Documentary

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The latest film by Hartmut Bitomsky is, just like much of his early work, a original film essay about film and film history. Just as in earlier films, he makes inventive use of the potential offered by the medium video to analyse films.The history of the UFA is the story of a risky financial venture in the twenties and a propaganda instrument in the thirties. Bitomsky’s approach stands out because he involvesthis social and political context in investigating and dissecting films.Read More »

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However a VW is put together, what comes out is always the Federal Republic of Germany.

The VW factory is a museum of industrial technology, and at the same time it is its Utopia. The old factory buildings convey the impression of almost like being in a cathedral. In order to communicate with the crane operators high above, the workers beat on the steel griders with heavy hammers. The new buildings, however, are much lower – like in a complex of new apartments, in which you can touch the ceilings with your hands. While going around inside the buildings, you can follow the creation of an automobile and at the same time bid farewell to the industrial age.Read More »

Synopsis from Women Make Movies:
A tale of two sisters living in the shadow of two Chinas, this documentary by award-winning filmmaker Marlo Poras (Mai’s America; Run Granny Run) follows Juma and Latso, young women from one of the world’s last remaining matriarchal societies. Thrust into the worldwide economic downturn after losing jobs in Beijing and left with few options, they return to their remote Himalayan village. But growing exposure to modernity has irreparably altered traditions of the Mosuo, their tiny ethnic miniority, and home is not the same. Determined to keep their family out of poverty, one sister sacrifices her educational dreams and stays home to farm, while the other leaves, trying her luck in the city. The changes test them in unexpected ways. This visually stunning film highlights today’s realities of women’s lives and China’s vast cultural and economic divides while offering rare views of a surviving matriarchy.Read More »

A documentary about the early beginning of the deconstructivist era of the architecture flourishing in the 80´ties.
Interviews with Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, Frank Gehry, Daniel Liebeskind, Derrida, Micheal Sorkin and more.Read More »

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Like his last film, 2008’s 24 City, Jia Zhangke’s Un Certain Regard title I Wish I Knew is a documentary/fiction hybrid about modern-day China. Where 24 City took a personal focus on the citizens of a Chinese town affected by the construction of a high-rise condominium, I Wish I Knew takes a broader view, examining the history of Shanghai as viewed from the present. It combines interviews with citizens, actors, and filmmakers with architectural shots of present-day Shanghai and footage of actress Zhao Tao wandering the city. The film is never less than gorgeous, and there’s often an intuitive and pleasing internal rhythm to how he cuts within and between shots.Read More »

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Gallivant is a fantastic British road movie and Andrew Kotting deserves to take his place with those two other great film iconoclasts and chroniclers of late twentieth century life in Britain: Derek Jarman and Patrick Keiller. He is also a great stylist and humourist, which makes the film very accessible despite it’s restless experimentation and disregard for documentary conventions.Read More »

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An American provincial town’s public consultation about the expansion of the Wal-Mart supermarket, recreated in minute detail as a feature film shot in black-and-white 16mm. The transcript from the real life public hearing is serving as the actors’ manuscript – complete with a five minute break in the middle! – while power-point presentations from the meeting are serving as backdrop.Read More »

With a screening time equivalent to a full day’s work, Everson turns the cinema into a factory floor. Workers are observed while performing specific tasks, as well as while taking breaks. His humble approach paradoxically results in a monumental film.Read More »

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23 March 2010 | by MisterWhiplash (United States)

There’s something about the way Neil Young ends a song that is unique to him. Actually, a lot of rockers tend to do it, but not to the extent Young seems to do it. That is, just when you think the song is about to reach the end (that is, based on how one has heard the song so many times on an album), it goes on a little longer, or even for another several bars. Take the last song before the encore, ‘Like a Hurricane’. Just when you think the song ends, Young keeps plucking those strings, getting that distortion going, and the band, for maybe just a moment, is not sure if the song is over yet either. They could go on, or stop right there.Read More »