Documentary

  • Barnaby O’Connor & Matthew O’Connor – The Pickup Game (2019)

    2011-2020Barnaby O'ConnorDocumentaryMatthew O'ConnorUnited Kingdom

    IMDB:
    The Pickup Game is an inside look at the emergence of the ‘pickup’ industry – an business where self-styled seduction coaches travel the world, charging a small fortune to teach men skills they claim will guarantee success with women. For the instructors who are successful, it is a highly lucrative occupation, with many companies earning millions of dollars a year. It is also an industry rife with controversy and scandal. Several teachers have been deported from countries for their contentious methodologies and pickup businesses are often the subject of fierce public criticism. Read More »

  • Claire Simon – Mimi (2003)

    Documentary2001-2010Claire SimonFrance

    “Mimi isn’t a star, she’s just someone. I wanted to make a film about her life. That is, about the life of… someone. I wanted to follow as closely as possible the singularity of a real life in order to encounter its own particular romance, fantasy. Things that I’d discover when filming. In Nice, her hometown, or in the mountains, drifting between familiar and unfamiliar places where I filmed her, I waited for this story as yet unknown to me to come back to Mimi and for her to recount the scenes that make up her personal novel.”
    Claire SimonRead More »

  • Mehrdad Oskouei – Hamishe Baraye Azadi Dir Ast AKA It’s Always Late For Freedom (2006)

    2001-2010DocumentaryIranMehrdad Oskouei

    The portrait of three teenage boys being held in a youth corrections centre in Teheran, It’s Always Late for Freedom depicts the distress of a generation sacrificed on the altar of Iran’s profound social problems. Hardcore drugs, poverty, violence… these young men, hardly more than boys, seem more like victims than perpetrators. Entirely immersed in the everyday life of the prison, filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei (The Other Side of Burka) won the young men’s trust, and they hold nothing back of their hurts, frustrations, hopes and confusion. The camera records their childish schemes, conversations with family, and the routine of prison life with intimate close-ups of faces and bodies that reveal their secret pain. A gripping story of childhood laid bare.Read More »

  • Sergio Da Costa & Maya Kosa – L’Île aux oiseaux AKA Bird Island (2019)

    2011-2020ArthouseDocumentaryMaya KosaSergio Da CostaSwitzerland

    Birds’ Island? A small veterinary centre specialized in ornithology. Social services have assigned Antonin this job with the aim of re-inserting him into the work-force after illness and isolation, leaving him both unskilled and lacking motivation. He’ll be taking over for Paul, who will soon be leaving for retirement after years of raising mice to be fed to the centre’s predatory birds. Sandrine and Emily are both veterinarians; they take care of birds, in particular one traumatized owl who has to learn how to live again.Read More »

  • Volker Schaner – Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise (2015)

    2011-2020DocumentaryGermanyVolker Schaner

    Quote:
    A thrilling, poetic narration with the legendary Lee Scratch Perry, this movie is a unique project in many ways: it’s not a biography but rather a fairytale documentary! The director followed Lee Perry for 15 years and discovered a story that is almost impossible to believe: a revelation, told about and with one of the major protagonists of contemporary music. It is a mind-blowing encounter with „The Prophet“ of the international Rastafari movement, one of the icons of the Black Power movement and “the” inventor of reggae and dub and it is also a humorous adventure of epic dimensions. The movie can be seen as a guide for how to change the world with music – with a positive attitude, mindset or, as Lee Perry calls it: “vibration”.Read More »

  • Cyrill Schläpfer – Ur-Musig (1993)

    1991-2000Cyrill SchläpferDocumentaryPerformanceSwitzerland

    Quote:
    This movie is about traditional swiss folkmusic has a lot more to offer than only folklore. “UR-Musig” is about the work and life of mountain peasants in the midst of archaic mountain landscapes. It is about traditional swiss architecture and interior decorations, about peoples and their garbs. There are not many dialogs and no narrator. The pictures speak for themselves. The Swiss Prealps are shown in all four seasons and in all thinkable weathers which make every landscape shot more breathtaking than the other.Read More »

  • Leni Riefenstahl – Olympia 2. Teil – Fest der Schönheit AKA Olympia 2: Festival of Beauty (1938)

    Documentary1931-1940Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtGermanyLeni Riefenstahl

    Quote:
    After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. The production tends to glorify the young male body and, some say, expresses the Nazi attitude toward athletic prowess. Miss Riefenstahl captures the grace of athletes during field hockey, soccer, bicycling, equestrian, aquatic and gymnastic events. Highlights are the Pentathlon and the Decathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris; it ends with the triumphant conclusion of the games.Read More »

  • Leni Riefenstahl – Olympia 1. Teil – Fest der Völker AKA Olympia 1: Festival of the Nations (1938)

    Documentary1931-1940Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtGermanyLeni Riefenstahl

    Quote:
    After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition. Includes the marathon, men’s diving, and American track star Jesse Owen’s sprint races at the 1936 Olympic games. The production tends to glorify the young male body and, some say, expresses the Nazi attitude toward athletic prowess. Includes the lighting of the torch at the stadium and Adolf Hitler looking on in amazement as Jesse Owens wins an unprecedented four Gold MedalsRead More »

  • Jørgen Leth – At danse Bournonville AKA Dancing Bournonville (1979)

    1971-1980DenmarkDocumentaryJørgen LethPerformance

    At danse Bournonville is a portrait of the Bournonville tradition at the Royal Danish ballet that has survived for 150 years on the basis of a few notes and the memories of the dancers and is the basis of the special nature and global reputation the company enjoys. The film was created in continuation of, and drawing on, Leth and Holmberg’s experience in making Peter Martins – en danser.Read More »

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