Believe It or Not (Second Series) #8

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

The ultimate Bobby Jones golf series reaches its climactic conclusion on board a speeding train to oblivion.

Working 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.

On February 21, 1945, the Royal Canadian Air Force Halifax bomber NP711 with a crew of seven men took off from the Linton-on-Ouse air base in England for a bombing raid over Worms, Germany. The bomber never made it to its target. The Halifax was struck by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into a mountainside near Leistadt, Germany. All crew members were killed. The crash was so horrific that the wreckage was strewn over 1,000 meters. Seventy-seven years later the wreckage was recovered and the site was deemed a gravesite for the perished crew. This documentary film examines the last days of the seven-member crew and the recovery of the wreckage of Halifax NP711.

A portrait and tribute to Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta.

A group of Macedonian women are shown hard at work.

At the time this film was made, motion picture theaters were required to pay a 20% tax on gross ticket sales, and Congress was debating lowering this tax (as well as others) in a bill being considered by a Congressional committee. This film, which was made especially to be shown to members of the committee, sets forth the motion picture industry's case for reducing, if not eliminating, the tax.

A short history of movie music is presented, from silent films accompanied by a single piano, to the elaborate song scores for musicals (with scenes from MGM's musicals) and background music for dramas. Conductor/composer

Academy Award winning film maker Hilary Harris’ epic vision of New York City shot over 15 years [1959-74] during which time Mr. Harris pioneered and contemporized time-lapse film making techniques to achieve this unique experiential view of the world we inhabit: chaos and confusion seem to multiply in every corner of the Big Apple. Yet there seems to be some order in all that chaotic and relentless system and things seem to work just fine. The same can be said about the human body. Director Hilary Harris proves with this short documentary that cities and organisms are all-alike.

A documentary essay on coming of age and the power of the unconscious. In the same vein as Sweatlodge Song, this is a message of courage and hope.

Experimental short made by Olivier Assayas for Fondation of Contemporary Art and starring Maggie Cheung.

The theme of death is heavily interwoven in Smolder’s surreal salute to Belgian painter Antoine Wiertz, a Hieronymus Bosch-type artist whose work centered on humans in various stages in torment, as depicted in expansive canvases with gore galore. Smolders has basically taken a standard documentary and chopped it up, using quotes from the long-dead artist, and periodic statements by a historian (Smolders) filling in a few bits of Wiertz’ life.

First it's paint bombs, followed hard by riots. Tweets proclaim what is to be done. Resistance is everywhere. Something has to give. Two young activists meet amid turbulent events. They dance. The city belongs to them.

This documentary is an informal portrait of the great modern composer Igor Stravinsky. Proudly American, though still very much an Old World figure with a long and alert memory for people and events in music, literature and art, Stravinsky is depicted here conducting the CBC Symphony Orchestra in a recording of his Symphony of Psalms.

Las cosas simples

One of my dreams is to organize my own funeral.

The film uses a collection of post-World War II black & white photographs to portray the dockworkers of Marseilles, many of whom were of African descent. Set in and around a 1947 strike protesting weapons shipments to the French in Indochina, the images evoke the life and work of Senegalese filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène, a former dockworker, and one of the founding figures of the New African Cinema of the 1960s.

The Ax Fight (1975) is an ethnographic film by anthropologist and filmmaker Tim Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon about a conflict in a Yanomami village called Mishimishimabowei-teri, in southern Venezuela. It is best known as an iconic and idiosyncratic ethnographic film about the Yanomamo and is frequently shown in classroom settings.

The incredible true story of nature’s greatest explorers—lemurs. Through footage captured with IMAX 3D, audiences go on a spectacular journey to the remote and wondrous world of Madagascar. Join trailblazing scientist Patricia Wright on her lifelong mission to help these strange and adorable creatures survive in the modern world.

Impressionist portrait of a landscape forged by tragedy. A ghostly wanderer among the vestiges of a story where 44 young soldiers and a sergeant were pushed to their deaths