1991-2000

Synopsis
Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. He joins Castro’s rebels. By 1964, he is in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; a love-hate relationship lasts for years. Openly gay behavior is a way to spite the government. His writing and homosexuality get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. He befriends Lázaro Gomes Garriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, “Revenge.”Read More »

A seminal documentary on the life and work of one of the most influential photographers of the last thirty years. An honest dig on her and her friends marginal way of life, especially in the 80’s, marked by the drugs, violence, sex, and AIDS.
With the participation of David Armstrong, Greer Lankton and Cookie Mueller, among others.Read More »

Synopsis
A look a the lives of two sex workers in Tokyo: Rei, who works as an S&M dominatrix, and Ayumi, in the more straightforward profession of call girl. In addition to their working life, the film also looks at their private lives. Rei is acting in an amateur theatre company (along with the receptionist from Ayumi’s escort service), while Ayumi is living with her student-boyfriend as he struggles to finally get accepted to college.Read More »

The history of nuclear weapons between 1945 until 1963.

“Trinity and Beyond” is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.Read More »

Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker’s Dracula. The film’s strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect.Read More »

A forestry engineer pushes for reforestation measures, against the will of his selfish superiors, and embarks on a search for a mystical healing plant linking him with the ancestral knowledge of his people.Read More »

Quote:
In Removed, Naomi Uman physically erases the female body from old 16mm porn using nail polish remover and household bleach. This gorgeous attack of beauty and domestic product on celluloid results in a series of animated white ‘holes’ writhing orgasmically in the place of porn stars. The leering men are captured in various inadequate poses and the original dialogue tracks remain, complete with badly dubbed exchanges. The hole in the film becomes an erotic zone, a blank on which a fantasy body is projected. This brilliant work is unusually precise: it is politically subversive, pornography in its own right, sassy and extremely funny.Read More »

Quote:
In the past few years, dozens of documentaries have been made on the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Many video registrations had the dramatic siege of Sarajevo as their main subject. ECCE HOMO distinguishes itself by its personal interpretation of the blockade of Bosnia’s capital. This film has no voice-over commentating on the horrors, only images, larded now and then with fragments of religious and other music, and the hoarse croaking of crows. ECCE HOMO is not a political film, but a personal reflection on death. Time and again, she leads us to new funerals on improvised graveyards and shows images of the devastations: a burning tram, flats destroyed by fire, and the arrival of bodies at a morgue. The film reaches an emotional climax when the camera halts at a tombstone with a photo of Danica Ljubic. Who was this woman? The sister of the director? Vesna Ljubic: “The film is not sad, on the contrary; death is our only joy. And our hope.”Read More »

Synopsis
Negative Space, is an experiment that’s accessible to anyone who cares about movies, using split screen to question how we look at and remember films, and to look at how film changes with time.

A portrait of film critic Manny Farber, featuring interviews with Farber and art critic Dave Hickey, as well as inventively displayed clips of the films that Farber discusses.Read More »