Documentary

Channel BBC Two
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (21 Sept 2019) When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell. As a parting gift, Chatwin gave Herzog the rucksack that had accompanied him around the world.
Thirty years later, carrying the rucksack, Herzog sets out on his own journey, inspired by Chatwin’s passion for the nomadic life. Along the way, Herzog uncovers stories of lost tribes, wanderers and dreamers.
He travels to South America, where Chatwin wrote In Patagonia, the book that turned him into a literary sensation, with its enigmatic tales of dinosaurs, myths and journeys to the ends of the world. Read More »

Werner Herzog and Andre Singer’s riveting documentary, filled with unforgettable archive materials and based on three never before seen interviews, provides incredible access to arguably the world’s greatest living politician.

Now 88 and battling illness, the visionary Mikhail Gorbachev, the former General Secretary of the U.S.S.R., is still gently but resolutely pushing towards his goals. Herzog celebrates Gorbachev’s three remarkable accomplishments: negotiations with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons, cessation of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc. All of this in six years!Read More »

The latest documentary from Heddy Honigmann (“Forever,” “Metal and Melancholy,” “O Amor Natural”) focuses on Peru’s capital city of Lima, revealing its startling contrasts of wealth and poverty, and how many of its poorest citizens have survived decades of economic crisis, terrorism and government violence, denial of workers’ rights, and political corruption. [Synopsis courtesy of Icarus Films]Read More »

Synopsis:
Two elderly women, who have led remarkable lives, live deep in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. One, born in Russia, fell in love with a Kurdish student and set off to his native village here, where she spent the rest of her life filled with pain, turbulence and violence sparked by war. The other, a matron in the true sense of the word has witnessed numerous deaths and unexplained disappearances of the members of her large family. Their movements are calm, full of determination and wisdom that only old age can bring.
Simple lives that at the same time possess poetic dreamlike qualities, transparent, yet full of profound mystery are an ode to the joy of the ordinary life.Read More »

Year one at the Teddy McArdle Free School in Little Falls, New Jersey, where all classes are voluntary and rules are determined by vote. Wilder is there from the beginning to end of the school year, documenting and observing founder Alexander Khost, eleven-year-old Jiovanni, seven-year-old Lucy, along with an entire indelible cast of young personalities as they form relationships, explore their surroundings and intensely debate rule violations, until it all comes to a head. APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT is a portrait of unfettered childhood and human relationships.Read More »

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Having taken on flamenco (“Sevillanas”) and tango (“Tango”), Carlos Saura tackles a third great melancholy music style, directing “Fados,” a celebration of Portugal’s classic, lamenting acoustic folk songs. The film combines fado performances from top artists, dance from Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde and archive footage. In the song centrepieces, artists deliver contemporary versions of fado classics. Lined up fadistas include young female star Mariza as well as Grammy award-winner Carlos do Carmo. Renowned diva Amália Rodrigues is remembered through arquive footage while the exploration of fado’s influences and roots gives opportunities to embrace prestigious Brazilian performers Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and the emerging Cape Verdean star Lura.Read More »

“A riveting. all-elbows and knuckles documentary about the proto-punk warriors known as the MCS” – NY Times

“The film is a touching, detailed portrait of an important and often overlooked band” – SF Chronicle

Premise: This documentary examines the career of the Detroit rock group, the MC5 (1964-1972), a hard-edged rock band that emerged amidst the political turmoil of the late 1960s. As the band’s popularity grew, their chance at broader popularity was challenged by their ties to counterculture individuals like John Sinclair (leader of the left-wing revolutionary group, the White Panthers) whose presence made the band controversial targets for the police, government, FBI, etc. Establishing a fast, guitar-fueled loud rock sound that would influence the punk bands just a few years later, the MC5 eventually faded into obscurity, but they have maintained a cult following ever since.Read More »

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In Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organized their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.Read More »

“Tells the story of a group of Chilean children who discover a larger reality and a different world through the cinema. Each Saturday, Alicia Vega transforms the chapel of Lo Hermida into a film screening room as she conducts a workshop for children under the auspices of the Catholic church. The hundred or so children involved had never seen a movie, and in the workshop they see and learn about the cinema: photograms and moving images, projection, camera angles and movement, film genres, and much more. And they watch movies: Chaplin, Disney, Lamorisse’s ‘The Red Balloon,’ the Lumieres’ ‘The Arrival of the Train to the Station.’ Finally, each child designs his own film with drawings. And then, for the first time in most of their lives, the children got to the movies in downtown Santiago.” [from the video container] – Written by Fiona KelleghanRead More »