All tagged culture
The Balkans is home to an ancient pagan tradition where magic and mystery still have a sacred place in the cosmic order. The Kukeri festival has had a strong hold over Bulgarian cultural life since the fifth century, surviving the Ottomans, Christendom and communist rule. Every winter, hundreds of terrifying figures prowl snow-capped forests and village centres in search of evil spirits to dispel from their communities.
Rubika Shah’s raucous BFI 2019 winner about the extraordinary journey of Britain’s 1970s Rock Against Racism collective is available to rent on the Rich Mix website until Sunday 16th August. Tommy Hodgson gives us his review.
We’ve teamed up with the New York-based Black Documentary Collective (BDC) to bring you our latest Top Docs - ten of the best documentaries made by black directors, as voted by the members of the collective.
Sila’s blind faith in other people, as demonstrated in the title quote, is a characteristic prevalent in young children. As we find out in ‘Riders of Destiny, when competing in a sport such as horse racing, it’s essential.
A short, punchy documentary detailing the origin, growth, and surprisingly profound philosophy of Pastafarianism - a church founded in jest but rooted in real opposition to the power and influence of religious institutions in civic society.
As lockdown persists around the world and travel continues to be ruled out, we teamed up with The Movie Diorama to bring you our 10 favourite documentaries that focus on global subcultures, so that you can continue to explore the world through film.
Part exploration of the academy’s values and part teenage video diary, this is a touching record of one generation’s passing through the prestigious institution.
For episode 8 of What Are You Watching, Beatriz joined us from Brooklyn, New York in our latest Quarantine Edition.
If You Knew, MARINA and A Sonic Pulse are three short documentaries that flip the assumed disadvantage of sensory disability on its head, painting a warm and dynamic picture of life - relationships, leisure, coming of age - not in spite of, but alongside, their subjects’ sensory disabilities.
Did you know that IDFA has a huge online collection of free documentaries? There’s never been a better time for you to find out. But to help you navigate the 300 films available, we’ve picked out 3 fantastic pictures that you can start your binge with.
CPH:DOX, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world and just the latest one to have fallen victim to the global Coronavirus outbreak.
Released online early following the Coronavirus outbreak, Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham” is a trance-like experiential 3D ode to the legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. Blending contemporary artistic performance with archival footage, interviews and excerpts from letters, this is a film that stretches the boundaries of its genre.
The 42nd edition of Cinéma du Réel kicks off in Paris this week and we can’t wait to dig in to this year’s selection. Doc Weekly will be in attendance, keeping an eye out for future classics, interviewing directors and keeping you all updated on social media along the way. But first, here are our top picks from this year’s line-up.
For our first episode of “What Are You Watching?” we met Matt, who had his mind blown by the ‘Zeitgeist’ movies as a kid, was inspired by the cult film ‘American Movie’ and reckons ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’, a film about product placement that is funded by product placement, is the most “WTF” doc he’s ever seen.
FREE OF THE WEEK
‘We dance to forget, we sing to forget. To forget the horrors we passed through before we came to Naples’ says Yankuba, an aspiring biochemist from The Gambia, one of the protagonists of Guardian Docs’ latest film Teranga: Life In The Waiting Room.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Remember your first digital pet? I bet your parents do… This 2000s craze is so deeply rooted in our imaginations that its iconic high-pitched sound alone will be enough to bring back the fits of joy (and panic!) that it so often delivered to its long-suffering owners - The Tamagotchi.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Explore the depths of rural Egypt to discover the mystical Sufi Mawlid celebrations, traditional festivals where locals gather to experience divine ecstasy through chanting, dancing and shared experience. Director Yasmin Kamal gives us some background to this unique film, shot in a vérité style to give us an experiential viewing that is sure to overload the senses and make you question what is real.
At this year's International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), we sat down with directors Rica Saito and Caio Castor to discuss their short film “Batalha” or “Battle”.
FREE OF THE WEEK
Introducing ‘Free of the Week’, our weekly tip on what documentary you should watch next, for free! Our first edition takes us to Chinese megacity Chongqing to discover the rappers speaking out against censorship and the alienating growth of their hometown.
Doc Weekly is proud to share an exclusive first look at the trailer for Pahokee (2019), the much-anticipated upcoming feature release from husband and wife co-directing duo Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan, released today in cinemas in France.
