Self-defense (2021)

Moments choisis des Histoire(s) du cinéma

A very personal look at the history of cinema directed, written and edited by Jean-Luc Godard in his Swiss residence in Rolle for ten years (1988-98); a monumental collage, constructed from film fragments, texts and quotations, photos and paintings, music and sound, and diverse readings; a critical, beautiful and melancholic vision of cinematographic art. (Abridged version of the original collection of eight short films).

By the Lake

Bokanowski returns to the complex - and mind-bending - optical array of pinholes, mirrors, prisms, and refractive substrates of his earlier film, La Plage to create the whimsical and playful Au bord du lac. The film is composed of mundane, everyday scenes of recreation and leisure on an idyllic, sunny day at a park that overlooks a lake - rowing a boat, playing a game of volleyball, rollerskating, bicycling, reading a newspaper, sunbathing, riding on horseback, or strolling on the promenade - shot through optical distortions to create fractured and knotted images that resemble embellished, gothic fairytale illustrations or appear to resolve into morphing, geometric patterns of fluid motion. Evoking the vibrant colors and sun-soaked palette of an invigorated Vincent van Gogh in Arles, Bokanowski transforms the quotidian into an infinitely mesmerizing dynamic kaleidoscope of shape-shifting textures and self-reconstituting objects of organic, abstract art.

The Role of Chance

"The Role of Chance" ("La part du hasard") focuses exclusively on drawing and painting techniques used by the painter Henri Dimier. Shot over several weeks in the same artist's studio, the film shows works in their different phases, processes rarely explained or little known. It also addresses many practical issues (choice of paper, pigment grinding, reports drawings, put the tiles, cliches, etc) as well as broader questions of method and inspiration (use of space, the role of contours, power of suggestion perspectives, use of random processes). Patrick Bokanowski sought with this film to restore the spirit of this teaching, showing how to bend a note or sometimes revealing an essential mystery of creation.

Reflections of Nature

Reflections of Nature is an experimental short film, touching on the relationship man has with mother nature, and how they coexist in this ever changing modern world.

The Angel

The climbing of an immense staircase made up of the most varied stairs- Symbolic scenes occur on different levels where characters seem to be prisoners of their deeds and of their own folly. The steep staircase leads little by little towards the zones of great light where human beings and nonhuman beings meet.

Flammes

Memories split in the space.

Janapada

Rudra has come back one morning, has return to his friend Saruar's home. He had disappeared from home leaving no cue, a year ago. Saruar first came to know about Rudra's disappearance in Rudra's mother's call. Then he had gone to Rudra's home and saw how his agitated parents and elder brother were tracing out reasons of his desertion. Rudra do not answer any of these questions of Saruar now. He become immutable and eloquent. He only replies that he is tired and cinema experience Rudra's exhaustion from this world's journey in a non-narrative way. Rudra's consciousness become aware of a bigger crisis. Rudra just express interest to go to sleep for a while.

Vers Syracuse

Dreamlike sea bathing and horse rides. Colors take the plunge, the horizon blazes, breaking waves pound endlessly. A strange journey through depths of sound and vision.

The Woman Who Powders Herself

A study of human anxieties about beauty, youth and objectification.

The Dream Machine

A woman experiments with a Dreamachine, hoping to escape trouble. Within the light and dark of the machine, violent emotions awaken.

The Achalunés

Organic forms are beating and resorbing, reflections dance to the rhythm of Henk BADINGS 'music, circles of light flash like disturbing eyes, perpetual metamorphoses evoke a great living and throbbing organism.

Breakfast

Relentlessly reworking ‘real’ images, using techniques borrowed from painting and animated film, Patrick Bokanowski is an author of stature, capable of creating an insane and cataclysmic universe of unquestionable beauty.

Aniquilação

An experiment on language and its inability to contain reality, "Aniquilação" is a collage made with sounds, images and words. From a continuous pulse, noises and sound traces form a cadence that merges with landscapes and details of a world full of things, colors, phenomena and creatures. The language is represented by scraps of word-search magazines, of which words, crosswords and riddles insist on defining and conceptualizing the things, sounds and images, which creates a gradual saturation that leads to the complete abstraction of everything. Concept, images and editing by Xavier Braun, soundtrack and sound design by Victor Rodrigues – as QORPO. Brasil, 2021

Le Canard à l'orange

A housewife is preparing a duck à l'orange in her kitchen. But the reluctant bird tries to escape from her but the woman manages to recaptures it and plucks it savagely. Once the duck is put in the oven, an alligator unexpectedly appears in the kitchen, threatening the cook.

Living In a Daydream

A film about a person who is remembering the outside world when he is trapped in restrictions during the covid-19 outbreak.

Soar

Choreography of an imaginary journey.

A Solar Dream

Behold the struggle between light and dark, the two principles that are at the very heart of the cinematic deed. A Solar Dream takes the seventh art’s ability to generate imaginary and phantasmagorical worlds to the limit, multiplied here by Michèle Bokanowski’s enveloping music. A precious plastic and sonic gem.

Hum Drum

A painter in his studio: his pencils, brushes, tubes, table, easel and drawings set themselves in motion in an explosion of colors and flashes of light.

L'indomptable

2018 short film by Patrick Bokanowski

Un rêve

Experimental film by Patrick Bokanowski.

The Beach

Reworked and colored images of people playing at the seashore.

The Sacred Laptop

A man named Cukik trapped in a paradoxical dream about the man he is watching on his laptop. This madness was contagious even to the mysterious man in his dreams.

Une visite au musée

Plot unavailable

Solar Beats

Walking towards the fire. In a ceaseless stream of light, people, landscapes and objects lead us to mysterious regions. French filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski’s work is hard to classify - and all the richer for it. Together with his wife Michèle, whose musique concrète compositions form the basis of the sound design, Bokanowski offers a prolonged, dense and visually visceral experience of the kind that is rare in cinema today. Difficult to define and locate, its strangeness is quite unique.

On the Line: The Race of Champions

On the Line - The Race of Champions documentary celebrates the 30th birthday of the Race Of Champions, from its off-road beginnings on Gran Canaria to its popular stadium events in some of the most iconic venues around the world. For over 30 years the Race Of Champions has brought together the world's greatest drivers from Formula 1, Rally, NASCAR, IndyCar, Le Mans, and more to answer one simple question: If you let them loose in equal cars, who's actually the fastest of them all?

My Robot Sophia

This stirring and visually immersive documentary brings us inside the spirited pursuits of David Hanson, a restless inventor aiming to perfect the world’s most life-like A.I. With freewheeling energy and storytelling gusto, Jon Kasbe and Crystal M...

Polaris

Hayat, an expert sailor in the Arctic, navigates far from humans and her family's past in France. But when her little sister Leila gives birth to a baby girl Inaya, their worlds are turned upside down; we witness their journey, guided by the polar star, to overcome the family’s fate.

Silver Spitfire: The Longest Flight

A British expeditionary team attempt a dangerous, world-first circumnavigation of the Earth in an 80-year-old vintage World War II fighter to inspire a new generation through the freedom of flight.

The Boy

Actress-director Zabou Breitman embarks on an unusual adventure: imagining the life of a boy discovered in an old photo from an album bought at a flea market. These are the images and memories of an unknown family, which somehow feel familiar. At the center is the boy, with his gaze that is both gentle and melancholic yet joyful. Who is he? What is his true story, the one that unfolds between the lines? What if every individual were also the unwitting hero of a tale? This dizzying family investigation blurs the lines between reality and fiction, sometimes merging them completely.

Loudmouth

Josh Alexander’s Loudmouth documents the winding road that is Al Sharpton’s life story as an iconic activist and spiritual leader.

My Name Is Andrea

A rousing portrait of feminist writer Andrea Dworkin, one of the most controversial and misunderstood figures of the 20th century, who fought passionately for justice and equality for women.

The YouTube Effect

YouTube has garnered over 2.3 billion users and is worth up to $300 billion dollars. At its center is its algorithm, something that threatens to destroy not only the platform, but the entire Internet.

Venus & Serena - From the Ghetto to Wimbledon

They learned to play tennis in one of the worst American ghettos and still reached the top of the world rankings, dominating the women’s game for decades. The story of Serena and Venus Williams is one of overcoming sexism and racism to transform the sport

Can Creativity Save the World?

The final part of the Creativity Trilogy explores existential threats our world is facing. An inspiring film about imagination's power and a hopeful glimpse into the future.

TIME

"Time" takes you through the city at night, capturing fleeting moments. With dynamic visuals and an atmospheric soundtrack, this short film explores the nature of existence and memory. Narrated by David Bowie, it invites you to reflect on the passage of time.

The Mystery of Dante

A journey in the footsteps of the most famous initiate of Italian Trecento, the author of the celebrated "Divine Comedy". A poet who has inspired some of the most outstanding minds in History.

Joyce at 34

After giving birth, Joyce attempts to regain her position as a filmmaker while also caring for her new baby. The changes to both her and her husband’s professional lives are remarkable and frustrating. The new parents love the baby but must recognize the limitations she puts on their careers.

Land Without Bread

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Gimme Shelter

A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.

Primary

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

Dont Look Back

In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Bob Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.

The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone

Sharing her journey from child to teen activist, Georgie Stone looks back at her life and historic fight for transgender rights in this documentary.

Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight

Join the likes of Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke as they reveal how Marvel Studios' Moon Knight was painstakingly brought to life. Through insightful interviews with cast and crew, along with immersive footage from the set, and a candid "roundtable discussion" with the series' directors, this "making-of" pulls back the curtain on the groundbreaking series of Marvel Studios' newest hero.

Oh Les Filles!

What if French Rock were born with Edith Piaf? From sweet sixties pop to today's gender-indifferent anthems, from feminist rebels of the seventies to fashion icons of the social media age, from Françoise Hardy to Christine & The Queens, via Vanessa Paradis, Catherine Ringer, Charlotte Gainsbourg and many more, Oh Les Filles! tells the untold story of French female rock stars. Narrated by Clémence Poésy, this groundbreaking documentary combines interviews and iconic footage to radically reverse perspectives and give the patriarchy a kick!

Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing

Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment

The Hindenburg Disaster: Probable Cause

Plot unavailable

Bra Boys

A film about the cultural evolution of the Sydney beach side suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle faced by it's youth - the notorious surf gang known as the Bra Boys.