Sex, Sensations & Superstars: The History of Danish Silent Cinema

The story of how Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94), a survivor of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire (1915-17), became a Hollywood silent film star.

A portrait of French filmmaker Michel Gondry, creator, for three decades, of an imperfect, astonishing, fascinating, damaged and poetic work.

This travelogue begins with the vast agricultural wealth of the country, whose farmers can produce four times the amount required to feed the country's population. As such, the export of these agricultural products is a vital part of the country's economy. This agricultural tradition extends to its food consumption, as Denmark's vast array of open faced sandwiches is world renowned. It also extends to flower production and the Dane's love of flowers, which are sold in public markets. Denmark has a strong social support system, as witnessed by the free and mandatory public schooling, free medical services for expectant mothers and children, the provision of cooperative housing and housing for seniors, and the provision of old age pensions without premiums.

A cinephile collage, both historical and philosophical, of films on artificial intelligence, cyberspace and virtual reality, from 1981 to 2001: cinema as a way and an instrument to cope with humanity's euphoria, anxiety, fear and obsession with technology.

An intimate portrait of the superb actress Gena Rowlands, icon of independent cinema. Together with her husband, legendary director John Cassavetes (1929-89), she lived an unusual life beyond the dream factory, a life in which reality and fiction were so perfectly intertwined that it made possible films that still today seem incredibly real.

A behind-the-scenes show on the filming of Swiss Family Robinson on the West Indian island of Tobago. Then the True Life Adventure Water Birds.

Japan, 1954. A legend emerges from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, devastated by atomic bombs in 1945. The creature's name is Godzilla. The film that tells its story is the first of kaiju eiga, the giant monster movies.

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

La petite maison toujours dans la prairie

Skip Liberty enlisted in the Army in 1968. During his tour in Vietnam he shot 3,100 feet of Super 8 film, over 3 hours worth. Upon returning to the states the film was placed in storage, Skip had never seen the footage he shot. Until now.

In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II. Millions of viewers worldwide make Das Boot the most internationally successful German film of all time. But due to disputes over the script, accidents on the set, and voices accusing the makers of glorifying the war, the project was many times on the verge of being cancelled.

Finland has long been the promised land for long hair and heavy rock music, however jazz has it’s own place here too! Then again maybe jazz is just the general name we give to music we can’t quite classify. And the original soundscapes brought forth by guitarist Heikki Ruokangas are just that; hard to classify. In Ruokangas’ creations, elements of jazz meld together with the strums and tweaks of modern classic guitars to create an aggressive medley of sound. The end result is a skillful and intense break from traditional guitar song.

Besieged by cancer and nearing the end, the genius Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco (1946-2016) asks Bárbara Paz, his wife, for one last wish: to be the protagonist of his own death.

An account of the life and work of Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky (1932-86) in his own words: his memories, his vision of art and his reflections on the fate of the artist and the meaning of human existence; through extremely rare audio recordings that allow a complete understanding of his inner life and the mysterious world existing behind his complex cinematic imagery.

This film provides contrasts and similarities among the three countries. In Norway, Deneen visits with a fishing family from the small city of Alesund, in Denmark, with a farm family, and in Sweden, with the family of a glassworker. The countries are contrasted in terms of natural resources and reliance on trade.

The personal and professional story of Ilona Staller, known as Cicciolina, is probably unique: she left communist Hungary and moved to Italy, where she found a fertile environment for a life dedicated to scandal.

The incredible story of Bruno Lüdke (1908-44), the alleged worst mass murderer in German criminal history; or actually, a story of forged files and fake news that takes place during the darkest years of the Third Reich, when the principles of criminal justice, subjected to the yoke of a totalitarian system that is beginning to collapse, mean absolutely nothing.

More than anyone in the cynical film industry, legendary artist Robert Redford embodies the United States' brightest side: perseverance, independence, idealism, and integrity. A champion of active environmentalism and the right to openly criticize any institutional abuse, he has put his artistic work at the service of his political commitments, whether as an actor, director, producer, or founder of the Sundance Festival, a formidable forum for his struggles since 1985.

Japanese Masao Maruyama, co-founder of the Madhouse studio and producer of the cult films Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers talks about the fantastic universe of mangaka and filmmaker Satoshi Kon (1963-2010), one of the most brilliant and fascinating authors of world animation, ten years after his death.

A childhood in boarding school, volunteered at 17 for the war and dismissed for indiscipline, thug in Marseille turned gigolo in Paris, he became actor thanks to some inspired women. Then flying high, fast and far, thanks to his director masters René Clément, Luchino Visconti & Jean-Pierre Melville.