Documentary

From IMDb:
Traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac’s meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997. Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these three writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac’s death, and Ginsberg’s politicization. Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage’s music, abstract expressionism, and living theater. In recent interviews, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats’ meaning and impact.Read More »

Study on the evolution and modernization of public libraries and media libraries.Read More »

A portrait documentary about the legendary Fay Presto; the UK’s most in-demand close-up and cabaret magician who would rather die on stage than quit performingRead More »

Quote:
The distinguished German writer Uwe Johnson (1934-1984) lived for several years in the 1960s on Manhattan’s Upper Westside. His publisher, Harcourt Brace, had hired him as a textbook editor for their German-language school book editions, which allowed him to stay in New York and also tend to his own writing. In his spare time he got to know his neighborhood very well, observing the goings on in the streets, cafeterias, and parks. In 1968 German Television agreed to coproduce a film with us in which Uwe Johnson would, on-camera, introduce and question the various characters with whom he exchanges news and opinions on his wanderings on the Upper West Side. We proposed to him that he participate in the documentary. Being essentially introverted he was not interested in the on-camera concept, but was willing to make a list of places and situations that he felt should be included in the film. Christian Blackwood took charge of the project. Johnson wrote the narration once the film was edited. It was broadcast in Germany at the time.Read More »

Influenced and inspired by Jean-Luc Godard, some young french directors (Jean Eustache, Francis Leroi, Jean-Michel Barjol, Romain Goupil, Luc Moullet) are talking about their problems in producing less expensive and more free films in the french industry of cinema of the 60’s.Read More »

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The rich complexity of human relationships is central to this story of a young girl, her father, and his father, who each long to strengthen their bonds, but find themselves fighting the weight of personal and national histories. Tibetan writer-director Sonthar Gyal (The Sun-Beaten Path) makes breathtaking use of the Tibetan plains and mountains as an epic backdrop to this intimate family drama.Read More »

Revolutions, natural disasters, toxic fall-out, plane crashes – these are all part of the running picture of news against which America’s leading novelist, Don DeLillo , sets his fiction. In this film, as in his novels, DeLillo pinpoints the deep unease beneath the surface of our lives. The film begins with the assassination of President Kennedy and the politics of violence it brought to television screens for the first time. It goes on to look at the way the media has continued to feed its audience images of disaster and terror: massacres in great public squares, disasters in football stadiums, and dramatic acts of terrorism. DeLillo explores the relationship between words and images, and between gunmen and the novelist.Read More »

With her radically anarchic Czechoslovak New Wave landmark DAISIES, director Věra Chytilová set out, in her own words, “to make a film that is aesthetically pleasing and interesting, yet [which] is an image of destruction,” one in which “the idea of ‘destruction’ is present in everything, in every move of the camera.” In this edition of Observations on Film Art, Professor Kristin Thompson breaks down the complex visual motifs—in particular the use of plant and food imagery—that Chytilová employs to advance this aesthetic of annihilation, ultimately creating a film that threatens to literally self-destruct.Read More »

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In a confined section of a psychiatric ward in Northeast China, patients of schizophrenia, mania, depression, compulsive sexual behaviour and alcohol addition receive the mandatory treatment. As soon as their heads are cleared, they try to break free but always fail. Under the control of drugs and unquestionable discipline, they begin to reflect on their souls, will, desire and thoughts.Read More »