道頓堀よ、泣かせてくれ! DOCUMENTARY of NMB48

Launched in 2011 as a sister group to girl band behemoth AKB48, the Osaka-based NMB48 has become a musical force itself. With a string of No.1 hit singles and albums, not to mention sell-out performances, NMB48 continues Japan’s pop-music phenomena. Director Funahashi Atsushi, whose documentary work has previously chronicled such harrowing events as the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, pulls back the curtain on the life and struggles of the band members and the workings of the idol-making industry.

311復興與再生

Fukushima used to be a wonderful place. Unfortunately, since March 11, 2011, "Fukushima" has been superseded by another name: Nuclear Disaster Zone. Six years have passed, but over 80,000 Fukushima residents still cannot return home, still cannot return to their former lives. How did they get through it? Reconstruction work is slow. Several years on, surrounding the site of the Fukushima nuclear incident, there remain many refuge-seeking residents whose homes are still in lockdown. In the streets, people are taking it to their own hands to save their communities. Psychologically and practically, how does one rebuild? Does the civil society's self-rescue mission conclude in recovering what was lost, or in reviving an even better community? In their eyes, what is "revival"? What is the meaning of "rebirth"? Our crew went all over the coastal areas of Fukushima, recording stories of residents each finding their own ways to save themselves.

Tokyo Idols

This exploration of Japan's fascination with girl bands and their music follows an aspiring pop singer and her fans, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

Toypunks

Toypunks is a documentary film series covering the converging world of Japanese toys, fashion and punk rock. Exploring the birth of the designer vinyl explosion from its roots in character culture and punk music, Toypunks takes you in-depth with Japanese fashion icon, Hikaru Iwanaga, creator of the worlds first designer toy. Frank Kozik, Hiddy Kinoshita of Secret Base, Balzac, Three Tides Tattoo and more are interviewed highlighting profound cross-cultural connections between todays top creative talents in toys and fashion.

Queer Japan

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan.

Las Hurdes

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Dworzec

Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec (Station, 1980) portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.

Gestern und heute

Nazi propaganda film contrasting Germany in the days before Adolf Hitler became Chancellor with the Germany of "today" and how much better it is.

Die Bauten Adolf Hitlers

Nazi Third Reich propaganda film that used architecture as a statement about "racial accomplishment," and so called "racial superiority." Hitler claimed that between 1934 and 1940, the Nazi rule of Germany had produced architectural uniqueness, and this film was produced to shown to attempt to validate that. The opening montage gives a survey of earlier Gothic and Baroque structures in the country as an example of "architectural superiority" that the German race was said to be the sole inventor of; then moves on to deride the recent construction of the Bauhaus school (with a racially motivated score of Jazz music) and an example of German "architectural decay." Then proceeds to show off buildings constructed by the Nazi and an architectural revival, to "last 1000 years," Film also spends a great of time dwelling on massive and "busy" monuments that had been erected all over the county.

Japon : L'Empire du sexe virtuel

Heldentod - Der Tunnel und die Lüge

It was the biggest escape in the history of the Berlin Wall: in one historic night of October 1964, 57 East-Berliners try their luck through a tunnel into West Berlin. Just before the last few reach the other side, the East German border guards notice the escape and open fire. Remarkably, all the refugees and their escape agents make it out of the tunnel unscathed, but one border guard is dead: 21-year-old officer Egon Schultz.

Kintaro Walks Japan

Kintaro Walks Japan is a documentary film produced and directed by Tyler MacNiven. It is an account of MacNiven's journey walking and backpacking the entire length of Japan from Kyūshū to Hokkaidō, more than 2000 miles in 145 days.

Советский Таджикистан: Международный день молодёжи

Events that took place in the capital of the Tajik SSR, the city of Dushanbe in 1929.

Советский Таджикистан: Прибытие первого поезда в Душанбе

On September 11, 1929, the first Termez-Dushanbe train arrived at the newly built station in the Tajik capital. However, not only the train was the first that day - the shots of the arrival of the locomotive, as well as people waiting for it with excitement, became the basis of the first Tajik film.

Cherry Blossom Time in Japan

In this Traveltalk short, the symbolic role of cherry blossoms in Japanese culture is explored as well as the traditional Japanese religions of Shintoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Don't Be a Sucker!

Propaganda short film depicting the rise of Nazism in Germany and how political propaganda is similarly used in the United States. The film was made to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces.

Les Sorcières de l’Orient

The Japanese volleyball players called the “Oriental Witches” are now in their 70s. From the formation of the team at the factory until their victory at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, memories and legends rise to the surface and blend inextricably.

夢と狂気の王国

Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.

The Contestant

The incredible true story of a man who lived for 15 months trapped inside a small room, naked, starving and alone... and completely unaware that his life was being broadcast on national TV in Japan, to over 15 million viewers a week.

Heart of the Country

"Heart of the Country" is the story of Shinichi Yasutomo, the extraordinary principal of a rural elementary school in Kanayama, central Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Yasutomo is a man driven by his vision for learning and his passion for educating the heart as well as the mind. The film follows Yasutomo, his teachers and staff, students and their families over the course of one entire school year. The film is also the story of the families of Kanayama. Parents and elders of this once impoverished town embrace Yasutomo's vision, but not without wary glances back to the past. This small community, bound together by love for its children, is also defined by its journey through the cultural upheavals of postwar Japan.