This Changes Everything

Documentary about the legendary American film director from his introduction to the film industry in its early years to his death in 1959.

The first feature-length documentary that fully explores how the toxic social and political Canadian context after 1968 created some of the most nihilistic and imaginative Canadian cult films of the 1970s and 80s and beyond.

An unconventional portrait of painter Frida Kahlo and photographer Tina Modotti. Simple in style but complex in its analysis, it explores the divergent themes and styles of two contemporary and radical women artists working in the upheaval of the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.

Não Tenho Escolhas

The history of the peplum genre, known as sword-and-sandal cinema, set in Antiquity, from the silent film era to the present day.

An intimate study of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century tracking feminist icon Susan Sontag’s seminal, life-changing moments through archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her own words, as read by Patricia Clarkson.

Examines the life, work, and cultural significance of Gloria Anzaldúa, poet and visual artist, and those she inspired in women's Chicano art. The work highlights the struggle for women's and gay rights.

An American low-budget action film celebrated an unexpected worldwide success in 1988: "Bloodsport". With its, the world of film fans and martial arts cinema discovered a new idol: Jean-Claude Van Damme. In the 1970s there was Bruce Lee, but at the end of the 1980s a Belgian won the day. Van Damme was a karate master and had unparalleled strength and flexibility. For ten years he was one of Hollywood's hottest action stars. But excessive overconfidence and drugs bring him down again. At home in Europe he becomes a laughing stock on talk shows. Only with "JCVD" does he manage to get back on his feet, playing his character with perspective and self-irony, but without ever giving up the reputation that his action films brought him and which has been a cult for several generations. The highs and lows of his eventful life are told through archive footage and contributions from people close to the popular Belgian actor.

Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.

François Truffaut (1932-1984), once the most influential critic of the French New Wave, became a brilliant, prolific, and uncompromising director, creating 25 films in 25 years. Internationally honored and beloved for his poignant, often irresistibly wry view of the human condition, Truffaut embodied the auteur's intimate grasp of the film medium. This documentary package -- a special supplement to Truffaut's films in The Criterion Collection -- is a multi-feature tribute that includes Truffaut's rare 1957 film, Les Mistons -- which foreshadowed The 400 Blows.

"Granddaughters of Witches"? A discussion about the reality of the modern woman. Featuring anthropologist Carla Cristina Garcia and artist MC Tha.

This film discusses the effect on how major American films in Hollywood were influenced by the Eastern European Jewish culture that most of the major movie moguls who controlled the studios shared. Through clips of various films, the filmmakers illustrate the dominant themes like that of the outsider, the outspoken American patriotism, and rooting for the underdog in society.

Skutečnost Noci svatojánské

A coming-of-age documentary that follows a group of young filmmakers as they make their first feature film, Scuba.

In the 70s, actress Delphine Seyrig and director Carole Roussopoulos, both militant feminists, were the pioneers of video activism in France. They documented the demonstrations of French feminists and used the new technologies to counter the poor representation of women in the public media.

Against the stereotypes of the “ideal” woman and the symbols of Pornography, the women in the works of Greek comic artist Stavros Kioutsioukis preserve their personality: they are the girls next door who try and get their rights in Happiness and Love.

Shut Up and Sing is a documentary about the country band from Texas called the Dixie Chicks and how one tiny comment against President Bush dropped their number one hit off the charts and caused fans to hate them, destroy their CD’s, and protest at their concerts. A film about freedom of speech gone out of control and the three girls lives that were forever changed by a small anti-Bush comment

Is there an audience for Latin American movies? These are some of the questions posed by an Ecuadorian filmmaker whose latest movie was a commercial flop. He embarks on a query to find answers to his questions and relief for his despair. His research leads him to a giant contraband market in the port city of Guayaquil, where pirated movies from all over the world are sold for one dollar each. Here, he discovers a number of Ecuadorian low budget movies produced by amateurs, with titles he had never heard of before: from action packed productions to evangelical melodramas.

The hairdressing salon “Saïda” is a space where people speak openly, laugh and argue. The subject rarely is hair. In the run-up to the presidential elections in Tunisia the shop turns into a political arena where the women – young or old, conservative or with a modern outlook – indulge in discussions about the pros and cons of the candidates. Their clever and witty statements reflect a young democracy with all its rifts and fault lines.

Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin's expose on the pornography industry.