• Nagisa Ôshima – Gohatto AKA Taboo (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaJapanNagisa Oshima

    Synopsis:
    Gohatto stars Beat Takeshi, Asano Tadanobu and a fifteen-year-old Matsuda Ryuhei as the beautiful son of a well-to-do merchant who joins the Shinsen Gumi militia in Kyoto for the “right to kill,” and ends up doing so both by his sword and his good looks. Gohatto explores themes of jealousy, madness and destruction within the context of bushido homoeroticism; not only does this violent love story play out within the bounds of same-sex relationships, but within a single militia.Read More »

  • Adirley Queirós – Era uma Vez Brasília AKA Once There Was Brazilia (2017)

    2011-2020Adirley QueirósBrazilPoliticsSci-Fi

    In 1959, the intergalactic agent WA4 is arrested for making an illegal allotment and launched into space. He receives a mission: to come to the Earth and kill the president, Juscelino Kubitschek, in the day of inauguration of Brasília. His ship is lost in time and lands in 2016 in Ceilândia.Read More »

  • Lina Wertmüller – I Basilischi AKA The Lizards (1963)

    1961-1970DramaItalyLina WertmüllerPolitics
    I basilischi (1963)

    Plot
    Three young men in a small town in Southern Italy lead directionless lives wandering around town, telling lies and boasting about their alleged romantic conquests. When one goes off to Rome with his Aunt, he returns with fabulous stories about the nightlife, the women and the modern advancements of the big city. He vows he will return, but soon is back to his familiar pattern of hanging out with his idle friends in pursuit of a good life they may never see. The film was written and directed by Lina Wertmuller, who vividly captures the mood of the sleepy town where the three young men seemed destined to spend their uneventful lives. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Les Blank, Vikram Jayanti & Chris Simon – Innocents Abroad (1991)

    1991-2000Chris SimonDocumentaryLes BlankUSAVikram Jayanti

    Quote:

    Innocents Abroad is a delightful, lighthearted film about forty American tourists visiting ten European countries in a whirlwind two weeks. Globus Gateway Tours allowed Les Blank and his film crew complete and uncensored access to “European Horizons” tour #KH1009A. The tour closely follows the nineteenth century traditional “Grand Tour”, starting in London and visiting Amsterdam, Heidelberg, The Black Forest, Lucerne, Innsbruck, Venince, Rome, Pisa, Nice, Avignon, and Paris. The film chronicles a diverse group of Americans experiencing Europe for the first time, struggling with and laughing about cultural differences, and seeing ancient sites and legendary cities, all led by witty and inimitable Englishman Mark Tinney. For some of the tourists, this is their first venture out into the world; for others, it is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.Read More »

  • Andrzej Wajda – Pokolenie AKA A Generation (1955)

    1951-1960Andrzej WajdaDramaPolandWar

    Synopsis
    A Generation is set in Wola, a working-class section of Warsaw, in 1942 and tells the stories of two young men at odds with the Germans occupation of Poland. The young protagonist, Stach (Tadeusz Łomnicki), is living in squalor on the outskirts of the city and carrying out wayward acts of theft and rebellion. After a friend is killed attempting to heist coal from a German supply train, he finds work as an apprentice at a furniture workshop, where he becomes involved in an underground communist resistance cell guided first by a friendly journeyman there who in turn introduces Stach to the beautiful Dorota (Urszula Modrzyńska). An outsider, Jasio Krone (Tadeusz Janczar), the temperamental son of an elderly veteran, is initially reluctant to join the struggle but finally commits himself, running relief operations in the Jewish ghetto during the uprising there.Read More »

  • Robert Gardner – Screening Room: Stan Brakhage (1973 – 1980)

    1971-1980ExperimentalRobert GardnerStan BrakhageTVUSA

    Quote:
    The Experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage first appeared on Screening Room in May, 1973 to screen and discuss the films Eye Myth, Desist Film, Moth Light, and Blue Moses. Screening Room was a Boston television series that for almost ten years offered independent filmmakers a chance to show and discuss their work on a commercial (ABC-TV) television station. The series was developed and hosted by the filmmaker Robert Gardner who was Chairman of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and Director of the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Harvard University for many years. This unique television series explored genres which are rarely found on broadcast television including, animation, documentary, and experimental films.Read More »

  • Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht – All in This Tea (2007)

    2001-2010DocumentaryGina LeibrechtLes BlankUSA

    Quote:
    During the 1990s, David Lee Hoffman searched throughout China for the finest teas. He’s a California importer who, as a youth, lived in Asia for years and took tea with the Dali Lama. Hoffman’s mission is to find and bring to the U.S. the best hand picked and hand processed tea. This search takes him directly to farms and engages him with Chinese scientists, business people, and government officials: Hoffman wants tea grown organically without a factory, high-yield mentality. By 2004, Hoffman has seen success: there are farmer’s collectives selling tea, ways to export “boutique tea” from China, and a growing Chinese appreciation for organic farming’s best friend, the earthworm.Read More »

  • Delmer Daves – The Last Wagon (1956)

    1951-1960Delmer DavesDramaUSAWestern

    When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd, a white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men..Read More »

  • Lewis Gilbert – The Good Die Young [Export cut] (1954)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaLewis GilbertUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    Three good men – a broken boxer, an American veteran trying to win back his mother-dominated wife, and an Air Force Sergeant married to a faithless actress – are corrupted by Miles “Rave” Ravenscourt (Laurence Harvey), an amoral “gentleman”. Because they need money, they let Miles lure them into his scheme to rob a postal van with a large cash cargo.Read More »

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