2012
Umberto Eco, the author of best-selling novels who passed away in February 2016, unveils the secrets behind his undertakings and novels.
2020
The National Library of France is the guardian of priceless treasures that tell our history, our illustrious thinkers, writers, scholars and artists. Telling the story of the exceptional treasures of the National Library of France is like opening a great history book rich in many twists and turns. Without the love of the kings of France for books and precious objects, this institution would never have seen the light of day. The story begins in the 14th century under the reign of a passionate writer, Charles V, who set up a library in his apartments in the Louvre. But it was not until the 17th century, and the reign of Louis XIV, a lover of the arts and letters, that the royal library took over its historic quarters in the rue Vivienne in Paris, which it still occupies.
2021
Castiglione d'Otranto, in the South of Italy. A group of thirty-year-olds no longer accept that the solution to the economic, ecological and political problems of the territory is always "to leave". They propose to the villagers who own pieces of uncultivated land, often felt as a burden, to put them in common. They decide to stay, to link their lives to the land and to invest in a value: being together. Castiglione becomes the village of restance. They cultivate ancient seeds and local biodiversity, they make decisions together, they develop a local economy. Accepting the shadows of the past, another potential of the place is rediscovered.
2007
The film describes the microcosmos of the small village Wacken and shows the clash of the cultures, before and during the biggest heavy metal festival in Europe.
2025
We follow the story of a Bulgarian elderly couple living in a stagnant small village called Balabansko. Taking care of the family house passed down the generations has been their life’s work. What does their future hold and why can’t they let go of the past?
1956
A documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.
2024
A song is heard in the distance. It comes from the Hekeng village, famous for its ancient earthen buildings, also called tulou. It is where the last original Hakka families live amidst the exodus of those looking for a more modern environment. Among them there is Zhang Zhouyin, an elderly man concerned about the state of the village's temple; or her daughter-in-law, Wei Yi, who spends her entire day guiding tourists through these awe-inspiring houses. And then there’s young Zhang Weibo, her son, who manages to find joy even in the simplest of things... Hekeng: a place frozen in time whose songs have endured for centuries.
2017
Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
2023
As coronavirus begins to sweep the globe, Zhang returns to her father’s village with her camera, seeking to understand where the extraordinary phenomenon might sit in the grand palimpsest of China’s history. As with all of Zhang’s work, this is a committed, reflective, formally assured non-fiction film, grounded in collaboration and blessed with an uncanny sense of unhurried time.
1927
Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village.
The village commune is struggling with huge debt incurred by it's overambitious mayor, who once suffered a personal tragedy. Did this affect his overly ambitious actions? A warm and humorous observation of the life of a village near Krakow.
