Les influenceurs sont dans le pré

De Charles de Gaulle à Emmanuel Macron, les gardiens de l'empire

2022

Alexis Tremblay: Habitant

1943

This short documentary illustrates rural French Canadian life in the early 1940s. The film follows Alexis Tremblay and his family through the busy autumn days as they bring in the harvest and help with bread baking and soap making. Winter sees the children revelling in outdoor sports while the women are busy with their weaving, and, with the coming of spring young and old alike repair to the fields once more to plough the earth in preparation for another season of varied crops. One of the first NFB films to be produced, directed, written and shot by women.

Mafia Is Not What It Used to Be

2019

Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 2017. Twenty-five years after the murders of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone, on May 23, 1992, and Paolo Borsellino, on July 19, 1992; and on the occasion of the tributes held in memory of both heroes, skeptical photographer Letizia Battaglia, chronicler of their titanic combat, criticizes the opportunism of shady characters who, like businessman Ciccio Mira, profit from the commemoration of both tragedies.

The Garden That Doesn't Exist

2022

Once upon a time there was a garden, a refuge, a safe haven - 'The Garden of the Finzi Continis'. It came to life in Giorgio Bassani's 1962 semi-autobiographical novel recounting an unfulfilled love story between two young Jews in Ferrara, while fascism was raging in Italy in the late 1930's. In 1972, Vittorio De Sica's film adaptation of the book won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Since then, the fictional space of the garden became so tangible that people from all over the world come to Ferrara to look for it. Fifty years after winning the Oscar, reality and fiction come together once more, as we walk through an imaginary garden and bring to life the book, its author, its main protagonists, history, love, friendships and betrayals.

Le Peuple des airs

2022

Bacteria, viruses, but also fungi, algae, pollen, and even insects: micro-organisms thrive and circulate constantly in our sky. How can so many living beings find their way into the air and circulate? How do they survive? And what influence do they have on our lives and the living world? Biodiversity, health, climate: it is only recently that scientists have begun to understand how this discreet aerial "plankton" affects our lives and our ecosystem. But despite their many virtues, some of these micro-organisms are now threatened by human activities. With the help of experts and 3D models, this scientific investigation plunges us into the heart of a still mysterious world, and reveals the diversity and fragility of the air we breathe.

Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime

2005

In the 1920s, former coal miner Harry Hoxsey claimed to have an herbal cure for cancer. Although scoffed at and ultimately banned by the medical establishment, by the 1950s, Hoxsey's formula had been used to treat thousands of patients, who testified to its efficacy. Was Hoxsey's recipe the work of a snake-oil charlatan or a legitimate treatment? Ken Ausubel directs this keen look into the forces that shape the policies of organized medicine.

How To Go Viral

2019

Richard Clay, art historian and expert on semiotics and iconoclasm and the interplay between new technology and shifts in meaning, compares and contrasts cultural symbols from across the centuries, unpicking iconic images, music, and other cultural outputs to explain where ‘stickiness’ comes from.

White Power: Inside Europe's Far-Right Movement

2024

An analysis of the rise of the European far-right, increasingly present in both politics and everyday life: an inquisitive journey through France, Germany and Belgium.

Les Charlots en folie

2024

Documentary on Les Charlots, known as The Crazy Boys in the English-speaking world, a group of French musicians, singers, comedians and film actors who were popular in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.

Behind the Looking Glass

2024

Behind The Looking Glass is a film about the lives of women whose partners have or want to ‘transition’. While we hear a great deal of “stunning and brave” stories of men, there is a deadly silence when it comes to the stories of the wives or partners. This film will be the first of its kind in collecting such experiences of women from around the world.

Bala

1976

A documentary about the aging prima ballerina Balasaraswati (popularly known as "Bala"), the most famous exponent of the Bharatanatyam dance.

Wer 4 Sind

2019

What is the secret of Germany's most successful hip-hop band? What makes them different? How did they make their mark in German pop culture and develop over the years? A behind-the-scenes look at a band that has written German music history and continues to do so.

David Harewood on Blackface

2023

At its peak, The Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by a Saturday night audience of more than 20 million people. David Harewood goes on a mission to understand the roots of this strange, intensely problematic cultural form: where did the show come from, and what made it popular for so long? With the help of historians, actors and musicians, David uncovers how, at its core, blackface minstrelsy was simply an attempt to make racism into an art form - and can be traced back to a name and a date.

Bringing Godzilla Down to Size: The Art of Japanese Special Effects

2008

A look at the unrecognized work of the talented artists and craftsmen who've maintained the tradition of Japanese special-effects. Highlighted is Yasuyuki Inoue along with various crew members who crafted meticulously detailed miniatures and risked life and limb as suit actors. All done to bring to life some of film's most iconic monsters through a distinct Japanese artform.

Every Day After

2023

Growing up in Masbate Province in the Philippines, Jary is neglected and shunned since the moment of his birth for one reason-- his appearance. His older sister, Jessa protects Jary through his early years, then takes him in as a young teen, to raise him alongside her own two children in a fragile house on a hill. Jessa seeks out the medical care Jary has been denied since birth. And more, the support to begin his physical and emotional recovery. Every Day After is a 35-minute documentary film that provides a more nuanced look at the complexities of the healing process we don’t often see. And honors the invisible labor of a sister whose love and action make it possible for Jary to experience the everyday joys and struggles of growing up.