1. Still Lives
'Still Lives' comprises a trilogy of films by Patrick Sheard; Lamenta, Libertas and Exitus, anthologized here in their entirety.
2. Once Upon a Vilnius (Čia buvo Vilnius)
Vilnius is a city of notable historical heritage and unique character currently undergoing considerable changes. Some of the life fragments our camera has recorded are no more. The film, therefore, is a testimony to that which has faded into oblivion, and a glimpse into what is to come.
3. Samuel in the Clouds
In Bolivia, the glaciers are melting. Samuel, an old ski lift operator, is looking out of a window on the rooftop of the world. Through generations his family lived and worked in the snowy mountains, but now snow fails. While scientists are discussing and measuring ominous changes Samuel honors the ancient mountain spirits. Clouds continue to drift by.
4. Vaivéns meteorolóxicos na vila da Guarda (Vaivéns meteorolóxicos na vila da Guarda)
(Vaivéns meteorolóxicos na vila da Guarda)
5. Ñuhu: Sacred Beings (Ñuhu: Seres Sagrados)
Encouraged by the polychrome onirism of the Ñuine land, Desiderio , a farmer from the south of Mexico, offers an offering to the Tupa, the ancient spirit of the hills to whom his grandparents went to to ask for rain and harvest. At nightfall, as he rests at the foot of a campfire, that mysterious being guides him to the core of an ancestral memory.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
6. De Profundis (De Profundis)
At the end of the 80's, the city of Itacuruba, in the backlands of Pernambuco, was transferred to another locality due to the construction of a hydroelectric plant. In the new region, the city began to register many suicides, reaching a rate ten times greater than the national average. Through memories of the lost city, villagers reveal that the root of a people is like the root of a tree: essential to life.
7. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, die Symphonie der Großstadt)
A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.
It has an average vote of 7.679 on TMDB.
8. New York Portrait, Chapter I
Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takes on an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty that serves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any human presence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse of street life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan population and imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force of a universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his camera toward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects around his apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ... Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elements that retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The city becomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting his personal mood.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
9. Blue-Eyed Helsinki (Sinisilmäinen Helsinki)
A boat trip in the Helsinki archipelago: images of water, light and people on the cruise. The same people are met in the city in different situations: at work, with their family, in conversations with a circle of friends, meditating and figuring out their duties. Work and aspirations are important and encouraging to them. They all seem to have something personal to say about their time, their views and their imaginations.
10. Moments in Helsinki (Helsingin hetkiä)
A compilation of excerpts from old Helsinki-themed documentaries and new material.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
11. Symphony of a City (Människor i stad – En SF-kortfilm från Stockholm)
A short film about Stockholm. Sweden's first Oscar, 1949 Best Short Subject, One-Reel.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
12. Ukonvaaja (Ukonvaaja)
Ukonvaaja - The Hammer of Ukko - is a documentary film that focuses on ancient Finnish folklore and mythology.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
13. Between the Holy and the Profane
Documentary film that takes a visual and anthropological journey through man's spirit across the thin line dividing excessive faith in religious believes and the passion with which he devotes himself to worldly pleasures in a city that coexists in harmony with its double standards. Religion, faith, politics, violence and death are intimately bound in this social portrait.
14. The Last Dragon
"The Last Dragon" is a nature mockumentary about a British scientific team that attempts to understand the unique incredible beasts that have fascinated people for ages. CGI is used to create the dragons.
It has an average vote of 7.85 on TMDB.
15. Man with a Movie Camera (Человек с киноаппаратом)
A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.
It has an average vote of 7.854 on TMDB.
16. New York Portrait, Chapter II
Chapter Two represents a continuation of daily observations from the environment of Manhattan compiled over a period from 1980-1981. This is the second part of an extended life's portrait of New York.
It has an average vote of 7.3 on TMDB.
17. New York Portrait, Chapter III
" latest urban film, New York Portrait, Chapter III, takes on a unique tone in relation to Hutton’s ongoing exploration of rural landscape. The very fact that Hutton is dealing with older footage, with archives of memory more than immediacy, gives it a different texture than his earlier New York films. Hutton always found the presence of nature in the city, not only in his many shots of sky and vegetation, but also in the geometry and texture of the city itself, which seemed to project an independence from the human."
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
18. Song of Khartoum
Gubara was proud of the first color film in African cinema, which attempts to give an African response to the city symphony genre by capturing disparate images of daily life in Khartoum and setting it to music, particularly romantic Arabic songs.
19. Sylvia Kristel – Paris
Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.
20. Son of Torum (Toorumi Pojad)
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
