18-year-old Leigh lives in a trailer park on the outskirts of Los Angeles, attends community college, has no real friends and works part time at Home Depot. With an obsession for Steven Spielberg and enrolled in a film production class, he sets out to make his cinematic debut. He hopes the film will be his ticket out of his mundane life and into a world of popularity, women and success. And he just may be on his way, if he doesn't self-destruct first.
As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.
A look at the life and work of American publisher Barney Rosset, who struggled to bring controversial works like "Tropic of Cancer" and "Naked Lunch" to publication.
Wild Combination is a visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his death in 1992, Arthur prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Now, over fifteen years since his passing, Arthur's work is finally finding its audience. Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Arthur's family, friends, and closest collaborators to tell this poignant and important story.
In Rain of the Children, Ward further explores the subject of his earlier film, In Spring One Plants Alone when, as a young film student he travelled to the Ureweras and documented the lives of an elderly Māori woman (Puhi) and her schizophrenic son (Niki).
After a childhood of playing cantinas and honky tonks from Texas to Tennessee, this band of brothers 'Los Lonely Boys' from San Angelo Texas rocked their way to the top of the American music industry, determined to fulfill their father's long held dream.
To the Australian media Kenja is a 'secretive cult', their leader described in Parliament as a 'seedy conman'. Despite preparing to fight yet another court case Ken Dyers and Jan Hamilton allow a film crew unprecedented access to the 'spiritual evolvement centre' they founded in 1982. How can the view from inside Kenja be so different to the one outside? Through remarkable verite footage and candid interviews, Beyond Our Ken explores the anatomy and ambiguity of the 'cult' enigma.
The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004, followed by the publishing of twelve satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that was commissioned for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, provides the incendiary framework for Daniel Leconte's provocative documentary, It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks.
In the sprawling outer suburbs of Brisbane, a revolution is brewing. A sassy group of women from all walks of life has a dream: to resurrect the lost sport of full-contact roller derby in Australia.
After learning that Patricia, a long-lost girlfriend, is among the desaparecidos, a filmmaker returns to his native Argentina to find out what happened to her and others he knew who mysteriously vanished during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
From both local and global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis. Learn how politics, pollution and human rights are intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth. With water drying up around the world and the future of human lives at stake, the film urges a call to arms before more of our most precious natural resource evaporates.
French architect Jean Nouvel has long been known in Europe for his bold, shimmering glass museums, concert halls, and high-rise towers. Now the much-acclaimed new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which opened in 2006, is displaying Nouvel's remarkable talents to an American public. With a cantilevered lobby that extends 175 feet over the Mississippi River, the dark midnight-blue, aluminum-paneled structure has captivated the culturally conscious city and helped spur the rejuvenation of a once-industrial waterfront. In the tour, Nouvel takes us through three distinctive theaters he designed for the Guthrie, and out onto the cantilevered deck to view the legendary river that inspired the boldly elevated design.
After 40 years in exile, Yulparitja elders take Daniel Walbidi, their most promising young artist, back to the desert heartland they left behind. In the remote Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga a new art movement has emerged. At its helm is a young Aboriginal man who is well on the way to international fame and possible fortune. Daniel Walbidi paints the desert country that his parents walked out of 40 years ago. Now, with the rock holes, sandhills and salt lakes of their country revitalized through the creation of the paintings, they are determined to go back and show Daniel their desert country for the first time.
The influence that artists Pablo Picasso and George Braque had on the world of cinema is the subject of this documentary from filmmaker Arne Glimcher. A lifelong lover of film, Picasso was intrigued by the machines used to create moving pictures, as well as the images they produced. In this film, artists such as Martin Scorsese, Julian Schnabel, Chuck Close, and the late Robert Rauschenberg reveal how Picasso and Braque's shared love of film helped to create some of the greatest art of the 20th Century. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Film which travels inside the singular world of one of Italy's most famous fashion designers, Valentino Garavani, documenting the colourful and dramatic closing act of his celebrated career and capturing the end of an era in global fashion. However, at the heart of the film is a love story - the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti. Capturing intimate moments in the lives of two of Italy's richest and most famous men, the film lifts the curtain on the final act of a nearly 50-year reign at the top of the glamorous and fiercely competitive world of fashion. (Storyville)
Documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner examines how mammoth corporations have taken over all aspects of the food chain in the United States, from the farms where our food is grown to the chain restaurants and supermarkets where it's sold. Narrated by author and activist Eric Schlosser, the film features interviews with average Americans about their dietary habits, commentary from food experts like Michael Pollan and unsettling footage shot inside large-scale animal processing plants.
Montreal of another time is reborn into screen through images from a hundred of movies and shorts produced by the National Film Board of Canada while at its first four decades of existence. Port activities, musical shows, presence of Church, labors life, hockey fever and the best years of "Red Light" are few of the chapters of this collective family album.
Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy's power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.
A wonderfully moving introduction to the plight of the Palestinians, in simple, everyday terms, with a captivating narration by eyewitness Anna Baltzer. Baltzer, a Jewish-American Columbia graduate and Fulbright scholar, presents her discoveries as a volunteer with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank, documenting human rights abuses and supporting Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance to the Occupation. Baltzer's presentation provides those interested in the issue with critical information and documentation that can be difficult to obtain through mainstream media sources, and to encourage informed action. Topics include checkpoints, settlements, Israeli activism, Zionism, 1948 War & refugees, censorship, the Wall, and environmental devastation. The granddaughter of Holocaust refugees, Baltzer works to address the injustices of today in light of those of the past. She is author of the book Witness in Palestine.