Brigitte Bardot, rebel with a cause

Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský

The personal and professional story, told in first person, of Spanish actress Carmen Maura, director Pedro Almodóvar's first muse and a brilliant artist in her own right.

A documentary on the life and career of the Spanish auteur Carlos Saura.

What we know today about many famous musicians, politicians, and actresses is due to the famous work of photographer Harry Benson. He captured vibrant and intimate photos of the most famous band in history;The Beatles. His extensive portfolio grew to include iconic photos of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, and Dr. Martin Luther King. His wide-ranging work has appeared in publications including Life, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Benson, now 86, is still taking photos and has no intentions of stopping.

Painter, poet and playwright, teacher and freethinker, lover and traveler, Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a rare individual who remained lucid and passionate throughout his long life.

In 1956, actress and Hollywood star Grace Kelly (1929-82), then at the height of her film career, unexpectedly dropped everything to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Jinx, an American journalist and friend of the future princess, accompanied her on her journey to the wedding and covered the sensational event.

When Marvin Hamlisch passed away in August 2012 the worlds of music, theatre and cinema lost a talent the likes of which we may never see again. Seemingly destined for greatness, Hamlisch was accepted into New York’s Juilliard School as a 6-year-old musical prodigy and rapidly developed into a phenomenon. With instantly classic hits ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and scores for Hollywood films such as The Swimmer, The Sting and Sophie’s Choice and the Broadway juggernaut A Chorus Line; Hamlisch became the go-to composer for film and Broadway producers and a prominent presence on the international Concert Hall circuit. His streak was staggering, vast, unprecedented and glorious, by the age of 31 Hamlisch had won 4 Grammys, an Emmy, 3 Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer prize: success that burned so bright, it proved impossible to match.

In this documentary, Stephen Fry tells the story behind his success, after presenting the BAFTAs for more than ten years. With an outstanding career in film and television which began with a chance meeting with comedy partner Hugh Laurie at Cambridge, he went on to create the outrageous Melchett in Blackadder and has become a firm favourite on BBC2 with the quite interesting quiz QI. Featuring a supporting cast of friends, including interviews with Michael Sheen, Hugh Laurie and Alan Davies.

In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.

Sam Elliot stars as Sam Houston, the visionary who nearly single-handedly forged the state of Texas into a powerful entity in its own right. Refusing to forget the Alamo (as if anyone could), Houston led the military in Texas' rebellion against Mexico. G.D. Spradlin co-stars as President Andrew Jackson, with Michael Beck appearing as Jim Bowie, James Stephens as Stephen Austin, and Richard Yniguez as Mexican General Santa Anna. Lensed on location in the Lone Star state, this sweeping made-for-TV film originally occupied three hours' screen time on November 22, 1986. Its title at that time was Houston: The Legend of Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An analysis of the spirit and human qualities of Knud Rasmussen, who made a unique contribution to the exploration of the life and myths of the Polar Inughuit.

The story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the legendary pitcher, from his barnstorming days in the 1920s, hoping to break into organized "negro" baseball, to his emergence at age 43 in the major leagues with the Cleveland Indians the year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.

Luca Parmitano is the first italian astronaut to perform an extravehicular activity, currently part of the crew engaged in the Expedition 61 mission on board the International Space Station (SSI), is ready to tell his latest space adventures.

"The World According to Arild Kristo" - A portrait of the Norwegian photographer, designer, screenwriter and filmmaker Arild Kristo (1939 - 2010). The son of a cabaret singer. Who made his first film only 11 years old. Worked as a piccolo at Hotel Bristol in Oslo . Took to the sea and was involved in the filming of "Windjammer" (1958). Freelance photographer in the US during the 60's. An outsider who lived a very different kind of life. In Paris or Berlin or Oslo.

Marin Karmitz, bande à part

A reckless joyride into the darkest corners of popular music that delves deep into the mind of Mick Rock, the genius photographer who immortalized the seventies and the rise to rock stardom of many legendary musicians.

20 Moves is the story of how the best-selling puzzle toy came to market and the impact it had on the world around it. Tom Kremer stumbled upon an unwanted, unpatented puzzle game at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1979. It had been invented in Hungary in 1974 by Professor Erno Rubik who used it as a pedagogical aid for his architecture students and would go on to be played with by 1/5th of the world's population. We explore the cube's story - from its creation behind the Iron Curtain to the role it played in the fall of communism and the creation of free market trading in the former communist nations. We show how the cube was brought to the west - how it was introduced and marketed and what caused it to be the biggest fad of the 1980's. The cube would go on to symbolize an entire generation like nothing before it. The many faces, layers, and sides of 20 Moves is exactly like the cube. With each act our audience discovers another twist, another turn, another solve in the history of the Cube.

A biography of the renowned escape artist Harry Houdini, examining his fascination with the occult and his promise to his wife on her deathbed that he would speak from the beyond.

A seance in which Antonin Artaud can be seen as a swirling depiction of a theater of freedom in the rubble of the hateful counter between actor and audience. Percival is the author of many books in Swedish and English. He has exhibited his paintings and photographs, composed experimental world music and directed some of his own plays and a play by Beckett.

Emir Kusturica views himself as a rock musician and believes that he became a world-famous filmmaker by pure chance, as he shoots his movies only in between concert tours with the “No Smoking Orchestra” band. At these little pinpoints of time he gets “Palms d’Or” at Cannes, “Golden Lions” in Venice, builds his own villages, a power plant and a piste and regrets not becoming a professional football player. Kusturica’s own living is very much similar to his movies, where shoes are polished with cats, death is treated like a story from tabloid press, and life is a miracle...