Documentary

Synopsis
An ironic look at what it is like to be beautiful for a woman (and handsome for a few men) in the Paris of the late twenties…Read More »

In 1975, I was invited to “make any film I wanted as long as it was shot in Minneapolis.” David Hancock, a filmmaker friend in Vermont, who coincidentally grew up in Minneapolis, had just asked me to film him. He had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer in his early thirties and wanted me to document the craziness of his dying days, as he was buffeted from chemotherapy to New Age cures recommended by friends. I didn’t have the stomach to follow much of David’s last days. Meanwhile, Steve Ascher and I teamed up to go to Minneapolis. We wanted to ask strangers what in their lives they would like to have filmed. For me, it was almost like an act of expiation. -Ed PincusRead More »

“This film, actually several feature films combined into one, consists entirely of interviews with American POWs in North Vietnam. The Americans talk at great length about their lives, values, and Vietnam experiences, in consistently fascinating exchanges with the invisible interviewers. In the process, more is revealed than intended, on both sides. The American testimonies should be published in the West for light they throw on the new impersonal, ‘remote-control’ killers of our day: ‘honourable men’, all of them. But the East German revelation is equally fascinating; for the obscene but quite serious premise of this film, in their eyes, is that these were freely conducted interviews among equals.Read More »

Quote:
Compilation of lighting and costume tests from various films, most notably Sternberg’s The Devil Is a Woman (1935).Read More »

When Eartha Kitt takes the stage in this midcareer portrait, she doesn’t sing a song so much as live it. Emanating from every underlying muscle, from her brow to her pointed toes, Kitt’s unrelenting physicality and undulating voice animate each performance, as she seamlessly weaves personal musings into her campy renditions. Revealing Kitt to be as comfortable schmoozing at galas in sequins and fur as she is makeup-free and sporting a disarmingly cute bullfrog T-shirt in her sunlit kitchen, this documentary follows Kitt to every corner of her professional and private life. From enduring a traumatic deep-South upbringing to being blacklisted and investigated by the FBI for fearlessly criticizing America’s presence in Vietnam at a 1968 White House luncheon, Kitt exemplified her own aphorism: “If you don’t want the challenge, you have no business being here.” Read More »

A thirty day music marathon by Swiss musicians Koch-Schütz-Studer turns into a cinematic piece of chamber music.Read More »

Synopsis:
This poetic documentary shows people and situations from both East and West Berlin. As if invisible, the camera crosses over the wall several times, fusing the experiences into something that didn’t exist in the mid-eighties-outside of the cinema. 25 years after the Berlin Wall was built, perhaps the most horrifying aspect was that the Berliners took it for granted and had learned to ignore it. The wall was mirrored in everyone’s head. This film questions that ingrown attitude.—FilmportalRead More »

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Signer’s “action sculptures” involve setting up, carrying out, and recording “experiments” or events that bear aesthetic results. Following carefully planned and strictly executed and documented procedures, the artist enacts and records such acts as explosions, collisions, and the projection of objects through space. Video works like Stiefel mit Rakete (Boot with Rocket) are integral to Signer’s performances, capturing the original setup of materials that self-destruct in the process of creating an emotionally and visually compelling event. Signer gives a humorous twist to the concept of cause and effect and to the traditional scientific method of experimentation and discovery, taking on the self-evidence of scientific logic as an artistic challenge.Read More »

Trace the incredible story of defiant visionary Igor Savitsky, an artist and museum curator who cunningly acquired more than 40,000 banned Soviet Union paintings and hid the illegal collection from the KGB in Uzbekistan’s Nukus Museum. In addition to rare archival footage and interviews with the artists’ children, this absorbing documentary also features letters and diary entries read by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Edward AsnerRead More »