A Tale of Old Cities (2024)

Ten Wells

In the 1980s, Kim Hyunsook was an integral part of a collective of young women activists who focused their efforts on fighting urban poverty in some of Incheon's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. These women not only lived in these communities but also worked alongside the urban underprivileged. She introduced me to some of her former colleagues from that era. Thus, I began this film journey by visiting Ahn Soonae, a close confidante and associate of Kim's, whom Kim affectionately described as ‘a foul-mouthed woman with a huge ass.’ Soon after, I had the privilege of meeting other members of the collective, now elderly women in their 60s.

string pieces

A young student lives in a mini-apartment in Incheon, in the North-West of South Korea. Wandering around the neighbourhood, she immerses herself in her family’s past, piecing together forgotten fragments of history. Using drawings and clay animation, visual artist Vatae Kimlee creates a flowing visual collage, a captivating animated graphic novel that brings back to life memories erased by the country’s accelerated transformation.

Silmido

On 31 January 1968, 31 North Korean commandos infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. In revenge, the South Korean military assembled a team of 31 criminals on the island of Silmido to kill Kim Il-sung for a suicide mission to redeem their honor, but was cancelled, leaving them frustrated. It is loosely based on a military uprising in the 1970s.

Failan

After losing both her parents, Failan emmigrates to Korea to seek her only remaining relatives. Once she reaches Korea, she finds out that her relatives have moved to Canada well over a year ago. Desperate to stay and make a living in Korea, Failan is forced to have an arranged marriage through a match-making agency.

The Roundup: No Way Out

Detective Ma Seok-do changes his affiliation from the Geumcheon Police Station to the Metropolitan Investigation Team, in order to eradicate Japanese gangsters who enter Korea to commit heinous crimes.

Like a Virgin

A chubby high school student participatee in a sports competition to win a cash prize for sex change surgery.

NOT OUT

Gwang-ho, a prospect on his high school baseball team, is not drafted by a professional baseball team. His desire to continue playing baseball strains his relationship with his team members. Gwang-ho eventually begins selling fake gasoline with his friend Min-cheol.

Take Care of My Cat

When one girl from five close school friends moves to Seoul after school is over, the other four try and deal with the loss of her moving and them drifting apart.

Coin Locker Girl

A child abandoned in a subway coin locker is sold to a ruthless and calculating loan shark and gangster boss dubbed Mother, who runs an organ-harvesting ring in Incheon’s Chinatown. Named Il-Young, the baby girl grows into Mother’s loyal right-hand enforcer and is groomed to be her eventual successor. But when Il-Young’s loyalty to Mother wavers, the clash between the two unleashes a merciless tidal wave of blood-soaked retribution and strife.

Abenko Green Beret

Abengo Corps is under the direct control of headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. In order to conceal the Inchon Landing Operation, Abengo is assigned to the Wonsan Landing Operation as a decoy mission. With the operation soon at hand, the members of this operation go on a special vacation to Busan. Among them is Il-gyu. He meets with Bae Su-na, a refugee, and they spend a passionate, touching night of love together. The members perform their duties as ordered. Lieutenant Colonel Koh receives a coded message from the headquarters. Koh realizes that his men are a diversion for the Inchon Landing Operation. Lieutenant Koh is angered and resentful. And Lieutenant Sung is chosen to enter the battle instead of Lieutenant Colonel Koh. During the January 4 Retreat, Lieutenant Sung meets Su-na, who has had Il-gyu's son. Lieutenant Sung helps her out.

Inchon

Gen. Douglas MacArthur leads a Korean War campaign, and the war tests a married couple's relationship.

Project Silence

Due to sudden deteriorating weather conditions, visibility on the Airport Bridge is severely impaired, leaving people stranded and at risk of the bridge collapsing due to a series of chain collisions and explosions. Amidst the chaos, the canine subjects "Echo" from the military experiment "Project Silence," who were being transported in secret, break free, and all human survivors become targets of relentless attacks.

Green Night

Two lone female fighters who have learned to rely on no one but themselves venture into Seoul's underworld. In search of the big hit that could mean liberation from their useless husbands, these disparate women grow closer.

Super Nova

Kidong is an exploration crew member of ASA (not NASA), aka Asia Space Administration. He leaves ASA to raise his daughter, Kyujin, after his wife and colleague, Sunho, dies during childbirth. One day, he has a mysterious experience meeting Sunho from a different dimension and decides to go back to space to search for her. He boards the secret spacecraft, Super Nova, based on the blueprints left behind by Sunho.

Operation Chromite

A squad of soldiers fight in the Korean War's crucial Battle of Incheon.

Deliver Us from Evil

A retired contract killer goes on a bloody rampage when a young girl finds herself at the mercy of gangland human traffickers and only one man can come to her rescue, with an arsenal of weapons and years of experience in the art of killing.

The Harlem Hellfighters' Great War

Nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters", these African-Americans wanted to become ordinary citizens like everyone else. They saw fighting heroically in the trenches as their chance to achieve this. In 1918, the 15th New York National Guard Regiment became the most highly decorated unit of the First World War.

GoldenEra

GoldenEra is a documentary that tells the story of the creation and legacy of the video game GoldenEye 007 (1997) for the Nintendo 64.

Apes Together Strong

Retail investors and twin brothers Finley and Quinn Mulligan give an insider look at the GameStop "short squeeze" and the "Apes" fighting for transparency and accountability in our corrupt capital markets.

This House Is Not A Home

A short documentary about gentrification and tenant activism in one Toronto neighbourhood, "This House Is Not A Home" presents a poignant and informative look into resident experiences in Parkdale.

Night and Fog

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

Disneyland Paris : Les trente ans d'un rêve toujours plus grand

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Aussie Rules the World

Australia’s national game is under threat from all world sports. Now the AFL must find new ways to survive in this global market. AUSSIE RULES THE WORLD follows AFL superstar Brett Kirk on an international mission to save the game. Narrated by award winning actor David Wenham- this film uncovers people’s passion for footy in unexpected corners of the globe. Footy will never be the same!

Live and Swingin': The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection

Collection of songs performed at the "Frank Sinatra Spectacular," a 1965 benefit by the various members of the Rat Pack.

The Story of Skinhead

Don Letts examines the history of this notorious subculture in a fascinating documentary, which features interviews with members of different skinhead scenes through the decades. Beginning in the late 1960s, Don fondly recalls a time of multiracial harmony as youngsters bonded over a love of ska, reggae and smart clothes as white working-class kids were attracted to Jamaican culture and adopted its music and fashions. But when far-right politics targeted skinheads in the 1970s and 1980s, an ugly intolerance emerged, and Don reveals how the once-harmonious subgroup has since struggled to shake this stigma.

Voda čo ma drží nad vodou

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Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart

In an extraordinary and tragic American story, a small town murder becomes one of the highest profile cases of all time. From its historic role as the first televised trial to the many books and movies made about it, the film looks at the media’s enduring impact on the case.

The Case Against 8

A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fed Up

Fed Up blows the lid off everything we thought we knew about food and weight loss, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public, resulting in one of the largest health epidemics in history.

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz

Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.

Ivory Tower

As tuition spirals upward and student debt passes a trillion dollars, students and parents ask, "Is college worth it?" From the halls of Harvard to public and private colleges in financial crisis to education startups in Silicon Valley, an urgent portrait emerges of a great American institution at the breaking point.

No No: A Dockumentary

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, then worked for decades counseling drug abusers. Dock's soulful style defined 1970s baseball as he kept hitters honest and embarrassed the establishment. An ensemble cast of teammates, friends, and family investigate his life on the field, in the media, and out of the spotlight.

The Overnighters

Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.

Rich Hill

If you ever find yourself traveling down Interstate 49 through Missouri, try not to blink—you may miss Rich Hill, population 1,396. Rich Hill is easy to overlook, but its inhabitants are as woven into the fabric of America as those living in any small town in the country. This movie intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in said Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.

Watchers of the Sky

Five interwoven stories of remarkable courage from Nuremberg to Rwanda, from Darfur to Syria, and from apathy to action.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball

Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.

The Eruption: Stories of Survival

The two NZ survivors of the deadly White Island eruption tell their remarkable story of survival.

Music, Money, Madness… Jimi Hendrix Live In Maui

Jimi Hendrix Experience’s storied visit to Maui, their performance on the dormant lower crater of Haleakala volcano on the island and how the band became ensnared with the ill-fated Rainbow Bridge movie produced by their controversial manager Michael Jeffery.

You Don't Nomi

Released in 1995, Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls was met by critics and audiences with near universal derision. You Don't Nomi traces the film's redemptive journey from notorious flop to cult classic, and maybe even masterpiece.

Push

Housing prices are skyrocketing in cities around the world. Incomes are not. PUSH sheds light on a new kind of faceless landlord, our increasingly unliveable cities and an escalating crisis that has an effect on us all. This is not gentrification, it’s a different kind of monster.The film follows Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, as she’s travelling the globe, trying to understand who’s being pushed out of the city and why. “I believe there’s a huge difference between housing as a commodity and gold as a commodity. Gold is not a human right, housing is,” says Leilani.

In the Shadow of Beirut

The Sabra and Shatila quarters are part of the Lebanese capital Beirut, which was rocked by a violent explosion in 2020, plunging Lebanon into the worst economic crisis in its history. In the poor districts, once provisionally built for Palestinian refugees, the residents live at a subsistence level without papers, without civil rights, without prospects. The documentary weaves the stories of the three families Kujeyje, Daher, Abeed and that of the young father Aboodi Ziani into a searing portrait of life in a city on the brink. The filmmakers accompanied their protagonists over a four-year period between 2018 and 2022 and show how the poorest of the poor firsthand felt the consequences of the gigantic port explosion, Lebanon's historic economic crisis, the corona pandemic and the ever-growing refugee quota. But unmistakable qualities like resilience and hope allow them to survive.

Shrooms

Follows Dan, a young Venezuelan man currently living in Lisbon, who collects magic mushrooms in the forest and distributes them in the city to those in need of help - like a New Age Robin Hood - using pigeons as carriers.

Germany: A Summer's Fairytale

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Riding Giants

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.

Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

An intimate concert film, in which Taylor Swift performs each song from her album 'folklore' in order, as she reveals the meaning and the stories behind all 17 tracks for the very first time.

The Dictators: Stalin

POWER. CONTROL. TERROR. The centre points of any dictatorship. The need for power, the want for tyrannical control and the subsequent terror unleashed to achieve their goals make dictators some of the most fascinating figures to study in history. In this series we will be looking at some of the 20th century's most notorious dictators, from their rise to power to their inevitable downfall.