During the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 20th century, ethnic Manchu people were persecuted and forced to give up such cultural traditions as the shaman dance (tiao tchin, meaning "spirit-jumping" or "god's dance"). However, on Changbai Mountain in Northeast China, a farmer named Guan Yunde decided to start designing and building traditional Manchu shaman drums. At age 70, he is one of a minority of ethnic Manchu people in China's Jilin province, and one of the few people keeping the Manchu shamanic tradition alive.

The Way of the Shaman Drum

2017

9.0

Absentia: A Retrospective

7.0

2014

Movie

Documentary film on the making of Mike Flanagan's Absentia. Interviews with cast and crew and behind-the-scenes.

Absentia: A Retrospective

2014

7.0

Dissidents

2025

Movie

An artist's sculpture is burnt down, a protester is charged with a criminal case, and a democracy movement is violently attacked. In the United States, three Chinese dissidents fight for democracy against a superpower through art, petition, and grassroots organizing, but not even exile is safe.

Dissidents

2025

No Image

i.Mirror by China Tracy

6.0

2007

Movie

Cao Fei recorded her experiences within the online social platform Second Life. The result is a wistful, surreal vision of an alternative reality sprung from the pop culture fantasies and hyper-consumerism of contemporary urban China, while also trying to transcend its real-life limitations. It can be seen as an answer to the challenge posed by River Elegy: how to envision a new Chinese destiny founded on principles of individuality, creativity, discovery, and freedom. The film also reflects the contemporary condition of the virtual supplanting our experience of the real.

i.Mirror by China Tracy

2007

6.0

The Weight of Sight

2024

Movie

The Weight of Sight is a playful and very personal essay where director Truls Krane Meby, through a massive archive of his own material - anything from DV-tapes to 35mm - explores the last 20 years of digital development - how it’s influenced the images we make, and our bodies. What kind of images do we get of the world now that everyone is a photographer, and what does it do with how we unfold our identities? How has the internet both captured and freed us? And will Truls even dare to show this film?

The Weight of Sight

2024

Zivan Makes a Punk Festival

6.5

2014

Movie

Like Don Quixote, Zivan Pujic Jimmy fights for his annual punk festival. A film about failure, ambition, friendship and clinging to your dreams. Glavonic received much praise for this exceptional film that doesn't reveal what's fact and what's fiction.

Zivan Makes a Punk Festival

2014

6.5

Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema

7.2

2014

Movie

With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.

Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema

2014

7.2

No Image

Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubara

2008

Movie

The film builds up a portrait of a great Sudanese film-maker, Gadalla Gubara. At eighty-seven, he is one of the pioneers of cinema in Africa. He has recently lost his sight but still continues to film life in Sudan as no one before him. Through his oeuvre, Gadalla reveals to us a Sudan both mysterious and misunderstood. Despite censorship and lack of financial support over sixty years, he has produced cinema that is independent and unique in a country where freedom of expression is a rare luxury.

Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubara

2008

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

7.6

1988

Movie

This documentary offers a rare glimpse of the legendary Soviet filmmaker, Andrei Tarkosvky, at work. Tarkovsky made only seven films in his brief, but brilliant, career; Michal Leszczylowski's respectful movie chronicles him at work on his last film, The Sacrifice. Offering insight into Tarkovsky's working methods and transcendental aesthetics, the movie is a compelling account of the difficulties of film production. In the case of an uncompromising and visionary filmmaker like Tarkovsky, the practical problems of filmmaking are only magnified, as cast and crew struggle to realize the ambitious concepts in Tarkovsky's mind.

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

1988

7.6

Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet

10.0

2020

Movie

Sir Ian McKellen reads the poetry, Michael Wood traces the journey on the ground. Together they conjure up the extraordinary life, times and words of China’s greatest poet, Du Fu. In this film, the first to ever be made about Du Fu in the west, Michael follows his tracks by road, train and riverboat. Along the way, he meets ordinary people, dancers and musicians, who help to tell the amazing story of a poet whose words have resonated through the centuries, describing the experiences of ordinary people caught up in war, corruption, famine and natural disasters. "I am one of the privileged. If my life is so bitter, then how much worse is the life of the common people?"

Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet

2020

10.0

Last Train Home

7.4

2009

Movie

A family embarks on an annual tormenting journey along with 130 million other peasant workers to reunite with their distant family, and to revive their love and dignity as China soars as the world's next super power.

Last Train Home

2009

7.4

Wu Tang Clan - Da Mystery of Kung Fu

2.5

1998

Movie

Lyrical Assassins, Wu Tang Clan, reveal da mystery of Kung Fu in this ass kickin' dub plate presentation. The GZA, Chef Raekwon, Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and the rest of the Wu Tang posse take a hard ride thru their world of lyrics and the Kung-Fu Movies that they have sampled on their albums. The Wu Tang posse also talk about the close association that the Movies have had on their music and lifestyle. "Da Mystery of Chess Boxing", "Shaolin V. Wu-Tang", and "The 36 Chambers" are just some of the many classic Kung-Fu Movies in this living show...

Wu Tang Clan - Da Mystery of Kung Fu

1998

2.5