The story of Dr. George Washington Carver (1864-1943), black educator and horticulturist. He is perhaps most well known for developing over 140 products from all parts of the peanut plant, including the shells and husks. He also developed products based on sweet potatoes and soybeans, and developed a cotton hybrid that was named after him.
Why did Simenon, a novelist who contributed so much to the seventh art, like to say that he hated the cinema? Because he could never become a director? Because, claustrophobic, he was unable to lock himself in a projection room? Clearly, there is an affair between the writer and the cinema and Georges Simenon is the main protagonist. An investigation that is more than ever topical as Patrice Leconte has announced his plan to adapt an investigation by the famous Inspector Maigret.
This acclaimed documentary depicts the sad life of the greatest of all jazz singers, Billie Holiday, a life engraved with personal tragedy and ultimately shortened by drug abuse and alcoholism. Her story and career are portrayed through rare archival film and television appearances, memorable renditions of her greatest songs, and interviews with friends and colleagues.
A place of pleasure and pain, creation and separation, Frida Kahlo's home, known as "La Maison Bleue", was the scene of one of the most singular adventures of the 20th century. In the 1930s, while Europe was being torn apart, Frida Kahlo welcomed painters, actresses, writers, photographers and revolutionaries: from Diego Rivera, the great Mexican painter and Frida's fickle husband, to Leon Trotsky in exile, via André Breton, who dreamed of Mexico as the land of "real surrealism".
Death by Misadventure: The Mysterious Life of Bruce Lee exposes the truth behind Lee's death and the cover-up that ensued.
The film draws from the important stages and events in Richie Hawtin’s personal and artistic life, and follows Hawtin’s transformation from introverted and transplanted computer nerd into a DJ and techno-entrepreneur. The 70 min documentary features an extensive archive of unreleased photos, video and interviews. Of special interest are Hawtin’s relationship with his family, especially his technophile dad, his fascination with Detroit and his early DJ gigs.
"Tale of the Fox" is the Official Eric Carr Video-Biography. When former Kiss drummer Eric Carr died prematurely from a cancer-related brain hemorrhage in 1991, it shook his family, friends and fans to the core. Director Jack Edward Sawyers documents the short life of the young rocker through a combination of stock footage, outtakes and interviews with the people who knew Carr best. Includes previously unreleased material written and performed by Carr during his pre-Kiss time with the Rockheads.
John Irving's literary worlds are satirically exaggerated, socially critical, unexpectedly magical. But how do these dazzling, sometimes bizarre, narrative worlds emerge? A unique insight into his writing workshop and a search of the places and people who have become part of his stories.
Says the band: "Get your copy and see how one of the most ambitious projects in rock history was made! This spectacular hour and a half long Making of Imaginaerum documentary gives you an inside look to the recordings of the album and the movie. Documentary includes loads of never before seen Nightwish footage! Full documentary is only available on Imaginaerum Tour Edition release!"
A making of documentary for Happy Together. Includes interviews, on-set footage, cut scenes and footage of crew members revisiting the locations where Happy Together was filmed.
Pablo blends documentary and animation elements to tell the saga of "famous unknown" Pablo Ferro, a man with a personal journey that spans from Havana, during the pre-Cuban revolution to his current home, in the garage behind his son's house.
Video and making of Amaranth.
One of the greatest storytellers of our time, and arguably the greatest mythologist, Joseph Campbell spent most of his long, rich career explaining how ancient myths like the Hero’s Journey are relevant to modern life. In understanding the importance of myth as a vital, vibrant source of "mankind’s one great story," Campbell inspired others to embark on a quest for the meaning of myth in their own lives. This biographical portrait, filmed shortly before his death in 1987, follows Campbell’s personal quest—a pathless journey of questioning, discovery, and ultimately of delight and joy in a life to which he said, "Yes."
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MGM's production genius Irving Thalberg, the film boasted names like Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery and John and Lionel Barrymore and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. This short documentary takes a look at the making of the classic film.
In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson turned the camera on themselves and began filming their five-year-old son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they started kindergarten at the prestigious Dalton School just as the private institution was committing to diversify its student body. Their cameras continued to follow both families for another 12 years as the paths of the two boys diverged—one continued private school while the other pursued a very different route through the public education system.
A feature film about Benjamin Britten, released as part of the 100 year celebrations of his birth. Britten is the most performed British composer worldwide. This film premiered at Gresham's School, which he attended, and focuses on how his life-long pacifism influenced his life and music. Written and directed by Tony Britten (In Love With Alama Cogan), narrated by John Hurt and with a superb cast of young people, including many supporting roles taken by students of Gresham's School, the film weaves dramatisation with a documentary narrative.
Director Christina Voros and producer James Franco pull back the curtain on the fetish empire of Kink.com, the Internet's largest producer of BDSM content. In a particularly obscure corner of an industry that operates largely out of public view, Kink.com's directors and models strive for authenticity. In an enterprise often known for exploitative practices, Kink.com upholds an ironclad set of values to foster an environment that is safe, sane, and consensual.
Petra heads to New York in search of her older sister after a long time of being separated. They are both movie actresses and heirs of the wounds of the Brazilian dictatorship. But Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary...
A revealing look at the great Quebecois director who gave us such classic films as Mon Oncle Antoine, A toute prendre and Kamouraska: Power of Passion. Amidst the rise of French-Canadian identity and the political struggles of the '60s, Jutra was at the forefront of a group of artists dedicated to social change and attacking taboo.
Showcases incidents based on the life of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This mostly accurate privately produced biography of FDR is a cinema and political curiosity. Its lavish praise for the new president who had been in office for less than a month indicates how desperate the nation was for hope and change. The projections of FDR's future accomplishments and powerful leadership likewise were based more on hope than prior knowledge. Fortunately many of these projections proved to be accurate. Another oddity is about 1/3 of this biopic is devoted the life of the UK's Labor ex-PM Ramsey MacDonald.