Since its premiere on PBS in September 1996, The West has rightfully assumed its place as a milestone event in television history, and remains the single most ambitious and authoritative audio-visual history of the American West. Spanning centuries but focusing primarily on the period of 1800 to 1915, when America was virtually redefined by westward expansion, this outstanding 12.5-hour film is itself a triumphant effort to redefine Americans’ collective understanding of the West and its impact on national identity. Directed by Stephen Ives and executive produced by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz), the film follows the theory adopted by previous Ken Burns productions–namely, that “history is biography”–and unfolds through a wealth of personal anecdote and intimate documentation.Read More »

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A landmark of the nascent Hong Kong New Wave of the early ’80s, this melodrama — directed by Ann Hui — concerns the plight of Vietnamese peasants shortly after the fall of Saigon. The film centers on a Japanese photojournalist named Shiomi Akutagawa (George Lam Chi-cheung) who ventures to Danang to document Vietnam’s attempts at rebuilding after the war. At first he’s bussed around by government officials showing off quaint villages and happy, healthy children. Later, he manages to get permission to wander about the countryside without a government chaperon. Soon he happens upon a young lass named Cam Nuong (Season Ma Si-san) who is from a desperately poor family.Read More »

Clare Kitson in “Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator’s Journey” wrote:
Norstein’s workbook’ [трудовая книжка] (something like a car’s service book, recording developments throughout one’s working life) shows his promotions (and hence pay-rises) progressing at a snail’s pace. Yet in 1972, while still officially a humble ‘animator category 1’, he was commissioned to make his first fully independant film as director. By this time, the unwilling animator had had something of a change of heart and was now passionately aspiring to direct animation – partly out of frustration with some of the bad projects he had beeRead More »

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This documentary film explores the spread of nationalism according to the concept of “Homogeneous, Empty Time” by Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic. The theory as referenced in the book Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson stated that nationalistic ideologies originated from emptiness within an area where people have homogenous consciousness. This film, therefore, explores people in a variety of communities in Thailand, such as high school students, religious people, nationalistic right-wingers, military cadets, and people in the Southern border, in an attempt to find what foundation the Thai nation is formed upon.Read More »

Hasan is seething with rage. A blacklisted director, it’s been years since he was allowed to shoot a film. The actress he has made a star and with whom he is in love now wants to make a film with another director. He and his wife have drifted apart and his daughter is also about to cut the cord. Moreover, his old mother who lives with them appears to be losing her mind. Worst of all, however, is that in Tehran and its environs, filmmakers are being murdered. But why is the serial killer ignoring him of all people? Hasan is crushed: isn’t he the best filmmaker in town? Why isn’t he being beheaded? His frustration is exacerbated when, as a result of a series of bizarre misunderstandings, he becomes the prime suspect. There’s a frenzy of running commentaries on social media and his popularity is plummeting by the minute. Hasan needs a diabolical plan to restore his reputation.Read More »

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Compline is a night devotion or prayer, the last of the canonical hours, the final act in a cycle. This film is also the last film I will be able to shoot in Kodachrome, a film stock I have shot since I was 10 years old. It is a loving duet with and a fond farewell to this noble emulsion.
–Nathaniel DorskyRead More »

Synopsis
Alexandre Dumas is a widely admired writer. During 13 years he and his collaborator Auguste Maquet wrote together many successeful novels as D’Artagnan, Queen Margot or even The Count of Monte Cristo. When Maquet meets the young and pretty Charlotte, he wants to make an impression and lies to her presenting himself as Dumas. After a confrontation, the two friends dispute the authorship of their books. Which mind was truly behind their stories? Dumas or Maquet’s? Meanwhile, the Revolution of 1848 is slowly rising…Read More »

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Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.Read More »

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Sometimes, when life is getting too much for you with lots of stupid dramas, there’s only one thing that will really cheer you up. And that’s a really classic trashy movie. If said movie happens to star Joan Collins, even better. The Stud is a movie tailor-made for these situations.

Oliver Tobias is the stud of the title, Tony Blake. He was a waiter, a poor working-class kid with big ambitions, a pretty face and a hot body. He attracted the attention of the fabulously wealthy Fontaine Khaled (Joan Collins), or rather his hot body attracted her attention. So she set him up as manager of a night-club, although his main duties are to satisfy her sexual appetites. He’s constantly on call in case she has a sexual emergency that requires immediate servicing. And this happens to Fontaine quite frequently.Read More »