The images in this film come from an extensive collection of out-dated raw stock that has been processed without being exposed, and sometimes rephotographed in closer format. Each pattern of grain takes on its own emotional life, an evocation of different aspects of our own being.
Year: 2021
Jeannette Vaubernier, an impulsive shopgirl en route to deliver a hat, dreams of luxury and position as she saunters through the woods, and attracted by a pool of water, she disrobes and plunges in. Cosse de Brissac, a handsome private in the King’s Guards, comes to her rescue and they become sweethearts. Meanwhile, Jean Du Barry, a shrewd roué, takes note of her at the millinery shop and tricks her into staying at La Gourda’s, where she soon becomes a favorite among the men.
Harry Flowers is routinely humiliated both at home and at work (the German offices of an American credit card company). Fed up, he hires prostitute Corinne to help him gain revenge on his quirky wife Sarah and her father/his boss, the overbearing Mr. Elliott — all while enriching himself financially.
David Gladwell (Requiem for a Village) was just 20 years old when he made A Summer Discord, an imaginative amateur, silent short film set in the countryside which tells the story of a little girl who is reprimanded by her mother. Of particular note is the film’s dark nightmare sequence which is shot in colour (unlike the rest of the film) and which anticipates Gladwell’s later, highly poetical films.
Karemoana was the final destination of Manfred Signal, retired teacher of drawing, whose life was dedicated to nursing her dying mother, and instructing generations of young girls in the art of accurately depicting shadows. But now her mother has died and Manfred feels free to break away and begin life anew. She journeys ‘up north’, and begins to settle in her idyllic island home in a little white cottage near the sea. She had looked forward to savouring the feeling of aloneness, but her first long night in her new home is one of terror.
While on assignment to document poverty in Brazil for Life magazine, African American photographer Gordon Parks encountered one of the most important subjects of his career: Flávio da Silva. Parks featured the resourceful, ailing boy, who lived with his family in one of Rio’s working-class neighborhoods known as favelas, in his 1961 photo essay “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty.” His reportage resulted in donations from Life readers but also sparked controversy.
This film depicts the life of the 19th-century Portuguese writer Wenceslau De Moraes by means of nine ancient ballads from China. The writer married a Chinese woman after he left his wife and family to go live in Macao. Later, he moved to Japan where he fell in love with a Japanese woman, staying in Japan for the rest of his life. Mixed in with the career and loves of Moraes is the history of Portugal at home and in its colonies.