Documentary

Publisher’s description:
The satirical documentary Contras’ City (which stands for Contrast City) was shot on 16mm in 1968. It is one of the earliest African comic movie and an urban planning analysis of the “two Dakars”. It is considered the first African comedy. It is a satire on Dakar – a city in which styles and cultures are blended in a cosmopolitan small area. Mambety manipulates the classic documentary apparatus with the object of exploring social conflicts of the capital city.Read More »

IMDB:
Portrait of an artist as a young man. Roughly chronological, using archival footage intercut with recent interviews, a story takes shape of Bob Dylan’s (b. 1941) coming of age from 1961 to 1966 as a singer, songwriter, performer, and star. He takes from others: singing styles, chord changes, and rare records. He keeps moving: on stage, around New York City and on tour, from Suze Rotolo to Joan Baez and on, from songs of topical witness to songs of raucous independence, from folk to rock. He drops the past. He refuses, usually with humor and charm, to be simplified, classified, categorized, or finalized: always becoming, we see a shapeshifter on a journey with no direction home.Read More »

The Gardener is a surreal film made using documentary-style techniques via the cameras of father and son (the Makhmalbafs) who go to Israel to learn about a religion (Baha’i faith) that they don’t know much due to its taboo status in the country of both the filmmaker and the faith’s birth – Iran.Read More »

This rare documentary, simply called “John Cage”, was made in 1966 for the German TV station NDR and is one of the earliest films devoted entirely to the work of Cage and his collaborators. It was made on the occasion of the Cage and Cunningham European tour in that year, and instead of fully explaining the music and philosophy of the composer, we get a fascinating glimpse at the work process of the dance troupe and of Cage himself. Most of the film is concerned with showing us how they set up a performance for the Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, and there is a lot of interview and everyday material with Cage, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma and Carolyn Brown, to name just the best known artists here. It’s also nice to see a rather youthful looking Cage (though he was 54 at the time!), still wearing the famous tie that had been cut off by Nam June Paik a few years earlier. There’s also some archival footage from Tudor’s and Cage’s very first German performance in Darmstadt in 1954.Read More »

His teachers, coaches, childhood friends and Barça teammates, together with journalists, writers and prominent figures from the history of football, come together in a restaurant to analyze and pick apart Messi’s personality both on and off the field, and to look back at some of the most significant moments in his life. Viewed from Álex de la Iglesia’s unique perspective, Messi recreates the player’s childhood and teenage years, from his very first steps, with a football always at his feet, through to the decision to leave Rosario for Barcelona, the separation from his family, and the role played in his career by individuals such as Ronaldinho, Rijkaard, Rexach and Guardiola.Read More »

The traditional and modest life in deep rural Crete. A film on the verge of traditional documentary film and an attempt to find a new direction in terms of what documentary film could be. An envious look at contemporary works by his fellow filmmakers from the British Free Cinema, obviously spurred on director Pitt Koch’s ambition.Read More »

Quote:
From Provence to Greece, a very personal travel diary shot while Jean-Daniel Pollet accepts an invitation to participate in a conference. Leaving is always a fantastic endeavor and the filmmaker sublimates the experience by gleaning images of places and loved ones. Images of Delphi, Bassae, Ancient Greece … But for Pollet these images are not enough, and he must also speak of the world … News, television and even Peugeot advertising images, which resulted in the film being blocked for many months.Read More »

Quote:
The culmination of Albert Maysles’ lifelong passion for capturing the stories of train passengers, and styled in the tradition of Direct Cinema, In Transit unfolds as a series of interconnected vignettes.

Ranging from overheard conversations to moments of deep intimacy, in which travelers share their fears, hopes and dreams, In Transit takes place entirely aboard Amtrak’s Empire Builder, the country’s busiest long-distance route. A journey into the hearts and minds of these everyday Americans, the directors explore the essence of what it is to be a citizen of America today.Read More »

A documentary which traces the life of the magnetic, world-conquering, Jamaican musician, model and party queen Grace Jones.

Larger than life, wild, scary and androgynous – Grace Jones plays all these parts. Yet here we also discover her as a lover, daughter, mother, sister and even grandmother, as she submits herself to our gaze and allows us to understand what constitutes her mask. The stage is where her most extreme embodiments are realised and her theatrical imagination lets loose: this is where the musical of her life is played out. The film includes Grace’s unique performances singing iconic hits such as Slave To The Rhythm, Pull Up To The Bumper, as well as the more recent autobiographical tracks Williams’ Bloods and Hurricane. Read More »