“Meet Me by the Magnolia Tree” is a student documentary on the history of Richmond’s gay community and the role cruising for sex played in places like Byrd Park, the Block, and Battle Abbey.
Legendary western swing band leader Bob Wills rose up in the Great Depression to fame in Oklahoma and Texas that soon swept the entire nation. The documentary FIDDLIN MAN offers a full biography of Wills, using a vast array of on camera interviews with his friends, family, and fellow musicians. The film also draws on a wealth of rare archival footage.
A look back at the 1000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency.
La trans de la patria
Very few Icons have at once embodied the Myths of their own country while revealing its contradictions: heiress of the Hollywood star system and muse of the French auteur Cinema, Academy Award winning actress and committed producer, feminist and aerobic queen, activist and fearless businesswoman… In a lifetime, Jane Fonda may have reconciled all the facets of America without renouncing her own integrity. Through her portrait, the film tells a social and political story while drawing the picture of a typically American phenomenon.
A vibrant portrait of Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul, who has become a symbol of freedom and power for all African American women.
An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.
Historian David Starkey tells the story of the Protestant Reformation and how it transformed the face of modern Europe, unleashing fundamentalism, terror and religious violence.
An exploration of the past and future of the steel industry in America.
Hitler's invasion of Russia was one of the landmark events of World War II. This documentary reveals the lead-up to the offensive, its impact on the war and the brinksmanship that resulted from the battle for Moscow. Rare footage from both German and Russian archives and detailed maps illustrate the conflict, while award-winning historian and author John Erickson provides insight into the pivotal maneuvers on the eastern front.
The highlights and newsmakers of 2018 are brought to the fore in this year-end review.
Doomed attempt to get to California in 1846. More than just a riveting tale of death, endurance and survival. The Donner Party's nightmarish journey penetrated to the very heart of the American Dream at a crucial phase of the nation's "manifest destiny." Touching some of the most powerful social, economic and political currents of the time, this extraordinary narrative remains one of the most compelling and enduring episodes to come out of the West.
An unnamed graffiti artist produces a new piece in the biting cold of Minneapolis. Despite the illegality of his medium and the harshness of his environment, the film captures why the artist chooses to create on his own terms.
"Mexico begins where the roads end ”. Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes tells us about the history of Mexico: its invasions, its revolutions, its sacred lands, its forgotten legends, its religious rituals and this frightening misery. François Reichenbach and his camera sink into the dust, on this sacred land, where "the land never ends."
Mesopotamia was the site of the Sumerian civilisation, which flourished at the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. From 5000 to 2000 BC, the Sumerians flourished in a hostile environment by developing agriculture and irrigation and they opened up the trade routes of the ancient world. It was the Sumerians who invented writing and the wheel, and they first divided time into minutes and seconds. In the end however the Babylonian civilisation took the place of the Sumerians. However their heritage and myths live on in the Mediterranean and Western worlds to this day.
A documentary on funk and P-funk and the bands and artists that made it all happen: James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Maurice White and his Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, Kool & The Gang and lots more. It tells the story of black American music and how it evolved from funk to more main stream to disco to hiphop to contemporary R 'n B and its impact on society. Music and live footage from the bands, interviews with artists and band members of Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton and lots more.
In one of the world's largest and oldest refugee camps, Dadaab, the inhabitans survive by watching films and dreaming. The refugees cannot leave the camp, but they let their minds escape the harsh reality: by going to the simple cinema hall run by Abdikafi Mohamed, the film's protagonist.
A memory of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), woman, actress, goddess, myth, in the words of the Spanish director and scriptwriter José Luis Garci, who returns to his childhood and recovers a lost paradise.
In Uganda, AIDS-infected mothers have begun writing what they call Memory Books for their children. Aware of the illness, it is a way for the family to come to terms with the inevitable death that it faces. Hopelessness and desperation are confronted through the collaborative effort of remembering and recording, a process that inspires unexpected strength and even solace in the face of death.
Music documentary by director Rafael Marziano Tinoco from Venezuela