Anno 2002 - 487

Kwan Ming makes three friends on his journey from China to the New World. Once the men arrive, they all look for work but find nothing. When opportunities finally arise, Kwan Ming lets his friends have the best jobs: tailor, shoemaker and baker. Kwan takes a lowly position as helper to a mean store owner. His cruel boss makes three impossible demands: that Kwan Ming find him a woolen suit that never tears, boots that never wear out and bread that won't go stale. Kwan Ming's generosity of spirit pays off when his friends come to his aid.

His many photographic explorations in Hong Kong and Shanghai have led Serge Clément to combine the Chinese metropolises, first in a book titled Fragrant Light, and now in this animated version for the National Film Board of Canada. This fragrant light in a revolving diamond-shaped bottle takes us through space and time, over a reinvented urban landscape where Hong Kong shows the way to Shanghai, while the photographer's inner city gives us a glimpse of the 21st century metropolises. But this is not history, it's a story where light and shadows fight for territory on shifting battlefields, his and ours. Film without words.

Part of the 'Interesting Times' series with Kang Jianning's Xiao's Long March and Duan Jinchuan's My Secret to Success.

To the Land of Bliss is an intimate portrayal of the Chinese Pure Land Buddhist way of dying and living. In 1998, the filmmaker/anthropologist Wen-jie Qin returned to her home region in Sichuan Province in southwest China to research the post-Mao revival of Buddhism. During her fieldwork on the sacred mountain Emei, an eminent monk named Jue Chang passed away. People in the community laughed and cried at the departure of their beloved teacher. They gathered to escort his body through a rite of fire and to observe his consciousness rise to a paradise known as the Land of Bliss of Amita Buddha. The filmmaker captured some of the wonders and mystery from her search with these Chinese Pure Land Buddhists for the door to Amita Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life.

In the summer of 2001, under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a totem pole in the Peabody Museum at Harvard University was returned to its original owners' ancestors, a Tlingit community in Southeast Alaska. The journey of the pole began a hundred years ago when it was removed by the Harriman Expedition from the deserted village of Gash at Cape Fox. The totem pole makes its way from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Ketchikan, Alaska, where the Cape Fox community holds a ceremony to welcome home artifacts taken by the Expedition.

Story of a man who is obsessed with his stomach and how it gets in the way of his love, his dream and ultimately his life.

Amateurish voyeurism in a pre-tv era. Glances of female bodies (un)covered by swimsuits on the beach.

The inspiring true story of Kade Farlow Collins 14, FTM (female to male) transgendered, and living with an incredibly understanding family in Tucson Arizona.

Animation about a match's brave attempt to pursue his life.

The kicks, hits, and blows of martial arts master are no faster than Nicolayevsky's manic editing.

The legendary Saga, filmed live in Bonn, Germany 2002, to commemerate their 25th Anniversary. Sixteen tracks from their only European date in 2002. Bonus features include a Saga discography, photo gallery, the making of, Saga gear and S.1 Audio.

A video essay offering new perspectives on a contemporary China between communist slogans and market-driven society. Is the utopia of a communist society in China still alive or just kept alive artificially? In Zhou Hongxiang's video essay possible answers are interconnected, while presenting today's China as a nation torn between communist rhetoric and capitalist economy. Simultaneously, The Red Flag Flies critically reflects on the slogans of Maoism as well as on all kind of -isms in the world - albeit their economical, political or ideological origins.The Red Flag Flies tries to deconstruct and reconstruct the phenomenon of cinema by questioning current aesthetic experiences and cognitive perception, and tries to explore a new discourse on the power of images.

Ken delivers an uplifting and encouraging humor-filled presentation to help us find the missing gusto. No promises of health, wealth or perfection -- just an honest look at the Christian life.

Short documentary about Quebecois store owners.