The Promise (2017)

Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

How Do You Measure a Year?

For 17 years, filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt filmed his daughter Ella on her birthday in the same spot, asking her the same questions. In just 29 minutes, we watch her grow from a toddler to a young woman with all the beautiful and sometimes awkward stages in between. Each phase is captured fleetingly but makes an indelible mark. Her responses to her father’s questions are just a backdrop for a deeper story of parental love, acceptance, and ultimately, independence.

Radeau avec baigneurs

Young people dive into the sea by jumping off a manmade wooden raft, while a small boat loaded with passengers passes by.

Le char funèbre

An impression of the funeral parade for Victoria, Queen of England, filmed in London (via https://catalogue-lumiere.com/le-char-funebre/)

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

Likely in June 1897, a group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Night and Fog

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

The Key Issue

A mockumentary about four people and their idiosyncratic ways of saving the planet.

The Douro Boys: Winter Season

In the Douro, five winemakers get together with the aim of exporting Portuguese wine to the world.

Psycho Attack Over Soviets

Experimental film directed by Dmitry Frolov, shot in the midst of perestroika in the USSR. February 1991. Starring the drummer for the MEANTRAITORS Vladislav Lyashchuk - a very peculiar musician played without bass drums and Toms.

99 days

Two instants separated by 99 days conflict with each other.

The Gnomist

Deep in the forest of Overland Park, Kansas little gnomes made a home. But how did they get there? Experience the feel-good story of paying it forward, one tiny magical house at a time.

Young Man on the Bar Masturbating with Rage and Nerve

Dance and prostitution play the same role for Cristhian’s body. Virtuosity, desire, technique, and sex intertwine, granting coherence to a way of life that offers many answers to few questions. A leitmotiv that reconciles opposites and contradictions. Answers that are sometimes painful, like all truths.

Diaphanous blood

Narrates in a poetic way the mystical connection that exists between the inhabitants of the pueblan Mixteca and water.

Entre memorias y barrancas

A tour of the canyons of the Teolocholco community through the memories of the elderly.

Los colores de mi pueblo

Don Andrés has dedicated most of his life to the creation of paintings with seeds, a craft considered intangible cultural heritage of Tlaxcala.

The United States of America

A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.

A Man from Nowhere

Rafa is a guy who dreams a lot and sleeps very little. He’s no longer a teenager and he’s one step ahead to become an adult, this would become more difficult than he ever thought. Love, drugs and uncertain future, are the thing that go with him through his journey to find out who he is as a person.

Taarikhaneh

People destroyed the Ali Akbar Sanati Museum, an Iranian painter and sculptor, and all his works were destroyed. Mordad 28, In 1332, many people were burned alive in the fire of Rex Cinema, 28 years later on the 25th, they repaired The House of History movie. This film is an experimental fiction film, with links to images of the last survivor of the Sanati Museum, namely the sculptures of prisoners in prison, and the voices of the history of Iranian cinema, from the Sasanian era to the Constitution and the Islamic Revolution.

Mr. Turtle

Daniel Pérgules, known as “Kilos” is a turtle rescuer and animal rights activist. On his journey searching for turtle nests in the most remote parts of the beaches of Tecolutla, Veracruz, he remembers the day it all began, and how his work saved his life.

Regreso a «Viridiana»

Spain, 1960. French student Monique Roumette lives in Madrid on a scholarship. Thanks to a friend who works in the production company Uninci, she has the privilege of attending the shooting of Viridiana, a film directed by Luis Buñuel.

Sapovnela

Amidst the hills of the ancient city of Mtskheta, an aging man nearing his hundredth year is forced to make way for a new road being paved through the blossoming garden of floral delights that he loves and cares for.