When does someone stop being a Stranger? In a world emerging from social lockdown, this documentary explores the way communication is changing. Seven participants give us their views on social interactions, before having a conversation with a Stranger. Will this change their perceptions?
A look at the Lake District and its famous poet.
A young mother, alone with her daughter, confides in a friend who happens to be the director herself. Chantal Akerman, although she sympathizes with the mother, does not say a word.
A look at the unusual process used in the making of the film Shortbus (2006) featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the feature film. Director John Cameron Mitchell starts with the concept of using real sex in a film with a positive message. The cast of unknowns is selected from homemade audition tapes and then a callback audition workshop. More acting workshops are used to develop the characters and script. The project overcomes a number of obstacles and the rest of the film's development is followed up until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Directors Errol Morris and Werner Herzog describe and discuss the film The Act of Killing (2012).
Sandra rummages in the fragments of her memory and photographs in order to reconstruct the portrait of the life and death of her brother.
This documentary features candid studio conversations with people of diverse backgrounds from the Erika Lust community. They share personal experiences with self-pleasure, exploring why they masturbate, how their views have evolved, and what they were taught growing up.
Documentary film about Martin Park, a homeless man living in Dublin, and his friendship with photographer and filmmaker Donal Moloney.
In 1945, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world’s conscience. A film was made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. It was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and was broadcast for the first time in its entirety on PBS FRONTLINE in 1985.
A fairly shabby, dark, three-part wardrobe in a hallway: About ten years have passed since Joana Claude suffered sexual violence when it was assembled. Now the time has come to not only disassemble it. Instead, Joana sets out to destroy the artefact of pain completely. The gesture is made with fervour, tearing out the shelves and doors looks like retroactive resistance, what was pent up finds an outlet. At the same time, the ritual is characterised by gradual escalation: At first the director speaks of her relationship with her parents – a big sweat stain on her back already beginning to show –, in the end everything is in flames. The act is short, it lasts only a few minutes. And yet it allows an intimate insight that acquires a universal, strength-giving character as it unfolds.
It’s the second semester of junior year for Pierce “Sparni” Sparnroft, a gifted jazz vibraphonist studying at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Sparni’s prospects on the vibes were rejuvenated by their new professor, the world-renowned Steve Nelson, and are to be showcased during a student-driven recital in May 2023. But all the while, Sparni must face a crisis within.
A teen with autism unlocks a joyous world of self-expression as she shares her voice for the first time using a letter board.
Along this goal to ski all fifty of "The Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America", there lies a few cruxes. A few lines that stand out as the ultimate test for skiers. Lines that have seen one, maybe two, ski descents in history. One such mountain that is on that list is Mt. St. Elias in Alaska. Mt. St. Elias is a mythical, foreboding peak that jumps straight out of the ocean, 18,008 feet into the sky. It's renowned for violent storms that come straight off the northern pacific and slam into its icy steeps. It is unknown how many people have ever stood on the summit, but it is known that most people that try, fail. In May of 2021, Cody Townsend, Dan Corn, Nick Russell and cinematographer Bjarne Salen set out to climb and ski this Alaskan beast. This is the tale of their adventure.
In this brand new featurette, directors Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone), Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn), and Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) explain what makes Night of the Living Dead a very special film and discuss its lasting impact on the horror genre. The featurette was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2017.
Hysteria explores issues surrounding women's emotions and sexuality, and their social manifestations.
The film takes us to the North of England to follow the migration of the black-headed gull down to London. There, the narrator asks viewers to "listen to their gossip", before demonstrating the bird’s flight in slow motion. We see a polecat feasting on gull eggs, and then a man collecting the eggs for human consumption, with the film telling us that they are considered a “delicacy” in London. Indeed, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, around 300,000 gull’s eggs were sold every year in Leadenhall Market in London during the 1930s, when London Visitors was made.
Produced for "The Mack" Special Edition DVD.
A devoted pair of little owls set up home in an old orchard in rural Herefordshire. From spring blossom to autumn apples, a year in the life of the parent birds, their baby owls and the old fruit trees.
Documentary about the production of Bunk #7.
A documentary about Captain Dale Black, a pilot who died in a famous airplane crash in Burbank, California which was covered by the LA Times. After coming back to life, Black shares his near death experience as the sole survivor of a non-survivable plane wreck.