For over 100 years, Hollywood cinema has crafted the ultimate "villain"- the Indian, as they were labeled in early Westerns. Confined almost exclusively to this genre, the Western became a vehicle for American racism, obscuring the genocide upon which the United States was built. In this documentary, only Native Americans are given a voice to share their story, one that has been overshadowed by Hollywood's portrayal. Their narrative, part of the larger American story, highlights how cinema has long been used as a powerful propaganda tool, distorting history and perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
A look at the confluence of the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. It begins in Harlem, measures the impact of Paul Robeson and the campaign to bring him down, looks at the role of HUAC, J. Edgar Hoover and of journalists such as Ed Sullivan, and ends with a tribute to Canada Lee. Throughout are interviews with men and women who were there, including Dick Campbell of the Rose McLendon Players and Fredrick O'Neal of the American Negro Theatre. In the 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communism was one more tool to maintain Jim Crow and to keep down African-Americans.
In his Lost Coast home, Alexander Cockburn recounts a personal history of Beat the Devil, the John Huston movie. When Lennard first read Beat the Devil – the book – she was amazed to discover James Helvick was the pseudonym for journalist Claud Cockburn, father of her friend Alexander. 2014, Elizabeth Lennard and CounterPunch.
Alan do Rap was one of the precursors of Hip Hop in Salvador, who to promote his songs would invade the stage of famous hip hop acts and take the mic. Alan's journey shows the difficulties and injustices faced by young blacks from the periphery who try their hand at art and end up clashing with a racist, oppressive, and violent system.
The 30-year legacy of the murder of black teenager Yusuf Hawkins by a group of young white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as his family and friends reflect on the tragedy and the subsequent fight for justice that inspired and divided New York City.
Abroad at the time of her death, a grandson returns to revisit the house of his late grandmother, now occupied by another family. A reflection on the love for a home where one grew up and yet made by a grandmother missing another life, in another house, in another country.
A surprisingly intimate portrait of how the dream of running one’s own business can take on monstrous contours. Managed by the father of one of the singers, over the course of five years the girl band 5Angels had reached the gates of pop fame. But it is a path paved not only with the songs of Michal David, but also with the dogged determination of a man who loses any notion of where his role as manager ends and his role as parent begins. An emotionally moved Karel Gott, five angelic girls, and one overly involved father, thanks to whom the behind-the-scenes pre-Christmas atmosphere melts away just as rapidly as the fat should disappear from the belly. “A singer can’t be a lard bucket!”
Documentary about the life and career of Italian film director Vittorio De Sica.
Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form.
El culo del mundo' is a documentary directed by and starring comedian Andreu Buenafuente, the idea for which came about three months after the cancellation of one of his last television programmes, when he received an email from a viewer. This email makes him ask himself why he dedicates himself to comedy and why he has never thought of leaving the profession after three decades. All this will be the starting point of a journey that will take this comedian and presenter deep into the heart of comedy.
Caracas has been changing since the nineteenth century this is a story that tries to explain why the Venezuelan capital is complex, chaotic and fertile. In light of these new evidences, community experiments, social awareness and organization of people, seem to be the necessary ingredients to rescue a metropolis that is not yet completely lost.
A documentary about the lives of six transgender women in post-Franco Spain.
Short, well-made documentary showing how the NY Yankees vs. AZ Diamondbacks world series games, just a month after 9-11, provided welcome relief from the uncertainty New Yorkers, and the nation, felt about how to proceed with their lives. The Yankees, during the series, came to symbolize and re-strengthen everything that was, and is, New York... and America.
Lemonade and Ducktape Stuffs is a film about quitting. Giving up on the everyday routine and having fun. It was time to say farewell to appeasing the masses and check out. It's not easy. Actually it's really hard. Thats what makes it right. This how we want to be remembered.
A poetic drama, spoken in the Breton language and set in a Breton fishing community, telling of the impossible love between a waifish fisherman and a highborn lady-of-the-manor.
It all began on a couch. He watched her undress and they made love for the first time.
Roger Boussinot directed this episode of the French television show Italiques, which features an overview of the art and career of Fantastic Planet illustrator Roland Topor. It aired on August 8, 1974.
A 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of film director Max Ophuls’s collaborators
Works with sound recordings of Dion McGregor, who became famous for talking in his sleep.
Russian Lessons sees its two filmmaker-protagonists, Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov, report from different posts on the frontline of the 2008 Russian-Georgian war.