Khamsin

Lebanon today. The traces of the civil war are all too tangible as government corruption becomes unbearable. In a country where conflict and peace are caught in an endless cycle, musicians from different backgrounds pool their talents to create an underground music scene. Each evokes his or her representation of Lebanon: its shifting geographical, political, historical and social borders, its painful passage through conflict and instability. A touching portrait of a young generation trying to build an oasis in a hostile environment where the forces of destruction continue to wreak havoc.

El Lenguaje de los Árboles

An exploration on Paz's poetry by Paz himself, his childhood, his ideas about love and the nature of art

Ensaio sobre a cor e sua ausência

An experiment and a dialogue about recording, the act of filming and the colors available to whoever points the camera somewhere.

Korreltjie niks is my dood

On 19 July 1965, the South-African poet Ingrid Jonker walked into the sea near Drieankerbaai in Cape Town at the age of 31. She left behind a little daughter and an oeuvre of three laurelled collections of poems. Jonker's work fell into oblivion, until on 25 May 1994 president Nelson Mandela opened the very first session of the first democratically elected parliament of South Africa with Jonker's poem Die kind wat dood geskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga, a poem from 1960 that refers to the demonstrations near Sharpeville. Mandela chose the poem for good reason; he called Jonker 'both an African and an Afrikaner'. A white person in South Africa cannot get a bigger compliment. In the documentary Korreltjie niks is my dood, director Saskia van Schaik reconstructs the poet's eventful life, making her powerful poetry with its South-African rhythm tell part of the story. (filmcommission.nl)

Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy

A Thousand Years of Joy charts poet/activist Robert Bly's journey from Midwestern farm boy to global troubadour, bestselling author of Iron John and leader of the men's movement.

Burns in the USA

Robert Burns was well aware of the revolution taking place across the Atlantic as he grew up. The poet was inspired. And America was to be inspired by him. From Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, some of the most significant figures in American politics and culture have cited Burns as an influence.

Sunnyside

Ninety-year-old sound artist and comedian Henry “Sandy” Jacobs lives a quirky existence at the end of Sunnyside Drive, a steep and winding dirt road washed by fog from the Pacific Ocean. Sixty feet down the hill lives his eccentric 84-year-old friend and neighbor, architect and former Frank Lloyd Wright collaborator Daniel Liebermann. These extraordinary old men, influential artists in the 1950s and ’60s, continue, each in their own way, to search the world for perfection. Sunnyside takes us to an extraordinary place, a microcosm with its own distinctive rhythm and remarkable inhabitants. It is a film about creativity, the capacity to dream and, ultimately, the transience of life.

Mes indésirables

"Before I left today, I almost forgot to answer a lot of e-mails."

La langue ne ment pas

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), a professor of literature in Dresden, was Jewish; through the efforts of his wife, he survived the war. From 1933 when Hitler came to power to the war's end, he kept a journal paying attention to the Nazis' use of words. This film takes the end of 1945 as its vantage point, with a narrator looking back as if Klemperer reads from his journal. He examines the use of simple words like "folk," "eternal," and "to live." Interspersed are personal photographs, newsreel footage of Reich leaders and of life in Germany then, and a few other narrative devices. Although he's dispassionate, Klemperer's fear and dread resonate

I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story

'I Used to be Normal - A Boyband Fangirl Story' is the surprising coming of age story of four diverse women who have had their lives dramatically changed by their love of a boyband - Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.

Hip Hop Hijabis

Two Muslim converts promoting women's rights through music… and finding their own voices on the way. A documentary film about 'Poetic Pilgrimage'.

خيوط السرد

Twelve Palestinian women sit before us and talk of their life before the Diaspora, of their memories, of their lives and of their identity. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery. Twelve resilient, determined and articulate women from disparate walks of life: lawyers, artists, housewives, activists, architects, and politicians stitch together the story of their homeland, of their dispossession, and of their unwavering determination that justice will prevail. Through their stories, the individual weaves into the collective, yet remaining distinctly personal. Twelve women, twelve life-spans, and stories from Palestine; a land whose position was fixed on the map of the world, but is now embroidered on its face.

Tuorås Dalska

In the small community of Älvdalen in northern Dalarna, Sweden, the unique language Elfdalian (Älvdalska) is spoken. This documentary follows Ing-Marie's personal story about how it is and has been to live with the Elfdalian language.

Sherwood Park

Reclaiming what was once stolen from him, a man journeys back to the place of his childhood nearly 80 years after his world came crashing down.

Komisija

For some time now, The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language is at the center of tough discussions. For some, it’s an institution which safeguards the most important principles of the language, but for others, it’s an anachronism of the Soviet regime. This film offers a first-time glimpse into the commission’s work

Isla Negra: Neruda y el mar

Um Dia Eu Fui Zeus

Language Matters with Bob Holman

There are over 6,000 languages in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world's languages will have vanished. Language Matters with Bob Holman is a two hour documentary that asks: What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?

The Blue Years

Rubén tries to describe the color blue as "The color of dreams, of art, of the ocean and of the firmament", thereby unleashing half a century of poetry.

Cowboy Poets

Since 1985, poets, songwriters and musicians have gathered at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada.