An atheist, Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon managed to convince four mullahs, all believers in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to come and stay with him for two days and engage in discussion. In this confined space, daily life is combined with debate, an unremitting demonstration of the problematic issue of how to live together, when each side's understanding of the world is so contrary?
Is the story of a generation of thieves who achieved their greatest victories in the sixties; their distinctive code of ethics, the various categories of delinquents inhabiting the citys streets, their alliances with high ranking police officials that allowed them to operate, the betrayals that followed, and the price they ended up paying.
At the age of 54, Binode Bihari Mukherjee, an accomplished painter, lost his sight following an unsuccessful cataract operation. He continued to create art despite his loss of sight. The documentary explores Binode Bihari’s inner eye that guides his fingers to create art.
Bugarach. Nothing ever really happens in this bucolic village in Southern France at the base of the mountain that gives it its name. But the villagers' peace and quiet vanishes when the news story circulates around the globe like a viral video that this close-knit community of 194 inhabitants will be the only place on the planet to survive the December 21st apocalypse foretold by the Mayans. 'Bugarach' dives deep into the subject of the apocalypse to reflect on the fears and coping strategies of humankind in times of deep material and spiritual crisis in the Western world.
From her childhood bedroom in the Chicago suburbs, an American teenage girl uses social media to run the revolution in Syria. Armed with Facebook, Twitter, Skype and cameraphones, she helps her social network in Damascus and Homs braves snipers and shelling in the streets and the world the human rights atrocities of one of the most brutal dictators. But as the revolution rages on, everyone in the network must decide what is the most effective way to fight a dictator: social media or AK-47s.
A lyrical recreation of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ decision at age eight to stop chopping cotton and start singing for a living. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
It is a fetish, a mantra, a secret religion to modern man: work. In times of the financial crisis and massive job reductions, this documentary movie questions work as our 'hallow' sense in life in a way that both humors and pains us.
Year after year, just after the monsoon season has finished, thousands of families travel to a bleak desert in Gujerat, India, where they will stay for an endless eight months and extract salt from the earth, using the same painstaking, manual techniques as generations before them. Director Farida Pacha spent a season with one of these families, observing the very particular rhythms of their lives.
The ideologies underlying the foundation of modern Israel are explored in this documentary, the third of a trilogy (created over a twenty year span) exploring the Jewish experience. The two earlier documentaries, "Porquoi Israel," and "Shoah," have had great effect on the ways documentaries are produced. "Tsahal" zeroes in on the crucial role of the military in Israeli society and politics. The film uses many in-depth interviews to present the many feelings and thoughts about the Israeli military.
While the rest of America slept, DIY filmmaker/musician Giuseppe Andrews has made over 30 experimental features. Set in some demented alternate universe (i.e. Ventura, California), they are populated by real-life alcoholics and drug addicts, trash-talking senior citizens and trailer park residents dressed in cow outfits and costume-shop wigs. Director Adam Rifkin creates a wildly surreal, outrageously funny and strangely touching portrait of a truly Outsider Artist inhabiting a world few of us even know exists.
Acclaimed Montreal band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is one of a growing number of rock groups to have accepted an infant into their touring tribe. Touring with children is both costly and complicated, yet SMZ are determined to combine family life and being on the road with the band's deep political commitment.
Iron Maiden at Cidade do Rock, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 22, 2013. Setlist: 1. Moonchild 2. Can I Play with Madness 3. The Prisoner 4. 2 Minutes to Midnight 5. Afraid to Shoot Strangers 6. The Trooper 7. The Number of the Beast 8. Phantom of the Opera 9. Run to the Hills 10. Wasted Years 11. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son 12. The Clairvoyant 13. Fear of the Dark 14. Iron Maiden Encore: 15. Churchill's Speech 16. Aces High 17. The Evil That Men Do 18. Running Free
This 45 minute documentary by Mark Hejnar is a sort of Whitman's Sampler of sickness, chronicling such wildly diverse and extreme personalities as G.G. Allin, Mike Diana, Full Force Frank, GLOD, Annie Sprinkle, and others. This collection of short clips and vile moments is certainly NOT for the squeamish, as these are the artists and performers who have taken the term "free expression" to it's limits--and beyond.
Stuart Cooper's short about the work of Spanish artist Juan Genovés is an inspired introduction to the works of this extraordinary artist, exploring its minimalist aesthetic and storytelling qualities through a variety of cinematic techniques, including rostrum, animation, news footage and live action recreations.
Plotless and wordless, beautifully edited shots of young (often naked or semi-naked) people in various positions, illustrating different emotions, actions and situations, underlined by rock music.
Four years after Pour la suite du monde (1963), director Pierre Perrault asks Alexis Tremblay if he'll agree to travel with his wife Marie to the country of their ancestors, France. In a montage parallel, we follow them in France and listen to them talking to their friends about it.
Few movements in music have gained as much critical mass as house music. Pump Up The Volume: A History of House Music is a fantastic 2001 documentary about one of the biggest music groundswells in history, which began in basements and ended up at the forefront of pop culture. The film traces house music from its early days as New York disco to its takeover of Europe’s dance scene through fascinating interviews with the people who propelled the movement and rare footage of the clubs where it came of age.