Directed by Vitaly Mansky • Documentary • 2016 • 114 minutes
Following Ukraine’s revolution in 2013, filmmaker Vitaly Mansky decides to travel throughout the region and visit his family. He talks on camera with family members in Ukraine, Crimea and Donetsk, hoping to gain a better understanding of the influence of the many political events on local people. Mansky takes the viewer along on a journey from May 2014 to May 2015. He gets all his family members – mother, grandfather and aunts – to speak out about the situation there. They discuss complex questions, like how important is it where you live or who you want to live with. All the while, global news events are playing out, such as the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. In CLOSE RELATIONS, Mansky’s personal journey reveals how the difficult relationship between Russia and Ukraine is also causing friction between his aunts. The longer Mansky travels around, the more tightly interwoven with political events his family’s history becomes – and, inevitably, the more it starts to affect him. —IDFA
Directed by Lionel Rogosin • Documentary • With Ray Salyer, Gorman Hendricks, Frank Matthews
• 1956 • 65 minutes
On the Bowery chronicles three days in the drinking life of Ray Salyer, a part-time railroad worker adrift on New York’s skid row. When the film first opened in 1956, it exploded ...
Directed by Pascal Plisson • Documentary • 2013 • 77 minutes
They live in all four corners of the planet and share a thirst for knowledge. Almost instinctively, they know that their wellbeing (indeed, their survival) depend on knowledge and education. From the dangerous savannahs of Kenya to the...
Directed by Philippe Béziat • Documentary • With Jean-François Sivadier, Natalie Dessay • 2012 • 112 minutes
An exhilarating account of the creative process and a rousing, uniquely accessible rendition of Verdi's glorious opera. Director Beziat, known for his innovative documentaries on classica...