All Films

Rumi: Poet of the Heart

1998 • 58 min

In 1244, Jelaluddin Rumi, a Sufi scholar in Konya, Turkey, met an itinerant dervish, Shams of Tabriz. A powerful friendship ensued. When Shams died, the grieving Rumi gripped a pole in his garden, and turning round it, began reciting imagistic poetry about inner life and love of God. After Rumi's death, his son founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling dervishes. Lovers of Rumi's poems comment on their power and meaning, including religious historian Huston Smith, writer Simone Fattal, poet Robery Bly, and Coleman Barks, who reworks literal translations of Rumi into poetic English. Musicians accompany Barks and Bly as they recite their versions of several of Rumi's ecstatic poems.

The Danube Exodus

1998 • 60 min • Netherlands

In this travelogue, Forgács documents the Jewish exodus from Slovakia just before the beginning of World War II. In two boats, a group of nine hundred Slovak, Austrian Jews tried to reach the Black Sea via the river Danube, in order to get to Palestine from there. Forgács based his film on the amateur films of Captain Nándor Andrásovits, the captain of one of the boats. He filmed his passengers while they prayed, slept and even got married. At the end of this journey, it is clear that the boat will not return empty: a reverse exodus takes place, this time of repatriating Bessarabian Germans, fleeing to the Third Reich because of the Soviet invasion of Bessarabia

The First Farewell to Paradise

1998 • 15 min • Lithuania

Like everything rotates around: vodkas searching, vituperation, floating barge, wind gusts. It seems the people, and the nature feel approaching farewell, and intermittent band, repetitive shots and phrases, accentuated the importance of the passing moment.

Monterey Jazz Festival 1975

1998 • 59 min

The Monterey Jazz Festival was established in 1958 by impressario Jimmy Lyons who has hosted an enormous amount of music at this idyllic location. Against this beautiful seaside setting in Northern California, one spends a pleasent weekend listening to some of the giants of music.

Maurice Sendak's Little Bear: Goodnight Little Bear

1998 • 31 min

When the sun goes down, exciting things happen. Hooting owls, twinkling stars-who can sleep? Here are four Little Bear tales each one as captivating as a bedtime story.

Stumped

1998 • 32 min

Lisa is a hand model whose career is totally dependent on the health and condition of her hands. After losing her left hand in an automobile accident, her career is destroyed and her boyfriend leaves her. Events take a supernatural turn when her missing hand appears and begins to communicate her, urging them to team up to attack those who wronged her. Directed by Michael Legge and starring Debbie Rochon and Roxanne Michaels.

The Crow and Mice

1998 • 13 min • Estonia

A fairytale about the mice and the raven, which is stronger and which is cleverer.

A Song for Eurotrash

1998 • 51 min • United Kingdom

A satirical look at Eurovision featuring cover versions of classic songs.

A Season for Cinema: Possibilities of literary adaptation in cinema

1998 • 60 min • Iran

Part 2 of the 14-part documentary series which discovers cultural roots and aesthetics of modern Iranian films and the relationship between different Persian art forms and Iranian Cinema.

The Strange Case of Howard Phillips Lovecraft

1998 • 45 min • France

Disgusted by life and uninterested in earthly subjects, Lovecraft intentionally avoided reality when writing, veering into the unknown and inspiring the fear that lurks in nightmares. But, how do you portray the indefinable mythology that gave birth to Dragon, or the mysterious Cthulhu, or the uniquely strange Necronomicon? Directors Patrick Mario Bernard and Pierre Trividic asked themselves this question before responding with this unorthodox documentary that re-creates the atmosphere of claustrophobia, anxiety, and madness of Lovecraft s life and work.

The Magic Pipe

1998 • 47 min • Russia

A grandfather tells his grandson a bedtime story about the ancient Narts.

Mike, Lu & Og: Crash Lancelot

1998 • 6 min

The pilot for Mike, Lu & Og.

Señores de Gardenia

1998 • 25 min • Spain

Susana Gardenia, a seductive woman, feels a strange fascination with monsters and deformed beings. Feeling neglected, Vicente, her husband, follows her to a clandestine show.

The Animal Train

1998 • 29 min

Animation short about a little boy that sets off on a round-the-world night train to dreamland with only his toy dog for company. But soon all sorts of endangered animals are asking if they can jump up and join them on their journey.

Hősök tere - szubjektív történelmi mese I

1998 • 29 min • Hungary

A mix of documentary and essay about Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) in Budapest.

Titanic Survivors

1998 • 41 min • United States of America

The Titanic survivors are interviewed, along with a gathering in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a Titanic historic society convention.

Olimpia Battalion: Open Documentary

1998 • 35 min • Mexico

Documentary about the participation of the infamous Olimpia Battalion in the massacre of October 2, 1968 in Mexico

The Ludivico Treatment

1998 • 2 min • United States of America

A young man displays his strange powers.

Mir Mortals

1998 • 49 min • United Kingdom

First transmitted in 1998, this is the story of four men who orbited Earth on board the ill-fated Mir space station, which NASA declared unsafe in 1991. Although Mir had been lived in almost continuously since she was launched in 1986, the joint Russian-American mission in 1997 saw unprecedented problems on board the station; from fire, power blackouts and mechanical breakdowns to a dramatic midspace collision that left everyone on board scrambling for their lives.

Resurrection

1998 • 50 min

To find the truth a man must sacrifice one thing...his life. Based on the short story by renowned author Max Lucado, Resurrection is set in Israel at the time of Christ. Claudius, a Roman guard, finds himself in the midst of a cover-up regarding the tumultuous events after Christ's execution. As his digs for the truth, he discovers that the religious leaders, the Roman government and even his closest friends are attempting to hide something from him and the world. His relentless pursuit of the answers to his growing questions threatens his reputation-even his life. Resurrection is the story of one man's quest for the truth and the discovery that leads to his renewal.

Sleeping beauty

1998 • 60 min • Russia

Loss

1998 • 12 min

There is reflection on the passing of time, transience, yesterday and tomorrow, the images show memories from trips in the Canadian wilderness, without the travelers beloved family, the loss of the daughter from her first marriage, a strange new country, strangers passing by, a quarry in Sardinia and the finality of days. Paths of no return. The text runs past without images, the film moves from the end back to the beginning. (Moucle Blackout)

Alex Phillips: The magic between light and shadow

1998 • 30 min • Mexico

Through still photographs from different eras, excerpts from some of his most accomplished films, interviews, and testimonies, this documentary explores the life and work of Alec Pelepiok, later known as Alex Phillips.

Half Mongrel

1998 • 13 min

A guilt-ridden man's unsettling dreams and his fear of impending fatherhood lead to a life of drink and sexual frustration.