Watch The Pearl Throne (2024) Online Free

Dahomey

Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.

2024

Restitution? Africa's Fight for Its Art

There is an interlinking history of violent European colonialism and the cultural legacy of ethnographic collections in institutions. This documentary traces the progression of colonial history from the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to the systematic elimination of cultural traditions, religions and lifeways which would occur sporadically through genocides and warfare until the early 20th century throughout the African continent—surveying the inquiries and movements for historical justice, the relationships between European institutions and colonial violence and following enduring struggles against these organisations to regain what was taken.

2022

The Rumba Kings

In the fifties, when the future Democratic Republic of Congo was still a Belgian colony, an entire generation of musicians fused traditional African tunes with Afro-Cuban music to create the electrifying Congolese rumba, a style that conquered the entire continent thanks to an infectious rhythm, captivating guitar sounds and smooth vocals.

2021

Africa Rising

How African artists have spread African culture all over the world, especially music, since the harsh years of decolonization, trying to offer a nicer portrait of this amazing continent, historically known for tragic subjects, such as slavery, famine, war and political chaos.

2019

Burkinabè Rising - The Art of Resistance in Burkina Faso

BURKINABÈ RISING: the art of resistnace in Burkina Faso showcases creative nonviolent resistance in Burkina Faso. A small, landlocked country in West Africa, Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who provide an example of the type of political change that can be achieved when people come together. It is an inspiration, not only to the rest of Africa but also to the rest of the world. Through music, film, ecology, visual art, and architecture, the people featured in this film are carrying on the revolutionary spirit of Thomas Sankara. After assuming the presidency in 1983, Sankara was killed in a 1987 coup d'état led by his friend and close advisor Blaise Compaoré, who subsequently ruled the country as an autocrat for twenty-seven years. In October 2014, a massive popular insurrection led to his removal. Today, the spirit of resistance is mightier than ever in Burkina Faso.

2018

Afripedia - Kenya

“African art” is taking new form in Kenya, as an active community of African creatives are pushing innovation. One 3D artist in particular turns heads by animating a Transformers-style battle royal representing political turmoil in Kenya.

2016

Delivery

A peaceful neighborhood, a peaceful home, a peaceful couple who is about to celebrate the arrival of their new piece collection of African Art.

2015

Vida e Verso de Carlos Drummond de Andrade

2014

City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story

Youths from inner-city Denver find respite from their violent neighborhoods through the sport of lacrosse, and learn the value of teamwork and camaraderie.

2010

In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy

Films beget films. Filmmakers influence other filmmakers constantly. But the most influential filmmaker of all time is Alfred Hitchcock.

2008

African Art in Performance: The Winiama Masks of the Village of Ouri, Burkina Faso

African masks in performance: The spectacular masks of the Winiama people in the rural village of Ouri, in Burkina Faso, perform to reenact the encounters between the village ancestors and the spirits of the wilderness. This video emphasizes performance. There are lots of long takes of individual mask's performances from start to finish, with musical accompaniment, crowd reaction. Professor Roy has taught African art history at the University of Iowa for thirty years, and he has been doing research in Burkina Faso for thirty-seven years. He recently published The Land of Flying Masks: Art and Culture of Burkina Faso (Munich: Prestel, 2007).

2006

Kubasa in a Glass: The Strange World of the Winnipeg Television Commercial (1975-1993)

A found footage video essay tracing Winnipeg's civic pathologies, aesthetic fabulations and exquisite strangeness through the prism of its own low-budget, lo-fi TV advertising produced between 1975 and 1992.

2006

Pearl Jam: Single Video Theory

This video is not your typical collection of music videos. Rather than being simply a straightforward presentation of videos, Single Video Theory also contains footage of the band members recording their album in the studio. The camera captures the actual recording sessions as well as the band members chatting candidly about their concept and ideas for the music. Directed by Mark Pellington and shot in 16mm over 3 days in 1997.

1998

No Loans Today

Centering on the ABC Loan Co., a twenty-five year old pawnshop/checkcashing outlet, No Loans Today documents daily life in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles in the aftermath of the 1992 riots.

1996

Shohei Imamura: The Free Thinker

Documentary about Japanese film director Shohei Imamura.

1995

Tunisian Literature at the French National Library

Commemorating the 1986 Tunis-Paris exhibition Privileged Spaces and Times: French-Speaking Intellectual Production in Tunisia, Sarah Maldoror’s film points the way toward a more polyvocal understanding of the role of France’s National Library worldwide.

1986

Art in Ethiopia

The history of art in Ethiopia. The film emphasizes the styles, materials, etc. ofpaintings on walls and roofs of ancient churche

1983

The Ossuary

A non-narrative voyage round Sedlec Ossuary, which has been constructed from over 50,000 human skeletons (victims of the Black Death).

1970

The London Nobody Knows

Based on Geoffrey Fletcher’s book, this captivating documentary exposes the real London of the swinging sixties. Turning its back on familiar sights, the film explores the hidden details of a crumbling metropolis. With James Mason as our Guide, we are led on an tour of the weird and wonderful pockets of London from abandoned music-halls to egg breaking factories.

1968

Statues Also Die

Commissioned by the journal Présence Africaine, this short documentary examines how African art is devalued and alienated through colonial and museum contexts. Beginning with the question of why African works are confined to ethnographic displays while Greek or Egyptian art is celebrated, the film became a landmark of anti-colonial cinema and was banned in France for eight years.

1953