Lettera22

Dedicated Dutch graphic designer Piet Schreuders visits Los Angeles to investigate all kinds of typeface as used in title-credits for movies and TV-series, letters on billboards, shop-windows or street-signs, the banner-headlines of The Los Angeles Times, and climbs finally to the giant letters of the HOLLYWOOD-sign. In the meantime he discovers, to his great satisfaction, the location and stairs where Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy shot their movie 'The Musicbox', by combining street-signs, partially shown on still-pictures of this movie: "…MONTE" and "…ENDOME", which turn out to be found on the street corner of Del Monte and Vendome in Culver City. This documentary is bluntly intercut with commercials, a phenomenon not yet known in the Netherlands in 1979. (Theo Uittenbogaard)

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Alberto Casiraghy and Josef Weiss are true bibliophile artists. One in Osnago, the other in Mendrisio, they have been dedicating themselves for years to valuable editorial and typographical activities, still printing with mobile characters, preserving the memory of a perfect ingenuity made of manual skills and technique, but also of inventiveness and poetry. Silvio Soldini gives us a realistic and poetical portrait of these two artists-artisans, who chose one of the oldest professions in a modern world, finding great success and approval.

Documentary on the French graphic and visual artist and designer, editor, artistic director, and teacher who is known for his widely-used fonts.

Hanzi is a documentary exploring international design, visual culture, and identity through the lens of modern Chinese typography. The film covers a variety of topics such as how languages shape identity, and what role handwriting plays in the digital age.

A portrait of the inventor of the letterpress, who was a key figure in the history of mankind, but also an enthusiastic inventor, a daring businessman, a tenacious troublemaker: the life of Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-68).

Why has letterpress printing survived? Irreplaceable knowledge of the historic craft is in danger of being lost as its caretakers age. Fascinating personalities intermix with wood, metal, and type as young printers save a traditional process in Pressing On, a 4K feature-length documentary exploring the remarkable community keeping letterpress alive.

A short, educational animation about the history of fonts and typography. In a paper cutout stop-motion style, it begins with Gutenberg's creation of the first typeface, travels through the innovations of Jenson, Caslon, and Bodoni, to the modern creation of Futura and the democratization of fonts in the digital age. A charming, engaging film about a technology that is all around us, but few people know much about.

Máquinas de palabras

Words that end in -ake and start with ch-. A typographic animation.

Words that start with the letter O, P, and R. A typographic animation.

According to his friend Polo the “Ober-Swiss,” Max is a spineless character who lives strictly according to conventions and is never satisfied with himself or the world. In truth, Max is fictitious – born out of the fantasy of the filmmaker Clemens Klopfenstein, who created him as his alter ego. Max falls in love with the impassioned Christine, but she jilts him within a short time because of his reluctant disposition. He thus takes a decision: to call upon the “master” in the hopes that he can liberate him from the interminably same role. Based on works by Clemens Klopfenstein, the compilation film emerges as a new, self-contained story, while rendering palpable the very essence of the filmmaker.

Il Grande Gioco-Centanni di Scoutismo

The sculptor Sergio Camargo died 20 years ago. If the bones left in the grave are in fact his remains, would his sculptures be living remains? What's ephemeral and what's lasting? Is there a possible eternity? We see the movie through the eyes of the daughter confronting both the artist and the man.

Chernobyl Forever

The jet set life of artist Nikki S. Lee.

Le Zapping - 20 ans (1989 - 1993)

Poetic documentary about the polar expedition of S. A. Andrée which Troell had previously dramatized in "Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd" (1982).

Alerte dans nos assiettes

Moi, la finance et le développement durable