A wabi sabi summer in Japan: Observing that which is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete produces a series of visual haiku in teeming street life; Bodies in emotion, and leafprints in the mud.
My daughter's name is Maya. I've been told that the word maya means illusion in Hindu philosophy. As I watch her growing up, spinning like a top around me, I realize that her childhood is not something I can grasp but rather (like the wind) something I feel tenderly brushing across my cheek. Eleven years later, I pull out my 16mm Bolex camera once again and she allows me to film her, different but somehow the same. - Lynne Sachs
In a historical vegetable garden on a Dutch estate, the 85 year-old pruning master and the gardener tend to the espaliers. As they prune, the men chat about food, the weather, the world and they share their knowledge of horticulture. Fifteen years they have spent working on the pear arbour. Will it finally close over this year?
A documentary about neighborhood people creating change. Produced for the MacArthur Foundation by Kartemquin Films, this piece features six vignettes on community organizing in different Chicago neighborhoods: LeClaire Courts, Marquette Park, Roseland, Pilsen, Uptown, Rogers Park and Garfield Park.
In a lively mix of off-beat narrative, collage and memoir, A Biography of Lilith updates the creation myth by telling the story of the first woman and for some, the first feminist. Lilith’s betrayal by Adam in Eden and subsequent vow of revenge is recast as a modern tale with present-day Lilith (Cherie Wallace) musing on a life that has included giving up a baby for adoption and work as a bar dancer. Interweaving mystical texts from Jewish folklore with interviews, music and poetry, Sachs reclaims this cabalistic parable to frame her own role as a mother.
A look at the emergence and dominance of Latinos in what was once considered all-white sport, boxing, and the evolution of the sport as Latino fighters exploded onto the scene.
During World War II, the United States Army hired Lynne Sachs’ cousin, Sandor Lenard, to reconstruct the bones, small and large, of dead American soldiers. This short anti-war cine-poem is composed of highly abstracted battle imagery and children at a birthday party.
Lynne Sachs spends a winter morning in Central Park shooting film in the snow. Holding her Super 8mm camera, she takes note of graphic explosions of dark and light and an occasional skyscraper. The stark black lines of the trees against the whiteness create the sensation of a painter's chiaroscuro. Woven into this cinematic landscape, we hear sound artist Stephen Vitiello's delicate yet soaring musical track which seems to wind its way across the frozen ground, up the tree trunks to the sky. — “I spent a morning this winter in Central Park shooting film in the snow. The stark black lines of the trees against the whiteness creates the sensation of a painter’s chiaroscuro, or a monochromatic ‘tableau-vivant.’ When I am holding my super 8mm camera, I am able to see these graphic explosions of dark and light” (Lynne Sachs).
Bobby Joe Smith returns to his home in a small town, having changed his name, his outlook on life, and gained a career as a Hollywood star. Bobby Joe finds a renewed love in Jenny Jenkins, his childhood sweetheart, whose father is the town reverend and who believes that Bobby Joe has returned as a corrupt and demoralized person. Jenny's father jealously wants no connections between Bobby and Jenny, and takes measures to keep Bobby Joe from attending any of the Homecoming activities by persuading some local boys to beat him up. This builds to a crashing climax which is utterly shocking and unexpected.
Window on Your Present is Cinqué Lee's first feature film, which he wrote and directed in the late 1980s. The film takes place in a world where color and love do not exist. The people who live in this dreary world have nothing to live for and often end up taking their own lives. However, two unlikely lovers discovery that there is something else that is special that exists outside of their horrid world.
Boston's V66 music video station came and went in the mid-1980s but in the 18 months on the air, it was one of the only over-the-air music video channels ever created. But even popular success didn't mean it was going to last...
Internationally known as 'The Live Music Capital of the World,' Austin's music culture has led it to become one of the world's most sought-after destinations. As nearly two dozen high-rises pop up throughout the city amidst an economic downfall, how does the working musician get along? This lyrical documentary provides a telescopic view into the lives of Austin's vibrant young musicians as they grapple with questions of artistic integrity, commercialism, experimentation, and the future of their beloved city. Echotone is a cultural portrait of the modern American city examined through the lyrics and lens of its creative class.
A meditation on a Brooklyn family wrestling to navigate their path amidst the waning Bush years, rapid gentrification and financial upheaval. Walter Baker is an eccentric, multi-instrumentalist struggling to maintain balance between creating art alongside the daily trials of making ends meet in NY. Artistically and philosophically situated on the fringes of mainstream culture, Baker grasps to bear the roles of family man, business owner and aspiring composer. An unexpected Texas family gathering triggers deeper conflicts that find him grappling to reconcile fractured roots down South and ultimately at home.
Yeah boy! With a career spanning over 20 years, Public Enemy have established themselves as one of the most influential acts in the history of rap music. Through rare footage of the group and interviews with Chuck D and Flavor Flav, as well as insights from Korn's Jonathan Davis, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Henry Rollins, and others, Public Enemy's legacy is explored.