Dad Jokes

A woman, hospitalized for a relatively long period, observes what surrounds her. She has time to dream, to revisit certain moments of her life. These memories, like small bubbles begin with her birth in Marseille in 1949 and bring us to Antwerp, Paris, New York, England… to end in Flanders in 2015, after she gets out of the hospital. There Was A Little Ship is a filmic-biographical essay, sincere and poetic.

A revealing insight into the short life and times of Michael Reeves.

After years as a struggling actor, Daniel was cast to play a part in Conan O'Brien's "human-centipede-menorah." His bizarre experience evolved from one of shame into a deepening connection with his personal heritage, a reckoning with the choices he'd made, and ultimately a desire to tell the story of EIGHT NIGHTS. This is a film about our deep connection to the people we love. At a time when we couldn’t see some of those whom we love most, the making of this film felt even more poignant.

Hitler's Holocaust Railways

A BAFTA award nominated documentary about the importance of paying strict attention to detail by managers, supervisors and staff.

A BAFTA award nominated feature telling the story of the making of a sales film about beds.

A young woman confronts her own story as an adopted child from Sri Lanka. Her existential quest expands into a detective hunt for the truth in a morass of forged documents, corruption and family trauma.

A BAFTA award nominated documentary explaining what proteins are, how they work and why we need them.

Documentary on Catalan expeditions to the Antarctic. On display at CosmoCaxia in Barcelona.

The film that the mining industry tried to shut down -- telling the story of the Marikana massacre and its political fallout in the most unequal country on the planet. In 2012, 34 striking mineworkers were murdered by South African State Police in what was the most deadly day of state repression since the country's new constitution in 1994. The news of the killings rocked the country, leading to a year with more protests and actions the country hadn't seen since the end of Apartheid. The film explores how the mineral wealth -rightfully belonging to the people of South Africa- has been sold to foreign capitalist interests for the enrichment of a few elite individuals – and how traditional communities have been divided in this process. The story is told through a number of key characters who drive the narrative. From a mineworker who survived the Marikana massacre, to artists, community activists, union leaders, and lawyers.

On October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager accomplished what many thought was impossible: he broke the sound barrier and in doing so, changed aviation history forever. Behind this remarkable achievement was a dedicated team of rocket scientists and engineers, and one incredible plane, a Bell X-1 named "Glamorous Glennis." This is the story of the plane and the people who dared to travel faster than the speed of sound, pushing flight science forward and proving that no matter the barrier, humanity can find a way to break through.

For Crissy, waking up was the beginning of the nightmare, discovering her hands and feet bound, her body drenched in sweat from the brutal Texas heat and her brother Bobby, clinging to life, impaled on a nearby meat hook. These were the 'visible clues' to horror that lay ahead, the 'audio clue' was the growing sound of a revving chainsaw getting louder and louder, closer and closer, only hinting at the terrifying fate and formidable aggressor on the other side of the ominous, gleaming metal door of the room in which she was trapped... and then the door opened.

Through the Fondren Fellows program, the Rice Media Center Archive Project has spent the past few months sifting through material stored at the now-defunct Rice Media Center. The team has identified several films as especially notable and will be presenting them in conjunction with documentary footage the team shot of people involved with the films. From lectures featuring Roberto Rossellini and Werner Herzog to films from former Rice students and faculty, the film presentation will tell the narrative of the Rice Media Center through the films and filmmakers that passed through its corridors.

During the 1950s, musical masterpieces that have yet to be equaled were produced in Cinemascope with stereophonic sound. These two episodes explore how the post-war years were alive with bold experimentation in musical film. Later in the decade, Rock & Roll became the musical choice of the younger generation and movie musicals followed suit. Highlights of this 2-part program include: Films based on smash Broadway musicals become the rage. A pretty starlet with no musical training named Marilyn Monroe takes the country by storm in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." With favorites from the previous decade continue to delight audiences: Rock & Roll films, songs and musical numbers.

Documentary looking at the history of Hollywood musicals in the 1960s. This decade saw independent film companies becoming more prominent as the bigger Hollywood studios, who produced the mainstream musicals, experienced a decline. This brought the emergence of more realistic story lines and the use of contemporary music like rock 'n' roll. This programme features songs from the musicals 'West Side Story' (1961), 'The Music Man' (1962), 'Mary Poppins' (1964), 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' (1964), 'Funny Girl' (1968), 'Oliver!' (1968) and 'Sweet Charity' (1969).

In the 1980s we got our MTV but seemed to have lost much of the musical film in the process. But the genre is resilient. A handful of masterpieces along with a few cult classics emerged from this decade. In the 1990s the Hollywood musical was largely animated, rather than live action. However, television had a surprising number of musical offerings, including “Gypsy” with Bette Midler and “Annie” which launched director Rob Marshall. In the 2000s musicals came back starting with “Moulin Rouge” and carrying on with “Chicago,” “Dreamgirls” and “Hairspray.” There are movies based on Broadway triumphs and once again there are teens singing and dancing.

Александр Годунов. Побег за смертью

The film is dedicated to Alexandr Vertinsky - the great Russian artist, poet, composer. Some completely different biographies miraculously fit in his life ... A poet, an essayist Dmitry Vodennikov, a musician Andrey Makarevich, a writer and a historian Edward Radzinsky tell about this.

Filmmaker Jia Zhangke chronicles his local literature festival in Shanxi, China which includes a multi-generational roster of the country's most esteemed writers.

Claude François, l'ombre au tableau