Directed by Cynthia Beatt • Documentary • With Tilda Swinton • 2010 • 60 minutes
In 1988 director Cynthia Beatt and the Tilda Swinton embarked on a filmic journey along the Berlin Wall to create the short film CYCLING THE FRAME (28', color, 1988). Riding her bicycle from the Brandenburg Gate to the suburbs, passying by lakes, fields, and checkpoints, Swinton retraced the concrete and oppressive structure encircling West Berlin, cutting through neighborhoods and buildings, seeming indestructible at the time. One year after filming, the Wall was opened and the process of reunification of Germany began.
More than 20 years later, in 2009, Beatt and Swinton reteamed and retraced their ride, but this time weaving through both sides of the fallen wall. THE INVISIBLE FRAME (60', color, 2009) depicts this poetic passage and reflects on history, memory and freedom.
Swinton's reactions and inner monologues, enriched with texts by Stevenson, Yeats and Akhmatova, and a soundscape by Simon Fisher Turner, create a deeply engaging and personal vision. Together these films offer a fascinating journey through time and bring a poetic and meditative view on one of the most important events of the 20th century.
"Playful, essayistic film, which leaves a deep and lasting impression in one's mind."—Anke Westphal, Berliner Zeitung
"Swinton fans will surely appreciate her unflappable company and literary insights (she recites works by Robert Louis Stevenson, William Butler Yeats, and Anna Akhmatova)…"—Video Librarian
Directed by Staffan Julén • Documentary • 2006 • 78 minutes
This documentary combines biography and history as it accompanies the Inuit hunter Hivshu, a.k.a. Robert E. Peary II, on a quest to trace the story of his great grandfather and his other ancestors, including the Eskimo family the famous...
Directed by Simón Uribe Martínez • Documentary • 2020 • 75 minutes
Deep in the misty jungle of southern Colombia, between treacherously steep mountain slopes, stands an unfinished concrete bridge as an absurd symbol of human folly. Once intended as a link in the new “bypass” that was supposed to...
Directed by Jillian Schlesinger • Documentary • 2013 • 82 minutes
14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out - camera in hand - on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. In the wake of a year-long battle with Dutch authorities that sparked...