Comrades in Dreams (2006), Gypsy Caravan (2006), From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1980), Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005), Genghis Blues (1999), Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back) (1980), Joyeux Noel (2005), Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (2007) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Cultural Exchange movies.
Storyline: This 2006 documentary looks at diverse people from various countries around the world who share a common passion for movies. The film follows independent theater owners, chronicling their struggles to discover and share cinematic gems with audiences. Featured venues include an Indian circus tent, an old Wyoming barn, and an open-air theater in West Africa. All face the familiar problems of booking, marketing and financing present in larger theaters, but persevere because of their passions.
Plot Keywords: documentary, cross-cultural, independent film, social observation, filmmaking, true story, art film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Combining footage from 1999 and 2001 tours, this documentary follows five different gypsy bands as they perform across America. Their music is as diverse as their home countries, from Indian raga tunes to upbeat, fiddle-driven Romanian pieces. Despite their varied backgrounds, the musicians are united by their common identification with the "roma" gypsy culture. As the tour progresses, the musicians begin playing together, fusing their styles into new hybrids.
Plot Keywords: music documentary, travel, music festival, multicultural, performing arts, musicians, road movie ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1979, Ukrainian-American violinist Isaac Stern made an unprecedented tour of China, the first such tour by a Western musician in a country still reeling from the effects of the Cultural Revolution. On hand to document the historic event was filmmaker Murray Lerner, who gathered footage of Stern's encounters with both traditional Chinese musicians and conservatory students versed in Brahms and Mozart -- encounters that, only a few years prior, would have been politically controversial.
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, classical music, china, educational, performance, music education ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Award-winning director Fatih Akin takes us on a journey through Istanbul, the city that bridges Europe and Asia, and challenges familiar notions of east and west. He looks at the vibrant musical scene which includes traditional Turkish music plus rock and hip-hop.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: music documentary, musical journey, multiculturalism, music history, documentary, music scene, art documentary ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena, blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by the "Friends of Tuva," Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers, expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and makes a human connection with everyone he meets.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, adventure, travel, culture, competition, friendship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Charlie Brown (Arrin Skelley) heads to Europe as an exchange student in this animated movie based on the "Peanuts" comic strip. Along for the ride are Snoopy, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Linus. In London, Snoopy and Woodstock test out their tennis skills at Wimbledon before the gang heads off to France. Charlie has an invitation to stay at the chateau of a mysterious baron. But when they arrive on a dark and stormy night, it soon becomes clear that their adventure has only begun.
Plot Keywords: animation, comedy, family, adventure, children, friendship, growing up ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence.
Plot Keywords: war, history, christmas, world war i, humanity, peace, soldiers ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: On an ordinary day, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event, only find there is no delegation to meet them, nor any arrangements to get to their destination of Petah Tiqva. When they find their own ride, they arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning's bus, the band, led by the repressed Tawfiq Zacharaya, gets help from the worldly lunch owner, Dina, who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, each of the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way. What follows is a special night of quiet happenings and confessions as the band makes its own impact on the town and the town on them.
Plot Keywords: music, war, comedy, humanity, cultural clash, friendship, peace ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In 1881, two Ottoman Secret Agents travel to the USA, at the Sultan's request, to deliver a valuable diamond as a gift for the President.
Plot Keywords: comedy, adventure, cultural clash, road movie, humor, friendship, travel ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Trace the rise of contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang from childhood in Mao's China to global art world superstar, and join his quest to realize his lifelong obsession: Sky Ladder.
Plot Keywords: documentary, art, biography, visual art, creativity, family, legacy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: FREE TO ROCK is a 60 minute documentary film directed by 4 time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Ten years in the making, the film explores the soft power of Rock & Roll to affect social change behind the Iron Curtain between the years 1955 and 1991, and how it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and to ending the Cold War. Rock & Roll sounded the "chimes of freedom" in the hearts and minds of Iron Curtain youth. Inspiring its youth to demand freedom to listen, play and record rock music, to enjoy basic human rights and freedom from oppressive communist rule. The story follows the key political, musical and activist players in this real-life drama as the KGB cracked down hard with arrests, beatings, death threats and imprisonment. Thousands of underground rock bands with millions of passionate supporters inspire and fuel independence movements that eventually cause the Soviet communist system to implode without blood shed or civil war. Interviews and performance subjects include: Presidents Carter, Gorbachev and Vike-Freiberga, NATO Deputy Secretary General Vershbow, KGB General Kalugin, diplomats, historians and journalists, along with Elvis Presley, Beatles, Billy Joel, Metallica, Scorpions, Beach Boys, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the WALL in Berlin concert; plus the Iron Curtain rockers who braved the long struggle with the Kremlin and KGB. The film is produced in collaboration with the Grammy Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Stas Namin Center of Moscow, with support from the U.S. Government's National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, both US Government arts agencies.
Plot Keywords: music, rock, cold war, culture, history, documentary, usa ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The film follows, Pierre Dulaine, an internationally renowned ballroom dancer as he returns to his birthplace, Jaffa, to fulfill his lifelong dream of teaching Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli children to dance together. The film explores the stories of four children forced to confront issues of identity, segregation and racism, as they dance with their enemies.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: dance, documentary, peace, education, children, social change, conflict ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Paris, 1955. Philippe Leclerc is overjoyed: he has just been granted the fellowship he applied for and he will be able to study for a year at the prestigious Asheland-Stuart University of Virginia. Once on the spot, he discovers how different the South of the USA is from his native France and the period of adjustment is no bed of roses, notably when he mistakes American football for soccer while playing a game and becomes the laughing stock of the college. Philip nonetheless gains the friendship of the captain of the team and gradually adapts to his new environment, discovering American literature through the lectures of a fascinating professor, rock and roll and jazz, among other things. A Southern belle, Sue Ann, falls for his French charm but, unfortunately for her, her love is unrequited and she breaks down nervously as a result. As for Philippe he falls madly in love with April, a beautiful Black domestic worker...—Guy Bellinger
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, america, france, 1950s, campus life, race relations ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After five years in Morocco, Mario is eager to return to Spain. The day before he's to leave, a fax tells him to meet the boss's teenage daughter. She and a red Jaguar arrive by ferry. Mario postpones his trip to get her situated, but the next day, at the Kasbah, she and her car disappear. The girl's father denies sending a fax, suspects she left Spain to join Mario, and thinks Mario killed her. Dad hires a murderous butcher to track Mario, who wants to find her for reasons not initially apparent. While Mario's search takes him south toward Mauritania, his path crosses that of Alix, a Spanish actress on holiday. Relationships between fathers and children explain a lot.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: adventure, comedy, morocco, cultural clash, travel, friendship, coming of age ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The American senate, in order to improve it's fast declining global image, asks comedian Albert Brooks to write a 500 page document about what makes Muslims laugh in India and Pakistan. Bidding adieu to his wife and young daughter,and accompanied by two government bureaucrats, Albert opens up an office in New Delhi, hires a pretty Secretary, Maya, and goes around asking people at random as to what makes them laugh. He finds that people generally look at him suspiciously and refuse to answer any questions. He then decides to go public and stage a comedy show, the suggested place for the publicity is old Delhi. Accordingly the four re-locate, book a school auditorium to seat about 400 people, go around the city distributing leaflets, inviting the general public to attend the show. They get a houseful response, however, Albert's comedy act fails to impress. He then decides to try his hand in Pakistan, only to be told that he cannot get a visa for another 14 days. He decides to enter Pakistan illegally and meets some wannabe comedians, guarded by armed men, in a secret location near the border. Although he does get to their funny bones, Albert does not get any answers, and returns back to Delhi crestfallen. To make matters worse, Maya informs him that she has enough material to write about 4 pages. Quite unknown to Albert, his presence in India, and his underground trip to Pakistan, have not gone unnoticed by both the Indian and Pakistani governments, both of who plan to increase their troop presence near the volatile border area; and to create more complications for Albert, Maya tells him that she wants to break up with his boyfriend. She wants to him to leave, and thinks that he may do so if told that she is fallen for Albert. Then things start looking up for Albert when he is invited by the Al-Jazeera television for an interview. Watch as events unfold and a hopeful Albert attends this meeting with many hopes of entering the Muslim world through this popular TV network.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
Plot Keywords: comedy, cultural differences, usa, india, pakistan, political satire, social commentary ...
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