This Changes Everything

The story of Esther Williams is that of an improbable encounter. That of the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s with a swimming champion. A meeting that gave birth to the most kitsch and flamboyant genre films in Technicolor: the Aqua-musicals! A dive into the troubled waters of post-war Hollywood, where only her qualities as an athlete allow an extraordinary actress to fight to emancipate herself and avoid the traps of the predators who lurk around her

Film 33 is the most advanced film class in a community college where the entire class teams up to make a short film. In 2023 Spring, the 23rd short film is being made. This epic documentary details the highs and lows of the production of this short film, and all the dramatic events that occurred.

What "That's Entertainment" did for movie musicals, "The Celluloid Closet" does for Hollywood homosexuality, as this exuberant, eye-opening movie serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Lily Tomlin narrates as Oscar-winning moviemaker Rob Epstein ("The Times of Harvey Milk" and "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt") and Jeffrey Friedman assemble fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s. Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein and Gore Vidal are just a few of the many actors, writers and commentators who provide funny and insightful anecdotes.

Amazing, but true: Fort Lee, New Jersey (just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan), was once the epicenter of American film production. This documentary of a truly bygone era combines photographs culled from private collections, as well as restored footage from such films as Thomas A. Edison's Rescued from an Eagle's Nest and D.W. Griffith's The New York Hat, filmed at the studios in Fort Lee.

What makes European cinema so special? Find out in Paul Joyce’s feature-length documentary, Pictures of Europe, which examines the differences between American independent and Hollywood movies and films from European directors. Featuring luminary iconoclasts from European cinema such as Agnes Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodovar, as well as American counterpoints from Paul Schrader, and those who have crossed back and forth, such as Paul Verhoeven

This fascinating political look at a little-known chapter in women's history tells the story of "Jane", the Chicago-based women's health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training. As Jane members describe finding feminism and clients describe finding Jane, archival footage and recreations mingle to depict how the repression of the early sixties and social movements of the late sixties influenced this unique group. Both vital knowledge and meditation on the process of empowerment, Jane: An Abortion Service showcases the importance of preserving women's knowledge in the face of revisionist history. JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE was funded by the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A detailed history of documentary filmmaking in the US and the UK from 1929 to 1945. The first part, Working for Change, focuses on 1929-1941 and the social movements of the times, The Great Depression, The New Deal, and the awakening of the Leftwing in the UK. The second part, The Strategy of Truth, focuses on 1933-1946 and explores the role of film as propaganda during World War II, and the different forms it took in the US, the UK, and Germany.

As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.

The life of Donald M. Morgan, one of Hollywood’s most prolific artists, is a unique, rags-to-riches story about a man who’s had a life-changing effect on the people around him, both personally and professionally. By sharing stories of his lengthy career, working with filmmakers like Robert Zemeckis, John Carpenter and Joseph Sargent, Morgan recounts pivotal moments in the art of filmmaking for over four decades, through interviews with fellow greats Owen Roizman (The Exorcist) and Jack N. Green (Unforgiven). But at the heart of the film is an emotional journey along the road to recovery in an industry that is ripe with dysfunction and addiction. Inspiring, heartbreaking, and funny, “Cinematographer” shares the story of one of the film industry's finest human beings.

Portrait of director Andrey Zvyagintsev against the background of the filming of his film "Loveless".

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever - Behind the Scenes

October 2003, Alma and Lila Levy are excluded from the Lycée Henri Wallon in Aubervilliers solely because they were wearing a headscarf. What follows is a deafening political and media debate, justifying in most cases the exclusion of girls wearing head-scarves to school. February 2004, a law was eventually passed by the National Assembly. "A thinly veiled racism" is about this controversy since the affair of Creil in 1989 (where two schoolgirls were excluded for the same reasons) and attempts to "reveal" that maybe what hides behind is the desire to exclude these girls. This film gives them a voice as well as others - teachers, community activists, feminists, researchers - gathered around the group "A School for You-All" fighting for the repeal of this law they consider sexist and racist ... This movie was censured in Septembre 2004 in France.

Actors Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément, Monia Chokri, Gaspard Ulliel, Vincent Cassel, Niels Schneider and Melvil Poupaud discuss working with the young Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who has conquered the hearts of both cinema lovers and prestigious festival juries with his films. To French actress Nathalie Baye, he seems very experienced despite his young age, while Cannes Director Thierry Frémaux says he may be insolent, but everyone agrees he is passionate, creative, a perfectionist and... in a hurry.

Jeppy Bass is the story of a college student's struggles to make his thesis short film, entitled 'Damn Fine Cup'. After getting a behind-the-scenes look into the efforts taken to produce the film, we get a brief glimpse into the dark psyche of the filmmaker and perhaps the intentions behind the film.

Mujeres olvidadas

In the silent film era, movies were never really silent. In the background of films that made figures like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton into cultural icons, were the musical giants whose compositions defined the very films that captivated a generation of movie-goers. Arthur Kleiner converses with the still-living legends from that bygone golden age of cinema.

A fictionalised documentary that tells the story of María Lejárraga, writer and pioneer of feminism in Spain during the 1920s, whose work was produced under the name of her husband, the theatre impresario Gergorio Marinez Sierra. Lejárraga was the most prolific Spanish female playwright of all time. She is the author of works such as "Cancion de cuna", as well as a member of parliament for the Second Republic and founder of pioneering projects for women's rights and freedoms.

Delphine Seyrig reads passages from a Valerie Solanas’s SCUM manifesto.

Short documentary on the making of the Disney classic.

Code Red: The Making of '28 Weeks Later'