
Short news featurette produced by Pathe-RKO after the Russians launched the first orbiting satellite, Sputnik. It is a patriotic 'call to arms' from the threat posed by this and the need for Americans to spend more on education in general and a college education in particular. A visit to the University of Buffalo highlights its science programs and the need for more graduates from all technical disciplines if America is to rise to the challenge. It bemoans the fact the PhDs earn less than a mechanic and the need to re-order priorities.
1957-12-31
6
0.0Through a choral diversity of testimonies, the documentary explores the myth of the axolotl, transporting us from the story of a chinampero whose lifestyle reflects the environmental decay of Mexico City, to the efforts of a group of scientists racing against the consequences of the extinction of our symbols and ecological heritage.
In the 1920s, Angela Murray Gibson chose an unusual location to embark on a career in silent filmmaking: her tiny hometown of Casselton, North Dakota. She had previously helped Mary Pickford as an advisor and assistant director on The Pride of the Clan (1917), which Mary Pickford produced and starred in. She opened North Dakota's first movie studio, and she had the audacity to be a woman in an industry dominated by men.
6.0Kianoush Ayari’s film captures rare scenes of everyday life on the streets of Tehran in the months following the revolution of 1979.
4.8Delphine Seyrig reads passages from a Valerie Solanas’s SCUM manifesto.
2.0This documentary film is about one of Georgia's regions - Racha. The title of the film is taken from the name of one of Racha's high mountain villages. It tells about the poorest in society living in the mountains and the rise of the SSSR. The product of a remarkable collaboration between the first Georgian female filmmaker and the leading Georgian avant-garde artist David Kakabadze.
7.7For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.
0.0At the beginning of the 20th century, thousands of refugees fleeing droughts took shelter in Natal, but in the provincial capital they were met with yet another problem: the smallpox epidemic.
0.0A trip that the author makes to a distant beach trying to find the place where his grandfather made a painting years ago.
0.0"My heart belongs to daddy / Majn harts gehert tsum tatn" - the same old love song. But now it is actress Basia Frydman who sings it in Yiddish accompanied by her musicians at home in Kjell Westling's living room. And Tate, that's Basia's lovely old dad Simon, doing his work in a hairdressing salon.
7.0In the Moroccan desert night dilutes forms and silence slides through sand. Dawn starts then to draw silhouettes of dunes while motionless figures punctuate landscape. From night´s abstraction, light returns its dimension to space and their volume to bodies. Stillness concentrates gaze and duration densify it. The adhan -muslim call to pray- sounds and immobility, that was condensing, begins to irradiate. And now the bodies are those which dissolves into the desert.
0.0A fascinating insight into the life and works of photographer Imogen Cunningham. Coming into public attention around 1910, she was celebrated in the late sixties through awards, honorary degrees and exhibitions. Her photos are looked at from three focal points: nature, portraits and figure studies.
5.0Lost Worlds looks at untouched aspects of nature in parts of the world where humans rarely tread. From plants, to animals, to geology, this artfully photographed documentary presents facets of the biological world that you are not likely to see anywhere else.
0.0"With the barrel bombs falling on Ghouta, civilians sought shelter in the basements of their homes. I was one of them, holding on to my camera, I tried to film what I couldn’t express in words."
0.0As her 80th birthday is approaching, Vera Klement, an oil painter in Chicago, adamantly starts yet another new figure painting: a portrait of an artist under oppression, an homage to Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovitch.
An institution for the terminally mentally ill. It shows "mentally ill" people who need to be restrained and artificially fed, unaware of their surroundings, incapable of useful work. "The sins of the fathers are visited upon their children. Innocent themselves, broken in body and spirit, a burden to themselves and others!" People with bizarre, typically disturbed movements are shown.
0.0Edo, 1863. Aisuke Kajiki, a young blind swordsman, is entrusted the son of his best friend Toramaru Sakakibara, who is about to join the Shogun's Samurai Unit and promises to train him well. However, after Toramaru's death in battle, Eisuke drowns in a river and is transported in time to present-day Tokyo. Eisuke and his descendant, Ryusei, a college student, go to meet Toramaru's descendant, Taiga, a swimmer. The blind samurai's promise to his best friend in Edo is fulfilled 160 years later in present-day Tokyo through para-swimming.
6.7In 1928, as the talkies threw the film industry and film language into turmoil, Chaplin decided that his Tramp character would not be heard. City Lights would not be a talking picture, but it would have a soundtrack. Chaplin personally composed a musical score and sound effects for the picture. With Peter Lord, the famous co-creator of Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, we see how Chaplin became the king of slapstick comedy and the superstar of the movies.
This documentary is featured on the DVD for Captain Blood (1935), released in 2005.
4.0A synaesthetic portrait made between French Polynesia and Brittany, Color-blind follows the restless ghost of Gauguin in excavating the colonial legacy of a post-postcolonial present.
7.0Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.
7.0Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
7.8A look behind the lens of Christopher Nolan's space epic.
7.1In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
6.9A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
6.2At the turn of the 19th century, Pugilism was the sport of kings and a gifted young boxer fought his way to becoming champion of England.
6.8A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
6.2SEDUCED AND ABANDONED combines acting legend Alec Baldwin with director James Toback as they lead us on a troublesome and often hilarious journey of raising financing for their next feature film. Moving from director to financier to star actor, the two players provide us with a unique look behind the curtain at the world's biggest and most glamourous film festival, shining a light on the bitter-sweet relationship filmmakers have with Cannes and the film business. Featuring insights from directors Martin Scorsese, 'Bernando Bertolucci' and Roman Polanski; actors Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain and a host of film distribution luminaries.
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.
8.1A tribute to Chadwick Boseman, celebrating his life and legacy.
7.0Martin Scorsese’s portrait of writer and social commentator Fran Lebowitz, celebrated for her sharp wit and observations on modern life. Filmed at New York’s Waverly Inn and intercut with archival footage and interviews, the documentary captures Lebowitz’s distinctive worldview through her spontaneous monologues and public appearances.
7.2Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country.
7.2Over seven decades, actor and activist George Takei journeyed from a World War II internment camp to the helm of the Starship Enterprise, and then to the daily news feeds of five million Facebook fans. Join George and his husband, Brad, on a wacky and profound trek for life, liberty, and love.
7.3A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
7.2A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
7.8The story lives forever in this feature-length documentary that charts the making of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
7.0A tribute to Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci (1926-90), presented by American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.
7.5Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino in conversation about The Irishman.
6.8This special explores the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to the screen, as well as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their classic roles. Director Deborah Chow leads the cast and crew as they create new heroes and villains that live alongside new incarnations of beloved Star Wars characters, and an epic story that dramatically bridges the saga films.
8.2Oliver Stone charts the history of the United States from the Second World War to the present.