A look at the unusual process used in the making of the film Shortbus (2006) featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the feature film. Director John Cameron Mitchell starts with the concept of using real sex in a film with a positive message. The cast of unknowns is selected from homemade audition tapes and then a callback audition workshop. More acting workshops are used to develop the characters and script. The project overcomes a number of obstacles and the rest of the film's development is followed up until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
This Ukrainian-Jewish teenager immigrated to San Francisco as a young child. Now on the brink of adulthood, she interviews her grandparents about their new lives yearning to see her American world through their eyes. Yelena understands that life in the US has changed her profoundly.
Low-level narcotics offenders too often cycle in and out of jail, re-offending soon after they hit the streets. District Attorney Kamala D. Harris has convened City leaders to answer this problem and, along with key partners, has launched Back On Track, an innovative education and employment reentry initiative focusing on young adult drug offenders. Designed to increase community safety by reducing recidivism, Back On Track couples strict accountability and close supervision with education, employment support and health care. The purpose of Back On Track is to prevent young people from committing crimes by leading them to make life changing choices.
A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
Every year at Christmas, the women of the Slavonian Ladies' Auxiliary celebrate their culinary heritage by getting together to make pusharatas (a type of Croatian doughnut) for the people of Biloxi, Mississippi.
In interviews, various actors and directors discuss their careers and their involvement in the making of what has come to be known as "cult" films. Included are such well-known genre figures as Russ Meyer, Curtis Harrington, Cameron Mitchell and James Karen.
A group of filmmakers shadow some glamour photographers in order to discover the skill involved in getting 'magic' to appear on the photos.
What is it like to be HIV-positive in Russia? The authors of the film spent several days with the HIV-infected characters Alexandra and Olesem and made a film about how they live. This is a kind of chronicle - the characters in the frame live their lives. Moments of sadness, moments of joy. They live as they know how and as they really live.
In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.
Stanley Kubrick’s first color film, commissioned by the Seafarers International Union to promote the benefits of union membership. Shot inside the union’s Atlantic and Gulf Coast District facilities, it features scenes of ships, machinery, cafeteria life, and meetings, highlighting the daily routines and camaraderie of seafarers. Thought lost for decades, the film was rediscovered in 1973 and preserved by the Library of Congress.
Three people reckon with the legacy and impact of a tragic historical site with roots in their city. Meanwhile, a medium from out of town visits the site to see what she can learn from the energy of the land.
This documentary follows two long-lost Ukrainian friends, Arsalan and Nastya, as they reconnect in Germany after russia's full-scale invasion against Ukraine. Arsalan, an actor now in Frankfurt after time in a refugee camp, and Nastya, journalist and producer who stayed in Kyiv, reflect on the divergent paths their lives have taken due to the war. Through their conversations and therapy sessions, the film explores themes of displacement, identity, and the emotional impact of war on youth.
A lyrical and nostalgic analysis of how Casablanca, the mythical film directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942, has influenced both film history and pop culture.
Hitch a ride with a glamorous blonde in a convertible sports car, and take a spin around the seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare and its surroundings.
In this heartfelt short film by Jesse Collier Sutterley, Roosevelt Farrow, born in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression, shares his lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. Marine, despite the racial barriers of his time. Raised by his grandmother in humble conditions, he was inspired by the sight of Marines visiting his community. Farrow’s determination led him to join the Marine Corps, where he faced the challenges of Montford Point boot camp, eventually becoming an expert marksman and retiring as a Gunnery Sergeant. Although he never saw combat, a fact he attributed to his wife’s prayers, he realized the significance of his journey when he witnessed black officers rising in the ranks. Farrow's story is a testament to perseverance and the pursuit of one's dreams, encouraging others not to give up on their aspirations despite austere beginnings and social injustice.
In the following conversation, recorded remotely in 2020, filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster discuss the mission, evolution, and ongoing work of The Film Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving motion-picture history that Scorsese established in 1990.
A look at the Lake District and its famous poet.
George Albert Smith and Charles Urban snaffled the plum job of travelling to Italy to take a series of views of Italy for the Warwick Trading Company, including this one. The long panning shots of Pompeii linger respectfully, as a tourist would, before the camera finally raises its eye to the mighty volcano looming in the distance beyond.
"CATANAS POINT - A Surf Documentary" portrays the reality of the sport of surfing in Angola and compares it with what surfing was like in Brazil from the 1980s to the present day.
In Monarch's Antarctic Base, a frozen fortress buffeted by screaming winds and surrounded by impenetrable ice, King Ghidorah shakes off his icy slumber and escapes in one of the film's most thrilling sequences. Join the filmmakers as they reveal how King Ghidorah was brought to terrifying life inside Monarch's underground biolab with its towering ice wall.