The Ploy

Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.

A documentary about Pier Paolo Pasolini and his film 'Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma'.

A short documentary exploring the ongoing relevance and power of 'Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma'.

Philo Bregstein tells us this film looks at Pasolini's life and art to explain why he died. The film traces Pasolini's life chronologically - family roots, hiding during World War II, teaching, moving to Rome, being arrested and acquitted many times, publishing poems, getting into film, being provocative, and being murdered. Interviews with Alberto Moravia, Laura Betti, Maria Antonietta Macciocch, and Bernard Bertolucci are inter-cut with readings of Pasolini's poems and with clips from four films - primarily the Gospel According to St. Matthew - to illustrate his changing ideas and points of view. Bregstein makes a case for Pasolini's being lynched.

Portrait of Pier Paolo Pasolini and his literary and cinematographic activity in the proletarian Rome.

Behind the scenes footage of Pasolini and crew filming 'Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma'.

Der Stolz der Firma, meaning The Pride of the Business, is a classic German silent film from 1914. The film tells the story of a shrewd apprentice and is filmed in the comical style of director Lubitsch. This is one of the few Lubitsch films from World War I that wasn’t lost.

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Young American Joanne Hunter is stranded in the German-occupied Holland with her Dutch grandparents. The German CO, Captain Kessel begins to wage war on the village's morale, and Joanne's house must quarter another German officer, Lt. Braun, who finds himself torn between his duty and distaste of Kessel's methods. When Kessel threatens the lead statues of 16th-century freedom fighters in the town clock, Joanne and her grandparents rally the villagers to save Kirkendam's "little riders".

Bored billionaire executive Thomas Crown decides to plan a robbery and assigns a professional agent with the right information to the job. However, Crown is soon betrayed yet cannot blow his cover as he’s fallen in love.

Apu, now a jobless ex-student dreaming vaguely of a future as a writer, is invited to join an old college friend on a trip up-country to a village wedding.

A poverty-stricken woman raises her sons through many trials and tribulations. But no matter the struggles, always sticks to her own moral code.

The true story of boxer Jim Braddock who, following his retirement in the 1930s, makes a surprise comeback in order to lift his family out of poverty.

Sal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

An absurdist allegory of the absorption of Georgia into the Soviet Union, a man's apartment is overrun by 'lodgers' who takeover the apartment, restrict his movements, and put him in a birdcage.

The (mostly) true story of the greatest jazz drummer you've never heard of who stumbled upon a 16-year-old singer and nurtured her into a legend.

Aisha, a 26-year-old Sudanese woman, lives in Ain-Shams, a neighborhood in Cairo with a large African migrant community. The authorities’ indifference to the violent tensions between Egyptians and various African nationalities, has allowed different gangs to seize control of the neighborhood. The situation quickly turns sour after one of them offers Aisha security in exchange for a favor.