
Martin Slivka's documentary film about Karol Plicka (1894-1987), the founder of Slovak cinematography.
In a small Southern town, a plantation owner is duped into thinking a thief is a kind stranger. To repay the stranger for stopping a robbery, the plantation owner invites him to his home to meet his daughter.
Explore NowThe film is inspired by the life of the Goral population in the Orava region, a life connected with the beautiful but harsh nature, rich in emotional expressions of folk culture. Against this backdrop unfolds the story of a young musician's unfulfilled love for an enchantingly beautiful girl.
Explore NowAntonia Quirke looks at the history of the colour film industry to find out who produced the first moving colour images.
Explore NowStephen Fry embarks on a journey to discover the stories behind some of the world's most fantastic beasts that have inspired myths and legends in history, story-telling and film.
Explore NowFor the 'Are'are people of the Solomon Islands, the most valued music is that of the four types of panpipe ensembles. With the exception of slit drums, all musical instruments are made of bamboo; therefore the general word for instruments and the music performed with them is "bamboo" ('au). This film shows the making of panpipes, from the cutting the bamboo in the forest to the making of the final bindings. The most important part of the work consists in shaping each tube to its necessary length. Most 'Are'are panpipe makers measure the length of old instruments before they shape new tubes. Master musician 'Irisipau, surprisingly, takes the measure using his body, and adjusts the final tuning by ear. For the first time we can see here how the instruments and their artificial equiheptatonic scale-seven equidistant degrees in an octave-are practically tuned.
Explore NowCameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
Explore NowThis exhaustive documentary attempts to tell the history of Bram Stoker's influential novel Dracula, explaining both the historical antecedents to the story, as well as offering look at Stoker's life in order to help illuminate this enduring horror tale, and exposing some of the myths surrounding vampires that have long been accepted as fact.
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