The Bodies of Pompeii (UK) | Click here to watch
(66 min; 2021; English and with subtitles)
With Bettany Hughes

It is 79 AD and Mount Vesuvius is about to blow. In 24 hours the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum are going to die. They will be part of the death toll of one of the worst natural disasters in history. Starting with a forensic examination of their remains, historian Bettany Hughes pieces together the final 24 hours of their lives in incredible detail.

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=The+Bodies+of+Pompeii
 

Stories We Tell (Canada) | Click here to watch
(108 min; 2012; English)
Director: Sarah Polley

Multiple award winner including EDA Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2013; AFCA Award for Best Documentary, Australian Film Critics Association Awards 2013; DGC Team Award –Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada 2013; ICS Award for Best Documentary, International Cinephile Society Awards 2014; among others

In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of their mother, who departed too soon, leaving a trail of unanswered questions. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy and fiercely loving. Stories We Tell explores the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the larger human story.

https://watchdocumentaries.com/stories-we-tell/

But for Women…Dr. Brahms, Johannes Brahms (Germany)
(57 min; 1997; English)
Director: Janos Darvas

This fascinating, music-packed documentary examines the life and work of the great romantic composer from the viewpoint of his relationships with women.

Brahms produced some of the greatest works of German romanticism - symphonies, songs, chamber works and concertos of profound emotion and accomplishment. How much this was because, and how much in spite, of his unsatisfactory love life is a moot point, a point explored in this absorbing documentary. The film also includes a remarkable recording - Brahms himself playing his Hungarian Dance No 1 in 1889, in one of the earliest sound recordings ever made. It may be full of hiss and wind, but it's extraordinary to be able to hear a composer who died over a century ago interpreting his own work. It is contrasted with a modern recording from 1995 - the difference is amazing, artistically as well as technically.

A BBC documentary series presented by art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon, exploring Russian art from the origins of the Russian icon from its roots in Byzantium to today. The series consists of three episodes: the first episode "Out of the Forest" explores the origins of the Russian icon from its roots in Byzantium; the second episode "Roads to Revolution" tells of how art moved from being a servant of the state to an agent of its destruction; and the third and final episode "Smashing the Mould" looks at Russian art from the early revolutionary days in 1920s, through World War Two and the Cold War, to today.

Episode 1 - Out of the Forest | Click here to watch
(51 min; English)
Director: Karen McGann

This episode explores the origins of the Russian icon from its roots in Byzantium and the first great Russian icon, Our Lady of Vladimir to the masterpieces of the country's most famous icon painter, Andrei Rublev.

https://watchdocumentaries.com/the-art-of-russia/

First Position (USA) | Click here to watch
(95 min; 2011; English)
Director: Bess Kargman

Recipient of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, Dallas International Film Festival 2012; Audience Award, DOC NYC 2011; Audience Award for Best Documentary Film, Portland International Film Festival 2012; and Staff Prize, San Francisco Docfest 2011

First Position follows six talented young dancers (ages 9-19) from five continents as they prepare for a worldwide ballet competition that could transform their lives overnight. Every year, thousands of aspiring dancers enter one of the world's most prestigious ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix, where lifelong dreams are at stake. The film follows six young dancers as they prepare for a chance to enter the world of professional ballet, struggling through bloodied feet, near exhaustion and debilitating injuries, all while navigating the drama of adolescence. A showcase of awe-inspiring talent, tenacity and passion, First Position paints a thrilling and moving portrait of the most gifted young ballet stars of tomorrow.

https://www.documentaryarea.tv/player.php?title=First%20Position
 

PHYSICAL PROGRAMME

A book by Harsha V. Dehejia (DK Printworld:2020)

Launch of the book by Dr. Karan Singh

Followed by a talk   

The Third Eye of Indian Art

Speaker: Dr. Harsha V. Dehejia, Indo-Canadian allergologist, author, and radio host, and Professor of Indian Studies, Carleton University

Discussants: Shri Ashok Vajpeyi, Hindi poet and critic, noted cultural and arts administrator; Shri Pawan K. Varma, former diplomat, writer, and politician; and Prof. Makarand Paranjpye, novelist and poet, Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

In the Service of Free India: Memoir of a Civil Servant

By B.D. Pande (New Delhi, Speaking Tiger: 2021)

Discussants: Shri N.K. Singh, politician, economist, and former Member of Parliament; Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, economist and former Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India; and Shri M.K. Narayanan, former National Security Advisor and former Governor of West Bengal 

Moderator: Smt Neerja Chowdhury, senior journalist

Registration link

The Story of 1 (UK) | Click here to watch
(60 min; 2005; English)
Director: Nick Murphy 

Terry Jones hosts this documentary on the number one. It looks at early evidence of counting, the use of numbers for simple arithmetic in Sumeria, the development of large numbers and their use for engineering in Egypt, the worship of numbers by Pythagoras and the theoretical mathematics of the Archimedes. It also looks at the use of numbers by the Romans, the development of Arabic numerals in India, the discovery of the number zero, the development of algebra in the Islamic world, the decline of Roman numerals in the west, and the development of the binary system.

https://vimeo.com/56113926
 

Machu Picchu Decoded | Click here to watch
(52 min; 2009; English)
A National Geographic film

Deep in the Andean mountains lays a mysterious ruin named Machu Picchu. For 400 years it sat abandoned on its misty cliff, the quintessential lost city in the jungle. Rediscovered in 1911, it contained no written records or carvings, nothing that could shed light on its history. For a century since, it has defied the endless scores of visitors and scientists who attempted to understand its purpose. Who were the mysterious people who built it and why did they build it here? Today an international team of archaeologists, engineers and scientists are finally piecing together the clues. Together they are discovering astonishing new burials, revealing the intricacies of its ingenious engineering and finally decoding the secrets of Machu Picchu.

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Machu+Picchu+Decoded