In Ictu Oculi

Arata Isozaki: Early Work in Japan takes a detailed look at the architect's pieces, exploring applauded projects such as the EXPO '70 Osaka Festival Plaza, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and Kitakyushu Municipal Library. The extraordinary series of architectural breakthroughs made during this time contributed significantly to the evolution of contemporary architecture worldwide, and eventually gained him his first foreign commission

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

British historian and author Niall Ferguson explains how big money works today as well as the causes of and solutions to economic catastrophes in this extended version The Ascent of Money documentary. Through interviews with top experts, such as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and American currency speculator George Soros, the intricate world of finance, including global commerce, banking and lending, is examined thoroughly.

Released from prison, former oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky expounds on his newfound freedom and complex relationship with Vladimir Putin.

On weekends or holidays, the Zhongli train station in Taiwan is always filled with migrant workers who moved to seek out better economic or living conditions. In 1949, millions of Chinese soldiers and civilians migrated to Taiwan; they are regarded as ‘displaced persons’. Yuan’s father was one of these immigrants, a refugee of the civil war, a stranger away from home. For The Strangers, Yuan uses a high-speed camera and a high-lumen spotlight to shoot from the moving passenger car through the window. As the camera captures the face of each person standing on the platform, these strangers transform into sculptures, frozen in time.

A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.

The film is a controversy on democracy. Is our society really democratic? Can everyone be part of it? Or is the act of being part in democracy dependent to the access on technology, progression or any resources of information, as philosophers like Paul Virilio or Jean Baudrillard already claimed?

Before Avicii, there was Tim. Through his own words, witness how a prodigious musical talent became one of the defining artists of his generation.

A new reading of the historical period that began with the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (1479-1516) and the discovery of America (1492), as well as an analysis of its undeniable influence on the subsequent evolution of the history of Spain and the world.

A man goes on a walk.

In a world of her own, a young sound engineer spends all her time recording the sounds of the city. That is, until she encounters a man and succeeds in picking up the frequencies of his inner melody.

In 1993 while living in suburban Atlanta and working as an exterminator, a young and alienated Ricardo López began his all-consuming fixation with the Icelandic experimental pop musician Björk. What would transpire over the next three years would lead to hundreds of diary entries, dozens of hours of home video footage, an assassination plot, and the eventual violent death of Ricardo López by his own hand.

Pending release of the movie "Bean," Rowan Atkinson reflects on his comedy career and reveals how his comic creation Mr Bean evolved. This 1997 documentary includes career clips as well as interviews with Atkinson, writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, British comedians Lenny Henry and Mel Smith and movie celebrities Jeff Goldblum and Burt Reynolds.

"Jacobin founding editor, Socialist Manifesto author, and former co-chair of the Democratic Socialists for America Bhaskar Sunkara squares off with Libertarian Nick Gillespie, editor at large of Reason and host of the podcast, The Reason Interview, to determine whether capitalism is the best economic system for the country, or are we in dire need of revamp. Michael Moynihan Moderates" (Vice News).

Hélène Berr, une jeune fille dans Paris occupé

In the town of Xoco, the spirit of an old villager awakens in search of its lost home. Along its journey, the ghost discovers that the town still celebrates its most important festivities, but also learns that the construction of a new commercial complex called Mítikah will threaten the existence of both the traditions and the town itself.

In the 1960s, frustrated by the growing problem of urban pollution, Athelstan Spilhaus, a visionary scientist and futurist comic strip writer, assembled a team of experts to develop a bold experiment: the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC). MXC would be the city of the future, a domed metropolis for 250,000 pioneering residents, built from scratch and using cutting-edge technology to prevent urban sprawl and pollution. Things didn’t quite go as planned, as explored in Chad Friedrichs’ fascinating look back at the would-be city of tomorrow.

From 1945 to 1989, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two rival ideologies, communism and capitalism, faced each other in a merciless battle. On one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other, throughout the Cold War, the USSR and the United States sought to shape children’s imaginations through their magazines and films. Never in the history of mankind have so many comic books been published and so many cartoons produced for young people. In November 1989, communism collapsed with the Berlin Wall; capitalism was left to decide the future of the world. What if this victory had been prepared for a long time, and our thinking conditioned, from our early childhood, to ensure this absolute triumph?

Director's cut release of the war/mecha anime series "FLAG" features famous scenes from the series edited together into a cohesive, realistic story about war. Camerawoman Shirasu Saeko's photo of residents of a war-torn Asian country struggling to raise the flag of the UN became the symbol for the movement of peace across the land. However, on the eve of a truce, the actual flag captured in the photo is stolen and war once again threatens to plague the land. To return the flag and establish peace in the land, the UN sends a lone mechanical army called the SDC (pronounced as Seedac—Special Development Command).

Russia is a highly developed, wired, and educated nation, but endures third-world levels of corruption and a repressive, autocratic government. Many Russians explain this paradox by citing the Russian soul, a unique national mindset, born out of their turbulent history that wants dictatorship. Is that possible, or are free speech and democracy universal values?