Underground is a 1976 documentary film about the Weathermen, founded as a militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), who fought to overthrow the U.S. government during the 1960s and 1970s. The film consists of interviews with members of the group after they went underground and footage of the anti-war and civil rights protests of the time. It was directed by Emile de Antonio, Haskell Wexler and Mary Lampson, later subpoenaed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to confiscate the film footage in order to gain information that would help them arrest the Weathermen. (Wikipedia)
The music speaks for itself in this performance documentary that highlights some of the biggest names within the country-folk scene in Texas and Tennessee during the last weeks of 1975 and the first weeks of 1976, eschewing narration and staged interviews.
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.
Encouraging visitors to engage and connect with on site artist's, Artpark provides a unique environment for those craving culture away from the whirring city. Located in Lewiston, New York the outdoor venue opens itself to artists, musicians and performers seeking a spot to reflect and create. During the summer seasons Artpark serves as an immersive experience, inviting the public to observe the artists as they work. Artpark People observes the vibrant scene and captures candid interactions between artist and onlookers. With a heavy emphasis on outdoor space and environmental influence, Artpark asserts itself as a cultural and communal haven for creatives.
Stacy Perlata and Camille Darrin share a passion for their lifestyle of skateboarding. Camille narrates the film, and the two of them travel to various places in California with his friends.
This film records a 12 day ritual performed by Mambudiri Brahmins in Kerala, southwest India, in April 1975. This event was possibly the last performance of the Agnicayana, a Vedic ritual of sacrifice dating back 3,000 years and probably the oldest surviving human ritual. Long considered extinct and never witnessed by outsiders, the ceremonies require the participation of seventeen priests, involve libations of Soma juice and oblations of other substances, all preceded by several months of preparation and rehearsals. They include the construction, from a thousand bricks, of a fire altar in the shape of a bird.
Juvenile Liaison is about the day-to-day assignments of the juvenile liaison section of the Blackburn, Lancashire police force. The documentary provides a captivating snapshot of how juvenile offenders were dealt with in the '70s.
A portrait of a woman’s life between 1915 and 1975. In Jutta Brückner’s documentary, her mother looks back at the 60 years of her life, talking about her father’s early accidental death, the constraints faced by a lower middle-class family of five, her training as a seamstress, marriage to a bookkeeper committed to social democratic ideals, the privations of war, and not least of all, her later realisation that fear may have caused her to miss opportunities … An ingenious collage of picture and sound accompanies the mother’s narrative, a tapestry of proverbs, pop songs, marching music, and the noise of war. Hundreds of photographs – most selected from August Sander’s (1876–1964) project “People of the 20th Century”, alongside newer photos by Abisag Tüllmann, among others – lend the individual vita of the director’s mother a kind of ontological validity. Images of labourers and office workers, excursions and marches, imbue what we hea
This feature-length documentary from 1974 takes viewers inside Fidel Castro's Cuba. A movie-making threesome hope that Fidel himself will star in their film. The unusual crew consists of former Newfoundland premier Joseph Smallwood, radio and TV owner Geoff Stirling and NFB film director Michael Rubbo. What happens while the crew awaits its star shows a good deal of the new Cuba, and also of the three Canadians who chose to film the island. (NFB)
Mondo-style shockumentary about various aspects of the occult and paranormal. An investigation into the fringes of psychic spirituality with so-called experts, it includes demonic possession, exorcism, seances, Voodoo ceremonies, hypnotism, ESP, psychic surgery, and more. A warning bell alerts squeamish viewers to avert their eyes from the more graphic scenes.
Exposé of the ill-treatment of Aboriginal workers by white men. A dramatised documentary about the June 1957 Aboriginal strike on Palm Island reserve, off the north Queensland coast.
Thom Andersen's remarkable and sadly neglected hour-long documentary adroitly combines biography, history, film theory, and philosophical reflection. Muybridge's photographic studies of animal locomotion in the 1870s were a major forerunner of movies; even more interesting are his subsequent studies of diverse people, photographed against neutral backgrounds.
WELFARE shows the nature and complexity of the welfare system in sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as clients struggle to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.
This program looks at a bilingual education program in the Northern Territory, where children are taught in English and Aboriginal languages. As there are many different Aboriginal languages, subjects are taught in a language appropriate to the subject matter. The aim of the program is to help Aboriginal children to see their language and culture as something worthwhile and so nurture their self-confidence and self-respect.