Bird of Passage (2024)

The Pitch

"The Pitch" takes a look at the world of international street performing buskers to find out why these men and women have chosen to "pass the hat" to make a living, along with the challenges they face.

Circus Krone - Manege mit Geschichte

It is considered the largest traveling circus in Europe and is one of the oldest in Germany: Circus Krone celebrated its 100th anniversary a few years ago. However, the history of the family business actually began back in 1870 - when the founding couple toured the fairgrounds. The small animal show became a dazzling entertainment giant.

Pit Dhuwur

In the heart of Yogyakarta, a tall bike enthusiast takes a stand against the city's lacklustre cycling infrastructure in the city with the "Bicycle Friendly City" label.

Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot

Award Winning Documentary on the Life of Artist Robert Shields. “Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot” is a documentary that will make you believe that your actions can have an inspirational effect on so many lives - and you may not even be aware of it. An icon of the 70’s, Robert began his career doing his robot in front of the Hollywood Wax Museum and a few short years later had his own top rated Prime Time CBS Variety show with his beautiful wife Lorene called: “The Shields & Yarnell Show”. And along the way, unbeknownst to him, he created ripples that define an art form to this day. This film may not save the environment, it won’t take on a corrupt corporation nor will it make you write your congress person. What it will do is make you laugh, bring you wonder and joy and introduce you to a man who makes you believe that anything is possible… including (and don’t try this at home!) Street Skiing in downtown San Francisco!

Leon

A biographical documentary about performer Leon Dziemaszkiewicz, where artistic creation, the passing of time and coping of loss blend over the death of his loved one, the famous fashion designer Thierry Mugler.

Miss Rimbombanzia doing her makeup in Avenida de los Poblados, 173

Rimbombanzia performs her makeup mantra on the streets of Madrid for drivers and pedestrians.

Danube

The introvert Russian girl Nadia goes on holiday to Belgrade, inhabited by extrovert Serbians. She lives according to a plan, while the Belgraders live for joy. At first, Nadia is involved with the local guy Nesha, and then with his relaxed, semi-vagrant way of life. She takes the impulsive decision to give up her dull job and Moscow for the sake of love, freedom and Belgrade. Both this love, and this freedom must undergo the test of reality, which is always more difficult than our expectations.

The King of Masks

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art.

The Unknown

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder – a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

He Who Gets Slapped

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

The Last Circus

A trapeze artist must decide between her lust for Sergio, the Happy Clown, or her affection for Javier, the Sad Clown, both of whom are deeply disturbed.

Yeh Ballet

Discovered by an eccentric ballet master, two gifted but underprivileged Mumbai teens face bigotry and disapproval as they pursue their dancing dreams.

One from the Heart

In a dazzling, dreamlike Las Vegas, longtime couple Hank and Frannie break up on their fifth anniversary and each pursue the fantasy of new love over one neon-soaked night—he with a free-spirited acrobat, she with a seductive musician. But as illusion and reality blur, both must decide whether passion or devotion truly defines the heart.

L'Homme de Fer-Blanc

Etienne narrowly earns a living by being a street performer, namely a living statue. Moved to action by his landlord's ultimatum, he must do various jobs during the day to make the rent, but his efforts are unfruitful. Having met a dead end, Etienne has no choice but to accept his fate.

Meltdown

With the help of his friend, an autistic circus performer must overcome a meltdown when an unfamiliar location leaves him overwhelmed.

A Modern Hero

A 1920s circus performer uses every means at his disposal to achieve fame and fortune at the expense of others.

Sur un fil

Jo, a young woman and street circus artist, discovers the work of the professional clowns of “Nez pour Rire”. Quickly - perhaps too quickly - entering the association, she found herself at the hospital in contact with children, sick people, caregivers and families, to whom these clowns tirelessly try to bring joy and comfort. .

Plastic Jesus

Tom is a young guy from Zagreb, completely without money, trying to make films in Belgrade. He somehow manages to survive with a help of women. He doesn't believe in anybody, respects no one and is in constant conflict with the ruling system and order. After being left by a silly American girl, Tom binds with a woman whose husband is abroad. When she kicks him out, he moves in with her husband's sister, who later kills him in the attack of jealousy. All this is shown in the context of major historical events prior to 1968. with lots of archive footage of world leaders.

Fainting Flicker

Two young strangers meet in Naples and begin to flirt and dance in the street.

Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall

Featuring never-before-seen concert footage and narration by Jeff Bridges, this documentary explores CCR's humble origins and meteoric rise. It includes the entire set recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on April 14th, 1970.

Igor Levit: No Fear

Follows the artist over two years as he explores his „life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist.

12th Warrior

A documentary that tries to explain the reason for the passion of the Mexican football fandom.

Here I Am

A top executive who can't bear to regard himself as a loser, even after nearly dying in the New York marathon; a woman unable to cope with the loss of her wealthy status after her divorce; and an ambitious financial couple confronted with their unresolved family matters. Every Sunday, in their upper class Bloemendaal church, the cutting sermons of reverend Ad van Nieuwpoort shake their faith and existence to the core. What drives people to be crushed by the weight of their ambitions?

The Outhouse: The Film 1985-1997

In the mid-1980s outside this college town, home of the Kansas Jayhawks, punk rock history was being made in the middle of a cornfield. Where the pavement turned to gravel, in a small, primitive cinder block building, bands like Fugazi, the Melvins, Rollins Band, Gwar, the Circle Jerks, Body Count, Social Distortion, Bad Brains, White Zombie, Descendents, Sonic Youth, Green Day, Fishbone, the Meat Puppets, Helmet, and Nirvana played to all-ages crowds, a raucous scene of misfits and anarchists on the margins of youth culture. This was The Outhouse. Small, dark and sometimes dangerous, it quickly gained a reputation as a haven for the bands other venues were afraid of, and the kids who loved them.

Sweet Sal

A portrait of a wiry, engaging street hustler, Sal Carulli, whose cocky patter breaks down at the end of the film, when he visits his father’s grave.

The Mill Hunk Herald

A trip inside a Steel Valley workers’ magazine, which looks like raw material for a Bruce Springsteen song.

Lost in NOLA

A young student filmmaker in an attempt to shoot a documentary gets lost in New Orleans. Out of fear of making a mistake, he ends up making hundreds of mistakes.

Frenel

A Short film about a contemporary milliner in NYC.

Con Mum

A chef's life is upended when a jet-setting, champagne-sipping, hotel-hopping woman claims to be his long-lost mother. This documentary reveals the untold story.

Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh lived a life of absolutes, never doubting his own abilities or the altitude of his own moral high ground. His extraordinary character brought him unparalleled accomplishment but also public humiliation and lonely isolation, as his faith in genetic determinism could barely conceal his narrow, naive, and racist social and political views.

Kit Carson

An illiterate mountain man, Kit Carson was fluent in Spanish and five Indian languages; he twice married Native American women, yet led a brutal war against the Navajo. When the West was a mystery to most Americans, Carson mastered it, and his expertise made him not only famous, but also sought after. Eventually, by helping to spur a migration that would change the West forever, he unwittingly became an agent in the destruction of the life he loved.

Ukraine From Above: Secrets From The Frontline

A year on from Russia's invasion, a look at how the war has played out from the air and how Ukraine use drones, satellites and smart tech to thwart the enemy. Featuring drone photography of key locations from before and after the war.

2399 Days with Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli

A documentary produced by NHK following the production of "The Boy & The Heron" over 7 years.

Out Of Europe

Looking at whether the history of early human evolution should be rewritten. For decades, most experts have been convinced that Africa is the cradle of mankind and many fossil finds from Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Chad seemed to prove it.

The Business End: Violence in Cinema

An unflinching look at the ongoing debate on violence in movies and its effect on the audience.

Will vs. Wilderness

Elke Kruse lives alone on her old farm in North Frisia. She was born during the Nazi regime in 1935, was a queen of the shooting range, and mainly tends to her beautiful garden these days. But there’s a mole that regularly destroys the gorgeous idyll with holes and black mounds of dirt. Elke wants revenge and hatches a plan. A documentary western set against the vast Frisian horizon.

Lost Temples of the Jungle

Plot unavailable