Big Big Big

A deep investigation, in the way of a poetic essay, on one of the main Latin American movements in cinema, analyzed via the thoughts of its main authors, who invented, in the early 1960s, a new way of making movies in Brazil, with a political attitude, always near to people's problems, that combined art and revolution.

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows his friend, film director Martin Scorsese, and his cast and crew, through various locations during the shooting of his film The Departed, released in 2006.

In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, a powerful and timelessness novel which eternal theme is nothing other than man's quest for the secret of life. Since then, the Creature became a pop culture icon, overshadowing the novel and Doctor Frankenstein himself.

Deep Throat, a pornographic film directed by Gerard Damiano, a film-loving hairdresser, and starring Linda Lovelace, a shy girl manipulated by a controlling husband, was released in 1972 and divided audiences, who began to talk openly about sex, desire and female pleasure; but also about violence and abuse; and about pornography, until then an almost clandestine industry, as a revolutionary cultural phenomenon.

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker and film critic Fernando Méndez-Leite, as he writes his memoirs and a novel with autobiographical resonances.

In the sixties, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) built a house on the remote island of Fårö, located in the Baltic Sea, left Stockholm and went to live there. When he died, the house was preserved. A group of very special cinephiles, came from all over the world, travel to Fårö in search of the genius and his legacy. (An abridged version of Bergmans video, 2012.)

Legendary Spanish actor and director Jacinto Molina, also known as Paul Naschy, tells the mythical story of Waldemar Daninsky, the cursed werewolf, his most iconic character; a relationship that began in 1968.

Spain, 1960. French student Monique Roumette lives in Madrid on a scholarship. Thanks to a friend who works in the production company Uninci, she has the privilege of attending the shooting of Viridiana, a film directed by Luis Buñuel.

Probably filmed in 1895, a group of people stand along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. The train pulls up and attendants help passengers off and on. This was not in the Lumière's official catalog, and was likely screened in early 1896. This film is often misidentified on Youtube as "L'Arrivée d’un train à La Ciotat", which is the title of the 1897 remake.

A journey of years through many countries and film festivals; a nostalgic, adrenaline-fueled and rock-spirited immersion into the universe of cinephilia, in search of genre specialists, fans and filmmakers who speak of their shared passion for fantastic cinema; a whole international spiritual community united under the cathartic shadow of horror.

Likely in June 1897, a group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

The story of French filmmaker Jean Rollin (1938-2010), one of the most singular voices of European cult cinema, deeply misunderstood and widely misrepresented.

What was the role of women in Spanish cinema from the 1930s to the present explained through fragments of different films, both fiction and non-fiction. (Followed by “Manda huevos,” 2016.)

An inquiry into film criticism in Argentina framed inside the historical debate about film ontology

Da Ponte Pra Cá

A new look at the public and private life of one of the most important statesmen in the history of Europe: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), soldier, politician, writer, painter, leader of his country in the darkest hours, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a myth, a giant of the 20th century.

The exciting story of the making of William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971), hosted by former NYPD detective Sony Grosso, who inspired the character of Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo, played in the film by actor Roy Scheider.

A young woman, who has inherited her grandparents' huge house, a fascinating place full of amazing objects, feels overwhelmed by the weight of memories and her new responsibilities. Fortunately, the former inhabitants of the house soon come to her aid. (An account of the life and work of Fernando Fernán Gómez [1921-2007] and his wife Emma Cohen [1946-2016], two singular artists and fundamental figures of contemporary Spanish culture.)

In 1985, Chris Marker traveled to Japan to attend the filming of Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Marker analyzes the progress of filming; the infinite patience of a team under the orders of a meticulous director down to the smallest detail; the antithetical mixture of the modern with the traditional; of the real with the fictitious; of life with cinema… and literature.

Omnibus: François Truffaut