New Documentary Movies on Kanopy - Page 270

Speaking of Abstraction: A Universal Language

1999

Speaking of Abstraction: A Universal Language

1999
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, abstraction - that most quintessentially modernist innovation - maintains a peculiarly contradictory position. Used, on one hand, by post-modernist artists as just one more quotable style amongst many, it is on the other hand still considered an elitist or hermetic language by audiences intimidated by its lack of recognizable subject matter. Yet ultimately, abstraction continues to be a viable creative path for contemporary artists of all generations, many of whom embrace it as the most inclusive and fundamentally resonant of artistic languages. Filmed at the artists' studios, the Dia Center for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Museum during their exhibition, "Abstraction in the Twentieth Century."
Colobane Express

1999

Colobane Express

1999
8
Public vans provide the traditional and sole means of city transportation in Dakar, Senegal. In a frenzy of activity, from the outskirts to downtown, people from all walks of life as well as fruits, vegetables, chickens, etc. are transported daily in these public vans.
Nobody Knows My Name

1999

Nobody Knows My Name

1999
A film about women who love and make hip-hop music. These artists strive through the erasures and obstructions of a heavily male-dominated industry.
Big Brother of Christmas Island

1999

Big Brother of Christmas Island

1999
Twenty years ago, a hard-drinking, fiery British immigrant called Gordon Bennett, came to the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island to become General Secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. By the time he died in 1991, he was known as 'Tai Ko Seng' which, roughly translated, means "big brother who delivers". Every year since his death, people gather on 30 July at the Island's Chinese cemetery, to pay tribute to Bennett as they would to their honoured ancestors. Big Brother of Christmas Island tells the moving story of how the legend of the "Tai Ko Seng" was born.
Performing the Border

1999

Performing the Border

1999
A video essay set in the Mexican-U.S. border town of Ciudad Juarez, where U.S. multinational corporations assemble electronic and digital equipment just across from El Paso, Texas. This imaginative, experimental work investigates the growing feminization of the global economy and its impact on Mexican women living and working in the area. Looking at the border as both a discursive and material space, the video explores the sexualization of the border region through labor division, prostitution, the expression of female desires in the entertainment industry, and sexual violence in the public sphere.
Rabbit in the Moon

1999

Rabbit in the Moon

1999
2
Like many Japanese Americans released from WWII internment camps, the young Omori sisters did their best to erase the memories and scars of life under confinement. Fifty years later acclaimed filmmaker Emiko Omori asks her older sister and other detainees to reflect on the personal and political consequences of internment. From the exuberant recollections of a typical teenager, to the simmering rage of citizens forced to sign loyalty oaths, Omori renders a poetic and illuminating picture of a deeply troubling chapter in American history.
Buenos Aires Zero Degree: The Making of 'Happy Together'

1999

Buenos Aires Zero Degree: The Making of 'Happy Together'

1999
7.1
A making of documentary for Happy Together. Includes interviews, on-set footage, cut scenes and footage of crew members revisiting the locations where Happy Together was filmed.
Zapatista

1999

Zapatista

1999
5.2
"Zapatista" is the definitive look at the uprising in Chiapas. It is the story of a Mayan peasant rebellion armed with sticks and their word against a first world military. It is the story of a global movement that has fought 175,000 federal troops to a stand still and transformed Mexican and international political culture forever.
Off the Straight & Narrow

1999

Off the Straight & Narrow

1999
1
A look at TV since the 1960's shows that Gays and Lesbians have come a long way but still have a long ways to go to a balanced and realistic depiction on television.
The Highest Court: Behind the Scenes at the High Court of Australia

1998

The Highest Court: Behind the Scenes at the High Court of Australia

1998
Most Australians know about the Mabo and Wik decisions, but few know much about the decision makers — The High Court of Australia. Having gained historic access, THE HIGHEST COURT shows first hand the characters and drama of the High Court of Australia, the pinnacle of legal and constitutional processes in Australia. The role of the Court is explored as the film follows the handing down of two historic constitutional judgements, Kruger and Ha, and the appointment of two new Justices — Hayne and Callinan. For the first time cases have been filmed as they actually happen in the Court culminating with the recent Hindmarsh Island Bridge challenge.
Kestrel's Eye

1998

Kestrel's Eye

1998
6
Swedish filmmaker Mikael Kristersson directs this austere yet beautiful experimental documentary about two European falcons. Shot over the course of two years, Kristersson manages to fashion a narrative without the use of voice-overs or music, showing the falcons as they forage for food and tend to their eggs. Much of this film, though, is spent viewing the world from the falcons' vantage point -- high up on a 13th century church steeple, watching the groundskeeper tending to the village cemetery and the choir boys growing tired of a long religious procession. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
The Righteous Babes

1998

The Righteous Babes

1998
1
The Righteous Babes shows how the self-affirmative music of young women is renewing the 90's feminism. In the film, audience can experience feminism not in the library but in the rock concert hall. The film shows interviews and performances. In addition, controversial feminists along with American and British women journalists share their views on pop culture.
J.W. Marriott: Host to the World

1998

J.W. Marriott: Host to the World

1998
J.W. Marriott features informative interviews with his sons J.W. Marriott, Jr. and Richard Marriott, granddaughter Debbie Harrison, friends the Reverend Billy Graham and Sterling Colton, a former employee and others.
The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

1998

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

1998
6.9
A musical study of Los Angeles in the late 90s, where homeless teens roam the streets and profess to live a punk lifestyle of music, drugs, and flouting authority.
The Master Game

1998

The Master Game

1998
6.3
At the Vienna Art Academy in 1994, an unidentified person painted over 27 works by Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer. Rainer had become world-famous for his abstract art and, in particular, for his over-layering of photographs and overpainting of his own and other artists’ works. But who painted over the “overpainter”? Speculation rages: Did he attack his works himself? A year later, an unsigned letter surfaces claiming responsibility for the act directed against Rainer – and modern art in general – and accusing the artist of being complicit with “destructive modernism.” At the same time, Austria is shaken by a series of mail bombs by the Bajuwarian Liberation Army, in response to the supposed threat to Austria’s “German identity.” Are there connections between the overpainting event and the mail bombs? Or is this all just a game? A dream? Or perhaps a hallucination?
Homo Sapiens 1900

1998

Homo Sapiens 1900

1998
6.9
Homo Sapiens 1900 is a 1998 documentary directed by Peter Cohen, about various eugenics methods that were in practice in Europe during the first part of the 20th century. Eugenics is to be the scientific credo of the 20th century. The man credited with its invention, Francis Galton, says it is based on the concept that the evolution of man is crippled by the ill-conceived - those unfit to breed. The study of eugenics thus would concern itself with distinguishing the weed from the good flowers.
The Cruise

1998

The Cruise

1998
7.3
Affectionate portrait of Timothy "Speed" Levitch, a tour guide for Manhattan's Gray Line double-decker buses.
Edward Said On Orientalism: "The Orient" Represented in Mass Media

1998

Edward Said On Orientalism: "The Orient" Represented in Mass Media

1998
Edward Said's book Orientalism has been profoundly influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this engaging and lavishly illustrated interview he talks about the context within which the book was conceived, its main themes, and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of "the Orient" as represented in the mass media. "That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the world, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." -Edward Said
The Edge of the Possible

1998

The Edge of the Possible

1998
8
Jørn Utzon, acclaimed architect of the Sydney Opera House, tells the story of the design and construction of his masterpiece.
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

1998

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

1998
6.5
This film illustrates the life of the film director, Shui-Bo Wang in The People's Republic of China. We learn of the life of the director in his own words and images from a child steeped in the values of Chinese communism exemplified by Chairman Mao, to a young man striving to live up to those ideals both as an artist and a soldier.