Le Chant Des Oiseaux

During the London-Melbourne race, two aviators, one male (Guy,) the other female (Betty), are forced to land on a lost island in Polynesia. They learn to survive in difficult conditions and fall in love. Back in civilization, their union does not prove obvious. Pierre is already married to Ginette, a movie actress, and Betty is engaged to her cousin Edouard. Moreover, Lord Stanton, her rich father, will not hear of a marriage with Guy. Will love ultimately triumph in spite of everything?

Frogs' song

A “reading film” of delirious image and text, Les chants de Maldoror takes its title and inspiration from Comte de Lautréamont’s 1869 proto-Surrealist poetic novel which, for instance, describes beauty as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table. In the novel’s six cantos, a young misanthrope indulges in depraved and destructive acts. Unexpected encounters abound, with turtles and birds joining Terayama’s regular cast of snails and dogs to wander over books and bare torsos. Feverish video processing posterizes, inverts and overlays images that are further colored by sound—pushing the limits of his literary adaptation. Terayama wrote that the only tombstone he wanted was his words, but, as Les chants de Maldoror demonstrates, words need not be confined to carved monuments or bound hardcopies.

Kabylie, in the north of Algeria, is a region where Berber culture is still very much alive. The residents know that life can be hard, but last summer was exceptional: fires reduced entire hillsides to ashes, and even ancient olive trees perished.

Yuiko and Rudolph, two travelling artists come to perform their show Métatron and La Colombe Bleue to children. But Rudolph can't leave the clown he has created. He disappears, leaving Yuiko, alone and heartbroken. Here, where the sun shines and fades, madness, childhood... Here, where the sea retreats, another world opens.

Adrift in the Mediterranean, a migrant boat is confronted with a strange phenomenon...

From the deep south to the extreme north, a trip through Iraq where the amazing diversity of Iraqi society is unveiled. Haunting chants are interwoven with the voices of the people, lending a poetic resonance to the issue.

Hakuoro has lost his memory after succumbing to serious injuries. But thanks to an elderly woman and her granddaughter Eruruu, he is nursed back to health. His face is covered by a strange irremovable mask and he occasionally sees beastly visions. Eruruu now cares for him as he becomes accustomed to the village and its inhabitants, who all bear strange ears (the women also have tails). Though these people venerate the forces of nature, desecration of an altar forces them to take drastic measures to preserve their lives from the wrath of Mutikapa-sama, guardian of the forest.

Mishaps befall a new home owner located next door to an insane asylum.

Jacob Fisher, an Orthodox Jewish Cantor and amateur songwriter who resides in Brooklyn, New York, witnesses the senseless murder of his wife and three children. Catatonic, Jacob walks out on his Jewish mourning ritual, leaving behind his Jewish garments, wallet and keys. Abandoning his identity, he wanders aimlessly, hoping somehow to understand his tragedy. Fortuitously, he lands in Brent, Alabama (population 2,500), where he is embraced by Nina, a single mother and the lead singer of a small gospel choir, her Uncle Moe and their gospel community.

The story of the last Seal Child’s journey home. After their mother’s disappearance, Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with Granny in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against time as they are drawn into a world Ben knows only from his mother’s folktales. But this is no bedtime story; these fairy folk have been in our world far too long. It soon becomes clear to Ben that Saoirse is the key to their survival.

A man searching for his childhood best friend — a Polish violin prodigy orphaned in the Holocaust — who vanished decades before on the night of his first public performance.

Shot around the breathtaking coastline of B.C.'s Howe Sound, Whale Music is the triumphant adaptation of Paul Quarringaton's Governor General's Award-winning novel about the redemption of a faded rock star through love and music. Richard J. Lewis' exploration of the reclusive musician's efforts to create a piece of music that will summon the whales is a sensory and emotional tour de force. Written by Vancouver Film Festival, Handbook

When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.