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Invisible World
An anthology film following different stories around the theme of invisibility in the modern world.
Maria de Medeiros
Jerzy Stuhr
Wim Wenders
Theo Angelopoulos
Atom Egoyan
Marco Bechis
Manoel de Oliveira
Guy Maddin
Laís Bodanzky
Beto Brant
Gian Vittorio Baldi
Cisco Vasques
Also Directed by Maria de Medeiros
Documentary about the love-hate relationship between filmmakers and film critics with interviews made at Cannes Film Festival.
The lives of three generations of women who suffered political persecution during the military dictatorship in Brazil.
All the feature is given prestige to by the narration in Caetano Veloso's voice, that also signs one of the segments of the project. São Paulo is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere, with an incessant dynamics of cultural mixtures, with immigrants of all the world and migrants of all parts of Brazil. The gathering of these peculiarities are seen through the 13 film directors's sensibilities and their segments.
Story of the 1974 coup that overthrew the right-wing Portuguese dictatorship--which continued the fascist policies of long-time dictator Antonio Salazar--and of two young army captains who were involved in it.
Vera, who fought in the armed left-wing movements against the Brazilian military dictatorship, has lived in multiple South American countries. Her daughter Tânica has been married to another woman for fifteen years, and they're about to have their first child.
Also Directed by Jerzy Stuhr
Jerzy Stuhr Poland s most beloved actor wrote and directed this charming comedy that caters to his image as an innocent caught in a cynical world. Stuhr stars as Gustav, a Krakow professor who is roped into showing a visiting Swedish professor around town. The randy Swede soon tires of Gustav s dull dissertations on Polish heroes and suggests looking for female companionship, but the task proves beyond the skills of the shy academic. Eventually, Gustav calls Isa, an old girlfriend from his distant past who was writing a dissertation on the mating habits of geese the last time they spoke. While Isa is not what the Swede had in mind, Gustav sees his old flame through the rose-colored glasses of time.
A man, after having abandoned his family to live in a monastery, goes back into the world after 17 years.
Jerzy Stuhr scripted, directed and plays four roles in this Polish comedy about four men -- an army officer, a college instructor, a priest, and a drug dealer -- and their relationships with four females. An attractive student (Dominika Ostalowska) puts the teacher in an awkward spot when she reveals her love for him. An 11-year-old (Karolina Ostrozna) informs the priest that she's his daughter. The army officer is pleased when confronted by a past lover (Irina Alfiorowa). The drug dealer, taken prisoner, must decide whether or not to trust his wife (Katarzyna Figura) with his hidden loot. In the wrap-up, the elderly accountant (Jerzy Nowak) passes judgment on all four men. Stuhr acted in films by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, who had some input here by offering advice to Stuhr on this screenplay. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival, this film is also known as Love Stories.
Jerzy Stuhr wrote, directed, and starred in this drama about a man sworn to uphold the law who applies a very different moral code to himself than he does to others. As Adam Borowski, Stuhr plays a government lawyer prosecuting a variety of cases, including smuggling, theft, child abandonment, and racially motivated assault. However, Adam's own life is hardly a model by which to live. He's overextended himself financially and is trying to figure out how to avoid paying the hospital bills for his terminally ill mother. Adam is married, but he's been having an affair for some time, and, while he breaks off his relationship with his mistress, he's easily tempted into other liaisons. His wife wants to adopt a handicapped child; Adam would prefer not to have another child in the house, and he uses his influence to slow up the paperwork. And in order to reduce his tax bill, Adam has involved himself in a charitable donation scheme of dubious legality.
A morality tale that starts from answering a mysterious passenger's mobile phone left on a train, and intertwines the lives of student Bartek, who leads an immoral life, and several strangers.
An attempt at depicting the life of a generation born and raised in communist Poland; a generation that lived through all the stages of that system and made it to democracy. Throughout his life, the film's protagonist has always tried to be active, but something always got in his way, either through an absurd coincidence, as a result of his own lack of ability, or due to the unpredictable nature of certain events in our recent history.
Left behind by a circus, a camel wanders to the house of a simple middle-aged couple in a Polish village. Although the wife is initially bewildered by the strange and unexpected animal, her husband immediately adopts it as a pet.
Also Directed by Wim Wenders
A rare gem of cinematic storytelling that weaves docudrama, fictional reenactment, and experimental photography into a powerful, reflective work on the early days of German cinema. The film tells the story of the Skladanowsky Brothers, the German-born duo responsible for inventing the "bioskop", an early version of the film projector.
Complete recording of Pina Bausch's piece Vollmond (Full Moon) by Wim Wenders.
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
In this fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs in Amsterdam and New York City's famed Carnegie Hall, with director Wim Wenders capturing not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.
Ten Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films entitled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. Fifteen celebrated film-makers were invited to create their own vision of what time means in ten minutes of film.
When Willie Nelson and album producer Daniel Lanois set out to create a cinematic-sounding album, "Teatro", they took over a disused movie theatre in Oxnard, California, and pictured its dusty glory on the cover art. Recorded as-live in situ amid the red velvet seats, Teatro sees Nelson working extensively with his frequent collaborator Emmylou Harris, who joins him for duets and on backing vocals. Recorded 1998. Wim Wenders filmed the event.
TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT EDWARD HOPPER is an immersive experience in 3D, that takes its viewers on a journey into the world of Hopper, sharpening their senses for some aspects of his unique work.
Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.
Itinerant projection-equipment repairman Bruno Winter and depressed hitchhiker Robert Lander--a doctor who has just been through a break-up with his wife and a half-hearted suicide attempt--travel along the Western side of the East-German border in a repair truck, visiting worn-out movie theaters, learning to communicate across their differences.
Also Directed by Theo Angelopoulos
An old communist returns to Greece after 32 years in the Soviet Union. However, things aren't the way he had hoped for.
The team of journalists of a radio show asks women on the street for their definition of the ideal man in order to conduct a search for someone to fill the bill, a specimen who has all these characteristics. The lucky guy will spend a few hours in the company of a well-known movie star
Based on some historical events, the film gives a romanticized biography of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a Greek historical hero serving as a metaphor for Greece herself. Based on a circular view of history, the film presents conflicting ideologies - primitive communism, anarchism, chiefdom or kingdom, personality cult - and shows the institutions of property and power in a bad light.
A, an American film director of Greek ancestry, is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents. It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA. The main character is Eleni, who is claimed and claims the absoluteness of love. At the same time the film is a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century. The characters in the film move as though in a dream. The dust of time confuses memories. A searches for them and experiences them in the present.
This is the first film of Theo Angelopoulos' trilogy. The story starts in 1919 with some greek refugees from Odessa arriving somewhere near Thessaloniki. Among these people are two small kids, Alexis and Eleni. Eleni is an orphan and she is also taken care by Alexis' family. The refugees build a small village somewhere near a river and we watch as the kids grow up and fall in love. But difficult times of dictatorship and war are coming...
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
A documentary shown on Greek television in 1981, that describes the plight of Greek villages abandoned by their inhabitants. Some scenes from this film were rewritten into Voyage to Cythera.
Greek director Theo Angelopoulos takes the viewer on a tour through Athens in this episode of the TV series Capitali culturali d'Europa.
A segment from “Invisible World” (2012)
Alexander, a famous writer, is very ill and has only a few days to live. He meets a little boy on the street, who is an illegal immigrant from Albania. Alexander then takes the boy home.
Also Directed by Atom Egoyan
Egoyan juxtaposes home-video images of his son Arshile with a self-portrait of the famed Armenian artist, Arshile Gorky; Egoyan narrates in English, while his wife narrates in Armenian. The self-portrait made from a photo of the artist as a child at the time of the great massacre of the Armenians is used as a focus for meditations on the nature of self-awareness, artistic expression, and the relationship between the artist and the viewer.
An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
A documentary about a journey to Beirut
An uptight insurance man and his film-censor wife become a kinky couple's landlords.
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
A man uses an instant photo booth with bizarre results.
Short telefilm.
Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.
A variety of characters, some close relatives, others distant strangers, are each affected by the making of a film about the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Also Directed by Marco Bechis
A beautiful Argentine activist receives preferential treatment from a man supposed to torture her.
We are in Argentina in 1977, a woman gives birth to twins. With the complicity of the midwife he manages to hide the child, second child. The first, a boy, is taken into custody by the regime's guards. The scene moves to the Milan of today. The young Rosa contacts Javier and tries to convince him that they are twin brothers, separated at birth. Thus, the two begin a journey to rediscover their origins and their past. A bitter reality is ready to overwhelm them ...
Harvey, an old man from Scotland lives with his young son and daughter in an isolated house in Patagonia. Upon arrival of the emissaries of a development corporation he promptly stands against them by building a large fence (alambrado). A debut rich with sensibility and violent physicality, an unusual film of wind, isolation, loneliness, desolation ... and madness.
Using astounding footage from the Luce archives (newsreels, but also true films) Il sorriso del capo/The Smile of the Leader shows how propaganda works, presents everyday life in its most revealing details, and describes a country's "education". Marco Bechis explores the feeling of consensus: he tells us where it originates, what tools are used to spread it, how it is opposed. The thread running through the film is a voice, enigmatic until the end, narrating in the first person what it is like to grow up under fascism.
Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, the present. When a young Guarani-Kaiowá woman commits suicide, Nádio leads his community to form a protest camp on the borders of a local farm that sits on their ancestral burial ground.
Also Directed by Manoel de Oliveira
Don Quixote, Luís de Camões, Camilo Castelo Branco and Teixeira de Pascoaes meet in an eternal garden in the middle of a modern city and talk about life.
Manoel de Oliveira's final work revisits one of his earliest films and celebrates a century of industrialization in Portugal.
Macário spends an entire train journey to the Algarve talking to a woman he does not know about the trials and tribulations of his love life: straight after starting his first job as a book keeper at his Uncle Francisco's shop in Lisbon he falls madly in love with a young blonde, who lives across the road. No sooner does he meet her than he straightaway wants to marry her. His uncle, totally opposed to the match, fires him and kicks him out of the house. Macário departs for Cape Verde where he makes his fortune. When he finally wins his uncle’s approval to marry his beloved, he discovers the “singularity” of his fiancée’s character.
A meditation on civilization. July, 2001: friends wave as a cruise ship departs Lisbon for Mediterranean ports and the Indian Ocean. On board and on day trips in Marseilles, Pompeii, Athens, Istanbul, and Cairo, a professor tells her young daughter about myth, history, religion, and wars. Men approach her; she's cool, on her way to her husband in Bombay. After Cairo, for two evenings divided by a stop in Aden, the captain charms three successful, famous (and childless) women, who talk with wit and intellect, each understanding the others' native tongue, a European union. The captain asks mother and child to join them. He gives the girl a gift. Helena sings. Life can be sweet.
Four voices and their visions of Guimarães, cradle city of the Portuguese nation and European Capital of Culture in 2012.
Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.
Luciano, fresh out of jail, was taken by his brother, Flórido, to serve in the home of wealthy Alfreda. He was surprised when she told him that her greatest desire was to see the Virgin Mary. Now comes this rich land owner with her sublime pretensions. Isn't it enough for her to have an Aston Martin and a Jaguar in the garage and ten different dresses per season? It was all professor Heschel's fault. Or someone else's. Anyway, to go beyond the promise is heresy. Alfreda said that she wouldn't rest until she saw the Virgin and made her some questions. Filipe Quinta, the Forger, says he has a solution. Meanwhile, Bahia, her husband, listens do music.
In a mental institution the patients see themselves as people like Jesus, Lázaro, Marta, Maria, Adão, Eve, Sonia, Raskolnikov, Aliosha e Ivan Karamasov, a Philosopher, a Profet, Santa Teresa d'Avila, reciting the Divine Comedy.
The painter António Cruz wanders around the city of Porto painting what he sees: old and modern buildings, people arriving and leaving work in the factories, children playing. The impressionist realism of Cruz’s drawings dissolves into Oliveira’s vision of Porto, which at the same time portrays the painter and his work.
The life of a young man, son of an English officer who lets himself become a prisoner of love resulting in fatalism and disgrace.
Also Directed by Guy Maddin
A story about an aging crime family patriarch.
Maddin’s frequent collaborator Evan Johnson (who is co-director on The Forbidden Room) presents four visuals essays, ranging from one and a half to four minutes in length: Puberty, Colours, Elms, and Cold, each representing a visual exploration of a specific theme.
Guy Maddin directed this short biopic on the castrato known as the Manitoba Meadowlark, Dov Houle, who performed on tour with the film “Brand Upon the Brain!”
A tribute to Isabella Rossellini's father
Remix of previously unreleased material by Guy Maddin.
The Little White Cloud That Cried, made in tribute to underground filmmaker Jack Smith, and described as: “Goddesses unharnessing the power of the sea and putting it into a whole new element as they engaged in orgiastic battles and whoopla.” —cinematical.com
A woman with an oddly hairy belly gives birth to a pair of hands in Marie Losier’s giddily inventive "portrait" of filmmaker Guy Maddin, done as a collaboration between the two iconoclasts. A longtime fan of Maddin, Losier (best known for other inventive portraits of underground film icons like Tony Conrad and George Kuchar) hoped to document him as well; "I hate my voice and face," Maddin replied, and sent her Super-8 footage of his hands instead. Losier interwove the footage into her own distinct tale, shot like a surrealist 1920s silent film. A must for fans of Losier, Maddin and ingenious cinema in general, MANUELLE LABOR was completed for the Berlin Film Festival (where Maddin was the guest of honor). - Jason Sanders A collaboration film by Marie Losier and Guy Maddin. Two sisters, five brothers, a doctor and two nurses and the miraculous birth of a pair of hands, but whose hands?
Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in a personal portrait of filmmaker Guy Maddin's hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Guided by the spirit of “The Cuadecuc Manifesto” (coined by co-director Evan Johnson and inspired by Pere Portabella’s 1970 experimental cult documentary, Cuadecuc, vampir), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton is a strange, stirring behind-the-scenes look at Paul Gross’s new feature, Hyena Road. Shot on location at CFB Shilo near Brandon, Manitoba, and in Aqaba, Jordan, the film mixes deep contrast black-and-white expressionism with wry and raw western revisionism reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah, as it summons unwieldy, psychedelic energy from the main event. [TIFF]
Ignorant armies of sketchy people clashing by night.
Also Directed by Laís Bodanzky
Idealized by the filmmakers Lais Bodansky and Luiz Bolognesi, the documentary portrays the projects executed by the Buriti Institute and Buriti Films in 10 years of work. Since 2004, projects collect impressive numbers: 116,509 kilometers were driven on roads, which led to 759 outlying neighborhoods, where they were made 7439 film sessions to 1,355,403 brazilians. Eighteen states and the Federal District were visited by Cine Tela Brasil, who put brazilian various ages for the first time in a movie theater.
Fernanda likes to play football with the boys. But for this tomboyish, the apogee of his intimacy with the ball is to make it fly straight, direct, to the bag boys. Then she smiles. One day she comes running to the hit-ball, delayed but can not find anyone. The boys are in hiding. Fernanda knows where it is, but can not imagine what they plot!
An evening in an old time dance hall in Sao Paulo introduces us to local characters who reminisce about the past, wonder about the future, have fun, flirt, fight and, of course, dance. Its earthy humour and eternal themes of ageing, loneliness and desire is an antidote to grumpy old men and women everywhere.
Everyday family life as perfectly normal madness. “As Melhores Coisas do Mundo“ follows a few days in the life of the 15-year-old Mano, who is fighting on two fronts: his parents have just got divorced and he is going through puberty. Mano tries to make his way through life, with its first sexual experiences, his depressed brother and his self-centered parents. It’s a humorous homage to the pitfalls of daily life and the diversity of life.
A trip to the mental institution hell. This odyssey is lived by Neto, a middle class teenager, who lives a normal life until his father sends him to a mental institution after finding drugs on his pocket. The maconha cigarrete is just the final drop that exposes the family tragedy. Send to a mental institution, Neto gets to know a completely absurd, inhumane reality in which the people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel institution system. The documentary type language used by the director give this movie a sensation of realty that increases even more the impact of the emotions Neto goes through. In the mental institution, Neto is forced to mature. The transformations that he goes through change this relations with his father.
Rosa is in her late 30s, a child of the 1970s with divorced parents. She lives with her own family in São Paulo. Overwhelmed by an eruption of individual passions, lies and the expectations of three generations, she tries to discover who she really is.
The story of Brazil’s first emperor, returning to Europe on board the English ship Warspite. The trip makes Pedro conquer his fears and face his life from a personal point of view. He goes back in time and relives outstanding moments of his earlier life – since his childhood, when in 1808 he arrived coming from Portugal with his family, until he left in the dead of the night, in 1831, running away from Brazil.
Laís Bodanzky and Luiz Bolognesi travel around the small cities of Brazil, exhibiting short films in public squares. From the south of Bahia to the farthest parts of Amazon, this documentary discovers a country that watches a movie and sees itself on the screen for the very first time, in the turning of the 21st century. What’s seen and heard is truly surprising.
In 1932, more than two hundred thousand men armed with machine guns, grenades and canons took part in on of the most violent wars in America in the 20th century. Brazilian against Brazilian, in a conflict that involved air raid of big cities – such as Campinas, Santos and São Paulo - and resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Why did this war happen? Who took part in it? What were the details of the conflict? How did the war end? The documentary tells this episode of the country's history, not only grand but also unknown, with an accessible language and an involving rhythm.
Also Directed by Beto Brant
In Porto Alegre, the unemployed Ciro has a dull life in a simple apartment with a nameless stray dog that he had found on the streets. Ciro is supported by his parents and works every now and then in translation of Russian. When he meets the aspirant actress Marcela, who dreams on traveling to other places, they immediately fall in love for each other. However, Marcela has a lymphoma and travels for a treatment, and alone Marcelo becomes depressed and returns to his parents home.
For the past 14 years, the Ilú Obá de Min - Educação Cultura e Arte Negra promotes parades on the streets of São Paulo with its afro feminine band that celebrates themed carnivals. There’s always an homage to a black woman, embracing our history, fight and productions. In 2019, we sang “Black Voices” and spread “Alakan Time” - word that means alliances in Yoruba.
Two hit men, a veteran and a beginner, chatter in a bar on Brazil-Paraguai border, while waiting for their victim to appear.
Brazil in the early 70s. Miguel, Eloi, Osvaldo and Paolo take part in armed attacks against the military dictatorship. They pay a heavy price with torture and arrest. Today the four friends still see each other. Only Miguel is politically active. On a photograph from a political meeting in Sao Paolo he recognises the policeman who tortured them 25 years ago and who was responsible for the death of Miguel's girlfriend. The policeman has been officially dead for a few years. On one of their fishing trips together, Miguel tells his friends of his discovery. When they hunt down and confront their nemesis they come into conflict with both themselves and each other.
Antônio Martins, respected theatrical critic, is a very rational man. But a chance meeting with young Inês, a nude painting model, is going to rock him. Inês keeps a relationship with painter José Torres Campana, an older man with a deep influence over her. Antônio gets jealous, and the three become characters of a drama saturated with desire and danger.
Two businessmen hire a hitman to kill their third partner and are then blackmailed by the hitman as he takes over their company.
Set in a small town in Pará in the heart of the Amazon, Cauby makes a living as a photographer. Soon he’ll befriend pastor Ernani’s attractive wife Lavínia and embark on an affair – a good portion of the film is dedicated to their passionate relationship. We will also learn of Lavínia’s baggage from her past – how she met her husband, her continuing love for him, and his supportive role. But when rumours of her affair with Cauby circulate, the conservative community do not look at it kindly, leading to tragedy, and their lives will never be the same afterwards…
Trapped inside an apartment in Sao Paulo, an actor and a director of videos explore mutual love. Adapted from Benjamin Schianberg character, in this book Marcal Aquino, "I receive the worst news of your beautiful lips."
Also Directed by Gian Vittorio Baldi
LA CASA DELLE VEDOVE portrays a group of widows who, he thinks, lived in a constant ‘dialogue‘ with death. In the house where they all lived ‘every colour was saturated with that special reddish shade that you see everywhere in Rome, and furthermore the rooms were filled with a stale, musty smell.‘
A man opens fire on the statue of the Virgin during the 15th August procession. Barricaded in his home with his wife and daughter, he continues to shoot wildly. He refuses to open the door to the carabinieri and he refuses everything he needs, including water.
A dozen sketches: (1) how it is not easy for parents to reveal the mystery of birth to their young children. (2) how the first kiss can be pleasant for teenagers and a worry to their parents. (3) how violent a male ego can be after a woman's rejection. (4) how double standards work in view of a woman's loss of virginity. (5) how modern psichology can influence a pregnant woman to deal with her dilemma. (6) how hiding her sexual past to the bridegroom does not succeed past their nuptial night. (7) how aspiring actresses have to pay a price for success. (8) how a matrimony can be a social hypocrisy by a cheating couple. (9) how a girl eager to marry discovers too late her husband's true nature. (10) how an emigrant's wife shall overcome her sexual need through music, and dancing. (11) how divorce can be a way to settle peacefully a union that no longer works. (12) how a man can overcome the shock of being married to a woman who was raped by some truck drivers
Directed by Gian Vittorio Baldi
Despite all his faults, Luciano cannot bear the idea that his own mother has left home to go and live with a man who is not her husband. As soon as he leaves the Roman prison where he served his time, the young man spends his first free nights wandering around in a tormented search for a reason for living.