Documentary

  • Sarah Polley – Stories we tell (2012)

    2011-2020CanadaDocumentaryExperimentalSarah Polley

    In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar®-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who’s telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of their mother, who departed too soon, leaving a trail of unanswered questions. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy and fiercely loving. Stories We Tell explores the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the …
    Written by The National Film Board of CanadaRead More »

  • Torsten Hoffmann & Michael Watchulonis – Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It (2015)

    2011-2020AustraliaDocumentaryTorsten Hoffmann and Michael Watchulonis

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    Bitcoin: The End Of Money As We Know It traces the history of money from the bartering societies of the ancient world to the trading floors of Wall St.

    The documentary exposes the practices of central banks and the dubious financial actors who brought the world to its knees in the last crisis. It highlights the Government influence on the money creation process and how it causes inflation. Moreover, this film explains how most money we use today is created out of thin air by banks when they create debt.
    Epic in scope, this film examines the patterns of technological innovation and questions everything you thought you knew about money.
    Is Bitcoin an alternative to national currencies backed by debt? Will Bitcoin and cryptocurrency spark a revolution in how we use money peer to peer? Is it a gift to criminals? Or is it the next bubble waiting to burst? If you trust in your money just as it is – this film has news for you.
    (Written by Torsten Hoffmann)Read More »

  • Martina Kudlácek – Im Spiegel der Maya Deren AKA In the mirror of Maya Deren (2002)

    2001-2010ArthouseAustriaDocumentaryMartina KudlácekMaya Deren

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    With IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN, documentary filmmaker Martina Kudlácek has fashioned not only fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking and influential artist, but a pitch-perfect introduction to her strikingly beautiful and poetic body of work. Crowned “Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body” by the L.A. Weekly, Maya Deren is arguably the most important and innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema. Using locations from the Hollywood hills to Haiti, Deren made such mesmerizing films as AT LAND, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME and her masterpiece MESHES OF THE AFTERNOONRead More »

  • Mark Rappaport – The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk (2015)

    USA2011-2020DocumentaryMark RappaportShort Film

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    A video essay exploring the frequency and meaning of that particular prop in a wide variety of Sirk movies. Is it a device that traps and keeps women in an artificial world with a limited point of view? Or is it a gateway to the past and the future, and a distorted but nevertheless real vision of the roles that woman are forced to play in society? It’s an exploration of the texts and subtexts of commercial films and the subterranean and complicated ways that they affect us and can be read.Read More »

  • Allie Light & Irving Saraf – In the Shadow of the Stars (1991)

    USA1991-2000Allie Light and Irving SarafDocumentary

    Academy Award-winning documentary covering the performers who are often overlooked when people go to the opera. “In the shadow of the stars” is basically referring to the people performing their jobs, hoping for their big breaks while not getting that much attention in their current positions. There’s no question that this is a pretty interesting documentary but I think the people are going to be most effected by it are those actual opera fans or those who are in the same position as the people here and can connect with them. I think the best thing that the film has going for it is that it actually makes you familiar with some of the lesser known people who work. I thought it was fascinating hearing from people who have been waiting years for their big break and we get to hear the daily drama that goes on. This could be rehearsals where they’re not working out as well as they hoped or it could be in their personal lives where the stress is simply making things bad at home. Throughout the picture we’re introduced to several people and all of them discuss their careers and lives. Some of the stories get repeated to the point where you feel as if you’re hearing it over and over but for the most part the film keeps you drawn in and entertained.Read More »

  • David Thompson – Arena: Nicolas Roeg – It’s About Time (2015)

    2011-2020BBCDavid ThompsonDocumentaryUnited Kingdom

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    Quote:
    The first major profile of the great British film director Nicolas Roeg, examining his very personal vision of cinema as in such films as Don’t Look Now, Performance, Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth. Roeg reflects on his career, which began as a leading cinematographer, and on the themes that have obsessed him, such as our perception of time and the difficulty of human relationships. With contributions from key collaborators, including Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter and Theresa Russell, and directors he has inspired such as Danny Boyle, Mike Figgis, Bernard Rose and Ben Wheatley.Read More »

  • Manoel de Oliveira – Um Século de Energia (2015)

    2011-2020DocumentaryPortugalShort Film

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    Quote:
    Manoel de Oliveira shows us what the evolution of energy represents, through a retrospective of the last century, exploring the three technics that EDP uses in order to produce electricity: hydric, wind, and solar.Read More »

  • Francoise Wolff – Jacques Lacan Speaks (1971)

    1971-1980BelgiumDocumentaryFrancoise WolffPhilosophyPhilosophy on Screen

    Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychoanalysts of the 20th century, one whose work has refashioned psychiatry both as a theory of the unconscious mind and as a clinical practice. His seminars and writings have also had a widespread influence throughout the humanities and social sciences, especially in education, legal studies, literary and film studies and women’s studies.Read More »

  • BBC – Human, All Too Human: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre (1999)

    Documentary1991-2000BBCPhilosophyPhilosophy on ScreenUnited Kingdom

    BBC documentaries on 3 existentialist philosophers – Neitzsche, Heidegger and Satre. The rip quality is not great, but highly watchable and the standard of the documentaries is top notch featuring a number of highly respected academics plus Will Self.Read More »

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