For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.
“Nicky is seven. His parents are older and meaner.” A Place Called Lovely references the types of violence individuals find in life, from actual beatings, accidents and murders, to the more insidious violence of lies, social expectations, and betrayed faith. Benning collects images of this socially-pervasive violence from a variety of sources, tracing events from childhood: movies, tabloids, children's games (like mumbledy-peg), personal experiences, and those of others. Throughout, Benning uses small toys as props and examples—handling and controlling them the way we are, in turn, controlled by larger violent forces.
In her quest to uncover the wrongdoings of the Russian authorities, Anna Politkovskaya inspired awe in some and fear in countless others. At age 48 she was assassinated for simply doing her job. This documentary is based on Anna's conversations with filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya, Anna's former university professor and personal friend. Shot over a period of 20 years, this exclusive footage creates an incredible story of a woman who consciously gave her life for her convictions.
Six years in the making, this documentary film follows outspoken indie-rock hero Bob Forrest, through his life-threatening struggle with addiction, to his transformation into one of the most influential and controversial drug counselors in the US today. BOB AND THE MONSTER crafts contemporary footage, animation and compelling interviews with archival performances and personal videos from Bob's past to reveal the complex layers of this troubled, but hopeful soul. Testimony from his peers, including Courtney Love, Anthony Kiedis and Flea add texture, but it's the depth of Bob's music, interwoven throughout the film, that illuminates this unforgettable and inspirational story.
Sarah Khoshjamal, a 20-year-old Taekwondo superstar, is the first female professional athlete from Iran to qualify for the Olympics. This skillful vérité portrait follows the unassuming Khoshjamal in the nine months leading up to the 2008 Beijing games. Living in an Islamic country, she is required to wear a hijab at all times and, unlike her fellow competitors around the world, cannot train with men; however, the power in her fighting resoundingly breaks down stereotypical barriers. Khoshjamal’s experience as a world-class athlete may be familiar, but captured here is the importance of the coach-athlete relationship. The bond she shares with her feisty and much-admired female coach is revealed through everyday moments as both struggle through inequality to make their mark—in sport and society. Though it’s still the male athletes who are ultimately celebrated in her country, Khoshjamal’s accomplishments and lasting influence on scores of girls in Iran are undeniable.
In September 2005, Afghanistan held its first parliamentary elections in 35 years. Among the candidates for 249 assembly seats was Malalai Joya, a courageous, controversial 27-year-old woman who had ignited outrage among hard-liners when she spoke out against corrupt warlords at the Grand Council of tribal elders in 2003. Enemies of Happiness is a revelatory portrait of this extraordinary freedom fighter and the way she won the hearts of voters, as well as a snapshot of life and politics in war-torn Afghanistan.
Lunch Break features 42 workers as they take their midday break in a corridor stretching nearly the entire shipyard.
This non-narrative film depicts the routines of a girls' basketball team in a junior high school near Tokyo. Shot with a stationary camera, it consists of six ten-minute segments, some of which show the girls' routine exercises, others of which are choreographed.
A documentary about Swedish Discus champion Ricky Bruch as he prepares for the 1984 Olympics. The film highlights Bruch's obsessive behavior regarding his training and preparations. Facing difficulties with the Swedish Olympic Committee, Bruch is denied the right to compete in the Olympic Games. Bent on revenge, he trains like an animal and competes in smaller competitions, ultimately throwing his career-best 71.26 meters (233 feet, 9 inches). Proving to himself and the world that he is the greatest, Ricky's throw would have won the 1984 Olympics by nearly 5 meters.
A documentary dealing with the publisher Ebbe Carlsson's decision to start his own investigation on the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Derek Jarman's film portrait of American writer William S. Burroughs was shot in September 1982 during his first visit to England to attend the legendary Final Academy events at the South London Ritzy Cinema. These were Burroughs-themed art and performance nights curated by Psychic TV. Jarman’s film shows Burroughs on Tottenham Court Road signing autographs with fans and inside a shop buying alcohol. The industrial soundtrack by Psychic TV features a sample of Burroughs repeating "boys, school showers and swimming pools full of 'em'". Additional footage shot by Jarman during Burroughs' visit is reported to have been confiscated by Scotland Yard in 1991 and remains lost. Jarman and Psychic TV would continue to collaborate (“magic bound us together” Jarman wrote), with Jarman directing the music video for Catalan and staring as the spokesperson in the Psychic TV video A Spokesman for the Temple of Psychick Youth.
FREE ANGELA is a feature-length documentary about Angela Davis and the high stakes crime, political movement, and trial that catapults the 26 year-old newly appointed philosophy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles into a seventies revolutionary political icon. Nearly forty years later, and for the first time, Angela Davis speaks frankly about the actions that branded her as a terrorist and simultaneously spurred a worldwide political movement for her freedom.
A retrospective look at Letterman's career in television from his days as a weatherman in Indiana to his retirement from the Late Show.
In Srebrenica the Serbs killed ten thousand Muslim boys and men. Some of their remains have not been identified and buried with honour yet. Doctor Elvira Klonowski puts the bones into skeletons. She puts them in bags and onto the shelves. They wait there to be identified.The Bosnian women wait to check them- after so many years they still wear colourful shawls over their heads as in the Koran mourning is not allowed before a funeral. Only those who were recognised and buried are promised eternal life. These ageing Antigones are full of hope that one day they will fulfil their duty and carry out God’s will. In her moving film Magdalena Piekorz tells the story many of the Bosnians would be glad to forget.
An indelible portrait of the complex relationship between playwright and actor Sam Shepard and his close friend Johnny Dark as they prepare forty years of their correspondence for publication, stirring up old memories both good and bad.
An intimate study of the life of a domestic cat, taking place over a period of months as she gives birth to a litter of kittens and cares for them as they grow.
An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, and William Burroughs Jr.
A documentary that chronicles life's natural unfolding when a family tries to live by the seasons instead of by the clock.
Damon C. Scott is a well known subway and street performer, but he's also the voice of the #1 hit song "Look Right Through" (by Storm Queen, remixed by DJ Mark "MK" Kinchen).