life is cool

Searching for the root of generational trauma, the director takes a camera into his estranged grandfather’s funeral.

As the dissociated convenience of the Internet and globalized corporate culture continue to shut down brick-and-mortar video stores, what will happen to the longstanding, local hangouts with their rugged individuals known as clerks and the communities who love them? Videosyncracy follows three very different video rental stores as they negotiate their survival in three distinct Los Angeles neighborhoods: Old Bank DVD in the Downtown arts district, Vidiots in sunny seaside Santa Monica, and Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee in bustling North Hollywood. Their stories chronicle not only the birth and twilight of a particular kind of corner store, but also decades of personal lives intertwined with those of their communities, the new challenges and facilities of a rapidly changing world, and an enduring love of the movies, a slice of Americana on the brink of disappearance yet defiant to the end.

With the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, the line between humans and machines continues to blur, and everything is evolving at an astonishing pace as this technology offers tantalizing promises. However, some researchers, including 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton, warn about its exponential power. A deep dive into the dizzying complexities of AI.

Filmed in Berlin, July 1990. Images of workers taking down the wall and street peddlers selling pieces of it to make a living.

Gavin built a giant volcano sculpture that's now in his dad's shed. Gavin seeks his dad's understanding but he's uninterested in modern art and refuses to participate in the documentary.

Ensayos y errores

In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.

When a small Utah-based edited movie company is caught sanitizing Hollywood's copyrighted material, the film industry strikes back with a devastating blow.

A documentary about the making of the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie.

Filmmakers and collectors lift the curtain on their manic media obsession that is not only a huge part of their lives, but the lifeblood of their existence!

The rise to fame (and the near-fatal fall from it) of Patty Schemel, drummer for Courtney Love's seminal rock band, Hole. Given a Hi-8 video camera just before Hole's infamous Live Through This world tour, Patty captured stunningly intimate footage of the scene that has never been seen... until now. Not just an all-access backstage pass to the music that shaped a generation, Hit So Hard is a harrowing tale of overnight success, the cost of addiction, and ultimately, recovery and redemption.

Hold mig fast. Før jeg forsvinder

An intimate, and often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive, and illuminating study of belonging, friendship, and family in the lives of those for whom dispossession is the norm, and yearning their daily lives.

Through a collection of home video footage, the filmmaker undergoes a journey of reconciliation and healing, grappling with their identity in the face of the past.

A documentary capturing the modern day VHS culture and VHS collectors.

Home video changed the world. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. This film traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of society that were altered by the creation of videotape.

A short-form documentary that follows the members of a Montana-based psychedilic rock band from early days up until present.

A 60 minute documentary on one of the greatest video stores in the country, Video Headquarters, from Keene, New Hampshire that existed for 32 years from 1983-2015. It's owner, Ken McAleer, was a prominent figure among independent video store owners and the documentary examines how one man, with a single video store, can have such a big impact in the industry. A labor of love from a first time filmmaker and former employee, this nostalgic look back at the video store era includes interviews with VHQ owner Ken McAleer, employees, comic artist and former video store owner, Stephen Bissette, and a treasure trove of archival photographs and documents from the store.

Michael Hutchence was flying high as the lead singer of the legendary rock band INXS until his untimely death in 1997. Richard Lowenstein’s documentary examines Hutchence’s deeply felt life through his many loves and demons.

Was it a cult? A charismatic bandleader convinces four generations of Midlands factory workers to dedicate their lives, and their children’s, to his obsession with leading the world’s best marching band, whatever the cost.