The best of VOD

Rumba Rules, New Genealogies

Immersing itself in the daily life of one of the great orchestras of the current generation, this film proposes an incursion into the arcanes of a monumental genre of African music. Ya Mayi, Lumumba, Xéna La Guerrière, Pitchou Travolta, Alfred Solo, Soleil Patron and many others: nearly thirty artists feed the creative life of the Brigade Sarbati Orchestra. By entering the group and the city of...

Everything You Have Is Yours

NYC-based choreographer Hadar Ahuvia interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother in the US. Facing romanticized stories about her grandparents, settlers in Palestine in the 1930s, she begins a personal endeavor to confront the founding mythologies and transgressions of Zionism. A web of artistic portraits emerges—Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian dancers...

Whimsy

_Whimsy_ is a short animated documentary about a woman's musings to build a more unconventional and playful city environment. A light-hearted exploration into how different a city could look if whimsy was our guiding value.

Budapest Silo

József works at the largest still-operational grain silo in Budapest. He has been doing this job for over 30 years and lives in a container home next to the structure, where trucks and trains rumble past his window. When he is lowered into the ten-story-deep silos to clean them, he looks like a scuba diver at work. It’s dangerous work for József, especially because he has been exposed to crop d...

The Last Bolshevik

Based on the life and work of the Russian film director Alexander Medvedkin (1900-1989), _The Last Bolshevik_ is a tribute from one filmmaker to another. An archeological expedition into film history that reveals new cinematic treasures, the film prompts a reflection on the relation between art and politics in the former Soviet Union.

Treasure Island

Summer at a recreation center near Paris is in full swing, so there is no shortage of amusing situations. A glimpse into the mindset of visitors and employees of the extensive park—original French inhabitants and immigrants who, lacking the means for a more exotic vacation, come here to relax.

Joseph Samuel Jacques Julien

Jacques is 59 years old and has spent his entire career as a salesman in Quebec City. The past few months have been especially challenging for him: mourning the loss of his wife, he finds it difficult to regain his footing. Should he change his life? Change his identity? Amidst a growing political turmoil, the narrator remains hopeful, insisting that Jacques still has reason to hope.

Idle Times

Beginning in the late 19th century, the history of baseball tells the story of the transformation of pastures and mindsets in North America. Slow and repetitive, the game makes ample room for daydreaming and boasting. Full-bodied and mannered, it evokes the vastness of a new continent while also recalling its British origins. Filmed at the Victoria Stadium in Quebec and developed with the colla...

Rumba Rules, New Genealogies

Immersing itself in the daily life of one of the great orchestras of the current generation, this film proposes an incursion into the arcanes of a monumental genre of African music. Ya Mayi, Lumumba, Xéna La Guerrière, Pitchou Travolta, Alfred Solo, Soleil Patron and many others: nearly thirty artists feed the creative life of the Brigade Sarbati Orchestra. By entering the group and the city of...

Everything You Have Is Yours

NYC-based choreographer Hadar Ahuvia interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother in the US. Facing romanticized stories about her grandparents, settlers in Palestine in the 1930s, she begins a personal endeavor to confront the founding mythologies and transgressions of Zionism. A web of artistic portraits emerges—Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian dancers...

Dad Can Dance

David was a ballet dancer, and for 45 years, almost nobody knew. In _Dad Can Dance_, his son discovers long-buried family secrets about their shared love for movement in this self-affirming story that explores the joy of being an artist.

Bobbi Jene

After a decade of stardom in Israel, the American dancer Bobbi Jene Smith takes intensity to a new level: she decides to leave her mentor, choreographer Ohad Naharin, as well as the love of her life, fellow Batsheva dancer Or Schraiber, behind in order to return to the United States. Determined to establish herself, she creates her own personal and boundary-breaking performances. A woman's figh...