For five years, Stephen McCoy documented street life in Boston. This is what he captured.
Following fateful scientific reports, protestors pose the argument for a better future against the vested interest of industry. Small to large, individual to collective, where do I fit into this?
The city of Mahagonny, founded by three criminals, becomes a place for people looking for their luck or money. One among them is the lumberjack Jim Mahoney. However, he is disappointed by what the city is.
Harry Smith’s final film; an epic four-screen projection. Smith worked on this cinematic transformation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929) for over ten years and considered it his magnum opus. The film was shot from 1970 to 1972 and edited for the next eight years. The “program” of the film is meticulous, with a complex structure and order. The Weill opera is transformed into a numerological and symbolic system. Images in the film are divided into categories— portraits, animation, symbols and nature— to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. The film contains invaluable cameos of important avant-garde figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Jonas Mekas, intercut with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith’s visionary animation.
The series’ latest Harald Vogl feature (from 1984) completes the filmmaker’s gradual movement away from narrative toward a vérité-style essay film. Gone are the post-punk streets of the East Village, replaced with on-the-ground footage of antiwar protests and visitors to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, and observational scenes of union parades, marching bands, street dancers, and Chinatown residents back in Manhattan.
Inspired by the work of Bertolt Brecht and filmed in Porto's former industrial slaughterhouse, A Santa Joana dos Matadouros is a meta-cinematic essay about the labor market in times of economic crisis in Europe. The film explores the possibilities of cinema in its relationship with theater and brings together a cast of professional actors, amateurs, renowned artists from various disciplines, and a group of unemployed residents of Vale de Campanhã.
Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 and his rule in the years that followed are transferred to the North American criminal world of the 1930s in a parable. Gangster boss Ui needs the protection of the ruling class to achieve his goals and offers his help to their representatives. They initially hesitate, but join forces after Ui violently gains their respect. His victory is perfect and the people fall silent before the revolvers of their "protectors". Ui takes the raised hands as a sign of approval... Bertolt Brecht wrote the play in 1941 in a Finnish asylum - the premiere only took place in Stuttgart after his death in November 1958. It has been staged at the Berliner Ensemble since 1959 - Ekkehard Schall has played Ui over 500 times since then. On January 13, 1974, the play was shown for the last time, recorded in color by GDR television.
During the reconstruction of the Valmiera Theatre building (2021-2024), artistic activities were never interrupted - the preparation of new productions and performances in the Round Hall continued. The promised one winter of patience turned into three. Rehearsals and performances took place in various locations in Valmiera, but the theatre building, despite the lack of water and heat, was never abandoned - with construction crews, through the dust and cold, actors and other theatre staff went to the rehearsal hall, the Round Hall, the carpentry workshop, and the administration to work as if nothing were unusual or difficult.
Follows Captain Irving Johnson and the crew of the Yankee on an 18-month journey around the world. Shows the people and places that they visited and some of the difficult sailing conditions that they encountered.
A stop motion/collaged based independent short film plays with the recontextualisation of memories and how time distorts them.
This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.
Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.
The story follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a diminutive creative who resides in a place called Middle-Earth before he is compelled to go on a quest to find a treasure buried deep in the heart of the Lonely Mountain.
Artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss create the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine. The pair used found objects to construct a complex, interdependent contraption in an empty warehouse. When set in motion, a domino-like chain reaction ripples through the complex of imaginative devices. Fire, water, the laws of gravity, and chemistry determine the life-cycle of the objects. The process reveals a story concerning cause and effect, mechanism and art, and improbability and precision, in an extended science project that will mesmerize the mind.
Two bodies and one mind, this is the extraordinary story of one pair of conjoined twins in today's world.
A Spanish documentary from Jean-Paul Le Chanois & Luis Buñuel made during the Spanish Civil War.
Documentary looking at the production of the James Bond movie 'Moonraker'. Narated by Patrick Macnee.
Documentary looking at the special effects from the bond movies and the men who created them. Narrated by Marie Clairu.
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.
Adaptation of Pushkin's fairy tales. The tale is about a fisherman who manages to catch a Golden Fish which promises to fulfill any wish of his in exchange for its freedom. The storyline is similar to the Russian fairy tale "The Greedy Old Wife" and the Brothers Grimm's tale "The Fisherman and His Wife".