Documentary

Observational documentarian Barbara Kopple has a long history of making herself seem invisible, but the vérité intimacy and anti-establishment zeal of Oscar-winning classics like “Harlan County, USA,” and “American Dream” suggest that her signature work couldn’t have been made by anyone else; Kopple isn’t absent from these films so much as she’s sublimated into the air they breathe. “Desert One” is different — you couldn’t find Kopple’s fingerprints on this comprehensive but incurious account of the Iran hostage crisis if you watched the movie through a magnifying glass. Read More »

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At the time of Tunisian independence, owners of large boats decide to sell, while many small fishermen soon find themselves without work. Their wives then decide to pool their gold rings to sell them and thus buy boats.Read More »

Looks very interesting, some of Bitomsky’s classic techniques dollying through spaces, stop pans and quite a lot of movement with the camera. Among other structures looks at a housing complex, several houses, a library, a school and a concert hall designed by Scharoun.Read More »

The Story of Film: An Odyssey is an unprecedented cinematic event, an epic journey through the history of world cinema that is a treat for movie lovers around the globe. Guided by film historian Mark Cousins, this bold 15-part love letter to the movies begins with the invention of motion pictures at the end of the 19th century and concludes with the multi-billion dollar globalized digital industry of the 21st.Read More »

Documentary about Humberto Mauro, his work and its importance.Read More »

Sharon Lockhart’s new film, Pódworka, takes as its subject matter the courtyards of Lodz, Poland, and the children that inhabit them. A ubiquitous architectural element of the city, Lodz’ courtyards are the playgrounds of the children that live in the surrounding apartment buildings. Separated from the streets, they provide a sanctuary from the traffic and commotion of the city. Yet far from the overdetermined playgrounds of America, the courtyards are still very much urban environments. In six different courtyards throughout the city of Lodz, we see parking lots, storage units, and metal armatures become jungle gyms, sandboxes, and soccer fields in the children’s world. A series of fleeting interludes within city life, Pódworka is both a study of a specific place and an evocation of the resourcefulness of childhood. (lockhartstudio.com)Read More »

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This award-winning homage, illuminates the life of German Jewish Expressionist architect Erich Mendelsohn. His story unfolds through the letter exchange, the correspondence of two artists brought to life by director, Duki Dror. Mendelsohn’s career followed the trajectory of many German Jews fleeing Nazism; he worked in England, Israel and in the USA. His earlier work, the Einstein Tower, is one of the important exemplars of modern architecture. Dror deftly juxtaposes the architect’s designs with contemporary images, weaving in reflections from architects who use these unique buildings today – a testament to the integrity and timelessness of his visionary design.Read More »

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Wednesday, July 19, 1961: it’s summertime and the newspapers are full of the usual articles. The world is comfortably embedded in the Cold War. An average day in Leningrad. 51 girls and 50 boys are born in Leningrad on this day.
One of them is Victor Kossakovsky. Why here and not somewhere else? Why then and not another time? These questions are the starting point for his film. Could it be that this child was mistaken for another in hospital? Who are all the people who began their lives on that same day? Do they somehow share the same fate or are they merely contemporaries?Read More »

Variety review:
The delightfully impish outrageousness of Rosa von Praunheim turns to more serious contemplation of his origins in the German helmer’s engrossing family docu, “Two Mothers.” Told in 2000 by his 94-year-old mother that he was adopted at an orphanage in Riga, von Praunheim sets out to track down his natural parents. Though such journeys are hardly new, the helmer’s fearless honesty and WWII backdrop make for compelling viewing. Born Holger Radtke in 1942, adopted as Holger Mischwitzky, von Praunheim approaches his search with conflicted emotions, since the parents who raised him provided the kind of loving, supportive home an enfant terrible filmmaker needs to survive. Read More »