Next Thursday, April 16th at 4pm PST/7pm EST, OVID is hosting a free Facebook Watch Party for Bill Morrison’s RE-AWAKENINGS! This means that they will be making this short film available on their Facebook Page for all to watch and discuss. Bill Morrison himself will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have.
The film itself is a gem: it features original footage shot by the neurologist Oliver Sacks of his patients at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx, who were administered the drug L-Dopa in the summer of 1969 and “awakened” after decades of inactivity. This cine-poem combines archival footage with a score for solo saxophone composed by Philip Glass. Invite your friends and mark your calendar.
As for new films this week, they have ANGRY INUK about the Inuit, a tiny population faced with a disproportionate responsibility for protecting the environment. They are pushing for a sustainable way to take part in the global economy, but in opposition stands an army of well-funded activists and well-meaning celebrities who consider any seal hunting barbaric.
There’s also a new documentary on two teens from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro who dream of becoming professional ballet dancers. With their growing collection of films like this one, they were thrilled to see that the New York Times just named OVID one of the best places to watch dance films online.
Check out these films, other new releases, and watch Bill Morrison’s introduction to his short film RE-AWAKENINGS ahead of our special Facebook Watch Party next Thursday at 7pm EST:
| Tune into OVID’s Facebook Page next Thursday, April 16th at 4pm PST/7pm EST to watch Bill Morrison’s RE-AWAKENINGS together. Bring questions 🙂 |
Angry Inuk
Directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril; Bond/360, Documentary
Arnaquq-Baril and her cameras travel through the Canadian Arctic, giving voice to the people the animal activists rarely bother to meet: the hunters, the craftspeople, the families for whom the seal hunt is a critical part of their livelihood and survival. She follows a group of students to Europe, where they plead the Inuit case before a European Union panel.
European Union panel. Winner – Audience Award – Hot Docs Int’l
Only When I Dance
Directed by Beadie Finzi; Film Movement, Documentary
This feel-good documentary follows Irlan and Isabela, two teenagers from the violent favelas of Rio de Janeiro, as they pursue their dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. This inspiring story takes us from Rio – where their communities must raise the funds to support their ambitions – to exhilarating ballet competitions in New York and Switzerland. It’s a film about their determination to dance, and the price one must pay for talent, ambition and success.
Black Sun
Directed by Rudiger Sunner; Icarus Films, Documentary
For more than sixty years, thousands of historians, political scientists, psychologists and others have attempted to explain the murderous ideology of National Socialism-in particular the theories of its founders Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg-and their dreams of a ‘Thousand-Year Reich’ of Aryan world domination, which led to the Holocaust, war crimes and other atrocities.
BLACK SUN sheds new light on the sources of Nazi ideology by examining its occult roots in the world of myths, symbols and fantasies. It traces this development from the writings of various mystics in the early 20th century, which located the original home of the Germanic peoples in sunken continents such as ‘Thule’ and ‘Atlantis,’ and propagated the mythology of a superior Nordic race whose heroes fought the forces of moral decadence and racial impurity.
Germans and Jews
Directed by Janina Quint and Tal Recanati; First Run Features, Documentary
Through personal stories Germans & Jews explores Germany’s transformation as a society, from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on. Unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges. What began as a private conversation between the two filmmakers and friends, Tal Recanati (Jewish) and Janina Quint (non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many and we realize that the two people are inextricably linked through the memory of the Holocaust. Germans & Jews is at once uncomfortable and provocative, unexpected and enlightening.
Germans and Jews
Directed by Janina Quint and Tal Recanati; First Run Features, Documentary
Through personal stories Germans & Jews explores Germany’s transformation as a society, from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on. Unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges. What began as a private conversation between the two filmmakers and friends, Tal Recanati (Jewish) and Janina Quint (non-Jewish German), grew into a cultural exchange among many and we realize that the two people are inextricably linked through the memory of the Holocaust. Germans & Jews is at once uncomfortable and provocative, unexpected and enlightening.
In Search of Memory
Directed by Petra Seeger; Icarus Films, Documentary
‘Memory is everything. Without it we are nothing,’ says neuroscientist Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on the physiology of the brain’s storage of memories. As he explains, memory is the glue that binds our mental life together and provides a sense of continuity in our lives.
IN SEARCH OF MEMORY is a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain’s role in recording and preserving memory.
