Documentary

  • Albert Maysles & David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin – A Visit with Truman Capote AKA With Love from Truman (1966)

    1961-1970Albert MayslesCharlotte ZwerinDavid MayslesDocumentaryUSA

    With Love From Truman portrays an intimate meeting with renowned author Truman Capote. As a reporter interviews him in his beachfront home, Capote shares his “self-regarding” personality through hip philosophy and calculated jokes. He offers insights in an endearingly raspy voice about his latest book, In Cold Blood, which Capote declares to be part of a new genre, the “non-fiction novel.” Just as the Maysles brothers’ direct cinema classics turn real stories into narratives, Capote’s non-fiction novel makes an effort to turn reality into art. In Cold Blood is based on first-hand accounts of an actual murder. The author affectionately discusses his coverage of the subsequent trial and his intriguing relationship with the two young killers. Capote claims it is the spontaneity of life that compels him to portray reality, but it is his own fresh energy and startling sense of humor that keep us intrigued.Read More »

  • Arwen Curry – Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (2018)

    2011-2020Arwen CurryDocumentaryUSA

    Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a feature documentary exploring the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin. Best known for groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy works such as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed, Le Guin defiantly held her ground on the margin of “respectable” literature until the sheer excellence of her work, at long last, forced the mainstream to embrace fantastic literature. Her fascinating story has never before been captured on film.Read More »

  • John Gianvito – Vapor Trail (Clark) (2010)

    2001-2010DocumentaryJohn GianvitoPoliticsUSA

    An investigation into the ecological disaster caused by a US military base on the Philippines – and its victims, their world. A humble act of solidarity, a defiant work of remembrance, a rallying cry to rise and resist, a cinematic prose poem.Read More »

  • Mike Leigh – The Short & Curlies (1988)

    1981-1990DocumentaryMike LeighShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    A bespectacled wise-cracker, who only communicates through corny jokes, courts the affections of a shop assistant, who – when not getting her hair done by a chatty hairdresser – is forever talking about bodily complaints. Short and sweet, with excellent performances from David Thewlis and Sylvestra Le Touzel (as the courting couple), Alison Steadman (as the hairstylist), and Wendy Nottingham (as her sullen daughter,) Leigh’s slice-of-life drama proves delightful.Read More »

  • Mannus Franken & Joris Ivens – Regen aka Rain (1929)

    1921-1930ArthouseDocumentaryJoris IvensMannus FrankenNetherlands

    Quote:
    A day in the life of a rain-shower. As a city symphony Joris Ivens films Amsterdam and its changing appearence during a rain-shower. A very poetic film with changing moods, following the change from sunny Amsterdam streets to rain drops in the canals and the pooring rain on windows, umbrellas, trams and streets, untill it clears up and the sun breaks through once again. Although it seems to be one day it took Ivens a long time to film what he wanted to film (for even in Amsterdam it doesn’t rain every day). With The Bridge, Rain became his major breakthrough as an avant-garde film artist. In 1932 Joris Ivens asked Lou Lichtveld (who also made the music for Philips Radio) to make a sound version of it, and in 1941 the film inspired Hanns Eisler to compose his “Fourteen ways to describe rain” in the context of a ‘Film Music Project’.Read More »

  • Edgar Pêra – Movimentos Perpétuos: Cine-Tributo a Carlos Paredes AKA Perpetual Movements: A Cine Tribute to Carlos Paredes (2006)

    2001-2010DocumentaryEdgar PêraExperimentalPortugalVideo Art

    Quote:
    A documentary in 17 movements, in which testimonies and the guitar define the genius, the bravery and the modesty of Carlos Paredes. In PERPETUAL MOVEMENTS ‚ A TRIBUTE TO CARLOS PAREDES a dialog is established between a guitar and a SP8 camera, in an aesthetic which evocates the memory of old family pictures, full of intimacy, revealed in the sharing of simple stories of life. The Carlos Paredes’s concert in Auditório Carlos Alberto, in Oporto, 1984, is the starting point for the unfolding of prison stories, resistance, success and amateurism, stories marked by simplicity and passion.Read More »

  • Patricio Guzmán – En nombre de Dios (1987)

    Documentary1981-1990ChilePatricio GuzmánPolitics

    Documentary that explores the rol of the Chilean Catholic Church in the fight against Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorial regime, giving great emphasis to the creation of the Vicaría of the Solidarity and the protests against the violations to the human rights. The film won festival prizes and was shown on European television.Read More »

  • Patricio Guzmán – La cruz del Sur AKA The Southern Cross (1992)

    1991-2000DocumentaryPatricio GuzmánSpain

    Quote:
    This overview of popular religiosity in Latin America journeys from pre-Colombian myths to liberation theology. “A sure synthesis of fiction and documentary. It’s a voice of voices: a space for an encounter of American diversity, which helps us to recognize ourselves as fingers on the same hand.”Read More »

  • Mads Brügger – Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019)

    2011-2020DenmarkDocumentaryMads Brügger

    Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), September 18th, 1961. Swedish Dag Hammarskjöld mysteriously dies in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case looking for a definitive closure, but instead they discover much more than the killing of Secretary-General to the United Nations.Read More »

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