due to Martian minister Evor and the resistance of Aelita, the princess of Mars. When the heroes are on the edge of perishing, Los' wakes up and realizes that the story was just a dream. Yakov Protazanov, Soviet Union, 1924, Russian, 100 min, fiction film, VHSAfghan Breakdown / Афганский излом [FL 999]
The movie tells the story of the last days of a Soviet regiment stationed in Afghansitan, before the main troop withdrawal in 1985. The movie accurately portrays the grim realities of Russian army that have made it infamous: "dedovshina" (officers and NCOs physically harassing, beating and humiliating younger recruits), mixed character of war (you can trade with your enemy one day and kill him the next), life of women at the front lines, documentary footages of helicopter assaults, an endless row of coffins sent home, fatigue, boredom, and anti-war sentiment. It shows that war is a dirty affair, where murder is sometimes condoned, wanton destruction of whole villages for little or no reason is normal, and indiscriminate killing of civilians is overlooked as collateral damage inevitable during war. It was the first movie to talk about the pointless 9-year occupation of Afghanistan and about the trauma of both civilians and the army involved in the conflict. Vladimir Bortko, Russia, 1991, Russian, 140 min, fiction film, VHSAfrican Spelling Book [FL 1400]
A series of short films written, narrated and filmed by a group of boys and girls living in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Each story refletcts their point of view on life in Kenya, and gives the viewer a unique chance to explore their world Angelo Loy, (n/a), 2005, English, 61 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAgainst the Mafia: Petrol Liaisons / Szemben a maffiával: avagy olajozott viszonyok [FL 1264]
An investigative look at the dubious petrol businesses involving high officials after 1989 in Hungray. Irén Kármán, Hungary, 2007, Hungarian, 95 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAge of Gold, The / L'age d'or [FL 1412]
Bunuel's first feature is a pure Surrealist film. The plot involves a man and a woman who are passionately in love with one another, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church and bourgeois society. Luis Bunuel, France, 1930, French/Subtitles: Hungarian, 60 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAgitators, The / Agitátorok [FL 164]
Hungary, 1918-1919. Young and committed people form the intellectual group within the Hungarian Communist Party. Their aim is to spread communist ideology and to convince working class people. They not only lobby journalists and members of Parliament, but get into a fight at a demonstration. The main topics of their discussions are the need for the revolutionary dictatorship and responsibility towards the masses. Dezső Magyar, Hungary, 1969, Hungarian, 78 min, fiction film, Beta SPAgitators / Agitátorok [FL 1507]
A unique perspective of the paradoxical story of the Hungarian Soviet republic of 1919. The historical background -as formulated by impassioned diputes within the "intellectual group" of the party, philosophical monologues and film archives - serves more as an excuse to search for a general model of revolution which can be applied to later 20th century examples of revolution (1956 and 1968). Dezső Magyar, Hungary, 1969, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 69 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAgony / Агония [FL 162]
A film about the last days of the monarchy. The central figure is Rasputin, who acquired unlimited power at Nikolas II’s court and later fell victim to a court conspiracy. Elem Klimov, Soviet Union, 1974, 143 min, fiction film, VHSAileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer [FL 1237]
Aileen Wuornos, allegedly the first woman serial killer, was convicted of killing seven of her clients. Nick Broomfield tries to arrange an interview with her, first through her friendly but inept lawyer Steve Glazer and then through her “adoptive” mother, born-again Christian Eileen. As the negotiations over fees begin, the film becomes an exploration of the way a “serial killer” is constructed and sold as an image, starkly illustrated by the police officers who worked on the case, and who Broomfield discovers have sold their story to Hollywood producers. When he eventually meets Aileen he encounters a severely disturbed woman, and finds himself questioning her treatment at the hands of the media and the state. Nick Broomfield, United Kingdom, 2004, English, 90 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer [FL 381]
This moving and tragic story of Aileen Wuornos, America's first woman serial killer, is a powerful indictment against capital punishment and the execution of the mentally insane. In 1992, acclaimed UK filmmaker Nick Broomfield made "Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of A Serial Killer," which revealed how Aileen's mother, her lawyer, and the Florida state police tried to sell her sensationalized story to the highest bidder. Amidst the frenzy of greed, Aileen emerges as the most sincere person in the film. Twelve years later, Broomfield was summoned to Aileen's final appeal before execution, and his earlier film was shown as evidence that she had not been given a fair trial. However, during the appeal, Aileen suddenly confesses that she committed the murders in cold blood and is ready to die (she later confides to Broomfield that she said this because she could no longer endure life on death row). Broomfield decides to probe deeper into Aileen's troubled life and reveals how her childhood of extreme abuse and neglect led her to become a runaway and teenage prostitute with severe drug problems. Broomfield's powerful film reveals the flaws in the US criminal justice system and the stark inhumanity of capital punishment, particularly of the mentally ill. Aileen Wuornos was executed by the state of Florida on October 9, 2002. Nick Broomfield, United States, 2003, English, 89 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAksuat / Аксуат [FL 617]
"Aksuat" - the name of the village, where the director of the film was born and lived. The modern accessories of life, such as mobile phones, cars, and satellite dishes notwithstanding, the lifestyle here remains essentially traditional, with the decision of the "elder" - local mob leader - controlling any action that is taken in the community. The story line evolves around the relationship of two brothers: Kanat and Aman. Kanat is a quintessential "new Kazakh", flat broke and disenchanted, who comes back to the village with his pregnant Russian wife. The elder brother Aman has lived in the village all his life, built a house, settled down but never married. "Aksuat" marks the breaking point in the development of Kazakh cinema in the era following the collapse of the USSR and the attainment of independence. The fates of the two brothers are the metaphors of the possible nation-building. The ones who leave lose their roots and moral values embedded in the traditional background. Those who stay in the countryside live a hard life in a corrupt, unjust society. But for all the hardships, the protagonists remain on their mothers' land. Thus, Aman's is the punch line of the film: "This is my house, my matches." The premier of the film in Kazakhstan went unnoticed. Later it received a Special Jury prize at IFF "Eurasia - 98"; prize of the Jury at the "Festival of Three Continents" in Nantes - 99, etc. Serik Aprymov, Kazakhstan, 1997, Russian, Russian, Kazakh/Subtitles: English, 78 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAlexander Askoldov. Destiny of Commisar. / Aleksander Askoldov. Sud'ba Komissara [FL 1109]
Movie director Alexander Askoldov made only one famous movie, The Commissar. The film was too unsettlling for Soviet censorship and was therefore banned for twenty years while the director was prosecuted by the Soviet authorities and erased from the face of Russian culture. Valery Balayan, Russia, 2006, Russian, 52 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAlexander Nevskii / Александр Невский [FL 163]
The 13th century. The warriors of the powerful Teutonic Order have occupied Pskov and are advancing towards the center of Russia. Prince Alexander Nevsky undertakes to lead the troops of Great Novgorod, defeating the Teutonic army on Lake Chudskoe. Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union, 1938, Russian, 111 min, fiction film, VHSAlexander Popov / Александр Попов [FL 199]
Biographical film about physicist Alexander Semenovich Popov (1859-1905), the creator of radio. The film presents Popov's research, his observations and discoveries. The film includes episodes about the use of his wireless telegraph in the Far North and its help in rescuing people lost in the ocean. Alexander Razumovskii, Soviet Union, 1949, Russian, 87 min, fiction film, VHSAliens Everywhere / Mindenütt idegen [FL 1351]
Refugee children in Hungary whose only opportunity for a holiday is the yearly camp organized by Menedék, and NGO protecting the rights of refugees in Hungary. Zsuzsa Katona, Péter Nyeste, Hungary, 2007, Hungarian, 58 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAll is love / Всичко е любов [FL 510]
A young man escapes from the school for delinquent youth with a constrained regime, where he lives and studies in his last year. He often makes this short break from the unbearable regime and attitude. This time he meets in Sofia a girl from an elite district and tries to challenge her with his straightforward manners. Acting indifferent and independent at first, Albena soon starts to seek his affection – the unrefined energy and rudeness that Rado demonstrates, invoke her love. Albena’s mother becomes quite upset when she learns about her daughter’s affair. She puts pressure on the responsible institutions to take him back to his school, contrary to their initial intention to give him the freedom to decide when to return. Meanwhile, Rado spends his time with Albena and their passion grows. When Rado returns back to his school, Albena finds out that she is pregnant. He feels betrayed by her at first but when he receives her letter with the news, he runs away back to Sofia. Unfortunately, Albena’s mother had arranged an illegal abortion and she had lost the baby. Exhausted and freezing after the several days’ trip walking and hitchhiking and struck by the news, Rado is left on the staircase in front of Albena’s door and waits for the police to take him away. Borislav Sharaliev, Bulgaria, 1979, Bulgarian, 102 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAll lives have dignity - the world of Zhou Zhou [FL 923]
A fil about Zhou Zhou who is suffering from mental disability. He is the son of a percutionist the Wuhan Filarmonica and his life is centered around music and operatic performances, as he spend most of the time as an "assistent" to the various performances of the Wuhan Filarmonica. The documentary shows the almost permanent harmony of Zhou Zhou's life, which brings him into normality rather than isolation. This is a story o acceptance and adaptation, but it does not convince the viewer about the corectedness of the approach presented. Zhou Zhou's life and environment are lauded, but at times they seem to take on the guise rather of a well-tuned circus show than of an integration in society of a disabled person. Zhang Yiqing, China, Chinese (Mandarin), 55 min, documentary film, VHSAll Quiet on the Western Front [FL 104]
TV movie based on one of the most respected anti-war novels ever written, by Erich Maria Remarque. Delbert Mann, United States, 1979, English, 90 min, fiction film, VHSAll That Jack's / Majstori, majstori [FL 562]
This drama, set in Belgrade, revolves around a group of primary school teachers. As they all gather for the morning shift, the school’s female principle is informed that shy English teacher Gordana has filed a sexual harassment complaint against the principal’s deputy Bogdan and that a young inspector is coming to the school to investigate the charges. In addition, realizing that the cleaning lady is retiring the next day, the principal decides to throw a farewell party. Once he arrives at the school, the inspector does not get much cooperation from the faculty. Bogdan eventually confesses that he did have a relationship with Gordana but says that she invented the accusations because he caught her with another man. During the school performance, the inspector sneaks out to follow Gordana and discovers her half-naked with the gym teacher. Meanwhile, a high-ranking party official and the inspector’s boss arrive at the school party. They rule out the charges, but inform the principle that she has lost contact with her faculty and pupils and has to retire or otherwise the school will be closed down. Finally, a drunken teacher recites a poem about the workers who came to repair the house although nobody called them, as an allusion to what has just happened with the school. Goran Marković, Yugoslavia, 1980, Serbian, 94 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAll White in Barking [FL 1517]
The inhabitants of the London suburb of Barking are having trouble accepting the influx of ten thousand immigrants from around the world. Long–time local residents Susan and Jeff don't even greet their Nigerian neighbours, because they are "not like them". Dave has become a British National Party activist fighting for a white Barking, even though both of his daughters are in relationships with just the kind of people he rants against. By contrast, Jewish Holocaust survivor and boutique owner Monty has an unusual relationship with Betty, a black nurse. Using unexpected humour, All White in Barking allows the long–term residents and their new, culturally different neighbours to air their views. Director Marc Isaacs refrains from being judgmental, but instead attempts to understand the logic of a fast–transforming community and the sometimes grotesque overcoming of the psychological barriers between cultures. The residents' words inadvertently reveal a xenophobic outlook rooted in ignorance and a sense of being threatened. Marc Isaacs, United Kingdom, 2007, English, 73 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAlone in Four Walls / Allein in vier Wänden [FL 1541]
Alexandra Westmeier explores the lives of juvenile felons aged 10 to 14. In Russia, lawbreakers can be tried and convicted as adults at the age of fifteen; younger offenders are given reduced sentences and sent to juvenile detention facilities. Some of the inmates we meet are serving time for theft, some for murder. “They’re animals, not children” – cries out the mother of a murdered teenager. But are they? The director provides glimpses of their home lives, and we begin to realize that, for these children, a correctional facility is sometimes an easier place to be. They are children who never had a childhood and who often take pride in permanent reminders of their criminal pasts: This tattoo means ‘alone among friends’, this one is ‘alone in four walls’ and this star is ‘I’ll never fall on my knees in front of a cop’, says one. Filmmaker Alexandra Westmeier spends enough time with them to see the scared boys beyond the appearance of ‘hard men’. As the merciless statistic shows, over 90% of them will get behind bars again. Alexandra Westmeier, Germany, 2007, Russian/Subtitles: English, 85 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAlphabet of Fear, The / Abeceda straha [FL 549]
The story of this WWII crime movie is supposedly based on real events and set in the Croatian Nazi-puppet state. Vera, a young communist, is on a mission to acquire important information – a list of spies that will be sent to the territory under partisan control. Pretending to be a provincial illiterate, Vera gets a job as a maid in the family of a high-ranking government official. Vera’s cover is endangered when the official’s oldest daughter, engaged to a German officer, starts having doubts about her, but her younger sister actually covers up for Vera’s suspicious absences, as she believes that she is having an affair. Since Vera has made little progress on her main task, resistance chiefs plan a decisive action during a dinner party attended by important German and Ustasha officers. Their action is, however, diverted by an air-raid and the party moves to the basement where the officers discover some lost documents and realize that Vera understands German. When she finally sees the list she has been searching for, she is being forced to tell the names of her superiors. The partisans manage to use the confusion created by the air-raid to break into the apartment, escaping with the prisoners. With Vera only slightly wounded the mission is accomplished. Fadil Hadžić, Yugoslavia, 1961, Serbo-Croatian, 99 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAmerican Civil Liberties Union: A History, The [FL 447]
For 80 years, one legal organization has supported the rights of the individual against the majority and the government, igniting rage in conservatives and liberals alike, That organization is the ACLU. The film, with commentary from Oliver North, Dave Barry, and Nobly Ivies, traces the tumultuous history of that organization from its inception by founder Roger Baldwin, through dozens of legal challenges over the past century, including the Scopes trial, the 1930s labor strikes, Japanese internment, the HUAC hearings and blacklisting, the Vietnam war crimes trials, the American Nazi Party's bid to march in Skokie, Illinois, and others. Lawrence R. Hott and Diane Garey, United States, 1997, English, 57 min, fiction film, VHSAmerican Torso / Amerikai anzix [FL 164]
North Carolina, last days of the American Civil War. The film portrays the struggle of three Hungarian army officers, who emigrated from Hungary after taking part in the 1948-1949 revolution. The use of light, shadow, and special effects makes the film appear as a composition of 'found' archival footage. Gábor Bódy, Hungary, 1975, Hungarian, 91 min, fiction film, Beta SPAmong Blind Fools / Mezi zaslepenymi blazny [FL 279]
Documentary about the fate of Slovak Jews during the Holocaust. Also about rabbi Michael Weissmandl, spiritual leader of the "Working Group", who rescued thousands of Slovak Jews. Petr Bok, Slovakia, 1999, English/Voice-over: English, 165 min, documentary film, VHSAmor Sanjuan [FL 1198]
At the beginning of the twentieth century Palmira emigrated with her family to Argentina. In 1934 they were deported by the military dictatorship from the Gral. Uriburu to Spain on the eve of its civil war. "Amor Sanjuan" is her testimony recorded onto 82 years of audio tapes collected by her grandson, sociologist Luis Misis. Luis Misis, Spain, 2007, Spanish/Subtitles: English, 37 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAn Ambiguous Feeling [FL 964]
The film tells the stories of several gay men in their own words and gives an overview of the trial in 1964 in Sofia, which ended with jail sentences for 32 people, among them actors and singers. The contemporary development of the social attitudes is also presented in a simple and dignified way. The attitude of the church, which is also documented, adds a suplementary facet of the overall complex approach pursued by the movie on the topic of homosexuality in contemporary Bulgaria. Ilko Dundakov, Bulgaria, 1997, Bulgarian, 57 min, documentary film, VHSAn Andalusian Dog / Un chien Anduluou [FL 1335]
1. An Andalusian Dog by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Perhaps the most famous avant garde film of all; the slit eyeball, the ants emerging from the human palm, the severed hand in the street. A series of visual shocks symbolizing nothing. Successful attempt at pure surrealism. With synchronized music score selected by Luis Buñuel.France, 1926, (silent), fiction film, VHSAnatomy of Evil, The / Ondskabens anatomi [FL 1073]
What makes genocide possible? Serbian paramilitaries who took part in massacres in Kosovo during the late nineties, describe their experiences and try to explain what made them do such horrendous acts. They seem to have felt that their security was threatened, and that it was a matter of killing or being killed. Director Ove Nyholm draws a parallell to the second world war and the German massacres of jews. Warning: This film includes disturbingly explicit scenes. Ove Nyholm, Denmark, 2005, Albanian, English, Danish/Subtitles: English, 90 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAnatomy of Pain, The / Anatomija bola [FL 284]
Film about the NATO bombing of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation's headquarters in Belgrade on April 23, 1999, when according to official reports 19 were killed. Janko Baljak, Yugoslavia, 2000, Serbian/Subtitles: English, 32 min, documentary film, VHSAnd Along Came a Spider [FL 921]
This is a grimly fascinating documentary about Iranian serial killer Saeed Hanaei, who murdered 16 women whom he believed to be prostitutes. Filmmaker Maziar Bahari gives Hanaei a lot of screen time to describe and explain what he did, and it's hard to imagine a human being appearing more monstrous than Hanaei does here, as he proudly defends his abominable actions as holy. One feels tremendous empathy for the young daughters of one victim, now orphans, as they describe how they'd like to see Hanaei punished for his crimes. Bahari is fairly direct and economical in his approach. While the film gives more time to Hanaei and his supporters (including his wife and teenage son) than it does to more reasoned voices like the victims' relatives and the judge who heard Hanaei's case, there's a strong feminist bent to the film, underscored by Bahari's choice of a female narrator, and his interviews with an outspoken woman reporter, whom he also uses to interview the killer. Then, of course, there are the interviews with the two young daughters of one victim, who express themselves with surprising eloquence. The film's underlying critique of the harsh patriarchy of Iran reaches its apex in these segments, as the children's obvious love for their murdered mother reemphasizes all of the victims' humanity. Through these interviews, the film achieves a transcendentally poignant power. Maziar Bahari, Iran, 2002, Persian, 118 min, documentary film, VHSAnd Behold, There Came a Great Wind [FL 1272]
Benny and Rachel Yafet—bereaved parents from the agricultural community of Nezer Hazzani, and Rabbi Raffi Peretz—Lieutenant Colonel in reserves and head of the pre-military training academy in Atzmona. They are three strong and rooted characters who lived in Gush Katif until last August. The film follows their lives over the course of 8 months, until that same fateful day in which they were asked to leave their homes and their life`s work, entirely against their will and their beliefs. Benny and Rachel lived in Nezer Hazzani for 28 years and were among the first settlers in Gush Katif. In 2000 they lost their fourth son, Itamar. Above all, the Disengagement Plan threatened the family`s livelihood. In the words of their son Gilad: "What kind of future awaits my father at age 56 without no source of income?" Peretz, on the other hand, knew that he could restart his academy, but nothing could mitigate his ideological crisis. As an educator, the Rabbi needed to make decisions not only concerning himself and his family, but for nearly 200 students on the most dramatic moment in their lives. What values are of importance at such a time? Is violence a legitimate form of resistance? Should one accept compensation? When to pack? And how should one relate to the State of Israel and to the IDF? These are the questions faced by each one of the protagonists in this film. Ziv Alexandrony, Israel, 2006, Hebrew/Subtitles: English, 58 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAnd the day came [FL 508]
On the 9th of September 1944, the day that Soviet troops liberated Bulgaria, partisans come down from the mountains. Mustafa, a young partisan, and Pshenichka, a young partisan-girl and his lover are among them. The first days of popular exhilaration and the activities of the new authorities are shown through the eyes of Mustafa. His constant imaginary companion is Matei – a dead partisan and intellectual, who killed a child by mistake during a mission, due to his lack of experience and subsequently had committed suicide. Mustafa judges the acts of his comrades and his own doings in an imaginary dialogue with Matei. The days after the revolution are marked by retaliations on the part of the partisans for the disgraceful actions of the fascist police and the murder of fascist collaborators orchestrated by the communists after the takeover of power. Georgi Dyulgerov, Bulgaria, 1973, Bulgarian, 86 min, DVD-ROMAnd your love too / …und Deine Liebe auch [FL 130]
Berlin 1961: a love triangle develops as the Berlin Wall is being constructed. Eva, a young East German girl, must decide between two very different brothers - Klaus, who believes in making quick cash as a taxi driver in West Berlin, and the quiet, shy electrician Ulli, who stands firm behind the socialist ideology of the GDR. On August 13, 1961 Ulli stands guard at the border between East and West and, gun in hand, forbids his brother to cross into the West. When Klaus is later arrested for trying to flee, Eva makes her decision. With a small team Frank Vogel filmed on the streets of Berlin and observed the everyday life of the people with precision and humor. Frank Vogel, Germany, 1962, German/Subtitles: English, 92 min, fiction film, VHSAndalusian Dog / Un chien andalou [FL 1412]
In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open--juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye--to grab the audience's attention. The French phrase "ants in the palms," (which means that someone is "itching" to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he's itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes. Luis Bunuel, France, 1929, French/Subtitles: Hungarian, 16 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAndrei Rublev / Андрей Рублев [FL 1015]
Based on the life of a 15th century icon painter, Andrei Rublev is comprised of seven episodes following Rublev through the political and social upheavals of medieval Russia. The film was commissioned by the government in order to celebrate Rublev's anniversary. Andrei Konchalovsky wrote the scenario, which was originally titled “The Passion according to Andrei” and Tarskovskii used the fact that it did not record much about the painter's life by making a biographical film projected with his own philosophical and theological vision of an artist. Rublev in the film is not portrayed as a saint at the peak of his art, but as an incredibly human monk, who takes a route of sufferings wandering at the bottom of life to reach the truth of art. When the original version (205 min) was presented in 1966, the audience applauded, but as the government's committee demanded a number of cuts which director refused and thus the film was banned until 1971. The director had to wait for seven years for his next film. Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union, 1966, Russian/Subtitles: English, 205 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAngel on the right / Farishtay Kitfi Rost [FL 949]
Upon spending a decade in Moscow's jails, tough-nut Hamro returns to his small poverty-stricken community in the former soviet republic of Tajikistan. Hamro is selfish and cruel; nothing is sacred to him, and he would sacrifice anything to satisfy his desires. Having upped and left with a huge amount of debt hanging over his head, the local Mafia is threatening his life in order to receive the money he owes to them. This anti-hero embarks on disingenuous schemes like plotting to sell his supposedly dying mother's house in order to pay his creditors and the fallen angel puts his mothers unselfish love to the test. With the help of his young son and a pretty nurse Savri, Hamro tries to gain acceptance back into the community. It takes the traditional wisdom of his discarded elder to put him on the path towards the straight and narrow, and his mother's invention brings about a life-enhancing miracle. In this dark comedy, writer-director Jamshed Usmonov cast the population of Asht as its own persuasive self and his own mother and brother as the fractured yet formidable domestic couple Djamshed Usmonov, Tajikistan, 2002, 88 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAngelmakers, The [FL 1049]
A small village in the Hungarian countryside appears to have a dubious past: in 1929, a series of arsenic murders was exposed here, and 51 women were arrested on suspicion of poisoning their husbands and relatives. The arsenic they used had apparently been taken from flypaper. In total, there were 140 cases of murder, for which many women went to prison. Besides a reconstruction of the killings, this film is a portrait of the present inhabitants of Nagyrév, who all remember something different about the murders. They also muse about the current exodus from the village, are worried about a melon theft and complain that life in the village is boring: there is no cinema or aerobics club. The desolation and isolation of the village is captured quietly and carefully: a stooped man shuffles past, a house stands empty on the edge of the village. The director filmed at the kitchen table, on the ferry and on a bench in front of a house, where an elderly couple recalls how they got married within two months of meeting one another: "He needed someone to mend the fishing nets." Astrid Bussink, Netherlands, 2005, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 35 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAngola: Saudades From the One Who Loves You / Angola, Saudades de quem te ama [FL 689]
An insider’s portrait of an unknown, oil- and diamond-rich, war-damaged country. This journey across Luanda, the Angolan capital, introduces both the past and the present of the country, and its hunger for a new future after 27 years of the civil war. The memories of Portuguese colonial rule, the scars of the clashing interests of cold war superpowers, the years of foreign military occupation, and the long, long civil war, intensified by the conflicting interests in natural resources – all of these traces fuse in the dense life of the cosmopolitan metropolis. The journey takes us into the lives of characters from diverse backgrounds: a fish seller, street boys, a school teacher, an old peasant, two fashion models, and a rap musician whose songs denounce corruption and will get you into trouble if you try singing them in public. The film is a collaboration between Namibian director Richard Pakleppa, and Angolan musician and performer Paulo Flores. The letters are written by Paulo Flores, Richard Pakleppa, and Albano Cardoso. Richard Pakleppa, (n/a), 2005, English, Portugese/Subtitles: English, 64 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAnna Akhmatova File, The / Дело Анны Ахматовой [FL 294]
A moving portrait of the extraordinary Soviet poet, Anna Akhmatova. Although her work was banned and went unpublished for 17 years, her poem "Requiem" became the underground anthem for the millions who suffered under Stalin. This unique film, which uses Akhmatova's diaries for text, also includes portraits of Akhmatova's friends and contemporaries--Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Mikhail Sostchenko. Semyon Aranovich, Soviet Union, 1989, Russian/Subtitles: English, 65 min, documentary film, VHSAnna, 7 Years on the Frontline [FL 1522]
This film is about Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist who won international recognition for reporting work on the conflict in Chechnya in which she sought to expose human rights abuses. She spent seven years on the frontline, often in extremely dangerous situations. Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow on October 7, 2006. This film is about a woman who felt very lonely, but could never stop doing what she did. To understand Anna's personality, her work and duties, as much as her fears and feeling of loneliness, we meet her friends and colleagues who stood by her during hard times. Galina Musaliyeva shared a room with Anna in the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta for the last seven years. Lidia Yusupova is a lawyer from Grozny searching for the lost people in Chechnya. Svetlana Gannushkina, Chairman of the Committee "Civil Assistance" and a Board Member of Memorial Human Rights Center, has also worked with Anna helping fugitives and emigrants from the former Soviet Union republics. Vyacheslav Izmailov, another colleague of Anna from Novaya Gazeta, started his own investigations, trying to find out who killed Anna. Masha Novikova, Netherlands, 2008, Russian/Subtitles: English, 78 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAnything Can Happen / Wszystko moze sie przytrafic [FL 797]
Tomek, the director's six-year-old son, makes friends with some old people sitting on a park bench. Naiveté and curiosity confront experience. This is a film essay about initiation, bitterness, the passage of time, and life's power. Marcel Lozinski, Poland, 1995, Polish, 39 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMApaches, The / Apaci [FL 933]
Very propagandistic documentary about the Serbian community in the Sirinic valley in Kosovo. The director attempts to depict the tense and dangerous life-situation in which the people in this area live. However, the film is full of nationalistic innuendoes and is trying to mock the SFOR. Miroslav Nikolic, Serbia and Montenegro, 2002, English, 25 min, documentary film, VHSApocalypse Unlimited / Apokalipsa bez granic [FL 1458]
Freedom fighters in Aceh, Indonesia. The Free Aceh Movement. Krystian Matysek, Poland, 2006, English, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAral: Fishing in an Invisible Sea [FL 639]
In the last few decades the Aral Sea has lost over 80% of its surface area. This is due in large part to the mismanagement of irrigation in the Amudariya and Syrdariya rivers basin, and the growing cotton industry in the first half of the twentieth century. The disappearing sea leaves behind a polluted desert, destroying the lives of the local inhabitants, traditional fishermen of Aral. The Uzbek village of Moynak, once located in the shores of the Aral Sea, today is little more than a wasteland with a few grassy shallows containing the last remaining fish. A majority of the local population has already been forced to move to neighboring kazakhstan, as fishing had always been the primary and very nearly the only source of livelihood in Moynak. This Uzbek -Italian co-production is an intimate portrayal of the three generations of the family trying to make a living in the desolute area. "I cannot imagine the grandfather's stories of an immense sea, which was sailed on by great shipsm are based on the truth," says little Janibek Anuarov, who with his father tries day after day to catch at least a few fish for dinner in the frozen shallows. The laconic style of shooting utilizes long shots, which, combined with the disturbing music of A.R. Mutti, reflects the belak situation of the locals, Even thoughthe level of water in the Aral sea has slightly increased in the last few years, according to estimates it will most certainly disappear by the year 2010. Saddat Ismailova, Carlos Casas, Uzbekistan, 2004, Uzbek/Subtitles: English, 53 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArarat / Ararat [FL 530]
A film within a film, this is a contemporary story of the making of a historical epic about the Armenian holocaust between 1915 and 1918. The story line follows how making the film transforms the life of an 18-year-old man hired as a driver on the production. Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide. Atom Egoyan, Canada, 2002, English, 115 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMArcana / Arcana [FL 1186]
Arcana is an investigative project focusing on the old prison of Valpraiso, which closed down in April 1999. The project consists of a film, a book, and a website and its objective is to capture the way of life within the prison during its last working year.The film attempts to convey the experience of connecting directly to the day-to-day life inside the prison. It contemplates the various different ways of life that exist within the prison, not through a simply objective observation of what is visible, but through the more subjective means of seeing and feeling the prison from its interior. Cristobal Vicente, (n/a), 2006, Spanish/Subtitles: English, 83 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArchitecture of Doom,The / Undergångens arkitektur [FL 780]
Featuring never-before-seen film footage of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime, "The Architecture of Doom" captures the inner workings of the Third Reich and illuminates the Nazi aesthetic in art, architecture and popular culture. From Nazi party rallies to the final days inside Hitler's bunker, this sensational film shows how Adolph Hitler rose from being a failed artist to creating a world of ponderous kitsch and horrifying horror. Adolph Hitler worshipped ancient Rome and Greece, and dreamed of a new Golden Age of classical art and monumental architecture, populated by beautiful, patriotic Aryans. "Degenerate" artists and "inferior" races had no place in his lurid fantasy. As this riveting film shows, the Nazis went from banning the art of modernists like Picasso to forced euthanasia of the retarded and sick, and finally to the persecution of homosexuals and the extermination of Jews, Roma, Slaves, etc. Peter Cohen, Sweden, 1991, 113 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArchive of Memory [FL 1504]
The Archive of Memory is a visual essay of a filmmaker's response to the work of German art historian Aby Warburg. It is not a traditional film biography— Warburg himself only appears once, in a photograph, at the very end—but an attempt to translate some of Warburg's ideas from print to film. There are two interviews—philosopher Raymond Klibansky, who worked with Warburg in the 1920s, and British art historian Margaret Iversen who has written about him. The major part of the film combines excerpts from Warburg's lecture on his visit to the Pueblo and Hopi Indians with archival and contemporary film footage, photographs, and engravings. Eric Breitbart, United States, 2003, English, 25 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAre There Still Any Sheperds? / Anda Ha Pastores? [FL 1399]
An Isolated and forgotten valley in the Portuguese mountains hides the last shepherds of Serra da Estrela Mountain Range. There is no electricity, no water public utilities, and no asphalted roads around here. Nowadays, the eldests are dying and the youngests show no interest in the demanding job of being a shepherd. Herminio, 27 years old, is the youngest shepherd living in this valley. For how long will he maintain this occupation? After all, do the shepherds still exist? Jorge Pelicano, Portugal, 2006, Portugese/Subtitles: English, 73 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArna's Children [FL 1249]
Documentary about a Jewish woman who set up a theater center for Palestinian children in a West Bank refugee camp, and some of her pupils who later became suicide bombers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Contains amazingly candid views of warriors behind the scenes of battle. Juliano Mer Khamis, Danniel Danniel, (n/a), 2003, English, Arabic, Hebrew/Subtitles: English, 84 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArsen / Арсен [FL 188]
Based on a 19th Georgian century epic, the film tells the story of Arsen, son of a poor villager who starts to fight the tsarist representatives in Georgia. He lives in the mountains and helps the poor against the armed Cossacks as well as speculative merchants. Caught once, having been betrayed, he manages to escape from prison with his friends' help and forgives the betrayer. Yet the same person kills Arsen when he attempts to start an armed uprising. Mikhail Chiaureli, Soviet Union, 1937, Russian, 77 min, fiction film, VHSArt of Documentary Editing: Myanmar 2006, The [FL 1354]
After the success of the pioneering Art of Documentary Filmmaking workshop held in Yangon, Myanmar in 2005, Anglo-Burmese filmmaker Lindsey Merrison and four experienced documentary editors from Europe and Australia returned in 2006 to mount The Art of Documentary Editing. Some of the young Burmese men and women on this residential course had previous experience of editing but several had never touched an edit suite in their lives. For one month, course participants and tutors worked side by side to shape eight short documentaries from material filmed by the participants prior to the workshop - often under difficult circumstances. Learning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their rushes, participants battled to create storylines and find the right rhythm for their films. Nerve-wracking screenings of works-in-progress before the whole group provided crucial feedback and helped these budding filmmakers to think about the form and content of all the films. This DVD features all eight films produced during the Art of Documentary Editing workshop. It also contains a short film about the workshop itself, including comments from participants and tutors. Not only do these works reflect an intriguing range of subjects and approaches - from observational to experimental - they also reveal their creators' gradual appreciation of the subtleties of the documentary genre, as well as their growing confidence as filmmakers. Lindsey Merrison, Germany, 2006, /Subtitles: English, 120 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMArt of Documentary Filmmaking: Myanmar 2005, The [FL 1353]
At the end of 2005, Anglo-Burmese filmmaker Lindsey Merrison brought together eight tutors well-versed in documentary from Europe and Australia with twelve young Burmese men and women for a three-week workshop entitled "The Art of Documentary Filmmaking." The venue was a quiet hotel in Myanmar's capital, Yangon. The Burmese participants had little or no prior knowledge of filming stories from real life. A task that would have been daunting in any country posed a particular challenge in autocratic Myanmar, where documenting reality is a risky undertaking for those on both sides of the camera. All the more remarkable then, that, 21 days later, the participants on this residential course had learned how to handle the equipment, grappled with the artistic and ethical aspects of the genre, and researched, wrote, and filmed four short documentary portraits inspired by the subject of "Women in Myanmar." The greatest achievement of the event could well have been the impetus and direction it gave to these budding filmmakers, all of whom are already developing new projects. The DVD features the four final films made by the participants. It also includes the participants' first film exercise and a video diary chronicling the workshop itself. Together, these works provide a vibrant record of a surprisingly rewarding encounter. Lindsey Merrison, Germany, 2005, /Subtitles: English, 120 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAs God Hath Foreordained…Film of Olga / Ahogy az Isten elrendelte...Olga filmje [FL 1509]
Explore a world rarely seen by outsiders as documentary filmmaker Sándor Mohi turns his camera on the citizens of the rural Gypsy community of Kászonújfalva, Transylvania. A culture whose system of communication and familial relationships have baffled outsiders for centuries, this film attempts to demystify it by focusing on a series of interviews with a young girl named Olga. Sándor Mohi, Hungary, 2000, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 68 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAshes and Diamonds / Popiol i diament [FL 100]
Maciek, a young Resistance fighter, is ordered to kill Szczuka, a Communist district leader, on the last day of World War II. Though killing has been easy for him in the past, Szczuka was a fellow soldier, and Maciek must decide whether to obey his orders. Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 1958, Polish/Subtitles: English, 105 min, fiction film, VHSAsia: The Next Generation [FL 1385]
The documentary about the impact China, and its Asian partners will have over the next 15 years. This film profiles China's past, present and future with a focus on understanding China's culture and its interaction with Asian neighbors. Hosted by 10 year old Dylan MacRiner, this documentary is targeted towards parents who have a concern about the tremendous economic and environmental impact the China-Asia rise will have on their children's future, and on the planet. Rob MacRiner, China, 2007, English, 32 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAsphalt Tango / Asfalt Tango [FL 61]
A disgruntled and cynical picture of early 1990s Romanian realities. Marion (Charlotte Rampling), a sly and sophisticated French madame, convinces a beautiful bevy of Romanian women to board a bus and travel to Paris, where they believe lucrative careers as exotic dancers await them. Among them is ballet dancer Dora. Her husband Andrei tries to save her from prostitution. To get his wife back, Andrei must convince Marion to give him one night to make an appeal to Dora. Marion guesses correctly that Andrei's sincerity is no match for her worldly wiles. In the end his efforts are repaid, but the result is surprising. Nae Caranfil, Romania, 1993, 100 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAssault / Überfall [FL 1335]
3.A grim account of a street robbery presenting sordid facts in an objective light. Once banned as "brutalizing and demoralizing" . Erno Metzner, Germany, 1929, (silent), fiction film, VHSAt the Epicentre [FL 702]
Ruhi Hamid’s film tells the story of a village flattened by last year’s Tsunami. 7000 people and the domed Mosque were the only survivors in Lampuuk and amid constant earthquakes, safety and emotional hazards, Ruhi Hamid tells the story of those who escaped with their lives. "Capturing the stories of my characters was often upsetting, but my motivation was to tell their incredible stories of courage, resilience and hope in rebuilding their lives and observe the complexities of the politics around the disaster," said Ruhi about her film."Everyone is taking care of each other here… and we are becoming a solid community," says Anita, one of the 100 villagers who returned to Lampuuk six weeks after the tragedy to begin the reconstruction. Anita is convinced that the tsunami is a punishment. "it is a warning from Allah," she says, "because we have neglected our faith." Ruhi Hamid, United Kingdom, 2005, English/Dubbing: English, 49 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAt the Trial of the Main Nazi Criminals in Nuremberg / На процессе главных немецких преступников в Нюрнберге [FL 594]
Recorded by famous director and cameraman Roman Karmen in court, this short film consists entirely of footage from the Nuremberg trial, featuring the main defendants as well as the judges from the allied countries. Various fragments of the extensive Nuremberg footage were later used in numerous films condemning Nazism (The Trial of Nations) as well as for drawing an often manipulative parallel with contemporaries (Nuremberg 40 years later). Roman Karmen, Soviet Union, 1946, Russian, 17 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAtomic Café, The [FL 970]
As a history film, Atomic Café takes us to experience three levels of time. The first is the internal time, the Cold War, communism versus the free world, when propaganda about the atomic bomb was made to persuade the people that only nuclear weapons would protect them from the "Evil Empire". The period of the'Nuclear Free' movement comes next. And thirdly, the present time, when the world is changed but has to face the same irony that still is just as relevant today, the fear of weapons of mass destruction. "The Atomic Cafe" is an example of Eisenstein's notion of montage on the macro level. this film achieves it rhetorical potency simply by editing together old film and documentaries from the 1940's and 1950's. By putting a cartoon of Tommy the Turtle teaching school children to "Duck and cover" next to film of actual atomic bomb tests, "The Atomic Cafe" renders the Cold War both ludicrous and chilling at the same time. It is all about editing raw material and splicing segments of military training films, civil defense films, archive footage, interviews, newsreel material, and fifties music. Without narration and by using a few choice songs to accompany some of the clips, this documentary finds a surprising strong voice against the insanity of nuclear destruction. Generally speaking, Atomic Café gives us an historical perspective for reconsidering the effect of the issues of war, nuclear warfare and weapons of mass destruction. Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty, Jayne Loader, United States, 1982, English, 88 min, documentary film, VHSAtonement / Engesztelő [FL 1615]
A film investigating the kidnapping and murder of engineer Lajos Hargitay and translator Rudolf Hadady on 12th December 1956, by Communist vigilantes. The wife and two daughters together with the director set out to find out what really happened to the two men who disappeared more than 30 years before. Pál Schiffer, Hungary, 1989, Hungarian/Subtitles: English, 72 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAugust: A Moment Before the Eruption [FL 945]
AUGUST is partly a documentary, partly a fictional film that portrays a month in the life of filmmaker Avi Mograbi and his wife. The film documents the month of August 2000 - a tense and seething period just before the Al Aqsa intifada. It takes the viewer from a group of Jewish settlers marching through the streets of Tel Aviv dressed as Arabs to a peace demonstration in front of the Ministry of Defense. From a young Palestinian refugee throwing stones across the Israeli-Lebanese border to a crowd of angry soccer fans. Through the lens of Avi Mograbi's camera, the month of August becomes an apt metaphor for all that is brutal and hateful in Israel. The filmmaker always sees himself in between: «My film is a report of what I have seen and the interpretation that I give. (…) If we absolutely want to find a message in it, it would be something along the following lines: «Israel these days is not the best place to live.» But people do not need my film to ascertain this. I just want to say that it behoves the two peoples residing in Palestine/Israel to find a way to live together.» Avi Mograbi Avi Mograbi, Israel, 2002, Hebrew, 72 min, documentary film, VHSAuschwitz - A documentary film on German crimes at Oswiecim [FL 984]
This Soviet Army film of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp was awarded the Red Banner in 1945. It contains dramatic footage of the survivors and some of the atrocities perpetrated in this most notorious of camps, including captured German film of medical experiments performed on prisoners. Photography by cameramen of the First Ukrainian Front: N. Bykov, K. Kutub-Zade, A. Pavlov, A. Vorontzov. N. Bykov, K. Kutub-Zade, A. Pavlov, Soviet Union, 1945, English, 21 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAustralian Atomic Confessions [FL 1163]
Australian servicemen and nomadic aboriginals reveal the devastating effects of British atomic weapons testing carried out in Australia in the 1950s. For the first time, members of the Royal Australian Army, Navy, and Air force describe former top secret aspects of those tests.With the use of rare archival film and photographs, as well as eyewitness accounts, Australian Atomic Confessions chronicles the hidden history of these tests and also exposes previously unknown government cover-ups. Sydney’s new nuclear reactor continues to pose a threat to the environment and civilians, and the problem of removing and disposing of the old nuclear reactor remains an unanswered question posed by politicians and leading environmentalists. Prominent aboriginal elders also warn that an imminent catastrophe may occur in Central Australia as a result of two uranium mines. Achilling expose of nuclear testing and its damaging legacy, one that continues to this day. Kathy Aigner and Greg Young, Australia, 2005, 50 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMAutumn Marathon / Осенний марафон [FL 106]
Comedy with Andrey Pavlovich Buzykin, an absent-minded English translator, divided between his wife and a mistress. Buzykin's faulty memory and his inability to plan his time properly lead to no end of trouble in that triangle. Georgi Daneliya, Soviet Union, 1979, Russian/Subtitles: English, 90 min, fiction film, VHSAvalanche / Лавина [FL 76]
A team of climbers are preparing for their new mountain climbing expedition. They are brought together by their mutual love for this dangerous sport, for its challenges. They differ, however, in character, in problems and notions of honor and dignity. Already up in the mountain, they are expected to pull unite fully, in order to obey the directions of their leader and forget about the tensions that have accumulated among the members of the team. The team falls victim to an avalanche, possibly because they have failed to become a good team. A few survive and it is then that they think again about what friendship and responsibility mean and how valuable life is. Irina Aktasheva, Hristo Piskov, Bulgaria, 1982, Bulgarian, 133 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAvant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s CD 1 [FL 1330]
In the latter half of the 20th Century, Raymond Rohauer was one of the nation's foremost proponents of experimental cinema. Programming diverse films at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles, and making the films in his personal archive available for commercial distribution, he helped preserve and promote avant-garde cinema. This two-DVD collection assembles some of the most influential and eclectic short films in the Rohauer Collection, including works by Man Ray, Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Watson & Webber, Fernand Léger, Joris Ivens, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Jean Epstein, and Orson Welles. Contents: Disc 1 * Le Retour à la raison (Man Ray, France, 1923, 2 min.) * Emak-Bakia (Man Ray, France, 1926, 16 min.) * L'Étoile de mer (Man Ray, France, 1928, 15.5 min.) * Les Mystères du château du Dé (Man Ray, France, 1929, 20 min.) * The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (Slavko Vorkapich, Robert Florey, U.S., 1928, 13 min.) * Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1926, 37 min.) * Brumes d'automne (Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1928, 12 min.) * Lot in Sodom (James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber, U.S., 1933, 27 min.) * Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter, Germany, 1921, 3 min.) * Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast) (Hans Richter, Germany, 1928, 9 min.) * Anémic cinéma (Marcel Duchamp, France, 1926, 6.5 min.) * Ballet mécanique (Fernand Léger, France, 1924, 11 min.) * Symphonie diagonale (Viking Eggeling, France, 1924, 7 min.) * Le Vampire (Jean Painlevé, France, 1939, 8.5 min.) * The Hearts of Age (Orson Welles, William Vance, U.S., 1934, 8 min.)(n/a), /Subtitles: English, 375 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMAvant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s CD 2 [FL 1331]
This two-DVD collection assembles some of the most influential and eclectic short films in the Rohauer Collection, including works by Man Ray, Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Watson & Webber, Fernand Léger, Joris Ivens, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Jean Epstein, and Orson Welles. Disc 2 * Überfall (Ernö Metzner, Germany, 1928, 22 min.) * La glace à trois faces (Jean Epstein, France, 1927, 33 min.) * Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein, France, 1947, 22.5 min.) * Romance sentimentale (Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori V. Alexandrov, France, 1930, 20 min.) * Autumn Fire (Herman G. Weinberg, U.S., 1931, 15 min.) * Manhatta (Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, U.S., 1921, 10 min.) * La Coquille et le clergyman (Germaine Dulac, France, 1926, 31.5 min.) * Regen (Rain) (Joris Ivens, the Netherlands, 1929, 14 min.) * H2O (Ralph Steiner, U.S., 1929, 12 min.) * Even -- As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay, LeRoy Robbins, U.S., 1937, 12 min.)(n/a), 1999, 30 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBad Blue Boys / Panj pun olova [FL 1542]
The daily life of a man aged 35, married, with three children. He joined Croatian Army at the very beginning of war, and was not discharged until the very end. Now he is unemployed in Zagreb, and tries to live “like others” – sharing meals with his family, toiling in his workshop, outings with friends. Even so, his routine might seem somewhat unusual. Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, disregarded by society and government, together with two fellow veterans he does things that other people find bizarre, even crazy, but which help them to find peace and preserve the appearance of “normal” Croatian citizens. This film speaks about the problems of Croatian war veterans whose condition and needs are understood only by few. A faceless confession of pain and a testament to the profound and lasting effects of war. Branko Schmidt, Croatia, 2007, (No dialogue), 28 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBad Luck / Zezowate szczęscie [FL 741]
Based upon a novel by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński. The story is the odyssey of a little man through Poland from 1930 to 1950. The terrible opportunist desperately tries to play up to the current powers and trends, but always fails and is “one step behind”. In the 1930s, he tries to get involved in an anti-Semitic riot, but is taken for a Jew. He also dreams of wearing an officer’s uniform because this brings prestige and impresses women. He finds one and puts it on, but only in September 1939: he is captured by the invading Nazis as a POW. In the POW camp he pretends to have been heroic, but is taken for a collaborator. When socialism arrives, he eventually seems to have found his place, becoming an overzealous office clerk, and for the first time he manages to conform. But not for long. A widely acclaimed bitter-sweet comedy, where romantic heroism gives way to a critique of opportunism. Andrzej Munk, Poland, 1962, Polish, 108 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBAG [FL 863]
A documentary about Karlobag, a small coastal town with very few people, a lot of trucks and heavy winds. It presents a community decresing in numbers with the passing of every year, thus being dominated more by the traces of the past than by its members' present existence. The emptied landscape is now taken over by trucks and gas stations as the town is on the road to Split. These signs of the intruding present create a striking contrast with the sad poetry of this fading place. Dalibor Matanić, Tomislav Rukavina,Stanislav Tomic, Croatia, 1999, Croatian, 20 min, art documentary, VHSBai Ganyo on his way to Europe / Бай Ганьо тръгва из Европа [FL 503]
This is a film adaptation of the popular turn-of-century novel “Bai Ganyo” by the publicist Aleko Konstantinov. The main character in the novel has since long entered the national mythology and has been adopted as a designator of a host of genuinely "Bulgarian" features. Brute table manners and uncivilized public conduct, failure to differentiate between public and private, to constrain the urges of the body, lacking sense of appropriateness – through these accents the film authors build the character of Bai Ganyo. On his tour through the “high-culture” topoi of Western/Central European civility (the home of the Czeck Irecek, a former minister in Bulgaria, the Vienna opera, the coditorei and the barber shop, the restaurant and the hotel, the culture club of Bulgarian emigrees) Bay Ganyo Balkanski gives his unmediated “Balkan” response to refinement and good manners. He is apperantly unable to understand and unwilling to constrain himself into the public code, always ready to break the good tone in order to suit his immedeate interests. Ivan Nichev, Bulgaria, 1991, Bulgarian, 94 min, DVD-ROMBalkan Expres 2 / Balkan Ekspres 2 [FL 456]
A sequel to the 1983 original continues following a group of musicians gathered in a band called “Balkan Express”, in fact a quintet of small-time crooks. After, by chance, they became helpers of Yugoslav partisans at the beginning of the Second World War, they now have to lie low for a while. The majority of the band escapes to another part of the country to the bordello “Marlene Salon,” with the Gestapo on their trail. Instead of peace and rest, they get involved in new complications as a series of agents try to recruit them for some kind of espionage. After a series of situations, all the original band members are finally together again and they plan a great closing scam. Their plan typically goes wrong, but in the finishing bloody showdown they manage to escape, under fire from the Gestapo, and fly off in a plane. The only problem is that their pilot actually does not know how to fly a plane. Aleksandar Đorđević, Predrag Antonijević, Yugoslavia, 1988, Serbo-Croatian/Subtitles: English, 108 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBalkan Express / Balkan Ekspres [FL 568]
This madcap comedy, set in the last days before the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, follows the adventures of a group of petty-thieves, wandering around disguised as the music ensemble called “Balkan Express.” They find plenty of opportunities to practice their trade amidst the confusion which erupts everywhere as people flee the invading Nazis. However, when the Nazis actually move in, things take a turn for the worse and the group's only concern now is to stay alive under the first horrors of the war. Through chance and necessity, these people from the dregs of society grow out of their meaningless destinies and become unlikely war heroes . The film was a great success thanks to its unprecedented comic treatment of the mythic partisan struggle during WWII, and was soon followed by a sequel focusing on the same group of characters. Branko Baletić, Yugoslavia, 1983, Serbian/Subtitles: English, 88 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBalkan spy / Balkanski špijun [FL 451]
This tragicomedy is set in the midst of communist era in Yugoslavia. Ilija Čvorović, a former Informbureau member who spent years in prison because of his activities, is called in by the police to answer routine questions about his new subtenant. After working in Paris as a tailor for twenty years, Petar Jakovljević recently returned to his homeland where he wants to open a tailor’s shop. Though the inspector does not find anything suspicious in Ilija’s report, Čvorović is soon convinced that his subtenant represents a threat to national security. When the police ignore his warnings, he begins his own hilarious surveillance operation against the innocent man. His paranoia grows every day and he even manages to convince his wife and twin brother that the subtenant is an agent of imperialist powers. Assured that he has uncovered a major conspiracy, Ilija invites his brother to help him “dispose of the enemy.” In the final confrontation, he suffers a heart attack and Jakovljević manages to escape after first calling the ambulance. Ilija’s last thoughts are still focused solely on stopping the “enemy.” Božidar Nikolić, Dušan Kovačević, Yugoslavia, 1981, Serbian, 95 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBanished from the Party 1, 2, 3 / Kizárt a párt I, II, III [FL 1638]
In 1988 the Socialist Party banished four members. Political scientist, Mihaly Bihari, literary historian, Zoltan Biro, journalist Zoltan Kiraly and economist Laszlo Lengyel talk about the background of the decision thus depicting the curious mechanisms of the communist regime. Bela Szobolits, Hungary, 1988, Hungarian, 173 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBare Ground / Ledina [FL 486]
The film is set in the early autumn of 1995 in the outskirts of Belgrade where a family of musicians just moves in. Dragan, a cellist and a teacher in a music school is Serbian and his wife, a flute player is Croatian. The whole family finds it hard to adapt to the new environment. Nine-year-old son Petar can not make friends with other children, who tease him because he comes from a mixed marriage. The wife is frequently provoked by ethnically related comments and in fact, most of this noisy neighborhood, full of refugees from all over former Yugoslavia, is hostile to the newcomers, especially the crazy chairman of the building Ostoja and a trio of bitter idle middle aged women. In the atmosphere of constant distrust and rampant racism, any situation can inflame brutal responses. A tragic finale is set when Ostoja decides to cultivate a yard in front of the building. Driven to insanity by the local delinquents who constantly ruin his efforts, he loads his gun ready to kill the first intruder. Unfortunately, the victim happens to be little Peter and the marriage finally breaks up. Ljubiša Samardžić, Serbia and Montenegro, 2003, Serbo-Croatian/Subtitles: English, 78 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBarricade / Barrikade [FL 273]
The Berlin Wall - its construction, the reaction of the people who live near it and dramatic escapes over it by East German civilians and soldiers - is the subject of this short documentary.Germany, 1966, (silent), 13 min, documentary film, VHSBarrier, The / Бариерата [FL 501]
An attractive girl gets into the car of a famous composer Antony Manev, claiming that he should take her home. The composer soon discovers that her only home is a lunatic asylum where she has been institutionalised with schizophrenic disorder. Antony takes the girl to his apartment, offers her to copy notes for him and frequently consults with her supervisor in the hospital. The doctor’s intention is to help her patient socialize outside the hospital environment, since she reckons that Doroteya has recovered well enough. However, after being together for more than a year, Doroteya persuades Antony to fly with him over the apartment blocks. They both take off the ground. “Crossing the barrier” creates finally full confidence between them and they make love for the first time. This event astounds the composer so much that he takes a day off, and goes to the mountains to think about it. In his absence Doroteya attempts another flight and is found dead on the next morning quite away from her supposed take-off ground. Hristo Hristov, Bulgaria, 1971, Bulgarian, 114 min, DVD-ROMBased on a True Story / Baseado em estórias reais [FL 796]
In 1972, during Brazil's dictatorship, a young man is arrested while attempting a bank robbery. A journalist who witnesses the event writes an article for her newspaper. In a parallel story, a woman bakes a cake from a recipe. Gustavo Moraes, Brazil, 2002, Portugese/Subtitles: English, 15 min, short film, DVD-ROMBattle for Life / Bitva o život [FL 11]
Using a mixture of documentary material they shot themselves, historical material and half-scripted scenes, the filmmakers show a year in the life of the village of Bystré, in the Orlické mountains, a former textile region experiencing significant economic and demographic change. The film combines "conventional" documentary footage with discussions on drink and democracy, and a record of social events and festivities in which the villagers greet the millennium, view the eclipse, and re-enact scenes from Czech history. Miroslav Janek, Vнt Janeиek, Roman Vávra, Czech Republic, 2000, Czech/Subtitles: English, 89 min, documentary film, VHSBattle for the Railway / Dvoboj za južnu prugu [FL 576]
Without a coherent structure, but with plenty of action, this is typical, if not particularly successful, example of Yugoslav films celebrating the partisan struggle during WWII. At the end of 1941 the partisans from South Serbia and Macedonia receive a message from central headquarters: “Observe the communications and transportation network, especially the main Niš-Skopje-Solun and Niš-Pirot-Sofia railroads. These railroads are to be incapacitated on time, virtually at all costs.” The message originates from Tito himself, and marks the beginning of the lengthy and exhausting battle for this southern railroad – Hitler’s main transportation artery for supplying his troops on the Mediterranean and the Eastern fronts. Following these orders, the people of south Serbia rose up with the partisans against German, Bulgarian and other anti-partisan formations, attacking them from the liberated territory and from locations in the hinterland. Zdravko Velimirović, Yugoslavia, 1978, Serbian/Subtitles: Slovenian, 105 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBattle of Neretva, The aka Battle of the River Neretva, The / Bitka na Neretvi [FL 564]
This Hollywood style war-flick is based on the historic German offensive against the Yugoslav partisans in 1943 in Western Bosnia. The film’s international reputation is mostly due to its enormous budget and the fleet of international film stars who played major roles, including Yul Brynner, Sergei Bondarchuck, Orson Welles, Hardy Krüger and Franco Nero. The film tells several interwoven stories stressing the importance of comradeship in wartime with obvious pro-communist leanings. Cornered by the overwhelming joint German, Italian and Chetnik forces, Yugoslav partisans together with 4500 wounded find themselves surrounded near the Neretva river. The only way out is by the bridge over the river, but with heavy enemy forces waiting on the other side, partisan headquarter decide on a strategic trick – to destroy the bridge. Predicting that the partisans will attempt a suicidal sortie, the surprised joint Axis forces transfer their forces to the other side of the river, not knowing that, during the night, the partisans will build a temporary bridge near the destroyed one and cross to the other side, thus outsmarting the enemy. In the epic final scene several of the main characters are killed and thousand of innocent people lose their lives. Veljko Bulajić, Yugoslavia, 1969, Serbo-Croatian, 105 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBattle of Russia, The Part 1 [FL 258]
The fifth in the "Why We Fight" series of seven army information films, "Battle for Russia" gives the brief history of Russia and the wars fought on her homeland. Then it moves to WWII and the invasion by Nazi forces, using newsreels of the actual fighting. The Nazis are victorious at Moscow and Leningrad but, like Napoleon's troops, are utterly defeated at the battle of Stalingrad. Frank Capra, United States, 1946, English, 96 min, documentary film, VHSBattle of Stalingrad, Part I-II / Сталинградская битва (серии 1-2) [FL 171]
The film shows the battle for Stalingrad during World War II. The war is represented by the two parallel lines - the battles taking place at the front and Stalin commanding from the Kremlin. The latter line dominates: the film contains numerous meetings of the Soviet generals with Stalin, who has a wise solution to any problem. He is thus portrayed as the genius winning the battle of Stalingrad. Vladimir Petrov, Soviet Union, 1949, Russian, 175 min, fiction film, VHSBattleship Potemkin / Броненосец Потемкин [FL 128]
Based on historical events, the movie tells the story of a mutiny on the battleship Potemkin in 1905. What started as a protest strike when the crew were given rotten meat for dinner ended in a riot. The sailors raised the red flag and tried to ignite the revolution in their home port Odessa. Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union, 1925, Russian/Subtitles: German, 65 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBBB (Bad Blue Boys) [FL 856]
A documentary featuring the Bad Blue Boys, football fans from Zagreb who became the symbol of popular political opposition during Tudjman's regime in Croatia. Claiming that "Dinamo" was a name imposed by the communist system, Tudjman renamed the football team "Croatia". The football supporters' struggle to bring back the old name "Dinamo" was opposed by all means. It is a movie about sports becoming a medium for protest. Sasa Podgorelec, Croatia, 1998, Croatian, 45 min, art documentary, VHSBBC Horizon - Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus [FL 939]
Updating the original award winning programme, this HORIZON Special looks at what has changed at Chernobyl 10 years after the world's worst nuclear accident. With the concrete sarcophagus still crumbling the future of the power station remains uncertain. This video traces three of the original scientists from the investigation team who talk openly about their findings, what has since happened and what remains to be done. At the same time, the documentary deals with the consequences upon these people's life of their heroic activity and research in the immediate proximity of the sarcophagus. Edward Briffa, United Kingdom, 1996, Russian, 50 min, documentary film, VHSBeach Guard in Winter / Čuvar plaže u zimskom periodu [FL 464]
The story evolves around young Dragan, who has just finished school but cannot find a job in the profession. His aunt finds him some odd jobs through her connections, but Dragan’s father, a railway employee, wishes him to get some permanent employment. He suggests that Dragan should go to Sweden to work for his long-time friend Mr. Dunjić, but doubting the existence of this mysterious Swedish friend, Dragan refuses. In addition he has just found a girlfriend and in order to have his own life and get away fromthe constant quarrels of his parents he marries. He manages to find a home and starts working as a beach guard during wintertime in return for a free accommodation in a beach house. With faith in himself and in his love he struggles with poverty, but his hopes are shattered when his wife abandons him, and his father unexpectedly dies. Dragan has to recuperate and start anew. With the help of Mr. Dunjić who proves to be a real when he shows up at his father’s funeral, Dragan leaves for the more promising Swedish future. Goran Paskaljević, Yugoslavia, 1976, Serbo-Croatian/Subtitles: Slovenian, 85 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBeach Tree Dance, The / La Danse De L'Hetre [FL 1137]
In one of the most magnificent stately homes of France, the park of Chamarande, a choreographer, Armelle Devigon, fell in love with two majestic trees: a copper-beech tree and a plane tree. She leads three dancers during four seasons in a choreographic quest which bring into close contact the human body and the plant forms. In sinuous sequences where the female body winds against the tree roots, where the male dancers whirl and turn in the air, we appreciate a beauty and a physical energy which are rare in the contemporary world. The film follows the cycle of the seasons as the dancers move from training to performance, understanding more deeply the nature of contemporary dance and art, as well as the natural world. The director followed the choreographer during a year, from the artistic research with her dancers to the performance. We invite the audience to discover the magic of creative moments and to contemplate how this work arises season after season in harmony with nature. Marie-Agnes Blum, France, 2006, French/Subtitles: English, 82 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBear 007, The / Medved 007 [FL 134]
Political satire. A woodsman is requested by the local authorities to organize a bear hunt for a political VIP visiting the hunting ground. The only problem is that bears have already been extinct in the area for many years. Therefore the only solution is to set up a hoax with a circus bear. The film was banned by the producer TV Belgrade. Zelimir Gvardiol, Yugoslavia, 1986, Serbo-Croatian/Subtitles: English, 52 min, VHSBeauty Exchange, The / Ženy pro měny [FL 819]
"The Beauty Exchange" looks at how the media (in particular, commercials and the so-called glossy women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Harper's Bazaar) make contemporary Czech women conscious of their appearance, and the ways in which they shape today's stereotypes of feminine beauty. It focuses on four women: a trendy 20-something who buys all the latest beauty products; an overweight woman who will try anything to lose the extra kilos; a 15-year-old who enters a competition to be a model and eventually succeeds; a mother who undergoes plastic surgery. The latter, Eva, says she can work on other parts of her body, but once her breasts sag there's nothing she can do about it. Except have plastic surgery, which she hopes will mean a complete turn-around in her life and self-esteem. Well, things do not quite work out the way she hoped: the operation requires further surgical treatment and Eva still cannot wear her favorite clothes which are now too tight at the top. The operation is shown at length and in detail, which some viewers may find difficult to watch. Erika Hníková, Czech Republic, 2003, Czech/Subtitles: English, 78 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBeauty of the Fatherland / Isamaa Ilu [FL 386]
The film focuses on two protagonists whose views seem at first to embody opposing values and viewpoints: ex-Miss Estonia Tiina Jantson runs beauty contests, while Anne Eenpalu promotes traditional family values as leader of the Girl Scout troupe known as Home Daughters. Each has her own history: Tiina was a supermodel in the Soviet Union, Anne is a granddaughter of Kaarel Eenpalu, one of the presidents of the pre-war Republic of Estonia. Yet the main characters have more in common than might first appear. They are brought together by their very conservative notion about the role of women in society. Both claim to help the talents of young girls unfold, both project their own ideas and desires on them. Jaak Kilmi, Andres Maimik, Estonia, 2001, Estonian/Subtitles: English, 56 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBeauty of the Sin, The / Lepota Poroka [FL 481]
This film drama opens with a portrayal of the way of life in the remote Montenegrin mountain village, almost untouched by modern civilization. People there still follow strict and Draconian archaic codes which instruct a husband to kill his wife with a hammer over a loaf of bread if she is proven unfaithful. In this environment, a young married couple apparently lives harmoniously, but in poverty. They accept an invitation from their friend who has left for the sea coast in search of money and follow his example. While the husband manages to get a job in a salt factory, she starts working as a cleaning lady in a nudist camp. They are both shocked by the reality of the modern way of life although the hundreds of naked bodies they see and the atmosphere of joie de vivre make them slowly question their rigid norms. Traditionally brought up, the wife is initially terrified of nudity, but under the influence of two young foreigners whose apartment she is cleaning, she starts freeing her chained sensuality. The tragic outcome resolves this dilemma between the beauty of sin or the ugliness of virtue. Živko Nikolić, Yugoslavia, 1986, Serbo-Croatian, 111 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBecause a Man is Human / Weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist [FL 1276]
Summer holidays in a self-run youth camp. The children democratically vote-in their own parliament, which gives them the possibility of organising the camp on their own. Eleven-year-old representative Nils however is not lucky: Soon others get interested in his power and in his position - just like in the real world of politics. When the children overthrow Nils, his political career comes to a sudden end, while at the same time his social decline begins. The others start mobbing him. Frauke Finsterwalder & Stephan Hilpert, Germany, 2007, German/Subtitles: English, 57 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBed and Sofa / Третья Мещанская [FL 154]
A married couple has a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband's arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them. While Kolia is away on business, sensual Liuda and attractive Volodia fall in love and have an affair. After his initial outrage, the husband calms down. Kolia winds up on the sofa, and the three settle into a menage-a-trois until the wife finds herself pregnant. The two men are trying to decide what to do, but Liuda is strong enough to make her own decisions. Considered a landmark film because of its humor, naturalism, and sympathetic portrayal of the woman. Abram Room, Soviet Union, 1927, (silent), 70 min, fiction film, VHSBeekeeping after War [FL 1446]
A documentary about the former Yugoslavia, as told by the beekeepers of the land. The war-scarred lands of the former Yugoslavia are home to a great history of Beekeepers. These men and women are woven into the culture and narrative of the bitter past of this beautiful and scarred terrain. Their stories are that of the Balkans. They have seen some of the bitterest fighting in World War 2. They have lived forcibly united under Communism and they have suffered under the NATO sanctions and bombing. All the while, they have produced outstanding honey. Beekeepers from across the land tell us their stories, patiently, passionately. Sister Nektarina, an orthodox nun talks of how bees have always been part of monastery life. The Ba_i_ Brothers bemoan the quality of honey now that they can no longer move their hives freely from pasture to pasture. 22 year-old Marko wishes that the authorities would see the good that beekeepers do and help them build the economy. Tomas Leach, Italy, 2006, Serbian/Subtitles: English, 52 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBefore Flying Back to Earth / Pries parskrendant I Zeme [FL 1021]
After his daughter survived eight months of treatment for leukaemia, the Lithuanian filmmaker Arunas Matelis did not turn his back on the hospital. He filmed the kids in the leukaemia ward in Vilnius during their day-to-day routine, without becoming sentimental. For the parents, their worst nightmare has come true, but what do the children themselves think? A life among medicine and tubes does not prevent them from just carrying on. Their adaptability is incredible. One of the mothers says her son has not grown dejected in hospital, because he has gotten used to it and does not know any better. The children practise karate or dream of getting hamburgers and Coke instead of the same old cabbage soup. The future is often brought up, as if it were not finite: they hope they will not turn blond when their hair grows back, or they want to become a doctor, "but not in the leukaemia ward." Before Flying Back to the Earth is interlaced with black-and-white pictures showing the children in the middle of a smile, yawn or gesture, momentarily freezing time in this thorough documentary that does not deal with death, but with life. Arunas Matelis, Lithuania, 2005, Lithuanian/Subtitles: English, 52 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBeginning, The (aka The Debut) / Начало [FL 438]
A story of a young factory girl, Pasha Stroganova (Inna Churikova), who lives in provincial town and believes in her talent. From an amateur theater she is invited to play Jeanne D'Ark in a film, meanwhile her own life makes her face hard challenges. Gleb Panfilov, Soviet Union, 1970, Russian, 87 min, fiction film, VHSBehind the Fence [FL 905]
In June 2002 Israel began construction of a 115-kilometre-long security fence along or near the "green line" separating the West Bank from Israel proper. Dubbed by its critics "The Berlin Wall of the Middle East" and the "Wall of Apartheid" it is being built at the cost of $1 million per kilometre. The aim, the Israeli government has stated, is to prevent Palestinian "terrorists" from infiltrating into Israel. For many Palestinians however it is nothing more than a sinister ploy to grab more of their land and further reinforce the occupation through the "ghettoisation" of their communities. At the same time many Israelis and Palestinians wonder if it could turn out to be the borderline for a future Palestinian state. Inigo Gilmore, United Kingdom, 2003, English, 45 min, documentary film, VHSBehind the Rent Strike [FL 1246]
A film documenting the various political and social aspects of the fourteen month long rent strike undertaken by tenants on the Tower Hill Estate in Kirkby, on the outskirts of Liverpool, which commenced in 1972 in protest against increases in council house rents resulting from the Housing Finance Act. It gives a picture of social conditions in the area as well as the organisation of the strike. Nick Broomfield, United Kingdom, 1974, English, 50 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBehind the Wall: "Perfectly Normal Lives in the GDR?" [FL 1414]
This documentary film, based on in-depth research by UCL students and staff, is the first to explore the complexity of ordinary lives in the relatively stable middle period of the GDR’s history, between the building of the Wall in 1961 and the economic decline and political unrest of the 1980s. Using extensive oral history interviews, archival sources and film footage, it portrays a more complex picture of life in the GDR, allowing East Germans to tell their own stories and inviting viewers to an informed debate on key questions of contemporary German history and identity. Mary Fulbrook, United Kingdom, 2007, English, 60 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBelly Dancer / Rakasa [FL 1343]
Rakasa is a documentary about the lives of three Palestinian women who dance for joy, expression and sometimes money. Certain images come to mind when an American says, “I’m a dancer.” However, the dancing found in Rakasa (Arabic for “bellydancer”) comes from an irrepressible urge to rebel, to be free, and to be wholly and utterly a woman in a culture that would have one deny that Goddess-given gift. This form of dancing also crosses religious barriers, bringing Israeli Jews and Arabs together to dance. For this, rakasa—and the women whose lives are shared within—should be celebrated. Iris Rubin, Israel, 2006, Hebrew, Arabic/Subtitles: English, 73 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBelovs, The / Беловы [FL 514]
In a Russian village lives twice widowed Anna Fedorovna Belova with her alcoholic brother Michail Fedorovich who philosophies about social and political matters, regularly gets drunk, and time to time threatens to kill his sister. Two other brothers visit them. They drink a great deal of tea, steam in a Russian bath and discuss whether there exists "a measure to measure ordeals." With this simple scenario, the director captures the everyday life of a rural family at once repetitive and shaken by the ongoing changes in the society. Viktor Kossakovskii, Russia, 1993, Russian/Subtitles: English, 58 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBelow the Line / Ispod crte [FL 565]
This family drama set in contemporary, post-1990 Zagreb centers around youngster Toni, whose neighbor and ex-girlfriend Zrinka announces she is leaving with her mother for Italy in search of work. He finally realizes that he loves her and wants to leave with her. But there is yet another reason for his decision – Toni desperately wants to get away from his difficult family situation. His whole family is terrorized by his father, a traumatized war veteran with a serious case of PTSP. After nervous Toni unintentionally provokes the latest family incident, his mother ends up in hospital after a beating from his father, who is taken into custody. At that point, Toni’s grandfather and grandmother, who never accepted their son’s wife and blame her for all of his troubles, decide to kidnap Toni’s little sister Klara. Backed with political connections, they wish to take care of her and provide her with a proper moral upbringing. So Toni finds himself torn between his loved one, who is already packing her bags for Italy, and his family which he cannot leave in this hard times. The final sentimental scene finds them all in the yard in front of the hospital where the father, having escaped from prison, threatens to blow up everyone with the hand grenade. Petar Krelja, Croatia, 2003, Croatian/Subtitles: English, 105 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBerlin Alexanderplatz [FL 770]
After being released from prison, Franz is determined to finally lead a decent life. But it is difficult to get used to living outside of prison again. In the local bar, he meets Reinhold, leader of a gang of criminals. Unable to convince Franz to join the gang, Reinhold persuades him to have a ride with them one night. When Franz realizes that they are on their way to a job, he refuses to participate and is thrown out of the car while it is still moving. Franz survives, but loses his right arm. Having now lost all faith and sure he’ll never make it on “the straight and narrow”, Franz gives in and joins Reinhold’s gang. Franz’s new girlfriend Mieze, however, finds out what’s going on and starts making trouble. To get her out of the way, Reinhold kills her. When Franz learns of Reinhold’s treachery, he grabs his revolver and heads to the local bar to confront the gang leader. But the bar is already swarming with cops… In court, Franz is acquitted and Reinhold is sentenced to 15 years in prison. Although he’s hit rock bottom, Franz still finds the strength to go on. Working as a street vendor selling tumbler toys on Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Franz has finally found happiness in a simple, but decent and honest life. Piel Jutzi, Germany, 1931, German, 85 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBerlin: Symphony of a Great City + Opus 1 / Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt + Opus 1 [FL 759]
Director Walter Ruttman, an experimental filmmaker, approached cinema in similar ways to his Russian contemporary Dziga Vertoz, mixing documentary, abstract, and expressionist modes for a nonnarrative style that captured the life of his countrymen. But where Vertov mixed his observations with examples of the communist dream in action, Ruttman re-creates documentary as, in his own words, "a melody of pictures." Within the loose structure of a day in the life of the city (with a prologue that travels from the country into the city on a barreling train), the film takes us from dawn to dusk, observing the silent city as it awakens with a bustle of activity, then the action builds and calms until the city settles back into sleep. But the city is as much the architecture, the streets, and the machinery of industry as it is people, and Ruttman weaves all these elements together to create a portrait in montage, the poetic document of a great European city captured in action. Held together by rhythm, movement, and theme, Ruttman creates a documentary that is both involving and beautiful to behold. The original score by Timothy Brock is lyrical and dramatically involving, complementing the mood and movement marvelously. Also included on this DVD is "Opus 1" (1922, 10 min.), a rare example of the German avant-garde cinema. Director Walther Ruttmann's hand-colored film is an abstract exploration of animated shapes and geometry of movement. Walther Ruttman, Germany, 1927, (silent), 77 min, documentary film, DVD-ROMBerlin / Берлин [FL 954]
The film is interspersed with German newsreel shots narrating the Nazis' plan of global hegemony. The documentary describes the final major battle of the war with Nazi Germany, with its outcome, the German army's unconditional surrender. This film alongside other Soviet ones were shown in Cannes immediately after the end of the war. Film from the private archives of Nazi advisor Goebbels is used to bridge the history line between Mussolini, Hitler, and the emerging fascist movement in the 1960s among both East and West Germans. Yuli Raizman and Yelizaveta Svilova, Soviet Union, 1945, Russian, 57 min, war reports, DVD-ROMBeshkempir / Бешкемпир [FL 614]
A Kyrgyz/French co-production, the film "Beshkempir" restores the traditional Kyrgyz way of life in such a full value and such a precision as to create an impression of a documentary. Director Aktan Abdukalykov believes that the aesthetics of the film that is built upon the combination of several observation-episodes recalls of the aesthetics of the traditional Kyrgyz patch-work quilt - kurak, or tekemet, where each patch of fabric is a memory of concrete person. Not accidentally then, the film opens with a splash of color - a close-up of a beautiful tekemet, which introduces the film's theme and structure. The film starts with the picture of five women - besh kempir - holding a ceremony of socialization for an infant: an orphan baby adopted by a childless family. In order to protect the boy from the evil eye they give him the name - Beshkempir. Once a teenager, the boy learns that he was adopted and starts to look at his parents differently. The only person with whom he prefers not to analyze the matter of relations is his grandmother who dearly loves him. However, there comes a moment of growing up when the issue of origins stops bothering him. Aktan Abdykalykov, Kyrgyzstan, 1998, Kyrgyz/Subtitles: English, 78 min, fiction film, DVD-ROMBetter than Escape / Bolje od bekstva [FL 554]
In this love melodrama, Stamena, an American woman of Yugoslav origin, comes for the first time to Belgrade wishing to learn the language. She meets young Belgrade actor Aleksa, falls in love with him and gets married. At first they live happily and she fully adapts to the new environment. However, unsatisfied with the stereotypical roles that he usually plays and troubled by the constant lack of money, Aleksa gradually turns to drink. Still, they manage to endure this difficult period when their son is born. Aleksa quits drinking and starts acting in a popular TV comedy series whic
