Documentary

  • Heinz Emigholz – Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi und Römischer Beton AKA Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi and Roman Concrete (2012)

    2011-2020ArchitectureDocumentaryGermanyHeinz Emigholz

    Synopsis:
    The film presents 17 extant buildings by Italian master-builder Pier Luigi Nervi in Italy and France and 10 examples of Ancient Roman architecture made of Opus caementitium.Read More »

  • Salomé Lamas – Terra de ninguém AKA No Man’s Land (2012)

    2011-2020DocumentaryPoliticsPortugalSalomé Lamas

    Quote:
    A modest chair in the semi shade of a derelict place… An old man wearing a black shirt sits on that chair and starts talking with a calm voice: “Fiz um curso de engenharia elétrica, depois fui fazer o serviço militar e a partir daí dei caminho à minha vida como mercenário” (I did a course in electrical engineering, then I did my military service and from there started my life as a mercenary). Thus begins the 2012 acclaimed documentary Terra de Ninguém (No man’s land in Portuguese) directed by Salomé Lamas. [Terra Nullius: Confessions d’un mercenaire, 2014].Read More »

  • Frederick Wiseman – Monrovia, Indiana (2018)

    2011-2020DocumentaryFrederick WisemanUSA

    Quote:
    Following the 2016 presidential election, Frederick Wiseman’s documentary dissects small-town America to understand how its values impact and influence the political landscape of the nation.Read More »

  • Judy Irving – The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2003)

    2001-2010ArthouseDocumentaryJudy IrvingUSA

    A homeless musician finds meaning to his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.
    In San Francisco, there are at least two flocks of largely wild parrots who flock around the city. This film focuses on the flock of cherry-headed conures (and a lonely blue-headed one named Connor) who flock around the Telegraph Hill region of the city and their closest human companion, Mark Bittner . Through his own words, we learn of his life as a frustrated, homeless musician and how he came to live in the area where he decided to explore the nature around him. That lead him to discovering the parrot flock and the individual personalities of it. In a cinematic portrait, we are introduced to his colorful companions and the relationship they share as well as the realities of urban wild life that would change Bittner’s life forever.Read More »

  • Georgi Paradzhanov – I am a Seagull!.. (2000)

    1991-2000ArthouseDocumentaryGeorgi ParadzhanovRussia

    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 »

  • Kenji Mizoguchi & Seiichi Ina – Asahi wa kagayaku AKA The Rising Sun is Shining [Reedited version] (1929)

    1921-1930DocumentaryJapanKenji MizoguchiSeiichi InaSilent

    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 »

  • Christian Frei – War Photographer (2001)

    2011-2020Christian FreiDocumentarySwitzerland

    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 »

  • Lance Bird – The World of Tomorrow (1984)

    1981-1990ArchitectureDocumentaryLance BirdUSA

    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 »

  • Peter Sempel – Kazuo Ohno: Ich tanze ins Licht aka Kazuo Ohno: I Dance Into the Light (2004)

    2001-2010DocumentaryGermanyPerformancePeter Sempel

    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 »

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