Iranian film director Amir Naderi talks to Zar Amir Ebrahimi about his career in this documentary directed and produced by Ebrahimi and broadcast by BBC World Service and BBC Persian. Amir Naderi is one of the most influential figures of Iranian modern cinema. He was born in 1945 in the Persian Gulf port of Abadan. Orphaned at an early age and living the life of a street urchin, Naderi had to survive by selling ice, working as a shoeshine boy and recycling empty beer bottles. He developed his knowledge of cinema by watching films in the theaters where he worked at a very young age. He began his career by taking pictures for some notable Iranian features. In the 1970’s, he started directing his own films, and made some of the most important movies of the New Iranian Cinema. After moving to New York in the early 90’s, Amir Naderi continued to make films. They have premiered at the Venice, Cannes, Tribeca, and Sundance Film Festivals.
A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.
Director Guillermo del Toro journeys through a labyrinth of childhood memories, cultural myths and monsters to reveal the origins of his visionary films.
At the end of his life, gravely ill, François Truffaut took refuge with his ex-wife Madeleine Morgenstern. She tried to keep him occupied during his long agony. The filmmaker confided in his friend Claude de Givray, with the intention of writing his autobiography. Too weakened, he abandoned the project. The film reveals part of this final story.
Jacques Demy’s ability to enchant audiences was rooted in his personal struggles and doubts as a showman, establishing him as one of French cinema’s greatest artists.
American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), one of the greatest in history, but also one of the most reserved, gave few interviews throughout his long career, and none of them were filmed. A first-person journey through his life and work, based on a recorded conversation with French film critic Michel Climent.
A peculiar, meticulous, vocationally archeological account of the professional life of the actor, Spanish by birth, Argentinean by adoption, Narciso Ibañez Menta (1912-2004), spiritual disciple of Lon Chaney, the new man of a thousand faces, master of horror, star of Argentinean theater, cinema and television for decades.
A tribute to Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci (1926-90), presented by American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.
Film critic Alejandro G. Calvo traces an audiovisual journey through the work of David Lynch trying to find clues to decipher his enigmatic universe.
Despite the homeopathic doctors studying medicine, they treat their patients against the basis of scientific knowledge. Allegations of fraud surround the topic. In the film, homeopaths embark on adventurous explanations of their popular belief system.
To celebrate the release of a new movie for their 20th anniversary, this documentary offers some behind-the-scenes footages.
Alfred Hitchcock is known as a giant of movie making, a facetious master of suspense, obsessed with blond heroines in peril, with the reputation of being tyrannical towards his actors. But who knows the real Hitchcock? During his last public appearance, "Hitch" paid tribute to the wife, mother, co-writer, editor and partner of a lifetime that was Alma Reville Hitchcock. The two Hitchcock were inseparable, engineering the unquestionable masterpieces together. Their genuine collaboration never stopped from the day they met until the end of their lives. It's in light of this fusional relationship that this film will revisit and shed fresh light on the legend.
A funny walk through the life story of Billy Wilder (1906-2002), a cinematic genius; a portrait of a filmmaker who never was a boring man, a superb mind who had ten commandments, of which the first nine were: “Thou shalt not bore.”
A retrospective of the work of the late actor Warren Oates, with clips from his films and interviews with cast and crew members who worked with him.
In 1936, the sound film had already been around for a decade. Nevertheless, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) made another silent film, "Modern Times", which only used sound effects as a dramaturgical device. Speaking is reserved for the apparatus alone. The film became a monument in the history of cinema for this very reason.
Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.
In 2024, Abdelkrim Baba Aissa, aged 75, engages in a series of filmed interviews with Algerian journalist Thoria Smati. They address the chronology of the rich and committed career of this self-taught Algerian actor, director, producer and screenwriter, who made his debut on Algerian television as an assistant director then at ONCIC as a director in the years 70.
The story of Enrique Herreros (1903-1977), cartoonist, advertiser, poster designer, talent manager, actor, producer and filmmaker, and the most daring of mountaineers; the man who, along with his companions from the so-called “other Generation of '27,” brought Hollywood to Madrid's Gran Vía, turning a grey and sinister post-war city into the capital of an incipient and ambitious cultural industry.
Spanish filmmaker David Trueba travels to New York to interview Woody Allen, who reviews his filmography and his many personal and artistic concerns.
Great filmmakers claim the artistic influence of French director Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907-1977), a master of suspense, with a unique vision of the world, who knew how to offer both great shows and subtle studies of characters. Beyond the myth of the tyrannical director, a contrasting portrait of a visionary, an agitator, an artist against the system.