Heddy Honigmann

From cinema-verite; pioneers Albert Maysles and Joan Churchill to maverick movie makers like Errol Morris, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield, the world's best documentarians reflect upon the unique power of their genre. Capturing Reality explores the complex creative process that goes into making non-fiction films. Deftly charting the documentarian's journey, it poses the question: can film capture reality?

Père-Lachaise - one of the world's most famous and beautiful cemeteries - is the final resting-place of a gifted group of artists from all eras and corners of the world. Some - such as Piaf, Proust, Jim Morrison and Chopin - are worshiped to this day. Others have fallen into oblivion, or are visited occasionally by a single admirer. In Forever we see the mysterious, calming and consoling beauty of this unique cemetery through the eyes of people of flesh and blood. Many come for their 'own' beloved: husbands, wives, family and friends. Others Honor 'their' artist by leaving behind a personal message or a flower. While admirers share with us the importance of art and beauty in their lives, the graveyard gradually reveals itself as a source of inspiration for the living. Death offers little consolation except for the passing of time, the melancholia of a moss-covered tomb, and the beauty and power of a piece of music, a poem or a painting Written by Cobos

During the unique world tour of the RCO celebrating its jubilee in 2013 we meet musicians and concertgoers. The tour develops not just into a journey across the globe but also as a trip to the core of classical music, a quest for the palette of emotions which only classical music can arouse. In 2013 the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra tours the whole world to celebrate its 125th anniversary: 50 concerts spread over 6 continents. Unbounded passion and love for music brings musicians and concert goers together. Documentary maker Heddy Honigmann lands with the orchestra in Buenos Aires, Soweto and St Petersburg and shows how the ensemble succeeds in gaining the hearts of people with a different cultural background. A journey to the kernel and the power of music which knows how to touch unexpected emotions and which helps to overcome the pain of living.

The importance of the Atelier as a meeting and working-place for independent or beginning filmmakers is highlighted in Last days of Studio Frans van de Staak a necrology of his films by Kees Hin (2002), which focuses mainly on Van de Staak's non-naturalistic style of directing actors.

This documentary is an offbeat "road movie" in which acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with, and thereby discovers the stories of, taxi drivers in Lima. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by corruption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their own cars to moonlight as taxi drivers in order to weather the financial crisis.

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The pig is unclean to some, tasty or sweet to others. The pig Dorus grows up in the backyard of free-range butcher Gerard Zwetsloot. They walk around the village together and are local celebrities. After two years, Dorus is ready for slaughter and Gerard is faced with a difficult choice: the pig or the meat. A story about a pig and a butcher that shows how ambiguous our relationship with animals can be.

A woman falls in love with a married, Belgian man. She finds out that he's married too late... although it's the second thing he says. The rest of the film is about the struggle of the man between his two loves, and of the woman not able to finish the hopeless and dangerous relationship. The title "tot ziens" (au revoir, a farewell greeting that implicates that one will see eachother again), is the ironic description of the film, which is about going away for good and then coming back again, because something is always stronger than your ratio.

100UP is a film which investigates the will to live. It portrays a colourful selection of 100+ year old people from all over the world. They have lived for over a century and witnessed great historical events, but instead of dwelling on the past, they look ahead. With the clock inevitably ticking, these centenarians cling to life, set new goals with a joie de vivre, refusing to admit the betrayal of their deteriorating bodies. Time is both their enemy and their friend. They have overcome diseases, lost partners and some of them survived their own children. Nevertheless, these active, curious and creative 100+ year olds are amazingly good at restarting every new day.

Documentary about the Dutch author, illustrator and performer Joke van Leeuwen, who has won various awards for her literature for children which sometimes uses a quest as a theme.

A Dutch couple is confronted with the husband's rapid onset of senility during a snowy winter in North Eastern Canada.

Heddy Honigmann returns to her birthplace of Lima, Peru to reacquaint herself with a place and people dear to her heart. It is about a forgotten city, a forgotten history and a forgotten people. With irony as their loved weapon for survival, they have to forget as well, in order not to give way to cynicism, hatred and grief. It is about remembering the old days when life - despite class differences, corruption and violence - was still good: waiters, bartenders and shopkeepers who are fighting a losing battle and have lost everything. It is also about the children who manage to survive by mastering the art of street life and who reveal the country in it's true colours. Just like the dogs they share the streets with, they have no good memories to forget.

Two very different friends who share an apartment in Amsterdam have reached a dead end in their lives. The arrival of a parcel looks like an opportunity for a change.

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“There Is No Path” follows legendary director Heddy Honigmann on a real and spiritual journey. Today, facing a terminal illness, she will travel to her country of birth, Peru and through Europe revisiting all the important places and moments of her life, richly illustrated with clips of her films. Is it a farewell journey in which she lets go of her family, her loved ones and her work? Or is it a celebration of life? Her travelling companion is taxi driver Hussein, a refugee from Iraq with whom Heddy has a tight bond. As they trace Heddy’s family history they find many common themes. They are no longer taxi driver and customer, but two souls who each find joy in life in the face of adversity. It is a life affirming film about universal connection and comfort.

This film interrogates numerous people regarding their experiences as thieves.

For a lot of young girls, the Internet is a safe haven where they can be themselves without fear. The computer is their ‘daily food’. They submerge themselves in a virtual world that became more important than the ordinary one. For most of them the virtual word ís their real world. Emoticons shows a group of ‘lost souls’ who are all in search for contact, consolation, help, friendship and love. Soulmates by the Internet.

The haunting experiences of Dutch U.N. peacekeepers are woven together by the powerful influence music has had on their endurance, survival, and memories of war. This documentary is filled with close-up interviews, scrapbook photographs, video clips, news footage, letters read aloud, and other recollections, as different generations of Dutch peacekeeping soldiers recount the trauma of bloodshed from Korea to more recent events in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Their trusting, and often disturbing, personal revelations resound most poignantly when they talk about the single pieces of music that each found powerful enough to keep insanity at bay.

A moving documentary. The life stories told by immigrants in Paris are often saddening. The hardships they went through and their current uncertainty and difficult situation. No residence permit, fear of the gendarmerie, little money, poor housing. The quality and background of the musicians is many times amazing.

O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, remained unpublished during his lifetime, as he feared they would be deemed pornographic. In this celebration of his poetry and sensual vision, elderly residents of Rio read his poems and comment on their graphic, voluptuous imagery with tremendous candor and enthusiasm.