The brilliant writing and troubled life of Californian Larry Levis came to an abrupt halt when he died at age 49. Is self-destruction required for a serious life of art? Featuring an original score by Iron and Wine and film excerpts by award-winning Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño, this innovative documentary explores his childhood working alongside Mexican-American field hands, three marriages, friendships with America’s greatest poets, and his own words for answers.

The brilliant writing and troubled life of Californian Larry Levis came to an abrupt halt when he died at age 49. Is self-destruction required for a serious life of art? Featuring an original score by Iron and Wine and film excerpts by award-winning Spanish filmmaker Lois Patiño, this innovative documentary explores his childhood working alongside Mexican-American field hands, three marriages, friendships with America’s greatest poets, and his own words for answers.
2016-10-15
5
7.9Home movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop MCs of all time.
6.7The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
7.9Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.
6.1A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
6.5Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
7.5A documentary chronicling Queen and Lambert's incredible journey since they first shared the stage together on "American Idol" in 2009.
7.6A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
6.8Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
7.5With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon's perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.
7.8A primetime special with performances from the superstar including Adele’s first new material in six years plus her chart-topping hits. The special will also feature an exclusive interview with Adele by Oprah Winfrey from her rose garden, in Adele’s first televised wide-ranging conversation.
7.5Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
7.4In January 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the final nights of the "20/20 Experience World Tour", director Jonathan Demme captures what makes the show soar: gifted musicians, deft dancers and a magnetic star.
7.9Bruce Springsteen shares personal stories from his life and acoustic versions of some of his best-known songs in an intimate one-man show.
7.3Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
8.1A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.
6.6Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
7.0The incomparable Bruce Springsteen performs his critically acclaimed latest album and muses on life, rock, and the American dream, in this intimate and personal concert film co-directed by Thom Zimny and Springsteen himself.
7.0A documentary special that explores the power of identity behind the iconic superheroes we know and love today. These legendary Marvel creations and stories have not only reflected the world outside our window – they have become a reflection of our own identities and who we truly are.
6.9An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
8.2A portrait of singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes' life, chronicling the past few years of his rise and journey.
0.0An account of the life and work of Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941) narrated by US actress Anjelica Huston.
8.5WAR OF WORDS is an energizing, controversial and inspiring feature documentary that lifts the lid on the fast growing UK Battle Rap scene. The documentary is an examination of an exciting subculture of youth in the UK today; their creativity and work ethic, their passion for language and ability to control their own destiny. It investigates freedom of expression and respect for other cultures and lifestyles. While the language is often harsh and unflinching, the 'anything goes' philosophy of the battle arena results in one of the most harmonious and creative scenes in youth culture. The film is a truly entertaining expose on how the UK has embraced this American art form, creating one of the most exciting youth subcultures happening right now.
0.0A two-part documentary about the fraught relationship between Russian writer Viktor Shklovsky and émigré linguist Roman Jakobson.
4.2A journey back through Dacia Maraini's and her trips around the world with her close friends cinema director Pier Paolo Pasolini and opera singer Maria Callas. An in-depth story of this fascinating woman's life. Maraini's memories come alive through personal photographs taken on the road as well as her own Super 8 films shot almost thirty years ago.
0.0An event organised by CND pits the bomb against poetry. Hear artists who hoped that words and rhymes could put an end to destructive times.
0.0At underground film of the 1st Popular Festival of Catalan Poetry filmed in the Proce Theater in Barcelona on May 25, 1970, in solidarity with political prisoners. The participating poets were: Agustí Bartra, Joan Oliver (Pere IV), Salvador Espriu, Joan Brossa, Francesc Vallverdú and Gabriel Ferrater.
0.0A documentary about Antti Jalava, a Swedish-Finnish writer who was among the first to write about the immigrant experience in Sweden.
sucking on words is a documentary film that features interviews with, and extensive performances by, the American poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It also features critical commentary on his intense and ground-breaking conceptualist practice from three of North America’s leading voices on avant-garde poetics. Shot on location in New York in 2007, the lively conversations featured in sucking on words are an ideal introduction to Goldsmith’s witty and provocative works, which are already regarded as hallmarks of 21st-century literature. The film showcases readings from some of his notorious books: No.111 (found phrases ending in the ‘r’ rhyme and filtered alphabetically by syllable count); Soliloquy (a transcription of every word Goldsmith spoke for a week); Day (a retyping of one day’s New York Times newspaper); Traffic (one day’s worth of hourly radio traffic bulletins); and The Weather (one year’s worth of radio weather bulletins).
5.4Iggy Pop reads and recites Michel Houellebecq’s manifesto. The documentary features real people from Houellebecq’s life with the text based on their life stories.
8.0In a time of resurgence of social protests, political radicalization and distrust of power, Arendt's thought has never been more relevant: A critical thinker according to some or a conservative according to others, this great figure of the intellectual world remains, in many ways, an enigma. Who was Hannah Arendt?
9.0This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
5.9A portrait of the brilliant American writer Truman Capote (1924-84) and the New York high society of his time.
From the series "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers", this playful documentary introduces James Joyce's most famous work "Ulysses". It includes fantastic adaptations to film from passages of the novel. It also includes excerpts from a book written by Joyce's friend, the artist Frank Budgen, entitled "James Joyce and the making of Ulysses". Amongst those interviewed is author Anthony Burgess.
0.0BBC documentary about Franz Kafka played by GREEK TV in 1990. This documentary is one of the ten films of “The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988)”.
0.0Explore the life of Flannery O’Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered journals, and interviews with Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als, and more.
1.0A biography of the poet W. B. Yeats and his contribution to the Irish independence movement as a Protestant nationalist.
8.0In his second international bestseller, "Arc de Triomphe," author Erich Maria Remarque explores his own experience of exile and his decisive encounter with Marlene Dietrich. From Paris and Antibes to Los Angeles and New York, the documentary traces the moving genesis of this highly autobiographical novel, now considered a major work of European exile literature, and the literary legacy of the long-standing passion between two global stars.
4.2This documentary contains dramatized episodes about the lives of Erika and Klaus Mann, the brilliant children of German writer Thomas Mann.
5.1A quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger scape of a body: a chest, a back, a breast. Usually the camera is stationery; sometimes, it moves across a body, remaining in close up. They hold hands for one moment. The bodies are without clothes; no genitalia are visible.