
Brindisi, Italy: a focal point in cigarette smuggling. The director returns to her hometown to see what's left of the past and what lies in store for the future.
2011-09-15
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2.3João Pedro Rodrigues answers the question from the title with an autobiographical short-film.
6.1Elem Klimov's tribute to his late wife, director Larisa Shepitko, killed in a car accident a year earlier. Features excerpts from all of her films, and archival audio of her discussing life and art.
9.0Upon realising her generation won’t have a future unless the world’s politicians act now on climate change, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg skipped school in August 2018 to protest outside the Swedish parliament. What started as a one person strike soon gained global momentum. We follow Greta and the organisers of the school strikes for climate as they are cementing a worldwide movement ahead of their first global protest that took place on March 15th, 2019. It was the biggest climate strike in history with up to 1.6 million students in more than 125 countries.
5.2An isolated village in the Lithuanian countryside. Seated in her house, an elderly woman recites an old folk story. Then she climbs up the tall ladder that takes her to the rooftop of the church.
On the 11th of August at 11 minutes past 11am, almost total darkness fell across Southern England and an eerie silence descended as the population gazed skyward at what was the last total solar eclipse of this millennium. A total solar eclipse is a breathtaking event and this documentary programme conveys that awesome feeling by exploring how and why eclipses happen. A mixture of computer-generated views from outer space, footage of eclipses throughout the 20th century (some taken as early as 1927) and original footage taken of this year's total solar eclipse (shot in Cornwall) make this programme a celebration of eclipse mania.
0.0Alcoholism and its Ill-Effects was considered to be one of the most popular science propaganda (or educational) films produced in Russia before the revolution of 1917. Alexander Khanzhonkov, the most prominent Russian film producer of that era, financed a special department dedicated to non-fictional cinema, despite the fact that such films were not commercially successful. Unfortunately, not a single copy of the film has survived to the present day. All that remains are 12 frames, which were used by Izvolov to create this reconstruction. He also used extracts from critical reviews, published at the time of the film’s release, to produce a soundtrack.
This short film focuses on the job of the Hollywood screenwriter.
0.0A group of African American students at the University of Arizona reveals the importance of political spaces within Universities in times of intolerance.
7.7In 1967, de Andrade was invited by the Italian company Olivetti to produce a documentary on the new Brazilian capital city of Brasília. Constructed during the latter half of the 1950s and founded in 1960, the city was part of an effort to populate Brazil’s vast interior region and was to be the embodiment of democratic urban planning, free from the class divisions and inequalities that characterize so many metropolises. Unsurprisingly, Brasília, Contradições de uma Cidade Nova (Brasília, Contradictions of a New City, 1968) revealed Brasília to be utopic only for the wealthy, replicating the same social problems present in every Brazilian city. (Senses of Cinema)
7.0Unlike our dream of becoming a great filmmaker, the movie boards that adults talk about are tough. We are looking for our idol, Bong Joon-ho...
0.0A Chinese Canadian son sets out to make a film on his mother, who was once known as the first ever Chinese Opera Singer to have performed Pingju Opera in English in late 1980's China.
4.2SONG 5: A childbirth song (the Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964 to 1969).
5.9Two countries, two restaurants, one vision. At Gabriela Cámara's acclaimed Contramar in Mexico City, the welcoming, uniformed waiters are as beloved by diners as the menu featuring fresh, local seafood caught within 24 hours. The entire staff sees themselves as part of an extended family. Meanwhile at Cala in San Francisco, Cámara hires staff from different backgrounds and cultures, including ex-felons and ex-addicts, who view the work as an important opportunity to grow as individuals. A Tale of Two Kitchens explores the ways in which a restaurant can serve as a place of both dignity and community.
In a comparative study between different forms of calligraphy, the film traces parallels between modern Japanese painting and traditional Japanese writing.
0.0A documentary about the XVII Estonian song festival, a celebration of 100 years of song festivals. Shown are the lighting ceremony of the song festival fire, the procession, the choirs, singers and the public, including performance of the Mart Saar song Leelo led by Gustav Ernesaks.
7.0Orson Welles acted in Brazilian culture and music by deeply researching Brazil's historical geology, consciously completing a legendary cultural mission. Although being turned down by Hollywood producers, he developed a triumphantly accomplished mission in the language domain - three friends of Welles' testified his love for cinema, his passion for Brazilian music and people and his obstinate endurance against formidable pressures coming from inside and outside Hollywood regarding his unfinished "It's All True".
6.0Sharing her journey from child to teen activist, Georgie Stone looks back at her life and historic fight for transgender rights in this documentary.
6.7Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.
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.
7.1Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
6.6Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
7.2A portrait of the comic trio "Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo".
7.2When Juan Catalan is arrested for a murder he insists he didn't commit, he builds his case for innocence around unexpected raw footage.
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.
7.3Inmates at a prison in Rome rehearse for a performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
6.0After the India of Varanasi’s boatmen, the American desert of the dropouts, and the Mexico of the killers of drugtrade, Gianfranco Rosi has decided to tell the tale of a part of his own country, roaming and filming for over two years in a minivan on Rome’s giant ring road—the Grande Raccordo Anulare, or GRA—to discover the invisible worlds and possible futures harbored in this area of constant turmoil. Elusive characters and fleeting apparitions emerge from the background of the winding zone: a nobleman from the Piemonte region and his college student daughter sharing a one-room efficiency in a modern apartment building along the GRA.
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.
7.5What are we talking about when we talk about negotiations? About the state's concessions to the Mafia in exchange for ending the massacres? About who assassinated Falcone and Borsellino? Of the eternal coexistence between the Mafia and politics? Between the mafia and the church? Between the Mafia and law enforcement? Or is there more? A group of actors enacts the most relevant episodes of the affair known as the Mafia-state negotiation, impersonating mobsters, secret service agents, high officials, magistrates, victims and murderers, Freemasons, honest and courageous people, and courageous people up to a point. Thus one of the most intricate events in our history becomes an exciting tale.
6.2What happened after Einstein fled Nazi Germany? Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama dives into the mind of a tortured genius.
7.0Iverson is the ultimate legacy of NBA legend Allen Iverson, who rose from a childhood of crushing poverty in Hampton, Virginia, to become an 11-time NBA All-Star and universally recognized icon of his sport. Off the court, his audacious rejection of conservative NBA convention and unapologetic embrace of hip hop culture sent shockwaves throughout the league and influenced an entire generation. Told largely in Iverson's own words, the film charts the career highs and lows of one of the most distinctive and accomplished figures the sport of basketball has ever seen.
5.8Explore the first – and only – time “demonic possession” has officially been used as a defense in a U.S. murder trial. Including firsthand accounts of alleged devil possession and a shocking murder, this extraordinary story forces reflection on our fear of the unknown.
7.5Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
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.
6.1A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.