Studio Ghibli is Japan's most successful animation studio, with helmers Hayao Miyazaki ("Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro") and Isao Takahata ("Grave of The Fireflies," "The Tale of Princess Kaguya") creating a bonanza for producer/prexy Toshio Suzuki. Generously adorned with clips from their films and their influences, the docu follows Ghibli's arc from a mid-'60s rebellion against working conditions at Toei Co. to its present powerhouse position, complete with public fun park. All interviews are illuminating, but Miyazaki is teasingly confined to pic's tete-a-tete finale with esteemed French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud. Meeting of the wizened European, whose imprint is on films from "Blade Runner" to "The Fifth Element," and the apparently relaxed Nipponese helmer makes an interesting contrast, and will be of special interest to Francophiles. All credits are impeccable
A documentary about the Ghibli Museum. It features Goro Miyazaki speaking with Isao Takahata about the "charm" of the museum and its various influences. Goro tours the viewer around the museum, explaining the intricate details that his father, Hayao Miyazaki made during its construction. The documentary highlights the strong European influences in the museum's architecture, featuring footage of the medieval mountainous city of Calcata in Italy and the historic port city of Genoa, which Miyazaki had visited in the past. These trips would go on to influencing the imagery seen in Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Spirited Away.
Stepping closer and closer to his retirement, Hayao Miyazaki has no other means, but to choose up a new director. Ghibli's given some creative freedoms in the past, but they hardly lasted. Maro, an animator of 37 years. has done a good deed of works in his prior days. Thus, Miyazaki-san decides to appoint him as a new director for the upcoming feature of 'Arrietty the Borrower'.
Follows the behind-the-scenes work of Studio Ghibli, focusing on the notable figures Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki.
In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former World War I flying ace who was somehow turned into a pig during the war. As he prepares to battle the pirate crew's American ace, Porco Rosso enlists the help of spunky girl mechanic Fio Piccolo and his longtime friend Madame Gina.
The Yamadas are a typical middle class Japanese family in urban Tokyo and this film shows us a variety of episodes of their lives. With tales that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking, we see this family cope with life's little conflicts, problems, and joys in their own way.
The Raccoons of the Tama Hills are being forced from their homes by the rapid development of houses and shopping malls. As it becomes harder to find food and shelter, they decide to band together and fight back. The Raccoons practice and perfect the ancient art of transformation until they are even able to appear as humans in hilarious circumstances.
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...
Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating. People are beginning to act strange... What's even more strange is that people are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating the cause. During his journey, he meets Prince Arren, a young distraught teenage boy. While Arren may look like a shy young teen, he has a severe dark side, which grants him strength, hatred, ruthlessness and has no mercy, especially when it comes to protecting Teru. For the witch Kumo this is a perfect opportunity. She can use the boy's "fears" against the very one who would help him, Ged.
The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.
In keeping with the intergenerational magic of 'Household Saints', filmmaker Martina Savoca-Guay has crafted a compelling new documentary, 'The Many Miracles of Household Saints', revealing the improbable story behind the making of the film.
Join Hot Rod Builder and Award Winning Filmmaker Brian Darwas, as he sits down and talks the world's top engine builders and fabricators about the engine that pioneered a movement, The Ford Flathead. Learn speed secrets from Vern Tardel. Get an in depth look at the build of of two high powered Flathead motors by Mike Herman (H&H) and Ronnie SanGiovani. Hear the stories that inspired Ryan Cochran to begin one of the most popular Hot Rodding networks in the world today, and ride along with Vern Hammond and Jack Carroll of The Burbank Choppers in their Flathead powered, traditional Hot Rods!
Adolfo Kaminsky started saving lives when chance and necessity made him a master forger. As a teenager, he became a member of the French Resistance and used his talent to save the lives of thousands of Jews. The Forger is a well-crafted origin story of a real-life superhero.
A film exploring the life of “Weird Paul.” After 30 years, 2000 videos, 800 songs, & 42 albums, he’s still not giving up on his dream.
Documentary about moms using drugs while pregnant.
On the tiny island of Martha's Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the islands unique character. Twelve years in the making, One Big Home follows one carpenters journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, he takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera.
The death of punk icon and X-Ray Spex front-woman Poly Styrene sends her daughter on a journey through her mother's archives in this intimate documentary.
The Cinema Mexico is one of the last single-screen cinemas left in Milan. Its story is inextricably tied to the figure of Antonio Sancassani who ran it independently for the past thirty years taking care of every single aspect. At the cinema Mexico he presents independent films, debuts, films in original version, documentaries, forgotten films or films that have been "burned" by large-scale distribution offering them a second chance. The thirty-six years of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and two extraordinary years of The Wind Blows Round are only some of the successes that have made of the cinema a reference point for insiders from all over Italy. A passionate portrait that reflects on the fate of small cinemas and on the difficulties for independent cinema that is suffocated by the laws of the market, by online streaming and by the television.
After a plane crash, four indigenous children fight to survive in the Colombian Amazon using ancestral wisdom as an unprecedented rescue mission unfolds.
A documentary on the filming of the controversial film Baby Doll (1956).