Tënk's picks
Samuel and the Light
Duration: 2h20
Subscription access
Samuel lives in Ponta Negra, a small fishing village on the coast of Paraty, Brazil. Following the boy and his family over the course of six years, the film gradually reveals a more complex reality and its inherent contradictions. The arrival of electricity and tourism crystallizes the dismantling of an idealized paradise, painting a nuanced portrait of contemporary Brazil.
499
Subscription access
To reflect on the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 2021, director Reyes offers a bold hybrid cinema experience exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico. Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador, the film recreates Hérnan Cortés' epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City....
Un printemps de square
Subscription access
In a working-class neighborhood of Paris, high school students and other young people living in the nearby social housing gather in a small public square over the course of a spring. A documentary shot between 1977 and 1978 and re-edited by the director in 2022.
Everything Everywhere Again Alive
Everything Everywhere Again Alive
Duration: 1h12Subscription access
In the early 1970s, Keith Lock moved to the hippie community of Buck Lake, north of Kingston, Ontario. He went there to join members of Toronto’s underground scene, capturing the daily life of a horizontal, ideal society, free from urban oppression. The result is one of the masterpieces of Canadian experimental cinema, but above all a free-spirited film that challenges the very idea of freedom.
Landscapes of Resistance
Subscription access
97-year-old antifascist fighter Sonja was one of the first female Yugoslav Partisans and a member of the resistance in Auschwitz. By listening to Sonja’s stories, we travel through the landscapes of her revolutionary past, as her memories start to intertwine with the filmmakers’ own confrontation with the rising fascism in Europe today.
Eastern Anthems
Subscription access
An unfinished film is passed along from one friend to another. The dialogue between them is a journey crossed by the swarming of the Great Eastern Brood X (periodical cicadas that prophetically emerge every 17 years in the United States), invoking a reflection of a post-pandemic present and our shared futures. A road movie composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings ...
About Some Meaningless Events
Subscription access
A group of young filmmakers ask residents of Casablanca for their opinions on Moroccan cinema as part of a film project. During the shoot, a dispute breaks out between a dockworker and his superior, resulting in the accidental death of the latter. Having captured the incident on film, the crew begins to question the man’s motives and reflect on the role of cinema in society and the forms it can...
La vie est immense et pleine de dangers
La vie est immense et pleine de dangers
Duration: 1h20Subscription access
Cedric is eight years old. One day, he has stomach pains. During the following six months, he will mostly live in a small unit for children suffering from cancer, on the fifth floor of the Institut Curie in Paris. His words and the story intertwine with those of Steve, Dolores and the other children. Cedric will lead us each time a bit further, through all the trials that he'll face until his r...
Antoine
With _Antoine_, filmmaker Laura Bari treats us to a sensitive portrait of a six-year-old boy, one like any other, except that he’s blind. We follow Antoine in his classes, playing with friends, skating, and visiting family. We accompany him on imaginary excursions as a detective, listen to him as a radio host, and sit shotgun as he drives his parents’ car. Antoine allows us access back into chi...
Argentinian Lesson
Subscription access
With lush and intimate photography, Wojciech Staroń documents his family's move from Poland to Argentina. Struggling to adapt in a foreign country, his 8-year-old son Janek finds a friend in Marcia, a grounded 11-year-old Argentinean of Polish descent. With a strength and determination well beyond her years, Marcia must help make ends meet while holding her family together.
Samuel and the Light
Duration: 2h20
Subscription access
Samuel lives in Ponta Negra, a small fishing village on the coast of Paraty, Brazil. Following the boy and his family over the course of six years, the film gradually reveals a more complex reality and its inherent contradictions. The arrival of electricity and tourism crystallizes the dismantling of an idealized paradise, painting a nuanced portrait of contemporary Brazil.
499
Subscription access
To reflect on the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 2021, director Reyes offers a bold hybrid cinema experience exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico. Through the eyes of a ghostly conquistador, the film recreates Hérnan Cortés' epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City....
Un printemps de square
Subscription access
In a working-class neighborhood of Paris, high school students and other young people living in the nearby social housing gather in a small public square over the course of a spring. A documentary shot between 1977 and 1978 and re-edited by the director in 2022.
Everything Everywhere Again Alive
Everything Everywhere Again Alive
Duration: 1h12Subscription access
In the early 1970s, Keith Lock moved to the hippie community of Buck Lake, north of Kingston, Ontario. He went there to join members of Toronto’s underground scene, capturing the daily life of a horizontal, ideal society, free from urban oppression. The result is one of the masterpieces of Canadian experimental cinema, but above all a free-spirited film that challenges the very idea of freedom.
Landscapes of Resistance
Subscription access
97-year-old antifascist fighter Sonja was one of the first female Yugoslav Partisans and a member of the resistance in Auschwitz. By listening to Sonja’s stories, we travel through the landscapes of her revolutionary past, as her memories start to intertwine with the filmmakers’ own confrontation with the rising fascism in Europe today.
Eastern Anthems
Subscription access
An unfinished film is passed along from one friend to another. The dialogue between them is a journey crossed by the swarming of the Great Eastern Brood X (periodical cicadas that prophetically emerge every 17 years in the United States), invoking a reflection of a post-pandemic present and our shared futures. A road movie composed of a chorus of voices (both human and non-human), the warnings ...
About Some Meaningless Events
Subscription access
A group of young filmmakers ask residents of Casablanca for their opinions on Moroccan cinema as part of a film project. During the shoot, a dispute breaks out between a dockworker and his superior, resulting in the accidental death of the latter. Having captured the incident on film, the crew begins to question the man’s motives and reflect on the role of cinema in society and the forms it can...
La vie est immense et pleine de dangers
La vie est immense et pleine de dangers
Duration: 1h20Subscription access
Cedric is eight years old. One day, he has stomach pains. During the following six months, he will mostly live in a small unit for children suffering from cancer, on the fifth floor of the Institut Curie in Paris. His words and the story intertwine with those of Steve, Dolores and the other children. Cedric will lead us each time a bit further, through all the trials that he'll face until his r...
Antoine
With _Antoine_, filmmaker Laura Bari treats us to a sensitive portrait of a six-year-old boy, one like any other, except that he’s blind. We follow Antoine in his classes, playing with friends, skating, and visiting family. We accompany him on imaginary excursions as a detective, listen to him as a radio host, and sit shotgun as he drives his parents’ car. Antoine allows us access back into chi...
Argentinian Lesson
Subscription access
With lush and intimate photography, Wojciech Staroń documents his family's move from Poland to Argentina. Struggling to adapt in a foreign country, his 8-year-old son Janek finds a friend in Marcia, a grounded 11-year-old Argentinean of Polish descent. With a strength and determination well beyond her years, Marcia must help make ends meet while holding her family together.
All films
Garden Pieces
Duration: 11 minutes
Subscription access
"_Garden Pieces_ is a set of three pieces: _Round the Garden_ is literally a look right round a back garden, from a central point, repeated da capo. As a garden, it’s a place of potentiality still, but it is a place all right. _Fliers_ is an animated piece, scratched-on, with added dyes. _Grove_, the longest of the three, studies and contemplates a group of trees planted maybe sixty years ago i...
Colour Poems
Duration: 22 minutes
Subscription access
"Nine linked short films. Memory, chance observation, and the subsuming of one in the other. [...] A poem started in words is continued by the picture, part of another poem is read for the last of the nine. Some images are formed by direct-on-film animation, others are found by the camera." – Margaret Tait
Aerial
Duration: 4 minutes
Subscription access
"There’s a general theme of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water – in a different order – air, water, earth, fire and then air again, with all the elements intermingled. But just as a sort of song or even a kind of nursery rhyme. Although I don’t understand musical structure – I can’t really follow the structure of piece of music when I’m listening to it – but I think that film- struct...
A Portrait of Ga
Duration: 10 minutes
Subscription access
"My mother seemed a good subject for a portrait, (she was there), and I thought it offered a chance to do a sort of 'abstract film', in the sense that it didn’t have what you might call 'the grammar of film'. It’s mostly discontinuous shots linked just by subject, in one case by colour, only rarely by movement." – Margaret Tait
Samuel and the Light
Duration: 2h20
Subscription access
Samuel lives in Ponta Negra, a small fishing village on the coast of Paraty, Brazil. Following the boy and his family over the course of six years, the film gradually reveals a more complex reality and its inherent contradictions. The arrival of electricity and tourism crystallizes the dismantling of an idealized paradise, painting a nuanced portrait of contemporary Brazil.
Goodnight Goodnight
Duration: 1h14
Subscription access
With overconsumption of electric light, the resulting light pollution, and the subsequent loss of the night sky, we have effectively rid our lives of context. By suppressing natural temporalities and obscuring our place within the solar system, we are left with a distorted sense of permanence—the permanence of our structures, institutions, and relationships. _Goodnight Goodnight_ is a mid-lengt...
Testerep
Duration: 32 minutes
Subscription access
A team of scientists explores the vanished island of Testerep along the Belgian coast. Traditional excavations are combined with advanced technologies, such as computer simulations and sound wave analyses, to trace the coastal evolution over 5,000 years. As researchers decode the mysteries, they contemplate the symbiotic relationship between humans, technology, and our temporal landscape, offer...
Rising Up at Night
Duration: 3h12
Subscription access
Kinshasa and its inhabitants are in darkness. They wait and struggle to get access to light. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, _Tongo Saa_ is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa's nights.
Baisanos
Duration: 28 minutes
Subscription access
Through an intimate portrayal of the activities of the Club Deportivo Palestino fan group, _Baisanos_ builds a dialogue between two narrators representing Chile and Palestine. Together, they reflect on identity, the meaning of returning to Palestine, and the different ways of going back. In this way, the connection between two distant territories emerges within a space of celebration, where dre...
Volleyball
Duration: 20 minutes
Subscription access
A playful film about volleyball, shot in October 1965 during a match in Montreal between the U.S. and Soviet Olympic teams.
Garden Pieces
Duration: 11 minutes
Subscription access
"_Garden Pieces_ is a set of three pieces: _Round the Garden_ is literally a look right round a back garden, from a central point, repeated da capo. As a garden, it’s a place of potentiality still, but it is a place all right. _Fliers_ is an animated piece, scratched-on, with added dyes. _Grove_, the longest of the three, studies and contemplates a group of trees planted maybe sixty years ago i...
Colour Poems
Duration: 22 minutes
Subscription access
"Nine linked short films. Memory, chance observation, and the subsuming of one in the other. [...] A poem started in words is continued by the picture, part of another poem is read for the last of the nine. Some images are formed by direct-on-film animation, others are found by the camera." – Margaret Tait
Aerial
Duration: 4 minutes
Subscription access
"There’s a general theme of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water – in a different order – air, water, earth, fire and then air again, with all the elements intermingled. But just as a sort of song or even a kind of nursery rhyme. Although I don’t understand musical structure – I can’t really follow the structure of piece of music when I’m listening to it – but I think that film- struct...
A Portrait of Ga
Duration: 10 minutes
Subscription access
"My mother seemed a good subject for a portrait, (she was there), and I thought it offered a chance to do a sort of 'abstract film', in the sense that it didn’t have what you might call 'the grammar of film'. It’s mostly discontinuous shots linked just by subject, in one case by colour, only rarely by movement." – Margaret Tait
Samuel and the Light
Duration: 2h20
Subscription access
Samuel lives in Ponta Negra, a small fishing village on the coast of Paraty, Brazil. Following the boy and his family over the course of six years, the film gradually reveals a more complex reality and its inherent contradictions. The arrival of electricity and tourism crystallizes the dismantling of an idealized paradise, painting a nuanced portrait of contemporary Brazil.
Goodnight Goodnight
Duration: 1h14
Subscription access
With overconsumption of electric light, the resulting light pollution, and the subsequent loss of the night sky, we have effectively rid our lives of context. By suppressing natural temporalities and obscuring our place within the solar system, we are left with a distorted sense of permanence—the permanence of our structures, institutions, and relationships. _Goodnight Goodnight_ is a mid-lengt...
Testerep
Duration: 32 minutes
Subscription access
A team of scientists explores the vanished island of Testerep along the Belgian coast. Traditional excavations are combined with advanced technologies, such as computer simulations and sound wave analyses, to trace the coastal evolution over 5,000 years. As researchers decode the mysteries, they contemplate the symbiotic relationship between humans, technology, and our temporal landscape, offer...
Rising Up at Night
Duration: 3h12
Subscription access
Kinshasa and its inhabitants are in darkness. They wait and struggle to get access to light. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, _Tongo Saa_ is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa's nights.
Baisanos
Duration: 28 minutes
Subscription access
Through an intimate portrayal of the activities of the Club Deportivo Palestino fan group, _Baisanos_ builds a dialogue between two narrators representing Chile and Palestine. Together, they reflect on identity, the meaning of returning to Palestine, and the different ways of going back. In this way, the connection between two distant territories emerges within a space of celebration, where dre...
Volleyball
Duration: 20 minutes
Subscription access
A playful film about volleyball, shot in October 1965 during a match in Montreal between the U.S. and Soviet Olympic teams.
