Secret Matters

In this artistic exploration of the life and work of writer Henry Miller, filmmaker Joe Kishton skillfully weaves clips of films and interviews of Miller with the music of Laurie Anderson. From Miller himself we hear of his difficult relationship with his parents, and of his need to create, even (or especially) when his message abrades social mores.

Elmore Leonard, author of more than 40 novels, is renowned in the literary community. From his westerns and early novels of crime based in Detroit and South Florida, right through his complex and virtually plotless later work, Elmore Leonard dissected an America whose founding sins have continued to haunt it all the days. Leonard’s depiction of America is as real as Twain’s Hannibal, Faulkner’s Mississippi and Steinbeck’s Monterey. The new documentary ELMORE LEONARD: “But don’t try to write” explores the prolific author’s legacy and his influence on generations of writers. The documentary features exclusive images and previously unseen home movie footage, family photographs, and in-depth interviews with both literary experts and those who knew him well, including colleagues, family, and childhood friends.

A portrait of the brilliant American writer Truman Capote (1924-84) and the New York high society of his time.

In his lifetime, Thomas Merton was hailed as a prophet and censured for his outspoken social criticism. For nearly 27 years he was a monk of the austere Trappist order, where he became an eloquent spiritual writer and mystic as well as an anti-war advocate and witness to peace. Merton: A Film Biography provides the first comprehensive look at this remarkable 20th century religious philosopher who wrote, in addition to his immensely popular autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, over 60 books on some of the most pressing social issues of our time, some of which are excerpted here. Merton offers an engaging profile of a man whose presence in the world touched millions of people and whose words and thoughts continue to have a profound impact and relevance today.

Drama documentary from 1978 exploring the private feelings of novelist Thomas Hardy through the poems of love and remorse that he wrote after the death of his first wife, Emma.

A portrait about the Dutch writer Herman Koch. Koch started his career with the popular TV-show 'Jiskefet' and went on to become the best selling and most translated writer from the Netherlands

Bosnian Croat writer Miljenko Jergović and Serbian writer Marko Vidojković replace one another by the steering wheel of Yugo, a symbol of their common past while driving on the Brotherhood and Unity Highway that stretched across five of six republics of Yugoslavia.

A group of writers from Hidalgo get together to generate their works and create a community around literature.

This film is not a classic portrait but a documentary using fiction to bring Martin Suter’s novels to life while introducing us to the author behind the stories on a whole new level. ‘Fantasy is usually more true than reality itself’ says Suter.

This documentary focuses on the journey of Merton, a bohemian who went from communism to Catholicism before finding his calling as a monk cloistered in eastern Kentucky for 27 years. It also covers his writing career which examined spirituality, the Cold War, the civil rights movement and being an individual in a post-modern world

Chanda Chevannes follows scientist Dr. Sandra Steingraber as she makes speeches against fracking and gets arrested protesting “the industrialization of the Finger Lakes.”

After portraying the German writer in "W. G. Sebald. Der Ausgewanderte", Thomas Honickel decides to show places that played a role in Sebald's life, visiting around 50 places described by the writer and accompanied them with quotes from or reflections on his work.

This film is an attempt to disclose if Raul Brandão has left any trace, in Nespereira, Gumarães.

Documentary about the life and work of Jorge Luis Borges, from his own memories and reflections.

It's a sensitive, moving doc chronicling the life of Tétrault's brother Philip , a Montreal poet, musician and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. A promising athlete as a child, Philip began experiencing mood swings in his early 20s. His extended family, including his daughter, share their conflicted feelings love, guilt, shame, anger with the camera. They want to make sure he's safe, but how much can they take?

Travel back to Victorian Britain and wander the cobbled streets of Haworth to the sites that inspired the great Brontë sisters’ classic novels.

A popular actress, Anny Duperey lived a precarious life for many years until she found a place to settle down in Creuse. It is there that she keeps her photos, writes, and recharges her batteries. In this portrait, she breaks with convention by playing with her image and openly questioning the desires of an actress as her career is revisited.

Now 93, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and speechwriter reflects on the personal cost and surprising truths of making history, offering an intimate insider’s view of the Civil Rights Movement.

An analysis of the sources of inspiration that fed the imagination of the British writer, poet and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), great master of epic fantasy.

The documentary story of Harlan Ellison