Documentary

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The unpredictable nature of the sea governs the world of Sicilian fishermen as they work, rest, and seek refuge from a storm.Read More »

The rhythms of the sea set the tempo for this vivid account of a day in the lives of Sicilian fishermen.Read More »

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Filming amid the flaxen wheat fields of Sicily, Vittorio De Seta documents the everyday rituals of farmers during harvest time.Read More »

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Vittorio De Seta captures the music and pageantry of an Easter celebration in Sicily.Read More »

Originally, Documentarist was intended as a traditional documentary about a country that has to face challenging problems such as war, unemployment, extreme poverty, mass emigration, alcoholism and crime. Unfortunately, Harutyun Khachatryan did not raise enough state money in order to make the film he wanted to and therefore had to settle for a different project. Thus, he decided on a very unorthodox narrative strategy. By weaving together different styles, such as documentarist observation and docu-drama approach, he shed a new light on the complexities and challenges a director has to face in order to present a multifaceted picture of reality. Read More »

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Performance footage and interviews combine to offer a hilarious look at controversial comedian Andy Kauffman’s surreal journey into the world of professional wrestling. He had kept Americans in stitches as a featured player on the hit television sitcom Taxi, but Kaufman would single-handedly destroy his small-screen career when he went on television to taunt Memphis-based professional wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler”, and challenged females to fight him in the ring. As Kaufman put every ounce of his energy into taunting Lawler, his abrasive form of comedic performance art alienated the fan-base that had so ardently supported him during his days as lovable, squeaky-voiced cabbie Latka Gravas on the series that propelled him to stardom. In this documentary, fans are offered a rare glimpse into the genius of a comic who was so effective at duping the audience that many assumed his diagnoses with terminal cancer was just another warped gag.Read More »

No.16, Barkhor Street is an old courtyard in the heart of Lhasa and the site of the office of the Barkhor Neighborhood Committee. This masterful cinema verité documentary, the landmark work in the history of independent documentaries about Tibet, provides is a photographic study of rich insight into the basic workings of government in Tibet as it that follows the local Party Secretary, Deputy Director, Director for Women’s Affairs, and Community Policeman, among others, as they implement official policies and manage neighborhood affairs.
– Maysles Documentary CenterRead More »

In the 1990s David Perlov returned to the format of the filmed diaries he produced between 1973 and 1983, organized in a different way, closer to the cinematographic essay, and divided into three thematic chapters, “Sheltered Childhood”, “Routine and Rituals” and “Back to Brazil”. In the first, we follow the childhood of his grandchildren; in the second, the political routine of Israel, the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu and various rituals that make up the country’s daily life; in the third, Perlov returns to Brazil, remaking, for the last time, his trips to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.Read More »

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Armenia’s leading living filmmaker, Harutyun Khachatryan, chose his nation’s 19th century poet, Ashugh Jivani, as his new film’s central spirit. This is hardly accidental, for nothing here is prosaic. Here is a dazzling, alternative vision of a cinema that is essentially poetic, metaphorical and allusive. A work of tactile sensuality, it nominally depicts the step-by-step creation of a monumental statue of the poet that ends up traveling on the back of a truck through the Armenian countryside. From this Khachatryan conjures a transcendental cinematic experience, employing a sublime fusion of sound, image and music to evoke the soul of the director’s beloved country and its people.Read More »