A Portrait Of Love

A handful of photographers look back on the Documerica Project, a long-forgotten epic photo survey of the American environment launched in the early 1970s at the height of environmental awareness. Embodying a moment of truth in a country that had reached the limits of its American Dream, the images of Documerica bear witness to a missed meeting with History. And beyond that, they announce the world in which we live today.

The village in the mountains of China that the director has long made the subject of her camera. The traces of memories and landscapes that fade away before one’s eyes. An 85-year-old man is recounting the story of half of his life, while a young girl draws portraits of the village elderly.

This project, 10 Years Self-Portrait, started July 1, 1999. The process of this project involves taking one photograph of my face every morning as soon as l wake up. The image changes a bit by a bit as days go by.

The famous Ukrainian actress Larysa Kadochnikova restored her self-portrait and found out about herself. And not only.

The 23-year-old director, fresh out of university, lives at home with her mother and grandmother. She rebels against them but also tries to understand the generation gap between them. While she gets angry and questions their expectations of her as a woman (i.e., to marry and have children), she also gropes for the meaning of real love. Along with her mother and grandmother, the three women wring out their loves and hates with explosive strength. The director in her performance piece uses her own body to project the images of her mother, turning her lost loves into springboards, practically jumping out of the screen so she can shout with all her might.

Anna Dziapshipa was born of the union between an Abkhazian man and a Georgian woman. In Self-Portrait Along the Borderline, she skilfully weaves together unique archives and fragments to offer a personal and political biography of Georgia-Abkhazia relations. This vibrant exploration foregrounds a divided identity caught between the margins.

The world, at large, is aware of the enormous input that both John Lennon and George Harrison have given to modern music; but few people have seen the real men behind the image; the depth of their beliefs and the innermost concerns they both shared for the future. In this fascinating account of one half of the world’s most successful group, we explore the sides of two personalities rarely, if ever, on view to the general public.

Mockumentary of the films and process of Russian-Canadians Zep and Zudo Chnoborov.

The life, music and legacy of bandleader and clarinetist Woody Herman is explored in this documentary that includes interviews with the master, himself, along with musicians and jazz historians such as Dan Morgenstern, Terry Gibbs, Joe Lovano, Jeff Hamilton and many others

Provides a colorful portrait of dancer Mura Dehn. Born and trained in Russia, she went to Paris in 1925, met Josephine Baker and discovered jazz. Tells how she came to New York and choreographed jazz tunes. Includes a live interview with Mura Dehn along with archival footage. In the 1930’s, the heart of jazz dancing was Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Mura Dehn, a Russian dancer who was converted to jazz dance by Josephine Baker, spent her life documenting this cultural explosion from jazz to be-bop. As excerpts of her film, THE SPIRIT MOVES are shown, she discusses the eras. The film concludes with Dehn, at 82, filming a break-dance troupe. Blue Ribbon winner, American Film Festival.

Millennials are the children of default. Now they are 18 years old. They are lovers of Brodsky and strong alcoholic drinks. They talk about what needs to be done, they understand a lot of things that are almost impossible to understand, but they all end up with the same thing, vodka and cheap champagne. What will happen to them next?

With the young Friedrich Engel’s letters and drawings from the years between 1838 and 1842, a unique cinematic portrait is created. The viewer thus gets to know the young Engels personally, learning about the significant moments of his development from a bourgeois-liberal upbringing to the theoretical partner of Karl Marx. Later be awarded the Gold Dove at the International Leipzig Documentary and Short Film Week.

Boasting an impressive private collection with a specific focus on the art of portrait, the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo is an Italian treasure which has been inaccessible to the public for several years. It features more then 600 paintings including Raphael, Mantegna, Bellini, Botticelli and many other works of art from the 15th to the 19th century. The film capture the restoration and reopening of the museum as an opportunity to meditate on the meaning of the act of looking from acclaimed director Davide Ferrario.

Programme following the late Canadian novelist Carol Shields at home in Canada, on tour in the UK and undergoing treatment for breast cancer, of which she died in 2003.

Daughters of Anatolia follows the Gök family, a group of nomadic goat herders, as they travel on the “Göҫ,” or seasonal migration, from the temperate winters along the Mediterranean Sea to the cool summers in the Taurus Mountains, and back again. It is a route their ancestors pursued for a thousand years in order to provide forage for the animals throughout the year. The family relies on their 350 goats for their sustenance and livelihood.

A teenager deals with a deadly eating disorder.

British musician and writer David Toop leads viewers through a tour of his voluminous record collection, reflecting on perception, the limits of music and the connections between seemingly disparate performers. This unusual documentary from filmmakers Guy Marc Hinant and Dominique Lohlé also captures Toop's progression from engagement to near exhaustion as he methodically combs through tens of thousands of records.

A girl, a hat, a painter, and ensuing developments are presented in a choppy, fast-motion style which lends a clownish air to the film. Each object or situation is followed by explorations into its aesthetic ramifications, revealed with brilliant color, very fast cutting, and multiple superimpositions. –S. L.

As coronavirus begins to sweep the globe, Zhang returns to her father’s village with her camera, seeking to understand where the extraordinary phenomenon might sit in the grand palimpsest of China’s history. As with all of Zhang’s work, this is a committed, reflective, formally assured non-fiction film, grounded in collaboration and blessed with an uncanny sense of unhurried time.