Tamara Wyss retraces her grandparents’ 100-year-old German Empire expedition up the Yangtze through the Three Gorges just before the dam’s completion. Guided by their photos, letters, and recordings, she witnesses disappearing traditions amid China’s breakneck modernization.

Tamara Wyss retraces her grandparents’ 100-year-old German Empire expedition up the Yangtze through the Three Gorges just before the dam’s completion. Guided by their photos, letters, and recordings, she witnesses disappearing traditions amid China’s breakneck modernization.

Tamara Wyss retraces her grandparents’ 100-year-old German Empire expedition up the Yangtze through the Three Gorges just before the dam’s completion. Guided by their photos, letters, and recordings, she witnesses disappearing traditions amid China’s breakneck modernization.

A dryly humorous instructional film from West Germany about how to use an Arriflex 16BL camera.

The people of Cape Verde are suffering from a lack of rain. In some parts of Praia, there are only water stations with a few taps, which are open just once a day for three hours to serve 3,000 residents. There are always arguments. Those who arrive first always take more than their fair share. Those at the end of the line often go without water. An elderly blind woman named Balila makes a living selling water. She regularly brings water to the homes of the better-off and sells it to them. The film follows Balila’s life as it might unfold over the course of a single day.

The peasants of Cap Vert, women and young girls, practically always left to themselves, since husbands and fathers leave the country in order to find work, know how to face up to everyday life and difficulties with a smile.