Heddy Honigmann
Legendary award-winning director Heddy Honigmann makes her most personal film to date. Facing her own truths and the realities of her terminal illness, she embarks upon a spiritual journey in this farewell film.
Walking in the forest without being able to see, coming down the stairs or going shopping when one is paralysed, falling asleep with post-traumatic stress disorder: for the protagonists of Buddy, all of this is made possible by the presence of an assistance dog at their side. Edith, 86 years old and blind since adolescence, remembers all of the dogs she has had with her, and their portraits—even if she cannot see them—cover the walls of her house.
During the unique world tour of the RCO celebrating its jubilee in 2013 we meet musicians and concertgoers. The tour develops not just into a journey across the globe but also as a trip to the core of classical music, a quest for the palette of emotions which only classical music can arouse. In 2013 the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra tours the whole world to celebrate its 125th anniversary: 50 concerts spread over 6 continents. Unbounded passion and love for music brings musicians and concert goers together. Documentary maker Heddy Honigmann lands with the orchestra in Buenos Aires, Soweto and St Petersburg and shows how the ensemble succeeds in gaining the hearts of people with a different cultural background. A journey to the kernel and the power of music which knows how to touch unexpected emotions and which helps to overcome the pain of living.
Heddy Honigmann returns to her birthplace of Lima, Peru to reacquaint herself with a place and people dear to her heart. It is about a forgotten city, a forgotten history and a forgotten people. With irony as their loved weapon for survival, they have to forget as well, in order not to give way to cynicism, hatred and grief. It is about remembering the old days when life - despite class differences, corruption and violence - was still good: waiters, bartenders and shopkeepers who are fighting a losing battle and have lost everything. It is also about the children who manage to survive by mastering the art of street life and who reveal the country in it's true colours. Just like the dogs they share the streets with, they have no good memories to forget.
From cinema-verite; pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick movie makers like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, the world's best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre. Capturing Reality explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films. Deftly charting the documentarian's journey, it poses the question: can film capture reality?
For a lot of young girls, the Internet is a safe haven where they can be themselves without fear. The computer is their ‘daily food’. They submerge themselves in a virtual world that became more important than the ordinary one. For most of them the virtual word ís their real world. Emoticons shows a group of ‘lost souls’ who are all in search for contact, consolation, help, friendship and love. Soulmates by the Internet.
Père-Lachaise - one of the world's most famous and beautiful cemeteries - is the final resting-place of a gifted group of artists from all eras and corners of the world. Some - such as Piaf, Proust, Jim Morrison and Chopin - are worshiped to this day. Others have fallen into oblivion, or are visited occasionally by a single admirer. In Forever we see the mysterious, calming and consoling beauty of this unique cemetery through the eyes of people of flesh and blood. Many come for their 'own' beloved: husbands, wives, family and friends. Others Honor 'their' artist by leaving behind a personal message or a flower. While admirers share with us the importance of art and beauty in their lives, the graveyard gradually reveals itself as a source of inspiration for the living. Death offers little consolation except for the passing of time, the melancholia of a moss-covered tomb, and the beauty and power of a piece of music, a poem or a painting Written by Cobos
Every Sunday night, a small New York restaurant turns into a piece of Cuba. The tables are set aside to give way to a dance floor, which welcomes the immense fervor of Cuban exiles through the rumba.
The widows of Ahatovici reminisce stories about their husbands and sons who were killed in a massacre during the Yougoslav civil war in 1992.
The haunting experiences of Dutch U.N. peacekeepers are woven together by the powerful influence music has had on their endurance, survival, and memories of war. This documentary is filled with close-up interviews, scrapbook photographs, video clips, news footage, letters read aloud, and other recollections, as different generations of Dutch peacekeeping soldiers recount the trauma of bloodshed from Korea to more recent events in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Their trusting, and often disturbing, personal revelations resound most poignantly when they talk about the single pieces of music that each found powerful enough to keep insanity at bay.
A moving documentary. The life stories told by immigrants in Paris are often saddening. The hardships they went through and their current uncertainty and difficult situation. No residence permit, fear of the gendarmerie, little money, poor housing. The quality and background of the musicians is many times amazing.
O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, remained unpublished during his lifetime, as he feared they would be deemed pornographic. In this celebration of his poetry and sensual vision, elderly residents of Rio read his poems and comment on their graphic, voluptuous imagery with tremendous candor and enthusiasm.
A woman falls in love with a married, Belgian man. She finds out that he's married too late... although it's the second thing he says. The rest of the film is about the struggle of the man between his two loves, and of the woman not able to finish the hopeless and dangerous relationship. The title "tot ziens" (au revoir, a farewell greeting that implicates that one will see eachother again), is the ironic description of the film, which is about going away for good and then coming back again, because something is always stronger than your ratio.
This documentary is an offbeat "road movie" in which acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with, and thereby discovers the stories of, taxi drivers in Lima. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by corruption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their own cars to moonlight as taxi drivers in order to weather the financial crisis.
Feature based on the novel by J. Bernlef. A Dutch couple who have emigrated are confronted with the husband's rapid onset of senility during a snowy winter in North Eastern Canada. The film is an account of the man's fight within himself and the story of his wife, who feels abandoned but keeps giving her love. –filmcommission.nl
Two very different friends who share an apartment in Amsterdam have reached a dead end in their lives. The arrival of a parcel looks like an opportunity for a change.
Four young women with four different personalities – the Dreamer, the Temptress, the Belligerent One, the Shy One – have conversations with themselves, revealing four different approaches to desire and connection.
A young woman witnesses a murder on the street and, pursued by the attacker, escapes to a movie theater and into the arms and life of the stranger sitting next to her.
100UP is a film which investigates the will to live. It portrays a colourful selection of 100+ year old people from all over the world. They have lived for over a century and witnessed great historical events, but instead of dwelling on the past, they look ahead. With the clock inevitably ticking, these centenarians cling to life, set new goals with a joie de vivre, refusing to admit the betrayal of their deteriorating bodies. Time is both their enemy and their friend. They have overcome diseases, lost partners and some of them survived their own children. Nevertheless, these active, curious and creative 100+ year olds are amazingly good at restarting every new day.
A young Moroccan woman who, when faced with a sudden ban on headscarves, has to find a creative way to skirt the law.
