Film Lesson

Using archival footage, cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, The Fog of War depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz-kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the Vietnam War as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Metalanguage and irony about what makes a film, film.

The hard-working cinema owners and operators of the small towns found in BC's southern interior are doing more than showing movies and selling popcorn––they are bringing their communities together.

Four lives that could not be more different and a single passion that unites them: the unconditional love for their cinemas, somewhere at the end of the world. Comrades in Dreams brings together six cinema makers from North Korea, America, India and Africa and follows their efforts to make their audiences dream every night.

They are the first and the last, those who imagine stories and give voice to the characters who live them. However, they never speak. But now, they emerge from the shadows of a poorly lit room and tell their secrets, their tricks, their influences; they tell their own story, that of those who face the blank page, the absolute nothingness; that of those who are the true authors, those who create and destroy entire universes. They are the screenwriters.

Mosfilm, les chefs-d'oeuvre du cinéma russe

A short documentary about the rapidly disappearing era of heritage movie palaces and the film going experience once offered within those hallowed walls.

Klaus Kinski has perhaps the most ferocious reputation of all screen actors: his volatility was documented to electrifying effect in Werner Herzog’s 1999 portrait My Best Fiend. This documentary provides further fascinating insight into the talent and the tantrums of the great man. Beset by hecklers, Kinski tries to deliver an epic monologue about the life of Christ (with whom he perhaps identifies a little too closely). The performance becomes a stand-off, as Kinski fights for control of the crowd and alters the words to bait his tormentors. Indispensable for Kinski fans, and a riveting introduction for newcomers, this is a unique document, which Variety called ‘a time capsule of societal ideals and personal demons.’

Rarely in the history of the cinema, a company films productions will have marked the history and the culture of its country like "Svensk Filmindustri". Since its creation in 1919 by Charles Magnusson, Svensk Filmindustri have produced 1200 films including the major works of Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjöström and Ingmar Bergman. The uncontested talent of the actresses Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman have given Swedish cinema a world recognition, a cinema that celebrates the power of the forces of nature, and where the inner life of its characters remains in our memories.

The 1950s were a time marked by an idealistic feeling. The atomic age, with its promise to save humanity, revolutionized the world, technologically, socially and politically. All these factors gave birth to one of the most prolific film genres in the history of cinema: science fiction, which delighted the audience. Only a few years later, these same spectators saw on their television screens how the Russians launched the Sputnik into space.

Likely in June 1897, a group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

The premiere of The Dark Knight Rises was the big event in Aurora, Colorado. So popular with young cinema-goers, the city's theatre complex put on an extra showing. But minutes into the film, lone gunman James Holmes, dressed as the Joker, entered the room and started firing indiscriminately. Twelve people died, many more were injured. This documentary tells the life story of Holmes, of his victims and speaks to survivors.

Highlighting one of the most innovative American directors, this film reveals the path traveled by the auteur from his small-town Texas roots to his warm reception on the awards circuit. Long before he directed Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s intense desire to create fueled his work outside the Hollywood system. Rather than leave Texas, he chose to collaborate with like-minded artists crafting modest, low-budget films in a DIY style. His ability to showcase realistic characters and tell honest stories was evident from his films, and others soon took notice of his raw talent.

An hour-long discussion between Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard in which they discuss a variety of art forms, the role of the cinema, their collaboration together, and much more. (Filmed in 1964 but released for TV in 1967.)

A peep behind the scenes of the golden era of Hollywood to discover exactly how and why Katharine Hepburn became one of the most famous actresses in the glamorous world of cinema.

On February 26, 1920, Robert Wiene's world-famous film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin. To this day, it is considered a manifesto of German expressionism; a legend of cinema and a key work to understand the nature of the Weimar Republic and the constant political turmoil in which a divided society lived after the end of the First World War.

The Palestinian Film Archive contained over 100 films showing the daily life and struggle of the Palestinian people. It was lost in the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982. Here interviewees describe from memory key moments from the history of Palestinian cinema. These scenes are drawn and animated. Where film survives, the artist’s impressions are corroborated. This is a film about reconstruction and the idea that cinema is an expression of cultural identity – that cinema fuels memory.

The question of "who hunts virgins" and more will be stripped down and explored in the sexiest trailers hosted by Playboy's Nikki Leigh.

A documentary about the cinema Kriterion Roetersstraat en Studio K in Amsterdam.

The 70th anniversary of the “Fotogramas” magazine comes in the shape of a sentimental voyage through the history of Spanish cinema thanks to a mosaic of voices represented by people who make films, those who write them and those who consume them. The documentary pays tribute to the readers of “Fotogramas” helped by the leading figures of Spanish cinema, who will read to the camera the most representative letters received at its offices in the history of the magazine.