Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

At the age of seventeen, Irina Chistyakova looks back at an international concert career spanning ten years. Irina is the youngest of the four protagonists of the film Russia's Wonder Children made in 2000. By now seventeen years old, she is going through a drama that many prodigies experience: while they were children, they were able to stun audiences with the contrast of their delicate appearances and precocious talents. Like Irina, Nikita Mndoyants (18), Dmitry Krutogolovy (19), and Elena Kolesnichenko (25), are still showered with praise and distinction. But what price did they have to pay for it?

Documentary on the life and accomplishments of the members of this uniquely talented musical family. The film focuses on the Figueroa family’s history within the context of its creative universe, dating back to the 19th century. Through the use of photographs, historic film footage, recordings, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and posters, the musical trajectory of the family is brought to life and their role in transforming the musical history of Puerto Rico and the world is portrayed.

With a movie camera mounted in the passenger seat of his car, Andy Anderson drove around filming his local neighbourhood of Fort Worth, Texas. The procession of sunny lawns and quiet houses has a day-dreamy innocence, however on the soundtrack, a narrator recites from the police records of over 600 crimes committed in the area. Domestic violence, petty theft, drug related assault; the list of vicious and hapless actions unfolds randomly, "a woman said her husband punched her in the face when he asked her for ten dollars and she didn't have the money. theft; two lawnmowers.." In a powerful counterpoint of sound and image Drive By Shooting creates a two hour-long surveillance film that misses all the action, yet evokes a sense of vulnerability on the streets and violence behind closed doors.

Documentary on one of Brazil's most controversial personalities: Getúlio Vargas, an ex-president.

This documentary profiles iconic journalist Helen Thomas who has held a front-row seat at White House press conferences for more than 60 years.

While observing others, Paula is also, herself, observed. ' Know the difference between an old maid and a spinster? The old maid does not have a choice. '

Jorge de Sena was forced to leave his country. First he moved to Brazil, and later to the USA. He never returned to Portugal. During his 20-year-long exile, he kept an epistolary correspondence with Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. These letters are a testimony of the profound friendship between the two poets, letters of longing and of desire to “fill years of distance with hours of conversation”. Through excerpts and verses, a dialog is established, revealing their divergent opinions but mostly their strong bond, and their efforts to preserve it until their last breaths.

Not just another documentary on the French resistance movement, this film focuses on one particular group of underground fighters in France: those from Eastern Europe. Many were Jews and all had fled their native countries before the war broke out. They were among the most staunch and fearless enemies of fascism, as shown here in personal interviews and memoirs of war-time experiences. But the most famous of these immigrants were 23 who were rounded up among several hundred Parisians in 1943, tried for their activities, and executed - all were immigrants under the leadership of the Armenian poet Manouchian. After their execution, Paris was papered with posters decrying these 23 martyrs as "foreign communists."

When a minor German prince becomes an unlikely king candidate, the assignment to teach him the language of his future subjects seems purely formal at first. But as the offbeat candidate is elected king, the pupil and his tutor find themselves in the midst of ugly political intrigue. Ultimately, both of them have to give up their life dreams in order to save a nation from ruin.

Water, air, earth, fire, ether. Four different stories that tell and show a reaching out towards immortality. We dedicate the element water to immortality in science, that of air to the immortality of art, that of earth to the immortality of faith and that of fire to the immortality of feelings. Ether, linked to the cosmos and the stars, is a tribute to the film industry.