Documentary

Ya-Chaika! / I am a seagull!..
Georgi Paradzhanov’s sensational tape.
On the screen – the woman-phantom. As at a tragical bird, wings of a white lacy shawl tremble. The image is washed away, persons it is not visible almost. She is the heroine of a film “I am the Seagull” which has been shown on film festivals in Venice and Kiev and now for the first time it is presented the Moscow spectators. The film tells about destiny of actress Valentina Karavaeva, a unique which well-known role and remained “Mashenka” (IMDB).
Solve, about what this film: about a painful narcissism, about fidelity to art, about destiny riddles, about dotage or about not recognised genius.
Distributer VHS Karmen videoRead More »

Partially lost film. Exactly it is said only 1/4 are extant.

Original story is like the following (translated from the accompanying booklet):

After finishing university, Hayafusa (Eiji Nakano) and Kusaka (Hiroyoshi Murata) enter Osaka Asahi Shimbun Co. Akizuki (Heitarô Hirai), the president of some company, who is from the same province with them, does not pleased of their entrance because he dislikes newspaper, however, his daughter Asako (Ranko Sawa) prays their future successes. At the office of Shinzaki (Shin Minobe), that are located at the same building with Akizuki, dubious foreigners have frequented, Hayafusa and Kusaka can obtain Shinzaki’s encrypted telegram with the help of elevator operator Kurie (Takako Irie). When Aurora, steamship round the world meets with a disaster off the coast of Sumoto, they goes there as reporters.Read More »

Witnessing the Witness: Looking Over a Shoulder at War’s Deprivation

Even if you have never heard of James Nachtwey, the award-winning photojournalist who is the subject of Christian Frei’s new documentary ”War Photographer,” it is likely that you are familiar with his work. For more than two decades Mr. Nachtwey has traveled to places in the world devastated by war, famine and poverty and documented the cruelty and suffering he has found with an devastating, eloquent clarity. He was in Nicaragua at the height of the contra war, in South Africa during the bloody mid-1980’s and in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.Read More »

The film was first broadcast on PBS in 1984 as a 60-minute feature and later expanded into an 84-minute production.

From New York Times review
”THE World of Tomorrow,” which opens today at the Film Forum, is a fine, funny feature-length documentary about the New York World’s Fair of 1939, when, for a few, short, glittery months, Western civilization paused between the Depression and World War II.Read More »

This is a wonderful documentary movie about Butoh-dancer-legend Kazuo Ohno.
It’s a German movie, so there will be some introductory talk and some voiceovers in German, but the other parts of the movies mostly consist of talks in English or in Japanese with an English interpreter sitting next to the people talking in Japanese – so you will be able to understand pretty much without knowing any German. And even if you dont understand anything, the film is just worth it for the wonderful material showing Kazuo Ohno.Read More »

Filmmaker Jack Bond and Salvador Dali got together at Christmas 1965 to make Dali in New York, a highly entertaining film. Dali devoted two weeks of his life to creating extraordinary scenes for the film, performing “manifestations” with a plaster cast, a thousand ants and one million dollars in cash. When he confronts the feminist writer, Jane Arden, sparks fly. “You are my slave!”. “I am not your slave”. “Everybody is my slave”.Read More »

The first documentary by Wojciech Staroń. He just finished film school, his wife Małgosia just became a teacher. The year is 1997. They decide to go for a year deep into Siberia: she’ll teach Polish, he’ll shoot a film. And this is that beautiful film, narrated in the first person by Małgosia as she meets all sorts of colorful characters and reflects upon reality with her beautiful, monotone voice, seeing the good in people individually and collectively. This is also about her transformation in this travel undertaken in the centuries-old fashion of the observer who, by observing others, observes herself.Read More »

Alaouié presents the stories of four exiles from Beirut. Their only connection is the voice of the narrator and their situation of living in exile in Europe. Told with a subtle humor, the film sketches four highly individual portraits of people, whose lives have taken unexpected turns due to the madness of the Civil War.Read More »

Quote:
February 2011, Red Market, Macao’s famous food market. Two directors, a common look. The gestures and the routines, between life and death. In memoriam Jane Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011).Read More »