The Road to Magnasanti

An experiment and a dialogue about recording, the act of filming and the colors available to whoever points the camera somewhere.

"A l likeness is a gift... it avoids... or confuses time if your prefer." said John Berger. Following this premise, 81.92 is a structuralist inquiry into the notion of presence and absence as it reveals archival radio broadcasts from former Montreal radio host Mike Wolkow. The former (the audible) is left invisible while the later (the visible) seeks to find the missing elements that trace the passage of this vocal presence. Past and present interplay in this piece that shifts between epochs, thus mimicking a radio signal that is being tuned in.

The heavily compressed time and space where all survival images from my memory live in. After journey, what will remain could be something we cannot talk to, but perceive.

Italy, March 1980. César travels to the ruins of Pompeii with the extravagant intention of recording psychophonies, supernatural echoes of the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the city in the 1st century, but he does not succeed. However, on one of the tapes a strange phrase, much more recent, is recorded, words that César has already heard somewhere…

Some want to keep it a secret, others want to deconstruct it, and some New Yorkers simply want to celebrate the city's fabled chopped cheese sandwich.

Backed by a full band and a ready wit, actor Ben Platt opens up a very personal songbook onstage -- numbers from his debut LP, "Sing to Me Instead."

Shot over the course of 18 months in New York City's Lower East Side, METHADONIA sheds light on the inherent flaws of legal methadone treatments for heroin addiction by profiling eight addicts, in various stages of recovery and relapse, who attend the New York Center for Addiction Treatment Services (NYCATS).

"The prevailing stigmatization of the 'villero' universe is fed back by the images. In order to dismantle this stigmatization, other images must be presented or we need to reveal what the existing ones seek to cover up. The slum is usually represented from a limited and deceitful visual panorama. This representation has an intention. Cinema and television are two image-producing devices that strengthen the stereotypes that we have about the people who inhabit these spaces. And what happens in the field of painting? Do clichés reign there too? This visual essay seeks to confront various works by national painters and sculptors, belonging to the Palais collection, with the kinetic images of current cinema and television, to reflect on both the differences and the similarities in the meanings and discourses that both regimes of images can produce." César González

Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

"In ancient China the tiger skin represented 'continuous change'. In the Maya’s world, Bolom Chon’s (jaguar) hide, allowed the constellations to be read: the cosmos’ dance." Ж In 7FF on¢idia Rio de Janeiro FIFA World Cup mascot Fuleco becomes a cipher for the mutation of indigenous people's symbols through public art and commerce, becoming viral. Other fluxes alluded to are the surplus value of code through a world of commodities, bit coins and mountains of data. 7FF on¢idia ushers us into encounters which are fleeting and leave questions unanswered—all the more reason to watch again.

Lou Reed was wise to chronicle a concert by his early-'80s band, featuring lead guitarist Robert Quine and bassist Fernando Saunders. Reed had used them on his trilogy of strong albums -- The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts, and New Sensations -- released between 1982 and 1984. This 52-minute video, shot at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ, in 1984, is a straightforward, no-frills live show. Reed, in black T-shirt and black leather pants, stands on-stage before a cityscape background and makes his way through a set that features both a selection of Velvet Underground songs, and his sole hit single, "Walk on the Wild Side," plus highlights from his three recent albums, notably such songs as "I Love You Suzanne." As such, the video makes a good Lou Reed career sampler.

A Dog's Life: A Dogamentary, a wacky and poignant documentary about the positive effects of the bond between dogs and humans, told through the story of Gayle Kirschenbaum and her dog Chelsea. Chelsea rigged with a "doggie cam", this couple hit the streets of NY looking for love. 9/11 happens. Chelsea emerges as a healing force as a therapy dog.

The New Breed Documentary chronicles a cassette compilation put out by Freddy Alva & Chaka Malik in 1989. New York Hardcore was undergoing a transition at the end of the 80's & this generational shift was exemplified by the bands that were featured on the compilation.The story of the tape is at heart the story of NYC & kids that grew up in it's five boroughs as well as related outposts in Long Island/Yonkers. A unique set of social/economic circumstances during the 70's & 80's forged the individuals that went on to make up the New York Hardcore scene. This full length documentary profiles band members/fanzine editors/record label heads & fans that made up this vibrant scene with narration by NYHC book author Tony Rettman. It's unheard of for a feature film to focus on an outdated analog format like a cassette compilation but it is through the eyes of these individuals that a spotlight is shined onto those tumultuous times & what is ultimately a tribute to a bygone era.

This documentary captures the overflowing energy and activity of one today's greatest composers, Philip Glass, and allows us to follow him from New York to London and from Paris to Boston. He speaks about his beginnings, his moving to Paris for two years of intensive study with Nadia Boulanger, his meeting with Indian musician Ravi Shankar and director Robert Wilson, who had a deep influence on his career. The film also shows him at work on the last details of his opera The Sound of a Voice, directed by Robert Woodruff and conducted by Alan Johnson. Éric Darmon's camera, with its poetic shots and original framings, takes us for a musical journey into seven months of the life of the composer who, rising from the underground scene of the seventies, brought on a revolution in modern theater.

We get up, go to work, eat and go to bed. Is our life about daily rituals or is there a deeper, more inscrutable meaning of life? Kjeld lives surrounded by nature in his small house and soon becomes a father. He seeks satisfaction in the simplicity of life in nature. Anna is a young artist looking for answers in her poetry and music. A philosophical documentary essay in which the search for the core of life is central. How should we live if there are no answers anywhere?

A fragmented collection of independent closed cinemas, in London during lockdown, captured on Super 8mm film.

Seeing is to painting what listening is to politics. Survival as an artist demands both. Paint Until Dawn is a documentary on art in the life of James Gahagan (1927-1999), who painted all night to push the limits of vision. His life and thought reveal a correlation between art and activism through an interesting angle: the creative process itself.

An experimental short film, shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, made by one person. Using recorded scenes and archival footage, the short presents an unorthodox narrative to explore the themes of self-identification, identity, gender expression and androgyny.

'Still Lives' comprises a trilogy of films by Patrick Sheard; Lamenta, Libertas and Exitus, anthologized here in their entirety.