Category: Documentary

April 14, 2021 / Documentary

This film focuses on the experiences of African-American students at Yale in the early 1970s. The influential documentary short follows students Erroll McDonald and Eugene Rivers, and features a conversation with civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

March 30, 2021 / Documentary

Syria in 1977. Ossama Mohammed’s film explores how in an oppressive society individuals are subjected to various stages of submission until they are prepared to accept violence. Images of everyday life in rural areas where education is minimal provide a portrait of young villagers. Theirs is a choice between a life of toil working the land as their parents have done, or that of a migrant labourer in the city. Trapped between religious and political ideologies and completely fascinated by authority, many of these young peasants choose the army.

March 28, 2021 / Documentary

This film is a moving tribute to French filmmaker Jean Rouch. Pauwels, a former collaborator of Rouch, accompanies him on a trip to Japan. In this cinematic letter, which he himself calls “a journey into the memory”, Pauwels philosophises about the essence of cinema and, consequently, of life.

February 24, 2021 / Documentary

A short film about Dublin City using a mixture of contemporary footage, folk music and quotations from past residents, Shaw, Wilde and Behan etc. Narrated in a “conversation” by Anthony Quayle and Norman Rodway.

February 22, 2021 / Biography

A look at artist Mark Hicks of Manhattan Beach, California, a quadriplegic since falling out of a tree at age 14. His work is examined, along with a discussion of his being a student at UCLA, culminating with his first gallery show in San Francisco.

February 9, 2021 / Documentary

Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerful and moving documentary focuses on a few of the eighty hibakusha who journeyed from Japan to New York in June, 1982, to take part in peace demonstrations held to coincide with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. They came to urge the nations of the world to prevent nuclear war. Instead of concentrating on the physical suffering of the victims, the film reveals the mental anguish of the hibakusha, who are still haunted by nightmares.

December 26, 2020 / Comedy

The protagonist of this film is a former silent film actor who has saved old movies of his time from destruction, and uses them to set up recreational performances at schools. After an accidental fire and the risk of prison, he meets a rich producer who helps him to build a film museum.