Documentary

  • Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel – Caniba (2017)

    2011-2020DocumentaryFranceLucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel

    Synopsis
    Caniba is a film that reflects on the discomforting significance of cannibalistic desire in human existence through the prism of one Japanese man, Issei Sagawa, and his mysterious relationship with his brother, Jun Sagawa.Read More »

  • Hideo Nakata – Sadistic and Masochistic (2000)

    1991-2000DocumentaryEroticaHideo NakataJapan

    Documentary on director Masaru Konuma, who dedicated his life to Japanese soft porn, directing more than 47 films in more than three decades and specializing in S&M.Read More »

  • Tom Davenport – Born for Hard Luck (1976)

    1971-1980DocumentaryTom DavenportUSA

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    Quote:
    A rare film for blues buffs.

    Between the Civil War and World War II, many gifted and restless young black musicians found careers in the traveling patent-medicine shows, a favorite entertainment in the rural and small-town South. They sang and recited comic routines and danced to attract a crowd for the pitchman and his sales of wonder-cure “snake oil.”

    “Born for Hard Luck” includes highlights from Peg Leg Sam’s performance at a North Carolina county fair in 1972, the only film record of a live medicine show. It gives excerpts from his comic routines, a mock chanted sermon, “toasts,” folktales, three buck dances, and his brilliant harmonica playing and singing of “Reuben Train,” “Greasy Greens,” “Hand Me Down,” “Who Left My Backdoor Running,” and “Froggie Went A-Courting.”Read More »

  • Paul Elliot & Sean Lamberth – The Library Music Film [+ Extras] (2018)

    2011-2020DocumentaryPaul Elliot and Sean LamberthPerformanceUnited Kingdom

    Paul Elliot & Sean Lamberth wrote:
    Library Music was composed and recorded specifically as an ‘off the shelf’ option for use in film, broadcasts and advertising. It was cheaper than commissioning a composer to score a soundtrack, and the music was written to cover every genre, every instrument and every atmosphere.

    The Golden Era of Library Music is generally deemed to have been from the late sixties to the mid-eighties with thousands of albums produced during this time. It was a time when the world’s greatest composers had access to full orchestras in the best recording studios with the very best engineers and recording equipment.Read More »

  • Henri-Georges Clouzot – Le Mystére Picasso (1956)

    1951-1960ArthouseDocumentaryFranceHenri-Georges Clouzot

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    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson:
    Released shortly after Luciano Emmer’s documentary Picasso, H. G. Clouzot’s Le Mystère Picasso managed to attain better international bookings than the earlier film, largely on the strength of Clouzot’s worldwide hit Les Diaboliques. Like Emmer before him, Clouzot offers rare and precious glimpses of Pablo Picasso at work. The film traces two of the artist’s paintings, from inception to pencil sketch to final product. The director comes as close as humanly possible to defining the genius of Picasso within the parameters of the camera lens. Oddly, Le Mystère Picasso does not appear on many of the “official” lists of Clouzot’s films, even though it won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

  • Gudie Lawaetz – Mai 68 (1974)

    1971-1980DocumentaryFranceGudie LawaetzPoliticsThe Films of May '68

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    40 years on: Mai 68
    This movie was made by Uk journalist Gudie Lawaetz only 4 years after the events took place. It was not much publicized at the time and was released in VHS a decade later.
    In addition to the interviews the movie uses the largest archival footage never gathered on May 68, including the famous scene “la reprise du travail aux usines Wonder” .

    interviews of: Pierre Viansson-Ponte, Pierre Mendes France, Jacques Sauvageot, Alfred Kastler, Daniel Cohn Bendit, Maurice Grimaud, Alain Peyrefitte, Jacques Sauvageot, Alain Geismar, Gerard Monate, Pierre Mendes France, Georges Seguy, Alain Krivine, Maurice Clavel, Christian Fouchet, Edmond Maire, Anne WiazemskyRead More »

  • Heinz Emigholz – Streetscapes [Dialogue] AKA Streetscapes – Chapter 3 (2017)

    2011-2020ArchitectureDocumentaryGermanyHeinz Emigholz

    A film director confides in his interlocutor. He talks about the working process, about creative blocks, about artistic crises and expressive forces. At some point, the idea takes hold that this conversation could be turned into a film. And this is the very film we’re watching the two of them in.Read More »

  • Dariush Mehrjui – Voyage au pays De Rimbaud (1983) DVD

    1981-1990ArthouseDocumentaryFrance

    Dariush Mehrjui did this for France 3, during his french exile. A biopic of Rimbaud, with visions of contemporary france.

    Starring :
    Pierre Bayle … Arthur Rimbaud
    Mathieu Joly … Arthur Rimbaud at 8
    Nicolas Joly … Arthur Rimbaud at 16
    The Troupe del Theatre Ern Read More »

  • Abdul Latif Salazar – Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004)

    2001-2010Abdul Latif SalazarDocumentaryPhilosophyUnited Kingdom

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    Exploring the life and impact of the greatest spiritual and legal philosopher in Islamic history, this film examines Ghazali’s existential crisis of faith that arose from his rejection of religious dogmatism, and reveals profound parallels with our own times. Ghazali became known as the Proof of Islam and his path of love and spiritual excellence overcame the pitfalls of the organised religion of his day. His path was largely abandoned by early 20th century Muslim reformers for the more strident and less tolerant school of Ibn Taymiyya. Combining drama with documentary, this film argues that Ghazali’s Islam is the antidote for today’s terror. Written by Abdul Latif SalazarRead More »

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