America the Beautiful

A miners’ strike is brew­ing in Butte, Mon­tana, in the rev­o­lu­tion­ary year of 1917. Tens of thou­sands of men have already lost their lives in the copper mines of the … read more

Detroit’s story has encap­su­lat­ed the iconic nar­ra­tive of Amer­i­ca over the last cen­tu­ry— the Great Migra­tion of African Amer­i­cans escap­ing Jim Crow; the rise of man­u­fac­tur­ing and the middle class; … read more

One region, two lan­guages: Brault’s film ELOGE DU CHIAC takes place in New Brunswick, in the east­ern­most part of Canada, where both French and Eng­lish are spoken. A ded­i­cat­ed young teacher dis­cuss­es with her stu­dents what it means to pro­tect French against the dom­i­nance of Eng­lish. Sev­er­al of them speak Chiac, an angli­cized dialect of French that evolved in New Brunswick that is looked down on by some people.

Canada’s rich and pro­duc­tive film scene has always been well rep­re­sent­ed at the Fla­her­ty Sem­i­nar, and direc­tors like Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx, and Claude Jutra had a deci­sive influ­ence on the Direct Cinema movement.

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Michel Brault geb. 1928 in Mon­tréal war Kam­era­mann, Regis­seur, Drehbuchau­tor und Film­pro­duzent. 1956 bis 1965 arbeit­ete er für das Nation­al Film Board of Canada. Zusam­men mit Gilles Groulx ent­stand 1958 LES RAQUETTEURS, der die franzö­sis­che Sek­tion des NFB maßge­blich bee­in­flusste. Brault wurde daraufhin von Jean Rouch für den leg­endären Cinéma Vérité-Film CHRONIQUE D’UN ETE (1961) engagiert. Er arbeit­ete wieder­holt mit Claude Jutra zusam­men (Kamera bei MON ONCLE ANTOINE 1971, KAMOURASKA 1973) und vielen inter­na­tion­al bekan­nten Regis­seuren. In Kanada wurde er für sein Lebenswerk mit mehreren Preisen geehrt, u.a. dem Prix Jutra 2005. Er starb 2013.

Filme u.a.: LA LUTTE (Kurz­film 1961), QUEBEC-USA OU L’INVASION PACIFIQUE (Kurz­film 1962), POUR LA SUITE DU MONDE (1963, Cana­di­an Film Award 1964), ENTRE LA MER ET L’EAU DOUCE (1967), L’ACADIE, L’ACADIE (Co-R: Pierre Per­rault, 1971), LES ORDRES (1974, Best Direc­tor Award Cannes 1975, Cana­di­an Film Award 1975), THE GREAT LAND OF SMALL (Kamera 1987), LES NOCES DE PAPIER (1989), MON AMIE MAX (1994).

In some parts of St. Louis, Mis­souri, preg­nant moth­ers hope they will have girls. Half of the boys who grow up here don’t live to cel­e­brate their eigh­teenth birth­day. This … read more

What is this land that promis­es a better future for so many people, luring them to come and settle, to cul­ti­vate it, to live? What is this land whose real­i­ty … read more

In 1979, short­ly before he died, James Bald­win wrote an unfin­ished work in which he reflect­ed on his life as a homo­sex­u­al writer in the con­text of the black Civil … read more

What char­ac­ter­izes public life? What­ev­er it is, it could hardly be more lively than in Jack­son Heights, where 167 dif­fer­ent lan­guages are spoken. There are shops, restau­rants, and places of … read more

In LONG STORY SHORT, over 100 people at home­less shel­ters, food banks, adult lit­er­a­cy pro­grams, and job train­ing cen­ters in Los Ange­les and the Bay Area in Cal­i­for­nia dis­cuss their … read more

In the early 1980s, Diego Echev­er­ria took a 16mm camera into the streets of the South­side of Williams­burg, then a pri­mar­i­ly Puerto Rican neigh­bor­hood and one of the city’s poor­est, … read more