*** Notice: For the protection of property rights, this catalog is available for online browsing only. Please drop us a line if you would like to receive a copiable version of this catalog. Thank You!


Content

PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY


PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY


ANGELMAKERS, THE

Directed by Astrid Bussink

In a small, sleepy village in the Hungarian countryside, after the First World War, a series of arsenic murders took place. Over 140 bodies were discovered. The victims, all men, were apparently killed by their wives.

The Angelmakers is a fascinating and brilliantly irreverent documentary that reconstructs the murders from conversations with the town's present, mostly elderly, inhabitants - many of whom remember the murders themselves or heard the stories from their parents or grandparents. Through recollections, anecdotes and sometimes foggy memories, different pieces of the story slowly emerge, and gradually an intriguing web of circumstance and motivation begins to appear. The idea was first suggested by a local midwife. The arsenic was extracted from flypaper and added in tiny doses to the husbands' meals. The marriages were all arranged. Women weren't allowed a life outside their homes. Many of them were beaten by their husbands who returned from the First World War wounded, crippled and estranged.

The townspeople also reflect on how little has changed over the years. While women in the village today have a small amount of freedom, with divorce being an option, they must still fight for certain rights and privileges.

Alternating between the inhabitants' first-person narrations and vivid portraits of the countryside, The Angelmakers considers the social, economic and cultural factors behind one of the most extreme examples of female uprising in history.

Reviews
  • "Astonishing viewing! A beautifully poignant tale that avoids sensationalism as it unravels the village's open secret." - The Times (UK)

  • "What is great about documentaries is that they often present stories which are stranger than fiction, stories that seem to be straight out of a novel or a fiction film. Astrid Bussink's The Angelmakers tells one such tale..." - DOX Magazine

  • "With structural density, black humour, poetry and compassion for the characters, the director reveals a story that, only at first sight, could be seen as a historical one. This is definitely a film by a young filmmaker who has already mastered many of the elements of the art of documentary filmmaking." - Jury of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam

  • "A rich classroom resource for discussion... Highly recommended for Eastern European studies, women's and gender issues, marriage, domestic violence, patriarchy, and women's empowerment." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Notes
  • Official Selection, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2006
  • Official Selection, Flaherty Film Seminar, 2006
  • Official Selection, Cinema du Reel, France, 2006
  • Official Selection, Women's Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea, 2006

    Awards
  • Winner, First Appearance Award, Amsterdam Documentary Festival, 2006
  • Winner, Jury Prize, Visions du Reel Film Festival, Switzerland, 2006
  • Winner, Best Documentary Short, European Independent Film Festival, 2006
  • Winner, Best Short Documentary, Dokfest Film Festival, 2006
  • Winner, Small Stamp Award, Zagreb Dox, International Documentary Film Festival, 2006


  • Item no. : PP05970013
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 34 minutes
    Copyright : 2005
    Price : USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    BRIEF PEACE, A

    Directed by: Ata Hayati

    Revealing an aspect of Iranian society rarely exposed to the West, A Brief Peace looks at Iran's distinctive culture of death.

    Twenty years after the disappearance of the young Iranian Ali, his mother can finally bury him. He used to work for the Air Force and died as a martyr. At a special cemetery, Iranians who have found lost loved ones are collectively interred. Fellow mourners have had to wait in line to make a reservation for a tombstone, and one man even has the presence of mind to ask for a discount. Through a window, they watch how the corpses are wrapped in shrouds. In many cases, the only remnants are a weathered belt, an old shoe or some bones. The tombstones are meticulously engraved, complete with a portrait of the deceased carved in stone. Death is the beginning of a new life and they embrace it.

    A Brief Peace presents the culture of death in Iran, depicting how close death and life, laughter and tears, or sadness and happiness can be. The cemetery is a rendezvous, a picnic place, a play ground and a training place for the soldiers.

    Notes
  • Official Selection, International Film Festival Amsterdam
  • Official Selection, Brooklyn International Film Festival


  • Item no. : AB05970039
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 52 minutes
    Copyright : 2004
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    BURIED IN THE BACKYARD

    Directed by Monica Bigler and Sarah Prior

    Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, American preoccupation with personal security has reached proportions not seen since the Cold War. Buried in the Backyard traverses the American landscape to introduce us to men and women who are actively engaged in preparations for the next terrorist attack.

    They are young and old, married and single, with kids and without; but they all spend a great deal of time building, stocking, playing and living in their bomb shelters. Some have a year's worth of food stored in their shelter; others have decided to build a second one, just in case. Whether seated on their living room couches, or taking us on a guided tour of their shelters, these ¡®security enthusiasts' discuss their reasons for being prepared, talk candidly about what most people think of their paranoia, and of course, how these people could become a threat by trying to crowd into their shelters should a nuclear attack take place (for the record, most say they won't let them in).

    Depicting the lengths to which regular men and women will go to protect themselves, this fascinating documentary provides a compelling portrait of Americans facing their fears at the dawn of the 21st century.

    Notes
  • Official Selection, San Francisco International Film Festival
  • Official Selection, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
  • Official Selection, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival


  • Item no. : FA05970043
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 30 minutes
    Copyright : 2005
    Price : USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    GILLES' WIFE

    Directed by Frederic Fonteyne

    In a small French mining town in the 1930s, Elisa is a devoted wife and mother passionately in love with her husband Gilles. She spends her days caring for their two young daughters, while awaiting the birth of a third. Her beautiful and carefree younger sister Victorine drops by often to play with the children and help around the house. Elisa is content and fulfilled, happy with her place in life. One night, however, she is overtaken by troubling thoughts. Elisa begins to suspect that Gilles is having an affair with another woman. Determined to save her marriage, and with no other options available to her, Elisa undertakes a strange and disquieting battle to recover what she has lost, and to become, once again, Gilles' wife.

    Steeped in rich period detail that re-creates the atmosphere of classic French cinema of the 1930s - the working-class films of Jean Gabin and Simone Simon - the film explores Elisa's emotional upheaval over the course of a year. Working with a screenplay by Fonteyne and writers Philippe Blasband and Marion H?nsel that adapts the 1937 novel of the same name, Emmanuelle Devos delivers a masterful, quietly intense turn as a woman whose world has been turned upside down, while cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin's powerful compositions and Vermeer-like lighting capturing the turbulence and desperation that Elisa refuses to put into words.

    Reviews
  • "Rapturous! Seduces us with true cinematic magic. Striking, painterly images... The ending is a stunner."- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

  • "It's an altogether extraordinary piece of work, and I hope more people have a chance to see it."- Leonard Maltin

  • "A spectacular achievement! A heartbreaking cinematic work that finely balances melodrama, family love story and devastating tragedy." - Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

  • "Gripping! Suffused with a painterly tenderness and cruelty. To watch Devos is to somehow tap into things infinite."- Robert Abele, LA Times

  • "Lavishly beautiful! Emmanuelle Devos gives a stunning performance." - Jami Bernard, New York Daily News

  • "Most of the film has the exquisite textures of some oil paintings, and certain shots could be auctioned off at Sotheby's. And the ones of Devos's face deserve to be studied in art history classes." - Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

    Note
  • Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival

    Award
  • Winner, C.IC.A.E. Award, Venice Film Festival


  • Item no. : PJ05970121
    Format : DVD (French, With English Subtitles)
    Duration : 108 minutes
    Copyright : 2004
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    HOME FRONT

    Directed by Richard Hankin

    Three and a half years in to the war in Iraq, most media reports about the war focus solely on either the death toll or the political divisions within America. What continues to be overshadowed are the untold stories of the increasing numbers of those severely wounded soldiers who are returning home after serving in combat - only to start a different battle.

    To date, nearly 20,000 American troops have been wounded in the war in Iraq. Home Front gives a face and a voice to these underrepresented soldiers and their families, told intimately through the Feldbusch family of Western Pennsylvania, and their wounded, son Jeremy.

    Soon after the start of the war, 23-year old Army Ranger Jeremy Feldbusch is hit by a piece of shrapnel that slices into his head just above his right eye and lodges in his brain, leaving him completely blind. Further, he suffers considerable damage to his frontal lobe, impairing his impulse control and making him prone to unpredictable mood swings and seizures.

    Home Front captures the human story of Jeremy's return to civilian life in his small hometown, and his subsequent readjustment to family, community - and most importantly, his new, altered self. The result is an unprecedented and insightful view of how one family copes with events that have changed them forever. By turns heartbreaking and inspiring, Home Front gets behind the often-sanitized myth of war to reveal its true complications and costs.

    Reviews
  • "Indelible... Home Front is a picture not only of Mr. Feldbusch but also of the rural, staunchly pro-war society (reminiscent of the world of The Deer Hunter) to which he returns to become a devoted activist working for veterans' welfare. In this unsentimental, apolitical film, Jeremy emerges as a hero, as do the stoic working-class people around him. No matter how one views the war in Iraq, these are men and women of rock-solid character and courage." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

  • "Alarmingly valuable" - Jessica Winter, Village Voice

  • "Terrific! A lucid knockout of a movie! Hankin's directorial virtues include patience, pace, and structure, and an eye for external details that reveal inner strength. But, paramount is his ability to see beyond his preconceptions-and thus shaking the audiences out of theirs."- Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun

  • "A powerful look at the personal cost of war." - Eugene Hernandez, Indiewire

  • "Expertly made...Disturbing and moving." - John Anderson, Variety

  • "Home Front is not overtly pro-war or antiwar. Richard Hankin, the director, knows that nobody feels good about the situation of a young Army ranger from small-town Pennsylvania who comes home from Iraq blind and finds that the support system for wounded veterans like him is far from perfect." - Anita Gates, The New York Times

    Note
  • Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival, 2006


  • Item no. : AB05970145
    Format : DVD (Closed Captioned)
    Duration : 93 minutes
    Copyright : 2006
    Price : USD 350.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    LESSONS IN FEAR

    Directed By: James Cullingham

    Does the solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians rest in the classroom rather than in the angry, fearful streets of the region? Lessons in Fear looks at Israeli and Palestinian kids on the frontlines of education, exploring the education system in both societies from ground up. In a media world obsessed with conflict, Lessons in Fear takes humanized, behind-the-scenes look at how ordinary kids are educated in one of the world's trouble spots.

    In the war-torn areas where civility and basic rights have been forgotten, the education of young minds is what gets affected the most. The film looks at the struggle to make education a positive force in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

    Reviews
  • "Lessons in Fear educates, informs, and helps the viewer observe life in two different cultures. This documentary is an excellent addition for collections with emphasis on Education and Middle Eastern Studies. Recommended." - Educational Media Reviews Online

  • "Lessons in Fear probes the other kinds of 'occupation.' Not just territorial, but the occupation of the soul..." - Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star


  • Item no. : SM05970187
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 52 minutes
    Copyright : 2005
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    MY DAD IS INTO TERRORISM

    Directed by William Karel

    In the mid-1980s, Paris was hit by a wave of deadly terrorist attacks. When Gilles Boulouque, a well-respected judge presiding over the investigation, unexpectedly - and mysteriously - released the suspected terrorist mastermind, he was immediately vilified by the media, his colleagues, and the general public. On December 13, 1990, at the age of 40, he committed suicide.

    Based on an acclaimed memoir by his daughter, this gripping documentary from award-winning Tunisian director William Karel reveals the true story behind the public investigation and its psychological toll on the lives of both the judge and his young daughter.

    The documentary suggests, now widely believed to be the case, that the release of the terror suspect was orchestrated by the government in a secret deal with Iran in exchange for French journalists held hostage in Lebanon. Comprised of generous home-movie footage and remarkable news archives (including an astonishing televised spat between then-President Fran?ois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac), My Dad is into Terrorism is a powerful case study in the intersection of politics, ethics, media, and terrorism.

    Reviews
  • "Extraordinary! A sober, shattering record of the collateral damage of an earlier War on Terror." - Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

  • "Methodical and cumulatively powerful!" - Lisa Nesselson, Variety

  • "It's not just a brilliant exercise in style, but also constitutes the first step towards inventing a new genre." - Positif


  • Item no. : DC05970222
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 90 minutes
    Copyright : 2006
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    NEVER PERFECT

    Directed by Regina Park

    How are ideals of beauty influenced by race, history, and geopolitics? With a rich selection of film clips and archival footage, Never Perfect examines the dramatic rise in popularity of cosmetic surgery among Asian-American women.

    In 2006, there were 11 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures performed in the United States, constituting an $11.4 billion industry. Most Asian women, in particular, experience acute cultural and social pressure to strive for extremely high standards of achievement and flawlessness. Among ethnic patients, the number of Asian-Americans seeking plastic and cosmetic surgery has risen 55% from 2004 to 2006.

    Never Perfect follows the complex journey of a young Vietnamese-American woman - raised against a backdrop of American malls, movies, fashion magazines and makeover shows - as she struggles with her decision to undergo a cosmetic procedure known as double eyelid surgery.

    In the process, this incisive documentary considers historical and contemporary examples of beauty, stereotypes and iconography within Asian and popular cultures in exploring the factors that influence body image and self-perception - as well as what it means to be an ever-evolving, multi-faceted woman living in today's global society.

    Notes
  • Official Selection, American Psychological Association's annual national convention, 2007
  • Official Selection, Asian Film Festival of Dallas, 2007
  • Official Selection, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, 2007

    Award
  • Silver Remi Award, Houston WorldFest International Film Festival, 2007


  • Item no. : PW05970589
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 65 minutes
    Copyright : 2007
    Price : USD 350.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    OTHER PEOPLE'S PICTURES

    Directed by Lorca Shepperd and Cabot Philbrick

    Other People's Pictures is a documentary about collectors who share an unlikely obsession - snapshots that have been abandoned or lost by their original owners and are now for sale. The film is set at New York City's Chelsea Flea Market where every weekend, dozens of collectors sift doggedly through piles, boxes and bins of cast-off photos, ready to pay anywhere from a few cents to hundreds of dollars for a single snapshot.

    While some collectors look at the snapshots as found art, others search for images that reflect events and themes in their own lives. One collector, Drew, explains that when he was a teenager, his mother joined a cult and got rid of all their family photos. As a result, he recreates family albums for himself with pictures of strangers that he buys at the flea market. Another collector, Dan, is Jewish and lost many family members to the Holocaust. He collects what he calls 'banality of evil' snapshots: average, everyday photographs of Nazis. A third collector, Leslie, searches for suggestive photographs of men hugging, playing or sitting on each other's laps. He admits it's impossible to know whether these men were gay, but he feels that in some way he is rescuing a little piece of queer history.

    Many of the film's subjects find that collecting 'other people's pictures' helps them confront the darker aspects of human existence - familial trauma, social injustice, historical atrocity. Others simply appreciate the beauty, humor and mystery of these scavenged images. The uninitiated ask: Why buy someone else's family photographs? In Other People's Pictures, nine collectors try to answer this question as they hunt for the images that feed their fantasies and quiet the voices in their heads.

    Reviews
  • "After seeing this eye-opening documentary, sensitive viewers will undoubtedly examine common 'snaps' in an enjoyable new way. For viewers interested in snapshots as a cultural, historical, and artistic phenomenon." - Booklist

  • "A fascinating documentary. Critic's Pick." - New York Magazine

  • "...a sweet introduction to a little-known world of eccentric collectors." - New York Post

  • "...square dealing and respectful... contains enough material for a dozen films." - The Onion

  • "...offers a quick but satisfying peek at life - just like the best old snapshots do." - Washington City Paper

  • "...enough to make your fingers itch for a box of wrinkled photos..." - Time Out New York

  • "There haven't been many films that made me laugh and cry, but this is the latest one." - Newwest.net

    Notes
  • Official Screening, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2005
  • Official Screening, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2004
  • Official Selection, Silverdocs International Film Festival, 2004

    Awards
  • Winner, Finalist - Best Documentary Short, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, 2005
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Ozone Film Festival, 2005
  • Honorable Mention, Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival, 2005
  • Winner, Best Documentary, New Orleans Film Festival, 2004
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Coney Island Film Festival, 2004


  • Item no. : AN05970239
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 53 minutes
    Copyright : 2004
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    OTHER SIDE OF BURKA, THE

    Directed by: Mehrdad Oskouel

    On the southern Iranian island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf, the women must wear a headscarf, but also a special type of "burka," a pinching mask of black bands pressing against the eyebrows and nose, and ending in a point just above the mouth. Against strict religious rules, these women talk openly in this film about their physical and emotional suffering. "We never wanted to appear before a camera, but now we do," one woman proclaims, "we may wear a burka, but we are human beings. We breathe and live." Appearing before a camera, before an audience, is their only chance for escape. Their only other option, which occurs frequently on the island, is suicide. The film, in fact, begins with the funeral of Samireh, a young woman who hanged herself from a fan with her shawl. At the funeral, her grieving husband expresses the following sentiment, "A woman is like a pair of shoes. When one is gone, you can find another one. But what am I supposed to do with the children?"

    Interweaving candid interviews with both the men and women of the island, with images of daily life (the island is regularly plagued by draughts and other catastrophes), filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouel documents one of the most extreme examples of face-veiling and makes every effort to give these bullied women their beauty and soul back.

    Reviews
  • "An eerie look at the literally maddening lives of Iranian women on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm, where they are forced to wear a pinching black face mask." - L.A.Times

  • "Filmmaker Oskouei's penetrating documentary presents a sympathetic portrait of these women who do not rebel, but rather talk with surprising candor about their unhappiness." - Video Librarian

  • "Highly recommended! This cultural documentary offers insights into the unquestioned tradition of patriarchy and the dimension of deprivation and suffering women experience." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Notes
  • Official Selection, Amsterdam International Documentary Festival, 2005
  • Official Selection, International Film Festival on Human Rights, 2005
  • Official Selection, Thessaloniki Int'l Documentary Film Festival, 2005
  • Official Selection, Amensty International Film Festival, 2005
  • Official Selection, Internatioanl Festival of Women's films ASSEN, 2005

    Awards
  • Winner, Grand Prize, Montreal Human Rights International Film Festival, 2006
  • Winner, Special Prize, Mediawave International Film Festival, 2006
  • Winner, Best Film, Krakow International Film Festival, 2005
  • Winner, Horizons Award, Munich International Documentary Festival, 2005
  • Winner, One World International Premier Award, England, 2005
  • Winner, Best Director, International Fajr Film Festival, 2005
  • Winner, Best Young Filmmaker of the Year, Iranian Film Ceremony, 2005
  • Winner, Best Documentary Filmmaker, Iranian Film Ceremony, 2005


  • Item no. : JM05970240
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 52 minutes
    Copyright : 2004
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    PROMISED PARADISE

    Directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich

    How can one believe that terrorism leads to heaven? Banned by the Indonesian government, this provocative documentary examines the psychology of extremism in a country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

    Promised Paradise, a new film from renowned documentary filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich, made international news earlier this year when Indonesian authorities suddenly banned it from screening at the Jakarta International Film Festival. The film follows a traditional Indonesian puppeteer and troubadour, the dynamic Agus Nur Amal, as he attempts to track down the terrorists who masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings (both living and dead).

    During the course of his journey, he exposes the atmosphere of intolerance and confusion that pervades his country. At a puppet show for children, staged inside a cardboard television set, he re-enacts the September 11 attacks using a gyrating Osama Bin Laden doll. The children roar in laughter, until the play begins to show images of new bomb attacks in Indonesia - first on the Australian Embassy in September 2004, and later in Bali in October 2005. "Everything you see on your television is a lie: in this cardboard television the people are made of flesh and blood," he tells his young audience.

    In a chilling sequence, using ingenius editing, Agus confronts the notorious extremist leader behind the 2002 bombings in his prison cell. Freely quoting from the Koran, and referencing American foreign policy, he openly discusses his motives for the attack. To reach the remaining bombers, Agus attends the show of a local clairvoyant who claims to communicate with the dead. He asks him where the perpetrators of the suicide attack are now. The psychic's refusal to answer before an audience is telling - so Agus requests a private session.

    Using performance to inspire critical reflection, Promised Paradise delivers fascinating and revealing insight into the social and religious undercurrents dominating Indonesian society today and the Muslim world at large.

    Review
  • "Leonard Retel Helmrich's powerful documentary profiles the work of Agus Nur Amal, an Indonesian puppeteer on a mission to fight Islamic extremism.... Amal's methods might seem strident and shrill, but the courage of this man who simply expects better from his society is extraordinary. Highly recommended." - Video Librarian

    Notes
  • Official Selection, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, 2007
  • Official Selection, Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival, 2007
  • Official Selection, Documenta Madrid, 2007
  • Official Selection, Visions du Reel Film Festival, 2007

    Award
  • Winner, Best Documentary, International Film Festival, Zanzibar, 2007


  • Item no. : NF05970608
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 52 minutes
    Copyright : 2007
    Price : USD 325.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    RUSSIA IN TRANSITION, VOL. 3: THE SETTLEMENT

    Directed by Sergei Loznitsa

    The Settlement is a critically-acclaimed, visually arresting documentary about a strange community in the Russian countryside, from renowned documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa.

    A master of detailed, minimalist observation, Loznitsa introduces us to a rural settlement where the residents are seemingly involved in everyday farm work - harvesting fields, chopping wood, working at a sawmill, maintaining the property. Yet as we watch the workers, we notice strange inconsistencies in their routines - the wood never appears to be cut, the grain never harvested - and it soon becomes apparent that what we are witnessing is neither a farm nor some sort of labor commune. Gradually, we come to understand the workers, are in fact, patients. Their daily chores, though earnestly performed, serve only therapeutic purposes.

    Suffused with the sounds and rhythm of rural life, The Settlement is an exceptional and enigmatic film. A parable of post-Soviet society? A testament to the importance of nature in our modern lives? With a haunting coda that perhaps hints at an answer, The Settlement is a film that forces us to consider the world in which we live.

    Review
  • "Perception is the key to Sergei Loznitsa's film-essay, which gradually envelopes the viewer..." - Eddie Cockrell, Variety

    Awards
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Manchester Film Festival, 2002
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Les Ecrans Documentaires Film Festival, 2002
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2001
  • Winner, Silver Dove, Leipzig International Festival for Documentary Film, 2001
  • Winner, Message to Man Film Festival, St. Petersburg, 2001
  • Winner, Jury Prize, Mediawave International Film Festival, 2001
  • Winner, Grand Prize, Vyborg Film Festival, 2001


  • Item no. : TG05970304
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 79 minutes
    Copyright : 2006
    Price : USD 295.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    RUSSIA IN TRANSITION, VOL. 4: THE TRAIN STATION

    Directed by Sergei Loznitsa

    Set inside an isolated train depot, The Train Station is one of Sergei Loznitsa's most haunting films. It is also one of his most pointed social critiques.

    In this film, we are brought to a remote train station deep in the Russian woods. It's nighttime. In the distance, we hear the clatter of locomotives. The station, a small wooden building, sits silently, surrounded only by snow and train tracks.

    Inside, everyone is asleep. The camera pans slowly over the sleeping bodies. Some are leaning backwards, others are hunched over. Occasionally, someone moves a hand, coughs, turns. At one point, an elderly woman seems to wake up, only to look around and fall back into slumber.

    Without narration, and bathed in a ghostly light, the film is in its own serene way, gripping... and frightening. Why is everyone asleep? What is everyone waiting for? In published interviews, Loznitsa has described the film as a metaphor for what people in Russia are feeling today, a sense of "falling out of time."

    Review
  • "...Loznitsa's most eerie and enigmatic work..." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Notes
  • Official Selection, Mar del Plata Film Festival, 2005
  • Official Selection, Documentaire Sur Grand écran, Paris, 2005
  • Official Selection, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, 2004

    Awards
  • Winner, Best Documentary, Lyon International Film Festival, 2001
  • Winner, Best Cinematography, Krakow International Film Festival, 2001
  • Winner, Best Short Documentary, Ekaterinbug Film Festival, 2001
  • Winner, Silver Dove, Leipzig Festival for Documentary Film, 2000
  • Winner, National Award of the Russian Culture Foundation, 2000


  • Item no. : WU05970305
    Format : DVD
    Duration : 24 minutes
    Copyright : 2006
    Price : USD 195.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    TALKING TO WISE WOMEN: EPISODE 1

    The teenage years are critical for young girls. The decisions they make during this time can have life long consequences. Talking to Wise Women is an award-winning DVD that creates a remote dialogue between a group of teenage girls and a selected group of older "wise women." The wise women, leaders and role-models in their fields, answer questions on a variety of subjects. They talk about their own positive, and sometimes difficult, life choices, and they offer advice and guidance culled from their own experiences. This valuable and educational DVD will empower young women and is sure to generate classroom discussion.

    Episode 1 talks about education and career choices.

    Reviews
  • "Each speaker's unique and interesting responses could be a springboard for further discussion." - School Library Journal

  • "Teachers will be most interested in the 3-Episode Set version of this documentary. Both middle school and high school libraries should consider this documentary. While all of the girls in the film are in high school, middle school girls are facing the same peer pressures. No graphic language is used, but high risk behaviors and their consequences are discussed realistically." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Awards
  • Telly Award 2005. Category: Educational Documentary.
  • Davey Award 2005. Category: Educational Documentary.


  • Item no. : FG05970339
    Format : DVD (With Teacher's Guide)
    Duration : 25 minutes
    Copyright : 2005
    Price : USD 115.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart