Fakir

The feature-length documentary Fakir portrays the success of fakirism in Brazil, Latin America and France. This circus art origin show is presented and analyzed through archives that reveals the success of these presentations with their pain resistance championships and the great public presence, including politicians and government officials. Fakir spans current footage from contemporary artists who keep this art alive in performances and shows.

Prater

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam

A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her world and she finds herself in the universe of QUIDAM, where she is joined by a playful companion, as well as another mysterious character who attempts to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling and the terrifying.

Cirque du Soleil: Alegria

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth - it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.

Cirque du Soleil : Saltimbanco

From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.

Cirque du Soleil: Varekai

Icarus is the main character of Varekai, who falls to the ground, breaking his legs as he does. He is suddenly in a strange, new world full of creatures he has never seen before. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, this young man sets off on an adventure both absurd and extraordinary.

Hatching by Cirque du Soleil

A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil

Circus Kid

The Pickle Family Circus was founded by Lorenzo Pisoni's parents in 1974. The film documents the spirit, the lunacy, the daring, the danger and the dynamics of growing up in a circus family.

A Farra do Circo

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.

Malcolm Margolin: San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards 2008

Malcolm Margolin , Writer, Publisher, and Founder of Heyday Books, winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2008 Community Leadership Awards (the Helen Crocker Russell Award) - for promoting California's diverse cultures for more than 30 years, and for bringing voice, visibility, and value to multicultural, multilingual communities.

Femmenell (City of Mermaids)

A journey between the sacred and profane in which the Femminielli, an ancient non-binary Neapolitan figure, fight for their survival against the globalizing tides of modernity.

Embrace Kids

Explores the world of body image through the eyes of children and covers topics including diversity, social media, photoshopping, the influence of media and positive role models.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.

The Circus

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

The Blind Sea

Australian blind surfer Matt Formston’s mettle is pushed to the limits in this thrilling documentary. With only 3% vision, the 4x World Champion attempts his most fearsome and dangerous challenge yet, surfing the monster waves of Nazaré.

Társai

Andrea and Krisztina Marics are 28-year-old identical twins with a teaching degree that have lived together since birth. They work together at a touring circus, doing joint artistic performances. After a long circus tour abroad, Andrea leaves the close relationship and ends their work together. She feels that she can succeed on her own. Krisztina still lives and works in the circus but struggles to find her place there without Andrea. After the winter tour, Krisztina has to decide if she stays at home with her sister or continues the life of a wanderer.

Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba

In the magical world of La Nouba, dreams become reality and talent turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. La Nouba is, literally, a waking dream come true – clowns, ballerinas, trapeze artists, an incredible BMX bicycle act – and much more.

Ich hätte am Kronleuchter hängen bleiben müssen

The Circus: Premiere

Footage from the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film 'The Circus'.

Sara's Circus

Sara Greene is a 20-year circus industry veteran with a big dream—to start her own tented circus. As the summer moves along on Weirs Beach, Sara faces serious obstacles in fulfilling her dream, and in sharing that dream with her ailing step-mother, to whom her show was dedicated.