Shadows of our forgotten ancestors
Sergei Parajanov, Soviet Union, 1964, 97 min

 

In a small Hutsul village in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, a young man, Ivan, falls in love with the daughter of the man who killed his father. Though their families share a bitter enmity, Ivan and Marichka have known each other since childhood. In preparation for their marriage, Ivan leaves the village to work and earn money for a household. While he is gone, Marichka accidentally slips into a river and drowns while trying to rescue a lost lamb. Ivan returns and falls into despair after seeing her body. He continues to work, enduring a period of joyless toil, until he meets another woman, Palagna, while shoeing a horse. Ivan and Palagna get married in a traditional Hutsul wedding in which they are blindfolded and yoked together. The marriage quickly turns sour, however, as Ivan remains obsessed with the memory of Marichka. Estranged from her emotionally distant husband, Palagna becomes involved with a local sorcerer, while Ivan begins to experience hallucinations.

At a tavern, Ivan witnesses the sorcerer embrace Palagna and strike one of his friends. Roused into an uncharacteristic fury, Ivan snatches up his axe, only to be struck down by the sorcerer. Ivan stumbles into the nearby woods and perceives Marichka’s spirit to be with him, reflected in the water and gliding amongst the trees. As reality merges into dream, the colorless shade of Marichka reaches out across a great space and touches Ivan’s outstretched hand … – WIKI

 

 

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The Color of Pomegranates (1968) by SERGEI PARAJANOV (December 1, 2010)

‘Maudit que c’était pas difficile voter pour le PQ à cette époque-là’ …

 

Godin, le film
Simon Beaulieu, Québec, 2011, 75 min

 

Version intégrale diffusée à la télé le mercredi 14 décembre 2011 à 20 h à voir ici.

Documentaire portant sur Gérald Godin, poète et homme politique québécois (1938-1994)

 

L’œuvre et la vie de Gérald Godin auront été marquées par son engagement viscéral envers le Québec. Oubliée ou méconnue, la contribution de son héritage politique et littéraire au patrimoine culturel est inestimable. Figure marquante de la poésie québécoise toute sa vie durant, il aura aussi été un acteur de premier plan dans les grands bouleversements socio-politiques des cinquante dernières années. De Trois-Rivières à Montréal, des années 60 au Référendum de 1995, en passant par les prisons d’Octobre et les chansons de sa compagne Pauline Julien, le film GODIN allie archives et entrevues pour retracer le parcours unique d’un combattant. Un portrait saisissant de celui que l’on surnomme le député-poète.

 

 

Une courtepointe cinématographique du Québec moderne, tissée par un amalgame d’archives d’exception.

 

 

godin-lefilm.com

The Juniper Tree
Nietzcha Keene, Iceland, 1986 (not released until 1990), 78 min

 

Based on the fairy tale « The Juniper Tree » collected by the Brothers Grimm … The Juniper Tree is set in Iceland and portrays the story of two sisters, Margit (Björk Guðmundsdóttir) and her elder sister Katla (Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir), who escape their home after their mother (Guðrún S. Gísladóttir) is stoned and burned for witchcraft. They go where no one knows them, and find Jóhann (Valdimar Örn Flygenring), a young widower who has a son called Jónas (Geirlaug Sunna Þormar). Katla uses magical powers to seduce Jóhann and they start living together. Margit and Jónas become friends. However, Jónas does not accept Katla as his stepmother and tries to convince his father to leave her. Katla’s magic power is too strong and even though he knows he should leave her, he can’t. Margit’s mother appears to her in visions and Jónas’ mother appears as a raven and to bring him a magical feather – WIKI

 

EPISODE 11 : The Ouija Board, from the seance to the toy store

 

And we’re back with the fascinating Mitch Horowitz (See Occult NYC Parts 1 and 2) and the incredible history of The Ouija Board. Learn about its early roots as a sort of ‘telegraph’ to the other side – to its evolution into the board game to outsell Monopoly. Get a haunting glimpse into some of the celbrities who used the board and learn about its ominous warning to poet Syliva Plath. Its more than just a toy and a Morrissey song (On le met en relation avec le Museum of Talking Boards: An Online Museum of Ouija Boards).

 

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The Midnight Archive is a new web series which aims to document the exotic, the strange, the eccentric and the truly unique. Often dark and always on the fringe, the series puts an honest look into some of the most fascinating people, places and artifacts that many people are wildly unfamiliar with. From a woman who mummifies pets to the largest collection of automata, the idea is for the subject matter to tell its own story and give the viewer just a taste of something ‘unusual’. No dramatic stings, no editorial drama – just the facts.

The series’ creator was inspired by an institution in his hometown called The Brooklyn Observatory. In 2010 he was asked to lecture there on his collection of mid-19th century 3D Demonic Stereo-Tissues and was amazed at both the variety and the number of people that came to the event. Talking to Joanna Ebenstein – one of the proprietors of the space and creator of the Morbid Anatomy Library, it seemed that there was a growing interest in the esoteric. So after much back and forth – they decide to undertake filming short pieces using the Observatory as their home-base …

 

 

themidnightarchive.com

The Stone Tape
Written by Nigel Kneale & directed by Peter Sasdy, UK, Original airing on BBC Two 25 December 1972, 90 min

 

A research team from an electronics company move into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a « stone tape »), but to exorcise it too – with terrifying results – IMDb