Third Act

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

When producer Kees Rijninks, the husband of filmmaker Carmen Cobos, is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, their world is falling apart. Yet after months of sadness, anger and denial, it appears that they have sufficient resilience to find a new balance in their lives. In TOGETHER they follow for a year a group of incurably ill patients, their partners and their neurologist to find an answer to the question how people deal with the knowledge that they are incurably ill. Do they find the resilience to give their lives a positive meaning in hopeless circumstances?

A filmmaker's lifelong dream quickly becomes his worst nightmare when he attempts to make a low budget horror film about an aborted fetus that seeks revenge on its family.

Since he was 18 years old, Blake Eckard has written and directed six feature length films in his hometown of Stanberry, Missouri (population 1186). Aside from a short distribution deal in Canada and a few festival screenings, his movies have largely gone unseen.

A short documentary on the making of the 1946 film Ziegfeld Follies.

A short documentary on Jerome Kern and the making of Till the Clouds Roll By.

A short documentary on the lives of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and the making of the film, Three Little Words.

A documentary on Teruo Ishii, the Japanese "King of Cult".

A promotional documentary short celebrating the 20th anniversary of Paramount Pictures, complete with a studio history, interviews with stars, and clips from upcoming films–some of which never came to fruition.

A documentary on the life and career of filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr., with clips from his films and interviews with the cast and crews of some of his films.

A short documentary about the making of the 1956 film, High Society. Hosted by Celeste Holm.

Documentary about the life and work of Ray Harryhausen.

This short focuses on the job of the costume designer in the production of motion pictures. The costume designer must design clothing that is correct for the film historically and geographically, and must be appropriate for the mood of the individual scene. We see famed costume designer Edith Head at work on a production. The Costume Designer was part of The Industry Film Project, a twelve-part series produced by the film studios and the Academy. Each series episode was produced to inform the public on a specific facet of the motion picture industry. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Diving Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy, tells the story of Mike deGruy, an irrepressibly curious and enthusiastic underwater filmmaker who died suddenly in 2012. DeGruy filmed the oceans for more than three decades becoming as famous for his on camera storytelling as for his glorious, intimate visions of the sea and the creatures who live in it. Inspired to share his legacy as a filmmaker and storyteller, and to spread his mission for protecting the ocean, his wife and filmmaking partner Mimi deGruy returned to the edit room to produce Diving Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy.

The story of the creation of The Spirit of the Beehive, a film directed by Víctor Erice in 1973.

Two-part documentary about French director Jacques Tati chronicles the evolution of the filmmaker's alter ego, Monsieur Hulot, through archival interviews, on-set footage, photos, and film clips.

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.

Ann Miller hosts this documentary short on the making of the MGM-Cole Porter hot musical "Kiss Me Kate".

In THE COLOR OF FEAR, eight American men participated in emotionally charged discussions of racism. In this sequel, we hear and see more from those discussions, in which the men talk about about how racism has affected their lives in the United States. We also learn more about the relationships between them, and about their reactions during some of the most intense moments of that discussion.

Interview-based documentary looking back on the making and reception of René Clément's 1952 film "Forbidden Games."