Alšův rok

The Real Beauty and the Beast

It's a condition known as "hypertrichosis" or "Ambras Syndrome," but in the 1500s it would transform one man into a national sensation and iconic fairy-tale character. His name: Petrus Gonsalvus, more commonly known today as the hairy hero of Beauty and the Beast.

Ziraldo - Lifelong work of art crying for help

The film seeks to address the risks that Ziraldo's work takes. In a building abandoned ten years ago, the cartoonist's "Santa Ceia", a six-meter-high work painted in 1967, is far from the public and subject to the effects of time

James Ensor: Demons Teasing Me

This film explains what James Ensor (1860-1949) meant for the development of art and makes palpable where he got his inspiration from.

Make Me Famous

An investigation of Edward Brezinski, an ambitious, charismatic Lower East Side painter hell-bent on sucess, who thwarted his own career with antics that roiled NYC’s art elite. Brezinski’s quest for fame gives an intimate portrait of the art world’s attitude towards success and failure, fame and fortune, notoriety and erasure.

What the Darkness Cannot Extinguish: The Storytelling Madness of Clifford George

A feature-length documentary celebrating the life and work of Trinity Bay artist and storyteller Clifford George.

National Gallery

A portrait of the day-to-day operations of the National Gallery of London, that reveals the role of the employees and the experiences of the Gallery's visitors. The film portrays the role of the curators and conservators; the education, scientific, and conservation departments; and the audience of all kinds of people who come to experience it.

Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores themes such as the Word, Space, Ornament, Color and Water and presents the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic Art and Architecture. Narrated by Academy Award winning performer Susan Sarandon, this dazzling documentary reveals the variety and diversity of Islamic art. It provides a window into Islamic culture and brings broad insights to the enduring themes that have propelled human history and fueled the rise of world civilization over the centuries

Baldiga: Unlocked Heart

Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.

Max Ernst: Journey into the Subconscious

The inner world of the great painter Max Ernst is the subject of this film. One of the principal founders of Surrealism, Max Ernst explores the nature of materials and the emotional significance of shapes to combine with his collages and netherworld canvases. The director and Ernst together use the film creatively as a medium to explain the artist's own development.

White Walls Say Nothing

Buenos Aires is a complex, chaotic city. It has European style and a Latin American heart. It has oscillated between dictatorship and democracy for over a century, and its citizens have faced brutal oppression and economic disaster. Throughout all this, successive generations of activists and artists have taken to the streets of this city to express themselves through art. This has given the walls a powerful and symbolic role: they have become the city’s voice. This tradition of expression in public space, of art and activism interweaving, has made the streets of Buenos Aires into a riot of colour and communication, giving the world a lesson in how to make resistance beautiful.

Mi Vida Me Pasa

Arturo Urbiola, independent singer/songwriter, talks about the influence music has had on his life, it's impact, and what's in store for his artistic career after becoming a father.

Lismer

A short look at the world of artist Arthur Lismer.

The Beksińskis. A Sound and Picture Album

Painter Zdzisław Beksiński, his wife Zofia and their son Tomasz, a well-known radio journalist and translator, were a typical and unconventional family, both at the same time. One of the father’s obsessions was filming himself and his family members. Using archival footage only, shot primarily by Zdzisław, as well many other materials, which have not been presented anywhere so far, the film tells a tragic story of the Beksińskis that has never ceased to fascinate Polish filmmakers.

Mistr třeboňský

Documentary film about Gothic painting and its representatives.

Aleš I.

The first part of the documentary about the work of the Czech painter Mikoláš Alš called "The Song of Life", which focuses on the part of his work that draws its themes from life in the village.

Pablo Picasso et Françoise Gilot : la femme qui dit non

Painter Françoise Gilot shared Pablo Picasso's life from 1943 to 1953. This union nourished their respective artistic creations.

Secret Mall Apartment

In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside a busy mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. Far more than a prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all involved.

Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure

British artist, academic, musician and activist Bob and Roberta Smith has been waging slightly odd political protests for years, in this documentary he investigates the age of activism and discovers what people are protesting about.

Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds

After World War II a group of young writers, outsiders and friends who were disillusioned by the pursuit of the American dream met in New York City. Associated through mutual friendships, these cultural dissidents looked for new ways and means to express themselves. Soon their writings found an audience and the American media took notice, dubbing them the Beat Generation. Members of this group included writers Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. a trinity that would ultimately influence the works of others during that era, including the "hippie" movement of the '60s. In this 55-minute video narrated by Allen Ginsberg, members of the Beat Generation (including the aforementioned Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Peter Orlovsky, Amiri Baraka, Diane Di Prima, and Timothy Leary) are reunited at Naropa University in Boulder, CO during the late 1970's to share their works and influence a new generation of young American bohemians.

Home Shopper

In a loveless marriage, Penny finds solace in the hypnotic escape of the home shopping channel. When things take an unexpected turn with her husband, the channel proves to be her saving grace... or was it the problem all along?

F.O.T.O.G.R.A.F.

A short film based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fictional universe, combining the “Picnic to the curb” of the Strugatsky brothers, “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky and the “Exclusion Zone” location around the Chernobyl NPP. According to the scenario, an agent of the peacekeeping forces, nicknamed "The Photographer", arrives in the Zone to prevent a global scale catastrophe, which could be caused by an experiment that went out of control at a scientific lab.

Six: Inside

Delves deep into the anxiety, thrill and uncertainty of six aspiring animation artists as they are plunged into the twelve-week trial-by-fire that is the NFB's Hothouse for animation filmmakers.

Kill Bill Parody

A woman and her child are kidnapped by her lover and plans revenge on him.

The Waves Call You

A Puerto Rican seamstress ponders leaving her island to go live with her daughter in the United States.

Más allá de lo común

Pili, a 51-year-old widow, unexpectedly leaves her home when, on her way, she is interrupted by the presence of an alien. After trying to tell her children about the extraterrestrial encounter and being ignored by them, she must investigate how to deal with this being. Meanwhile, she grapples with new desires to abandon the traditional life she has always known. In the end, she will have to confront and accept her deepest fears in order to fight this alien.

Who Done It?

Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast.

The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers

As the Great Day of the Flyers nears, the Great Valley's flying youngsters are eager to participate in the annual exhibition to show off their skills. Everyone, that is, except free-spirited pterodactyl Petrie, whose individualism causes problems when it comes to staying in formation. Enter his dinosaur pals Littlefoot, Cera, Spike and Ducky, who encourage Petrie to embrace his uniqueness.

Lost Inside

An agoraphobic and washed up rock star is confronted by a nosy new neighbor and an imaginary nuisance pressuring him to leave his house and rejoin a life he both fears and has forsaken.

Kolobok

A collection of cartoons, each of which is a uniquely decorated folk tale.

BOX

A female boxer 10 minutes before her final match gets into an emotional crisis and has to fight it. A fight before a fight.

Golden Horseshoes

Youssef Soltane, a 45-year-old Tunisian intellectual, is the product of a generation that lived the era of euphoria and great ideologies in the sixties, and their subsequent failure. He was incarcerated and tortured for his political opinions. Furthermore, his relationship with Zineb, a young, beautiful bourgeois, only brings him more trouble. During one long winter night, Youssef wanders in search of an emotional haven, prey to all the questions that flood his memory.

Making a Scene: Fever Pitch

Behind the scenes talks about what it was like to make a fictional film about an event as it was really happening.

Sweet Obsession

When a university student moves in with a family in Mexico City, conflicts emerge. An inevitable affaire with the father, a rebellious bond with the adolescent daughter and tensions with the mother lead up to a painful secret that will shake the family apart.

ABC

16-year-old girls Alma and Bea had managed to lure the middle-aged football coach Carl into a changing room at the football club. They got him where they wanted. He wanted to see them naked. They wanted to see him suffer. They shouldn’t have done that, or should they?

Hearts That Do Not Age

Azem has retired after 30 years working as a truck driver. However, he still hasn't gotten used to this quiet lifestyle. His friends help him go through this important moment of his life.