Blue Orchids

Blue Orchids

2017 · 48 min · Documentary

In Blue Orchids, Johan Grimonprez creates a double portrait of two experts situated on opposite ends of the same issue—the global arms trade. The stories of Chris Hedges, a former New York Times war correspondent, and Riccardo Privitera, arms and equipment dealer for the now-defunct Talisman Europe Ltd, provide an unusual and disturbing context for shocking revelations about the industry of war. While interviewing Privitera and Hedges for Grimonprez’s recently released feature Shadow World (2016), it became clear that the two men were describing the same anguish and trauma, but from paradoxical perspectives. One has dedicated his life to unmasking lies, while the other has built his life on them. Both their personal and political histories gradually reveal the depths of suffering and duplicity, showing that the arms trade is a symptom of a profound illness: greed.

Directed by Johan Grimonprez

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Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

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MovieDocumentaryHistory

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War.

Shadow World

Shadow World · 2016

MovieDocumentaryHistory

A detailed investigation into the political and economic interests that, since the beginning of the 20th century, have pulled the strings of the arms trade, hidden in the shadows, feeding the shameful corruption of politicians and government officials and promoting a state of permanent war throughout the world, while they cynically asked for a lasting and universal peace.

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Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y · 1997

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MovieDocumentaryHistory

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Double Take · 2009

MovieDocumentary

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Two Travellers to a River

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MovieDocumentary

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kiss-o-drome

kiss-o-drome · 2016

MovieDocumentary

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Every Day Words Disappear

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LOST NATION, January 1999

LOST NATION, January 1999 · 1999

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MovieDocumentary

In January 1999, at the height of the Lewinsky-Clinton affair, Herman Asselberghs and Dieter Lesage asked me if I would be in for a trip to Lost Nation. They explained this was part of a project they were setting up in Brussels: a place slash library slash installation about vanished nations such as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East and West Germany, USSR, and Zaire. But where was Lost Nation? Browsing through their library, Herman and Dieter stumbled onto Lost Nation, an American village located on Highway 136 in Eastern Iowa, with a community of 497 citizens. And so, this little road movie was the result. A trip to a nation where the average citizen spends about 5 years of his lifetime waiting in line, 2 years trying to reach people by telephone, 1 year searching for misplaced objects, 8 months opening junk-mail and 6 months sitting at traffic lights. A nation that attempted to impeach the wrong president.

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Four Chambers to the Heart

MovieDocumentary

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Hitchcock Didn’t Have a Belly Button: Karen Black Interview by Johan Grimonprez

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Hitchcock Didn’t Have a Belly Button: Karen Black Interview by Johan Grimonprez

MovieDocumentary

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Smell the flowers while you can · 1994

Smell the flowers while you can

MovieDocumentary

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