In Natpwe, the feast of the spirits, co-directors Tiane Doan na Champassak and Jean Dubrel have produced an immersive, seemingly timeless document of an annual Burmese trance ritual that dates back to the eleventh century. Shot in Super 8 and 16mm in sooty black and white, the film conveys the astonishing sense of liberation of tens of thousands of bodies and minds — a mass expression of faith, but also a rapturous respite from societal intolerance.
In the background is a row of three-masted sailing ships, at anchor, their sales furled. In the foreground, a simple pier that's more like a yardarm juts out above the water; about 15 boys of six or seven years of age are on the jutting wood, and they jump off into the water below.
The film shows a parade down Fifth Avenue, New York. In the foreground many children, both black and white, can be seen following alongside the parade.
They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.
Gob, a product designer who always manages to find something crap to present to his boss and really wants someone who can listen to his problems when he feels down.
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration.
A bullied student sees visions of a rabbit he was forced to kill as a child, and those visions propel him into a state where his imagination causes him to carry out violent acts.
May 6, 2012. Cable news reporter Laetitia is covering the French presidential elections, while Vincent, her ex-husband, demands to see their two young daughters.
What does it take to say a word of love? How long and how much strength does it take for the heart to speak? How many streets at night? How fast? How many faces in how many bars? What tenderness? What pain? What music? What images in the mind? And where does it come from? Is it in the darkness of a closed park at night? In the back room of a Chinese bar? In the bottom of a beer? In a collective dance? In a sister's laughter? When does it finally happen? For the soul to let go.
When a lonely man finds out the love of his life has a conjoined twin, who happens to be a serial killer, he must take drastic measures to keep his love life intact while keeping himself out of big trouble.
A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household.
Comments
Have you watched Natpwe: The Feast of the Spirits yet? What did you think about it?