From Quatermass to Caltiki

A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.

Luca and Gustav, two men in their 30s, have been a stable couple for eight years. Nothing to get worked up about in a western European country, you would think – and you’d be wrong. Even in Euroland there are places where the acknowledgment of the basic civil rights of same-sex couples is a hot issue. Suddenly, Gustav’s and Luca’s quiet private life has been turned upside down. When the Italian center-left coalition initiates legislation about same-sex partnerships in Italy, a national debate is triggered instantly. In a matter of days it turns into the hottest political and cultural issue on the national agenda while intolerant homophobic attacks increase dramatically.

Nella Valle della Luna

By means of a chronological arrangement of historical video material from the Istituto Luce archives, it tells the story of Fascist Italy's ambitions in Africa and the role they played in shaping fascist ideology and the stance of the fascist regime in the Western world at the height of the age of colonialism and aggressive European expansionism.

A courtroom in Milan is filled with people brought together by random selection. Long interviews lie ahead. Based on the interviews, some of them will be chosen for jury duty. However, The Call doesn’t focus on judicial proceedings, but rather considers people’s sense of justice through the conversations in the waiting room.

For five days in December 1952, a thick smog suffocated the British capital causing the death of thousands of Londoners. The health catastrophe lead to a realisation, in Britain and around the world, that air pollution was a serious threat to human health. This documentary reveals what happened, hour by hour, in one of the worst peacetime disasters of the 20th century.

On the morning of 10 March 2020 all Italians woke up in quarantine. Io Resto a Casa ("I Stay Home") depicts the filmmaker's first 14 days of the Italian lockdown, without ever leaving the house, made entirely on the web through the stories of five Youtubers and dozens of videos and photographs made and shared all over Italy. Fourteen days of fears, hopes, enthusiasm, boredom, normality and extraordinariness. Fourteen days that we will always remember.

In 1956, actress and Hollywood star Grace Kelly (1929-82), then at the height of her film career, unexpectedly dropped everything to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Jinx, an American journalist and friend of the future princess, accompanied her on her journey to the wedding and covered the sensational event.

Au cœur du catch

All the games and behind-the-scenes of Silvio Berlusconi's power, including politics, media and soccer. Citizen Berlusconi is the original version of the documentary written by Andrea Cairola and Susan Gray broadcast on August 21, 2003, during the Wide Angle program of Thirteen/Wnet New York, the major U.S. public TV station Pbs.

The 1960s opened with La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini and its unforgettable lead: Marcello Mastroianni. The actor seemed to glide effortlessly through his roles — and through life — as if to say that life is not all that serious, or perhaps that it is far too serious not to be laughed at. But what kind of man was hiding behind the actor with the handsome, boyish looks, who appeared so gentle and nonchalant?

Eccomi ... Eccoti unfolds as a virtual road trip navigating between Italy and Lebanon. Conditioned to live in a long-distance relationship with his partner because of strict European visa regulations, the director patches together the shared moments in an attempt to create a possible day-to-day reality for their couple. With a lyrical, ambient soundscape set atop a dreamy, atmospheric visual style that oscillates between still photography and moving images, the film explores what it means to be gay in contemporary Beirut and existential discomfort that blocks one from reaching a sense of complete-ness. Does such in-completeness have to do, in particular, with being gay? Or is it related to a grander malaise endemic to the human condition?

S.B.: Io lo conoscevo bene

House of the Wickedest Man in the World is the story of a ruined building near the city of Cefalú in Sicily. In the early 1920s, Aleister Crowley, the most famous occultist of his time, lived in the building, practicing magical rituals. In the summer of 1955, Kenneth Anger, considered one of the pioneers of experimental cinema, traveled with sexologist Alfred Kinsey to Sicily to find Aleister Crowley’s temple to shoot a film about the occultist’s time in Cefalú. The Thelema Abbey film was never released.

The film focuses on Ernesto Rossi (1897 – 1967), who was imprisoned by the fascist regime between 1930 and 1943 for his political ideas. Exiled on the island of Ventotene, he co-authored the Ventotene manifesto.

The Costa D'Amalfi in the south of Italy is both wild and beautiful, framed by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the foothills of the Lattari Mountains as well as historic and picturesque towns. Sorrento marks the beginning of a journey through the land where the lemon trees blossom and along one of the most beautiful panoramic roads in the world, the Amalfitana. The Amalfitana travels along a remarkable coastline.

The fifties in Cuba, at the time of the "dias felices", the happy days, the American mobsters were the kings of the country, Hemingway lived there, the Hollywood stars came to hide their secrets, the number of bars and clubs rose amazingly, celebrities came to spend vacation, the business of cigars flourished, gambling was not a vice, everybody was dancing on frenzied music, while rum and cigars were flowing. At the beginning of the fifties, the huge storm that threatened Cuba was unpredictable.

A retired bricklayer wants his grandson, who lives hundreds of miles away, to stay with him. Will he convince the young man despite the lack of opportunities in the country?

Piazza Fontana bombing in December 12, 1969.

Can your heart stand the shocking facts of the true story of the Ed Wood of the 90's and beyond, and beyond, and beyond?