Documentary

AMG :
“French director Alain Cavalier ventures into pseudo-documentary territory with his 2002 film René. Purportedly concocted as a means for Cavalier to help actor Joël Lefrançois lose weight while not making a straight documentary about Lefrançois’ ordeal, René instead focuses on fictional children’s theater actor René (Lefrançois) from provincial France who is undergoing a bit of a personal crisis. Having just been abandoned by his girlfriend, René decides dieting is the only way to win back her love.Read More »

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Divorce Iranian Style challenges preconceptions about what life is like for women in Iran. The most startling thing about the film is simply that it was made. The filmmakers follow the cases of three women who are attempting to divorce their husbands. Although Iranian religious law frowns on divorce, a man is allowed to claim the privilege without needing to show cause, provided he pays his ex-wife compensation. A woman, however, can only sue for divorce if she can prove that her husband is sterile or mad, or if he agrees to let her out of their marriage contract. In the last case, the compensation becomes the bargaining chip: the man will sometimes give his wife her freedom if he doesn’t have to pay.Read More »

As Chris Marker’s fans already know, Kinopoezd was a project by Alexandr Medvedkin, Soviet filmmaker and though he isn’t mentioned in the titles, he was a main locomotive in this crazy journey.
Train was full of with film prints, editing tables, actors and it traveled through Soviet Union, films were made in one day, edited at night and very next day shown to the people, who participated in it, as Marker says.Read More »

Can the theatre arts survive in the 21st century?

If Theatre 1 is about the world of Hirata, Theatre 2 is a feature documentary, which depicts the relationship between Hirata and the world we live in. In order for his art and his not-so-commercial company to survive this highly capitalistic modern society, what kind of strategy does Hirata have and practice?Read More »

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“One day I am going to pull the anchor that keeps my ship away from the seas”, is one of the most famous phrases of the Belgian poet Henri Michaux, to whom the film director Mariano Llinás decided to pay tribute with his new work in a pandemic.Read More »

Synopsis
An uncompromising look at the ways privacy, safety, convenience and surveillance determine our environment. Shot entirely at night, the film confronts the hermetic nature of white-collar communities, dissecting the fear behind contemporary suburban design. An isolation-based fear (protect us from people not like us). A fear of irregularity (eat at McDonalds, you know what to expect). A fear of thought (turn on the television). A fear of self (don’t stop moving). By examining evacuated suburban and corporate landscapes, the film reveals a peculiarly 21st century hollowness… an emptiness born of our collective faith in safety and technology. This is a new genre of horror movie, attempting suburban locations as states of mind.Read More »

Jean-Pierre Melville’s independent and original approach to film-making on titles such as Bob Le Flambeur, Le Doulos, and Le Samourai earned him the reputation of the father, or at least the precursor, of the French New Wave. However, what is less known is that Melville spent eight years of his life between 1937 and 1945 as a soldier in the French army and then the Free French Forces, which he joined after the French defeat the Germans. Having escaped through the South of France to Spain, he became a member of the Resistance and took on the code name of Melville (after Herman Melville, the writer he most admired). Read More »

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Travel to Lijiang and learn about life in China of the 1990s. At first, this small town may seem strange to you and its residents very different, but you’ll quickly discover that people in Lijiang care about the same kinds of things as you. Watch the drama of the Lu family as they live and work. Follow Mr. Mu as he deals with the aftermath of his nephew’s murder, and observe the official inquiry into the young teenager’s death. See Dr. Tang use acupuncture to treat Little Swallow, a young girl with cerebral palsy. CHINA: BEYOND THE CLOUDS is an intense journey into the dreams, anxieties, and joys of ordinary people living in an extraordinary time.Read More »

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Ever-provocative and prolific Rosa von Praunheim takes on uniform fetishes, extreme-right skinheads, gays in the original Nazi leadership, and more in his latest docu, “Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis” somehow weaving it all together into a compelling look at the appeal of fascism — even to those who are its frequent victims. Beyond gay-fest travel, feature could score select offshore telecast and DVD deals.Read More »