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When this epic series was first broadcast in 1973 it redefined the gold standard for television documentary; it remains the benchmark by which all factual programming must judge itself.

Originally shown as 26 one-hour programmes, The World at War set out to tell the story of the Second World War through the testimony of key participants. The result is a unique and unrepeatable event, since many of the eyewitnesses captured on film did not have long left to live. Each hour-long programme is carefully structured to focus on a key theme or campaign, from the rise of Nazi Germany to Hitler’s downfall and the onset of the Cold War.Read More »

The painter Picasso awakes from the dead, steals one of his paintings from a psychiatrist’s and his wife’s kitchen and wanders through Munich, where he meets the psychiatrist’s patient, Takla Bash, and falls in love with her. Ignoring that she is actually his daughter he plans a phenomenal love affair including a film about a blue cow. This surreal film includes many of director/writer/star Herbert Achternbusch’s own paintings.Read More »

Four first-grade middle school students in the same class are members of a photography club. Before leaving for summer break, the teacher hands out an old-fashioned analog camera to each of them and asks them to take pictures with them as a summer assignment. The assignment topic is the “end of the world.” What does the end of the world mean? What on earth are they supposed to take pictures of? They all have different opinions on it, but as one of the girls suggests, they decide to take a subway to Sinchang Station, the last station on Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 1. That is the end of the world for these girls. They doze off on the subway, stop for a while due to rain showers, and feel drawn to an unfamiliar world.Read More »

In January 1990, at the age of 33, the artist José Leonilson starts registering an intimate journal in a tape recorder. His views on events that shook both Brazil, such as the resignation of former president Collor, and overseas, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, permeate his confessions. He also talks about his impressions on the various movies he used to watch. The records of this sensitive artist in tune with modern life did not intend, at first, anything more than register the harmony that existed between his life and his peculiar and intimate work. However, J.L. suffers the unexpected blow of the discovery that he himself is HIV positive. The uncertainty and urgency in his life begin to permeate his reports.Read More »

Yakuza film about Mine, a strong-minded woman, who risks her life and her body in a desperate search for true love.Read More »

Although Jack Rosenthal’s television plays are peppered with Jewish characters and passing references drawn from the writer’s Jewish roots, only three bring the subject centre stage: The Evacuees (BBC, tx. 5/3/1975), Bye, Bye, Baby (Channel 4, tx. 3/11/1992) and Bar Mitzvah Boy.

Unlike The Evacuees, Bar Mitzvah Boy is not autobiographical, and Rosenthal even played down its Jewishness in a Radio Times interview prior to its first broadcast by stressing the universality of its central theme: “When I was young and reading comics there were always men heroes, actually aged about 15, who were playing football for England or winning wars single-handed. I used to think that when I’m a man I’ll be like that, never indecisive or frightened, but there suddenly comes a point of disillusionment when you realise it is a fallacy”.Read More »

Based on the true story of Vivian Nicholson, whose husband Keith won £152,319 on the pools (a sum that would be worth in excess of £2 million today), Spend Spend Spend is a modern morality tale in which two naïve working-class northerners are thrust overnight into a world of hitherto unimaginable wealth, which they prove wholly unable to handle. This is demonstrated from the start when Vivian, suffering from severe stage fright, blurts out during the formal presentation of her winnings that she’s going to “spend spend spend!”, thus creating an impression of selfish hedonism that’s largely at odds with the complex characterisation that Jack Rosenthal goes on to give her.Read More »

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At the end of October (a few days before my birthday actually) Nicole Brenez asked me to produce a small film for a great man, a short film, a film like a birthday song, a common gift. Nicole sends me many portraits that she likes very much, some are historical documents, others pictures made by JLG himself. She also sends me documents, films, recordings. An incredible amount of stuff for a month of immersion. The birthday is December 3. I don’t know why, but I immediately wanted to grab my camera and take JLG to a screen on a boat, for a ride in the port of Rotterdam (where I live). I have tried several times to express this intuition. I wanted to film. Maybe I can’t imagine making a movie without shooting. Maybe I wanted to go home with my new camera, to film this harbor which will be the subject of future projects.Read More »

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A revenge thriller in which, following his estranged father’s death, a man vows vengeance against his relatives who had abandoned him and returns to the family diamond business with an elaborate robbery in mind.Read More »