The private Joan Crawford fought as hard to create a normal family life as she did to establish her career. She forged her own path and to that end became a single parent, eventually adopting and raising four children. Like many parents, she picked up a 16mm camera and began filming both the special and the ordinary events of her family’s life. These home movies (ca. 1940–42) present that which one rarely gets to see: a larger-than-life personality at home, unadorned, just being herself—and often in color, at a time when her feature films were black and white. Crawford filmed most of the home movies herself; when she is on camera, it is unclear who is behind it.
In 1810, 20 year old Sara Baartman got on a boat from Cape Town to London, unaware that she would never see her home again, or that she would become the icon of racial inferiority and black female sexuality for the next 100 years. Four years later, she became the object of scientific research that formed the bedrock of European ideas about BFS. She died the next year, but even after her death, Sara remained an object of imperialist scientific investigation. In the name of Science, her sexual organs and brain were preserved and displayed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris until as recently as 1985. Using historical drawings, cartoons, legal documents, and interviews with noted cultural historians and anthropologists, this documentary deconstructs the social, political, scientific, and philosophical assumptions that transformed one young woman into a representation of savage sexuality and racial inferiority.
The cast and crew talk about making the film with some behind-the-scenes footage.
Refuge(e) traces the incredible journey of two refugees, Alpha and Zeferino. Each fled violent threats to their lives in their home countries and presented themselves at the US border asking for political asylum, only to be incarcerated in a for-profit prison for months on end without having committed any crime. Thousands more like them can't tell their stories.
“Olive” is a short documentary that follows Olive Hagemeier, an energetic woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste”, across Atlanta, GA. Presented in a quiet observational style, this film is both a character study of a committed and enigmatic volunteer, as well as an ethnographic work that places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.
This a fun behind-the-scenes featurette that looks back on the creation and continuing popularity of the show. Several members of the crew discuss the production's early difficulties, finding the series' tone, the growing fandom, and the show's unique appeal to all ages.
The world's most famous Swede in 1929 is undoubtedly Greta Garbo. Here the photographer has taken her on a boat departing Gothenburg as she returns to Hollywood.
Deconstructs the representation of AIDS in the popular media where distortion and misrepresentation amount to a "snow job" promoting increased homophobia, sexual discrimination and repression of gays.
This documentary portrays the arrival in Chilean Patagonia of the intelligent buoy of The Blue BOAT Initiative, a project developed by Fundación MERI in collaboration with the Government of Chile and 20 other national and international institutions, to change the way we protect and conserve our oceans. Through wonderful images of the biodiversity of southern Chile, this documentary invites you to immerse yourself in its history, the challenges of its installation in the powerful southern waters of the Corcovado Gulf, and to continue celebrating this important achievement of the scientific community, authorities and experts. This production reflects the pride and joy of a small southern country, at the end of the planet, that advances contributing science and technology to the world.
With shared economic, environmental, and humanitarian concerns, communities of local planners, designers, and citizens work toward cross-border collaboration. Ronald Rael, an architecture professor, takes an opportunity to use art to prove the uselessness of building borders.
This entry in the TravelTalks series visits the ancient Egypt. starting Valley of the Kings in a remote and desolate part of Egypt, the entrance to tomb of King Tut is shown, though the ts priceless treasure is now in the Cairo museum. A visit to Luxor and the ancient city of Thebes, which date to 1500 BC, follow with subsequent visits to Karnak. The film closes by noting that past and present are in harmony with the water wheel and village well still in wide use in the modern age.
This Traveltalk series short visits Sydney, Australia and its harbour.
This Traveltalk short visits Hawaii's capital city.
To the WWE Universe, Shawn Michaels made every match he competed in feel like a main event. No matter the time or the place, when The Showstopper stepped inside the ring, he delivered a performance unlike any other. Now for the first time ever, WWE Home Video dives deep into the archives to bring the WWE Universe never-before-released matches spanning the entire career of “The Heartbreak Kid.”
Sex. Something that is part of human nature. Everyone does it and strives to have their happily ever after… Right? In a society where intimacy and romance are constantly everywhere, someone breaks from the mould after years of self-discovery. They send a letter to their past self full of their experiences and lessons learned, in the form of a short documentary. A-Okay brings attention to the hyper-sexualized and romanticized society we live in and how it’s expectations, stigmas, and stereotypes can be harmful to individuals on the aromantic and asexual spectrums.
JoAnn Elam was an experimental filmmaker, postal worker, and social activist. She is most known for her films Rape and Lie Back and Enjoy it. This film remixes JoAnn's footage as a way of introducing viewers to her life and work. Commissioned by the Chicago Film Archives with music by Tim Kinsella.
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Silent archival footage of Jewish children during the Holocaust, accompanied by music and poetic narration. A haunting portrait of a future generation lost to cruelty and genocide.
Short-documentary about the squat at Amandastraße 73 in Hamburg.
With depth, intimacy, and humor, FLOAT! captures filmmaker Azza Cohen's magnetic grandma’s life-affirming journey learning to swim at 82, inspiring audiences to defy societal expectations of aging and to boldly look forward at every stage.