The questioning of Jewish heritage and identity via the portrait of a diversed family, across Belgium and the United States.
Social & External
Set in Berlin and New York's Lower East Side, The Great Yiddish Love stars the self-exiled Marlene Dietrich and her Nazi-endorsed replacement, Zarah Leander. It is a melodrama of love, emigration, and betrayal reassembled from Hollywood, German Ufa and Yiddish films from the 1930s and 40s.
Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.
An upbeat, witty, and timely exploration of a global community of artists creating innovative work in their quest to rediscover and revitalise the endangered Yiddish language. From behind-the-scenes with an acclaimed Yiddish-language version of Yentl in Melbourne, to enjoyably transgressive punk-Klezmer musicians, and Barrie Kosky’s latest trailblazing production in Berlin – the endangered Yiddish language is alive and well in this rousing documentary. The language originated amongst the Jewish community in Eastern Europe, but almost disappeared when more than half of the world’s Yiddish speakers were murdered during the Holocaust. Most of the artists and performers (aka Yiddishists) in the film didn’t grow up speaking Yiddish, but all have found solace, identity, and inspiration in its rich traditions and culture. Ros Horin has mapped a fascinating cultural history.
Elliott Gould narrates this affectionate look at life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "It's unreal that all this could have just disappeared," says Polish native Mariem Adler Stok, one of the seniors whose memories of this "Yiddish world" give this documentary its life. The hour traces Jewish history in Europe and explores Jews' focus on education, their religious customs, clothing, food, music and theater.
Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.
Based her grandfather’s boyhood in St. Louis, Yasmin Gorenberg tells a story of the pain passed from refugee parents to their children and the hope that can overcome it. “40 Nickels” captures the image of a generation of immigrants to the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s and through that spotlights the effects of the 1919 pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is a film about parents and children: how trauma never leaves a family, and how hope and resilience is also passed down. It asks the question: Can a new generation look at the world with wonder rather than fear?
An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. He learns his only surviving relative is his great grandson, a computer coder who he can’t connect with.
The Man Without a World is credited to the legendary (and imaginary) 1920s Soviet director, Yevgeny Antinov. But the film is anything but old. In fact, Antinov himself is the creation of contemporary filmmaker Eleanor Antin. Her film is a moving, comic melodrama set in a typical shtetl (village) in Poland. The Jews’ struggle against poverty and racial hatred is complicated by their own division into hostile political factions of the religious orthodoxy, assimilationists, socialists, Zionists, anarchists and survivors. While the Jews of the shtetl pursue their loves, politics, religion, business and dreams for the future, the Angel of Death is ever near...
Raised in rural isolation by an extremist Hasidic sect, Chaim is torn between his devotion to his grandmother, an aging Holocaust survivor, and his attraction to a sexy blond in a Liberty car insurance ad.
In China, there exists an astonishing place. A burial ground to rival Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, where pyramid tombs of stupendous size are full of astonishing riches. In 221 BC, China's first Emperor united warring kingdoms into a nation that still exists today. To memorialise this achievement, he bankrupted the national treasury and oppressed thousands of workers to build one of the world’s biggest mortuary complexes. China's second dynasty, the Han, inherited the daunting challenge of building larger tombs to command respect and establish their right to rule without running the nation into the ground. Although no Han emperor's tomb has been opened, the tombs of lesser Han aristocrats have revealed astonishing things: complete underground palaces (including kitchens and toilets) and at least one corpse so amazingly well-preserved some believe Han tomb-builders knew how to "engineer immortality".
In August, 1956, Elvis Presley started shooting his first feature film, Love Me Tender. At his side was his manager, Colonel Tom Parker and his just-hired secretary, Trude Forsher. ELVIS AND THE GIRL FROM VIENNA is Trude’s account of how Elvis’ career went from a southern United States singing sensation to a global legend. Over the five years that Trude worked with Elvis and the Colonel, she observed first hand the legendary moments in Elvis life. It is not only the story of Elvis’ rise to fame, but of one of his most personal confidants, who escaped the ravages of WW2 to get the job a million girls dreamed of - Elvis private secretary.
An interview with film director Josef von Sternberg, produced for Belgium television.
In the Six Day War to the Yom Kippur War, the hijacking of planes on airfield Zarka taking of hostages at the Olympics in Munich, Black September massacre of the exodus Lebanese peace agreements Oslo in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the battle for the same land claimed by two peoples has continued for sixty years. Back on these events through five destinies.
A Eurovision singer, Iceland's strongest woman, a male model, a plumber who wants to direct movies. They all work in the shopping mall that this documentary focuses on ... most of them want to get out, even just to the bigger mall down the road.
"Laughumentary" about black comedians in Hollywood.
An unconventional biography by Oscar nominee Paola di Florio and Sundance winner Lisa Leeman about Hindu mystic Paramahansa Yogananda who brought yoga and meditation to the West in 1920 and authored the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi," which became the go-to book for seekers from George Harrison to Steve Jobs.
The Boeing 777 is the best-selling long-haul carrier in the history of aviation. It has an exceptional life-span of 30 years, but what's the secret behind this record-breaking longevity? In this film, a 777 is taken apart, inspected, and entirely refurbished. This incredible operation is carried out every 16 years so the aircraft can remain at the cutting edge of technology, comfort, and safety.
Chicago's best band since the Smashing Pumpkins, Fall Out Boy is everything that music fans from the windy city have been waiting for. With the entire USA now seemingly absorbed by this astonishing collective, and the rest of the world sitting up and taking note, these mid-westerners are headed for nothing if not the big time. This is a documentary tracing the rise and rise of this incredible group. From the early days playing with all manner of local acts to their current MTV-tinged mega-success!
In answer to an orphan boy's prayers, the divine Lord Krishna comes to Earth, befriends the boy, and helps him find a loving family.
Seenu loves Sunaina but they're chased by a stalking cop, an infatuated beauty and her mafia don dad - can Seenu's heroics work?
To earn extra cash, Mickey helps couples break up — but life gets complicated when he falls for Tinni, a career woman with an independent streak.
Statesman and poet Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee's eloquence and vision shaped India's destiny. A look at his remarkable life as he led his country through a challenging period of change and development as the 10th Prime Minister of India.
Photographer Grigory Yaroshenko gets a chance to visit Antarctica and learn about the life of polar explorers. But his wife is expecting their second child, and life changes. Gregory is faced with the question of male self-identification and acceptance of new family circumstances.
Dr Samir is an absolute charmer when it comes to women, but he poses as a married man to keep them at bay. Love becomes a three-ring-circus for him after he ends up tangled in his web of lies with his girlfriend Sonia and pretend wife Naina.
After moving into a cottage together, two young lovers confront horrors of a forgotten childhood.
Morbius Jr, now an OId Man, is nearing the end of life, when he finds the last hope for all Morbkind. However, as he fights to protect the future of Morbheads, he finds himself facing off against an unlikely of enemy... HIMSELF.
Catch the spark after dark at Disneyland Park. And say farewell to one of the Magic Kingdom's most celebrated traditions - The Main Street Electrical Parade. Where else, but in The Main Street Electrical Parade, could you see an illuminated 40-foot-long fire-breathing dragon? And hear the energy of its legendary melody one last time? It's unforgettable after-dark magic that will glow in your heart long after the last float has disappeared.
This five part epic war drama gives a dramatized detailed account of Soviet Union's war against Nazi Germany during world war two. Each of the five parts represents a separate major eastern front campaign.
Brent Weinbach is weird. In this show, Brent attempts to adjust his quirky personality so that he can fit in with the world around him, which would be valuable to his career as a comedian and entertainer. Through an absurd and abstract discourse, Brent explores the ways in which he can appeal to a broader, mainstream audience, so that ultimately, he can become successful in show business.
Divers go to work on a wrecked ship (the battleship Maine that was blown up in Havana harbour during the Spanish-American War), surrounded by curiously disproportionate fish.
In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, HBO presents a collection of perspectives from a diverse group of Asian Americans.
Battles in virtual reality, survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a Soviet spaceship giving a distress signal - Fantastic stories created with advanced special effects and passion.
A vengeful mother-in-law locks horns with her daughter-in-law in a twisted tale laced with dark comedy, political intrigue, and chilling thrills.
Strange events unfold in a monkey-inhabited village, driving a newlywed couple and forest officials to embark on a mission to uncover the root of the unusual disturbances.
After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.
A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz.
Helena, a woman living a seemingly ordinary life, hides a dark secret—her father is the infamous 'Marsh King', the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After a lifetime of trying to escape her past, Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison.
Barbie comes home from shopping. She takes her groceries out of the bag and unwraps a little Barbie doll. She fries up the Barbie doll and eats it.
