Documentary

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Aeronautic engineer Graham Dorrington tries his hand at a journey towards the massive waterfalls of Kaieteur, in the heart of Guyana, hoping that his helium airship will make it successfully over the treetops. His undertaking is not without risks: twelve years earlier, a similar expedition that attempted to fly over a rainforest habitat in Sumatra had culminated in the tragic death of Dieter Plage, a friend of Dorrington. Werner Herzog is among the protagonists of the expedition, embarking in a new dirigible prototype to observe the lost world of this uncontaminated rainforest, one of the least explored territories on the planet.Read More »

This film is the follow-up to First Contact. It traces the fortunes of Joe Leahy, the mixed-race son of Australian explorer Michael Leahy, in his uneasy relationship with his tribal neighbours. Joe built his coffee plantation on land bought from the Ganiga in the mid 1970s. European educated, raised in the highlands of Papua, freed by his mixed race from the entanglements of tribal obligation, Joe leads a Western lifestyle governed by individualism and the pursuit of affluence.Read More »

Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art:
Posing as a West German TV production crew, the two East German directors of this film persuaded a former leading German mercenary of the Congo civil war (one of many!) to discuss his activities and heroic achievements in what is surely one of the most sensational exposés of its kind. Continually smiling or laughing, this man, a self-acknowledged Nazi, proudly reveals that he went to the Congo to save Western civilization from Bolshevism – to complete the work of the Nazis. Dressed in his military jungle uniform (with his Second World War decorations) he waxes eloquent about the ‘colours’ of South Africa, ‘explains’ apartheid, and freely discusses his ‘adventures’. Shots of corpses, tortures, and executions of Blacks are intercut. It is not often that one can see and hear a real, ‘live’ Nazi in action, talking (more or less) freely because he presumed himself to be among friends instead of with two of the most clever political propagandists of our time, working for the other side.Read More »

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Unique, mostly unseen before, archive footage from March 1953, presents the funeral of Joseph Stalin as the culmination of the dictator’s personality cult. The film addresses the issue of Stalin’s personality cult as a form of terror-induced delusion. It gives an insight into the nature of the regime and its legacy, still haunting the contemporary world.Read More »

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In August of 1991 New York’s Sonic Youth invited Los Angeles filmmaker David Markey along on a two week summer festival tour of Europe.Read More »

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Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Amon Düül, Tangerine Dream, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal – a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany’s gruesome past – but that didn’t stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.Read More »

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Sanrizuka – Peasants of the Second Fortress is the fourth in a series of seven films shot between 1968 and 1977 by Ogawa Productions in the fields of Sanrizuka, documenting the ongoing resistance by the farmers and their allies against the construction of a new international airport. Four years into the conflict, the authorities started the coercive expropriation of the farmlands and the violence escalated. This was met by the farmers and fighting students with a renewed sense of resistance, and with the need to organize, unite and protect themselves and the land from the riot police. They erected barricades and set up fortresses, digging underground tunnels to prepare for a long confrontation.Read More »

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A shunter’s job is to slow down, link, and unlink train wagons at a central station. The film documents – without any commentary – the working hours of few shunters at the shunting-station Dresden-Friedrichstadt, which was the largest such station in all of the former German Democratic Republic. They work day and night, amidst snow and fog at the railway tracks, speaking only as much as necessary.Read More »

Synopsis
RAMS is filmmaker Gary Hustwit’s new documentary about legendary designer Dieter Rams. For over fifty years, Rams has left an indelible mark on the field of product design with his iconic work at Braun and Vitsoe, and his influence on Apple. So at 86 years old, why does he now regret being a designer? RAMS is a design documentary, but it’s also a rumination on consumerism, materialism, and sustainability. Dieter’s philosophy is about more than just design, it’s about a way to live. The film also features an original score by pioneering musician Brian Eno.Read More »