Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.
The band Fugazi is documented over a period of more than ten years (1987-1998) through performance footage and interviews with the band and their fans. Director Jem Cohen's relationship with band member Ian MacKaye extends back to the 1970s when the two met in high school in Washington, D.C.. The film takes its title from the Fugazi song of the same name, from their 1993 album, In on the Kill Taker. Editing of the film was done by both Cohen and the members of the band over the course of five years. It was shot from 1987 through 1998 on super 8, 16mm and video and is composed mainly of footage of concerts, interviews with the band members, practices, tours and time spent in the studio recording their 1995 album, Red Medicine. The film also includes portraits of fans as well as interviews with them at various Fugazi shows around the United States throughout the years.
By 1993, Nirvana was in a state of disarray. Having kick-started the grunge phenomenon two years earlier, the band were now keen to return to their roots.
Marc Labrèche, the Director of this documentary, himself an author, actor and host, meets other creators to ask them these questions that inhabit him. Do artists have an expiry date? Do we create our best works in our youth or, on the contrary, does experience allow us to develop a greater mastery of our medium? In this respect, are there important differences between the different forms of art such as music, cinema and literature?
The Xbox Originals documentary that chronicles the fall of the Atari Corporation through the lens of one of the biggest mysteries of all time, dubbed “The Great Video Game Burial of 1983.” Rumor claims that millions of returned and unsold E.T. cartridges were buried in the desert, but what really happened there?
Close to Greenaway takes us behind the scenes of the first part of the trilogy The Tulse Luper's Suitcases in Barcelona and Almeria. In this film, for the first time we get close to the unique vision of the controversial Welsh director Peter Greenaway. The intense rehearsals with the actors, his meticulous method of shooting and his thirst for the new audiovisual and technologies are revealed in this documentary.
Kazuo Hara follows Ayumi Yasutomi, a transgender candidate, who is also a Tokyo University professor, as she embarks on a national campaign for a seat in Japan's Upper House.
An account of the life and work of the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), the barely known artistic mother of Heidi, her brave alpine heroine, who was first introduced to the world between 1880 and 1881, in a novel published in two parts, and became definitely immortal thanks to an anime series, released in 1974, directed by the Japanese genius Isao Takahata.
This exceptional documentary, rich in anecdotes and revelations thanks to the rare testimonies of his family (his wife, his sister...) and his closest friends (such as Patrick Bruel, Kad Mérad or Pascal Obispo), you will discover all the secrets of the man behind this extraordinary artist. With a career spanning 35 years, over 15 million albums sold and hits that have become cult favorites, Florent Pagny, the emblematic coach of the show The Voice, is in the pantheon of French song. However, you will discover that he almost lost everything several times... How did he get up each time to build this immense career? And above all, how did he overcome the ordeal of the announcement of his cancer?
The documentary, Kingdom Come follows a first-time director (Daniel Gillies) as he tries to raise a million dollars to finance his first film, Broken Kingdom. This emotionally-charged journey is interwoven with over 30 rare interviews from acclaimed indie darlings including Mark Ruffalo, Illeana Douglas, Don Cheadle, Kevin Smith, Edward Burns, Tim Roth, Morgan Spurlock, Selma Blair, Robert Townsend, Bill Pullman and many more.
Penn and Teller play with mirrors, teach 900 people to make a hankie disappear, play with clear acrylic boxes, turn marshmallows into tools of violence, do some erotic fire-eating, become the King of Animal Traps, produce bees without end, make Jane Curtin do a magic trick with a needle, dental floss, and her pierced ear, and drive a truck filled with concrete over Teller.
A documentary about Boris Nemtsov, a prominent figure of Russian political opposition and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was murdered in Moscow in February of 2015.
An intimate look at the lives and legacies of piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, all Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf sidemen. The film captures some of the last interviews and their final live performances together, before their deaths in 2011. The historic live shows are accompanied by performances and personal insights from many of the blues and rock stars these legendary sidemen inspired including; Bonnie Raitt, Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, Shemekia Copeland, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joe Perry, Joe Bonamassa and Johnny Winter.
Telling the epic tale of America's most iconic trees, GIANTS RISING reveals the secrets and saga of the redwoods -- the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwoods also hold the power to impact our future. Through the voices of scientists, artists, native people, and others, the film explores the wonder and plight of these awe-inspiring forests, offering insights that could help sustain us all.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, New Taiwanese Cinema gained international attention for adopting a completely different approach to that of the commercial films which had preceded it. This piece contrasts Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, two rivals who were the driving force behind New Taiwanese Cinema. The closing of a cinema invites us to reflect on society and the passage of history.