Matthew Polly On "Game Of Death"

Matthew Polly analyzes the film and its impact

Stillness in the Wave

The documentary portrayed one of the most established dance companies in Hong Kong which has a history of over four decades. With a tradition of blending Chinese dance and ballet together in the training, the dance company has set sail to re-evaluate its artistic essence by adapting new physical disciplines and philosophy, picking up different cultural traces, meditation and Chinese martial arts. Through monologues of the company members, the film unveiled their fears, self-doubts, and findings in their quest to refine their dance forms and express their cultural roots. It's an uncertain journey towards the cultivation of inner peace and the essence of movement and stillness.

戲棚

This film is a portrait of unique cultural space for Spirits, Gods and People. While permanent theatres are commonly built in most cosmopolitan modern cities, Hong Kong preserves a unique theatrical architecture, a Chinese tradition that has lasted more than a century - Bamboo Theatre.

Fists of Fury

Class is in session as your seductive sensei, Cynthia Rothrock gives you the hardest hitting lessons of your life! Courses include a study on the greatest ‘Martial Arts Movie Masters’, ‘Deadliest Weapons”, and the many failed attempts at recreating the ‘Magic of Bruce Lee’. Will you earn your cinematic black-belt or get tossed on the pile of failed students?

Eu sunt Hercule

Herculane Baths, one of the oldest resorts in Europe, the place where, a few centuries ago, kings and queens were diving in the healing waters, became a maze where people get lost while looking for something better. Relu, Mitica and Gelu, three masseurs, are tour guides through the maze of an Eastern Europe garden of Eden.

Fist of Fear, Touch of Death

A television reporter interviews fighters and promoters about Bruce Lee in preparation for a tournament to claim the title of “Successor to the Bruce Lee legacy”. Footage from Bruce Lee's films and interviews is repurposed in pseudo-documentary style.

龍虎武師

A new documentary film revisits the golden age of kung fu stuntmen and action directors in Hong Kong during the 1960s-'80s, exploring their pain and struggles. The documentary is a tribute to kung fu stuntmen. “They risked their lives for stunts,” said kung fu choreographer Yuen Bin. In their heyday, these stuntmen and choreographers presented the best, most creative and most complicated kung fu fight sequences anywhere in the world, creating stunts that looked seemingly impossible.

Heal

A documentary film that takes us on a scientific and spiritual journey where we discover that by changing one's perceptions, the human body can heal itself from any disease.

The Shaman & Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms

Filmed in the jungles of Peru, shaman Don Jose Campos introduces the practices and benefits of Ayahuasca, the psychoactive plant brew that has been used for healing and visionary journeys by Amazonian shamans for at least a thousand years.

Jackie Chan Edition: Seine spektakulärsten Kämpfe

Three Styles of Hung School's Kung Fu

A short film that originally played before showings of "Heroes Two" - in which Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan Tai and Chi Kuan-Chun demonstrate different techniques of Hung boxing.

Тъй рече Ванга

А film about the world-famous prophetess Vanga with unique, hitherto unseen shots, in which she is the main character and in which she speaks only, sharing how the gift of seeing into the future overshadowed her, what miracles she witnessed in her long life. Vanga meets the tragic fates of different people, to whom she inspires faith and comfort. At the same time, with her own funds, she built the church "St. Petka" in Rupite, painted by the artist Svetlin Russev. The film was shot for years until the last days of the prophetess, leaving it to mature in the minds of the authors and is dramatically meaningful with the attitude towards it and with today's view of the presented events.

Be Water

In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.

The Tapping Solution

This film explores "Tapping", a new discovery that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology with startling results. The Tapping Solution explores Tapping in a way that's never been seen before. The film combines the wisdom and experience of world famous teachers, speakers, and motivators, with an element that's usually missing: REAL LIFE CASES, unfolding before your eyes. Ten people spend four days working with Tapping practitioners to see if they can turn their lives around. The results are fully documented and the ride is one that you'll never forget.

Chinese Hercules: The Bolo Yeung Story

This is the story of the bodybuilder, Martial Artist and actor who wrote his own destiny and walked his own path. A legendary tale that's never been told on-screen before.

Zrodzeni do szabli

This is the story of a young nobleman and knight Błażeja Wronowski set in 17th-century Poland. Błażej begins military education with Jan Jerlicz, a veteran of the Moscow War. Jerlicz returns to his homeland to at the urging of his former companion, Jerzy Wronowski, to train the young Błażej. It is a story of honor, bravery and combat seen through the eyes of a young knight growing up in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

A Common Experience

A poetic exploration of the multi-generational affects of Canada's Indian Residential School system, based on the personal trials of Aboriginal playwright Yvette Nolan.

Aya: Awakenings

Aya: Awakenings' is an experiential journey by journalist Rak Razam into the world and visions of ayahuasca, a powerful hallucinogenic plant medicine from the Amazon, capturing the experience and the western dynamic around it in unprecedented detail.

Faith

A community of monks lives isolated from the world, practicing martial arts and following the master’s strict rules. This film investigates their harsh life and the flow of Time in unique closed environment, to approach deep motivations of a radical choice, and the reasons that pushed the monks away from their affections.

Vold i kærlighedens navn

Behind the closed doors of the Copenhagen-based women's shelter, the women and children are slowly recovering after having escaped domestic violence. Day by day the women are processing their traumas, building confidence and slowly understanding what it takes to break the cycle of violence.