Quark Productions

In 1926, Buster Keaton was at the peak of his glory and wealth. By 1933, he had reached rock bottom. How, in the space of a few years, did this uncontested genius of silent films, go from the status of being a widely-worshipped star to an alcoholic and solitary fallen idol? With a spotlight on the 7 years during which his life changed, using extracts of Keaton’s films as magnifying mirrors, the documentary recounts the dramatic life of this creative genius and the Hollywood studios.

Ouarzazate, Morocco, where Hollywood builds its glory on the backs of local workers. From Kundun and Asterix to Gladiator, passing through every historical epic and the thousand-and-one versions of the Bible, the city’s residents all work as extras in films they will likely never have the chance to watch. araBehind the shine of these massive productions stand those actors, with their hopes and disappointments, living witnesses to the stark contradiction between the power of commercial cinema and the economic misery it is built upon.

Around 17 million people worldwide live in so-called refugee camps – a virtual country with a population equivalent to that of the Netherlands. But this country is not marked on any map in the world. The film describes everyday life in refugee camps – for example in Kenya, Tanzania, Jordan, and on the Greek-Macedonian border. The film shows the absurd state of emergency that prevails in these camps, which is everyday life for the people there – some of whom will spend their entire lives there. The film also critically examines the work of non-governmental organizations and the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, which organize and run the camps. The desire to help people is countered by a system that has nothing else in mind but to keep those in need away from the rich countries of the world at all costs.

Bastien is twenty years old and has been an activist for five years in the main extreme right party. When the presidential campaign begins, he's invited by his superior to commit even further. Initiated into the art of decking himself out like a politician, he starts to dream of a career, but old demons surge forth...

The link between heart disease and blood cholesterol is a medical dogma that has existed for the past fifty years and has led to the development of a billion-dollar, low-fat, food industry, as well as to statins, a drug that lower “bad cholesterol” levels, so it has became one of the most prescribed medicines in the world. But more and more researchers are openly questioning the mainstream opinions on cholesterol…

She became famous at a very young age and gradually slipped away, cultivating her legend and her mystery. Kate Bush, pioneering artist, is at the heart of a captivating documentary broadcast on Arte.

The abusive harvest of a simple fruit built an empire: the United Fruit Company. A fruit that conquered the markets of the world, but devastated Central America. The amazing story of the banana: pioneers of globalized capitalism, dictators of banana republics, revolutionaries, the inventor of modern advertising, tons of bananas, bloody shades of yellow. The story of a ruthless enterprise, without borders or rules to respect, except the cruel law of supply and demand…

The Heroic Cinematographer discusses the relationship between war and cinema beginning in the Civil War.

England, 1960. The Crown sues the publisher Penguin Books in order to ban the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover, a novel by the British writer D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), published privately in Italy in 1928, which celebrates nature and deals with sex without taboos.

The diary of Takuya Ogushi, a 18 years old Japanese, who begins his new life as a sumo wrestler.

Between 2013 and 2015, three princes became the leaders of the Persian Gulf's main oil monarchies: Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This new generation of sovereigns, some of the richest and most powerful on the planet, has imposed a new way to govern, between violence, repression and ego wars.

Several key words emerge from Hugo Pratt's work, inseparable from his life: travel, adventure, erudition, esotericism, mystery, poetry, melancholy... and of course, Corto Maltese, his hero and alter ego, who established him as one of the greatest names in comic books. Born in Italy in 1927 and dying in Switzerland sixty-eight years later, Hugo Pratt, born without an H and with only one T, grew up in the shadow of a fascist father who took him at a very young age to Ethiopia, which was occupied by Mussolini's forces. The teenager developed a fascination for the wide-open spaces of Africa, soon followed by an irresistible attraction to the Indian world. This was the starting point for a life of travel, success, conquests, rare failures, and marked by his veneration for the American cartoonist Milton Caniff, his absolute master.

Olmany, Terebejov, Gorodnaïa: Three villages in the Stolyn district, Belarus, 200 kilometers from Chernobyl. In this area, the radiation rate was considered too low to justify the systematic evacuation of the population. Sixteen years after the disaster, life continues in a seemingly unchanged landscape. These farming communities face an invisible threat on a daily basis.

1945, the war is over. Defeated Germany is divided into four zones of occupation by the Allies. The French obtain the Palatinate, with Baden-Baden as its capital. Hansgerd Schulte, aged 12 when the French arrived, Jean and Colette Nurdin, teachers sent to a country in ruins, and philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin testify. Author of "L'An zéro de l'Allemagne", Morin took part in the denazification of the country, which had endured twelve years of Hitler's dictatorship.

Close and daily, sometimes comical but often tragic, sleepiness takes an important place in our lives. Suddenly falling asleep, sometimes with their eyes still open, affects more than 10% of the population. The leading cause of fatal accidents on motorways, drowsiness is also prevalent in the world of work. A silent, irrepressible phenomenon... a flaw in a system of performance, speed, reactivity. So what is happening in our brain? Can we control the conditions of sleepiness? By working on sleep and especially on the functioning of wakefulness, researchers are trying to understand the biological and environmental mechanisms that keep humans at the peak of their abilities. After a clear technological improvement, it turns out that man, having become an expert and process controller, finds it very difficult to focus his attention over time.

Pauline Horovitz has been filming her father since 2009. In this new chapter with hints of a bittersweet documentary comedy, the hero, a former doctor “programmed” to work, takes advantage of his retirement to become an actor. Following the first steps of this liberating new life, the daughter-filmmaker watches her “creature” escape her…

Between September 2012 and May 2013, France is debating the upcoming marriage equality laws. During those nine months, sociologist Irène Théry talks about what is at stake with her son Mathias Théry, who will make a movie with Étienne Chaillou out of those hours of conversations. It is a documentary about the social debate in France, but also about family and intimacy.

They are just 20 years old and are fighting against the Islamic State in the Syrian Kurdish regions. In a region of the world where women normally have to walk three steps behind men, the fact that they are under arms together with their brothers is of particular significance. Their colorful scarves and their courage have made them famous.

Anaïs is 24 and nothing can stop her. Neither the bureaucratic rules of administration, nor the misogynistic teachers, nor the out-of-order tractor, nor the whims of the weather. One day she will be a farmer and grow her own aromatic and medicinal herbs. The film follows this hard liner, all alone against the rest of the world. She doesn’t care.