The Owl's Legacy S01E03 · Democracy, or the City of Dreams

Overview

What exactly does the word mean “democracy” mean? Does it designates the ancient city-state or our contemporary political systems? What are the analogies or, on the contrary, the radical differences between realities separated by more than twenty centuries? Are certain functions suitable for all civilizations? Τhe third episode of Chris Marker’s legendary documentary series – which first aired on British state television in 1991 but remained in the dark for decades – returns to classical antiquity to make a bold parallel, familiarizing 21st-century audiences with a concept of the commons that seems primordial yet innovative, reinventing itself in every single manifestation.

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. Symposium, or the Received Ideas1989-06-12 · 26mIn Paris, Tbilisi, Athens and Berkeley historians have played with reconstitutions of the "symposium" - the Greek banquet - around tables laden with food and wine.
2. 2 2. Olympics, or the Imaginary Greece1989-06-13 · 26mGreece's inheritance was recomposed in contemporary mythology. This sometimes led to terrible misappropriations for the benefit of totalitarian ideologies - of which Nazism was bor
3. 3 3. Democracy, or the City of Dreams1989-06-14 · 26mWhat exactly does the word mean “democracy” mean? Does it designates the ancient city-state or our contemporary political systems? What are the analogies or, on the contrary, the r
4. 4 4. Nostalgia, or the Impossible Return1989-06-15 · 26mIthaca is the iconic distant home that no one should forget: such would be the universal lesson of Homer's Odyssey.
5. 5 5. Amnesia, or the Sense of History1989-06-16 · 26mBuilt on the testimony or "autopsy" - which literally means "seeing oneself" - our conception of History has deeply shifted since Herodotus.
6. 6 6. Mathematics, or the Realm of Signs1989-06-19 · 26mThe geometrical space and the mathematical language constitute a universal legacy the Greeks have bequeathed us with. How do we articulate its perfect logic to the complexity of co
7. 7 7. Logomachy, or the Root of Words1989-06-20 · 26mAll the meanings of "logos" originated from a small territory between Ephesus and Patmos. According to Aristotle the human animal fights with a specific weapon: speech... Logos' de
8. 8 8. Music, or the Inner Space1989-06-21 · 26mA cross between imitation and creation, the search for the beautiful and harmonious animates the artists' personal quests - including with cutting-edge technology - as well as it s
9. 9 9. Cosmogony, or the Use of the World1989-06-22 · 26mThis reflection over creation - divine cosmogony and man's creativity - takes us from the Greek statuary art to the Acropolis' Korai on show in Tokyo. This takes us on towards the
10. 10 10. Mythology, or the Truth of Lies1989-06-23 · 26mThere are a set of myths to which we constantly refer ourselves. We will question their genesis, their place in psyche, their transmission, their nature.
11. 11 11. Misogyny, or Desire's Traps1989-06-26 · 26mThe Greek conception of sexuality was very different from ours. What did the Greek think of desire in a world where heterosexuality and homosexuality - far from being opposites - w
12. 12 12. Tragedy, or the Illusion of Death1989-06-27 · 26mThe great figures borne out of Greek tragedies help us fathom the founding mechanisms of human practices - all the way to a society like Japan, that is so apparently far from ours.
13. 13 13. Philosophy, or the Owl's Triumph1989-06-28 · 26mAround the metaphorical - but also very real - figure of the owl; entwined reflections upon the place of thought in daily existence and public action - sometimes with and sometimes