A depiction of the Wrangelkiez neighbourhood in Berlin. The people portrayed tell their life stories. One woman came to the neighbourhood a decade ago to work in Berlin’s still unfinished Brandenburger Airport, one man reminisces his childhood on a Tobacco farm in Kentucky, another speaks of an exceptional day in an otherwise monotonous workplace. These portraits are interwoven with the story of Elpi, a Greek woman who is waiting for the long overdue visit of an old important friend. The outcome of this mixture is a film which captures the lives and perspectives of some of Wrangelkiez’s most commanding citizens, while at the same time evoking the loss that change and time passing means for places and for people.
Have you ever woken in the night unable to move, certain that you are not alone? This is an experimental documentary examining what happens when dreams leak into waking life. It is about what is real, what is not, and if it even matters.
Player Two is a short animation that explore the relationship that develops between two brothers of differing age growing up, and how video games foster that bond.
Macario 'Mac' Gómez talks about his long career as a film poster designer.
A BFI-produced documentary about documentary filmmaker John Grierson speaking about documentary.
Short avant garde film. Views of rippling water.
A self portrait filmed with a modified PXL 2000 Camcorder. The camcorder itself records on to audio cassette tape. The tapes themselves are recycled which means I have recorded over them several causing them to slowly degrade.
Short documentary on the ordinary life of the Russians.
Millennials in the US discover their lack of legal nationality, sparking a search for recognition and belonging that unites them and offers hope for the future.
Justine doesn't speak. She communicates through looking, gesture and the body language of her movement and interactions. Justine observes the rhythms of her day, giving a unique portrait of the experience of a vivacious young woman living with severe neurological disorders. Justine survived a harrowing breakdown as a child but her medical condition is not the subject of this film, which instead gives a sense of her extraordinary life and experience in the rhythms of an ordinary day as she turns 18. Justine's parents tenderly build close family bonds to sustain their youngest daughter. They speak perceptively and movingly about their daughter and sister. Meanwhile, cuts to the UK welfare system endanger the family's hard won achievements, and raise questions and fears for her future.
The first Easter Island documentary, filmed in 1935 when the Belgian naval ship Mercator came to collect Drs. Henri Lavacherry and Alfred Métraux, who had arrived six months before to carry out archaeological and ethnological work. The film, directed with melodramatic gusto and featuring a full orchestral score by Maurice Jaubert (who also did the narration), shows islanders, the monuments, and a public dance. A theme of decay and decadence characterizes the film, the motif portrayed gruesomely by extensive close-ups of the inhabitants of the leper colony there at the time. The film suited a romantic image of a mysterious lost civilization, the survivors eking out a pitiful existence on a barren rock. (Grant McCall)
The second part of the series Cypriot Collage Stories sketches out the history of this Mediterranean island as a conflict of its two mothers – Aphrodite and Virgin Mary. Animations and collages are intertwined with found footage of the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island, revealing the obvious fact that modern conflicts are rooted in history.
This documentary about the 70s porn legend attempts to verify his existence as there are practically no Asian male porn stars in the history of American adult cinema. A controversial mystery akin to Bigfoot and alien abduction, Dick Ho was so well endowed that rumors arose of a conspiracy within the porn industry to eliminate any knowledge of his existence. Includes alleged film footage and testimonials from porn veterans.
This film was made by Bass' company as a presentation to AT&T executives. It would have extended to be shown to the public, but a number of his ideas in the film were not ultimately adopted, like his phone booth designs, and men's and women's uniforms. But a great many of the design were adopted—including, most memorably, the telephone vans and hardhat designs of the 1970s. Bass designed down to the details, showcasing in this film a myriad of ideas, like Yellow Pages book designs, cufflinks for executives, and flags. (AT&T Archives)
Although it was actually an impersonal commissioned film, the director's style is clearly recognizable. Once again he manages to make something that is normal very strange: the dancing people in costumes are filmed in such a way that they look bizarre and absurd. Jan de Bont's camerawork shows a series of color images of dancing people, edited to the rhythm of the music. Halfway through the film, a lonely clown can be seen among the dancing crowd, accompanied by sad music. This clown is played by Ditvoorst himself.
What does it feel like to be a stranger in a country that you’ve lived in for twenty years? Two rootless and tenacious Chinese immigrants, Quan and Fen, try to find a home in each other on foreign soil.
A documentary about resilience and the fight against suicide among trans people, the film portrays the characters’ relationships with their bodies, life and all that is sacred. It dives into the hearts of Aretha, Yago, Deniell and Ariel in an attempt to promote inner healing.
The Boys Next Door is a short documentary in which director Bobbie Fay Brandsen examines how she should live together with her new neighbors, Mootie from Syria, Meron from Eritrea and Salihou from Senegal. A film about integration, cultural differences, idealism but even more about the question: 'can we, despite all our differences, live together and if yes, how?' This film is one of the graduation documentaries from the class of 2017 made by a crew entirely consisting of students of the Dutch Filmacademy.
An unnamed documentary filmmaker interviews ghosts in an attempt to find some advice for people seeking to end their lives.
Educational film about the dangers of drug use and abuse in high school. Framed around the death of a classmate from overdose.