

The Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements postulates that everything in our universe is based on wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. While traveling through China’s stunning landscapes and witnessing the seasons, this documentary seeks not only the roots of this ancient theory but also the continuing impacts on modern China.
The sites and sounds at the 800-year-old Horenji Temple in Kyoto — electro music, English, takoyaki, a kaleidoscopic elephant — would seem to belie its long history. But in order for the family-run temple to thrive in the 21st century, it must continue to reinvent itself. Intimately following future head priest Scion (30) along with his fiancée Haruka and firstborn sister Ariya, critically-acclaimed director Ema Ryan Yamazaki captures one unexpected corner of Japanese society's struggle to balance tradition with progress.
Explore NowIt was aboard the legendary and sturdy Peugeot 504 and Renault 12 that most North African families made the "route du bled," a ritual return to their homeland for summer vacations in Morocco or Algeria. The film chronicles a summer migration across the Mediterranean from the 1970s to the 1990s. The memory of these epic journeys punctuates the history of North Africans in France with bittersweet nostalgia, where travel stories blend industrial automotive heritage with personal memories.
Explore NowArcheologists discover a pit filled with terracotta warriors buried to protect the grave of the First Emperor of China.
Explore NowSecond documentary of a trilogy produced on the long term (together with Profils paysans: l'approche (2001) and Profils paysans: La vie moderne (2008)), showing the simple lives of farmers in contemporary Southern France.
Explore NowAt the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
Explore NowThis historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China's vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.
Explore NowIntimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.
Explore NowFor ten years, Raymond Depardon has followed the lives of farmer living in the mountain ranges. He allows us to enter their farms with astounding naturalness. This moving film speaks, with great serenity, of our roots and of the future of the people who work on the land. This the last part of Depardon's triptych "Profils paysans" about what it is like to be a farmer today in an isolated highland area in France. "La vie moderne" examines what has become of the persons he has followed for ten years, while featuring younger people who try to farm or raise cattle or poultry, come hell or high water.
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