• Dylan Goch & Gruff Rhys – American Interior (2014)

    Gruff Rhys2011-2020DocumentaryDylan GochUnited Kingdom

    Imdb:
    In 1792, John Evans, a farmhand from Snowdonia travelled to America to discover whether there was a Welsh-speaking Native American tribe walking the Great Plains. Over 200 years later, distant relative Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) retraces the explorer’s route through the continent by means of an investigative concert tour. A unique project that blurs the boundaries of music, literature and film and investigates what really happened in the heart of the new world.Read More »

  • Akira Kurosawa & Ishirô Honda – Yume AKA Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990)

    1981-1990Akira KurosawaDramaFantasyIshirô HondaJapan

    Quote:
    Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.Read More »

  • Helmut Käutner – Große Freiheit Nr. 7 AKA Port of Freedom (1944)

    Helmut Käutner1941-1950DramaGermanyRomanceThird Reich Cinema

    The film tells the story of the blond “singing sailor” Hannes Kröger who works in a St. Pauli club on the Große Freiheit 7, and falls in love with a girl. But she prefers his rival Willem and Hannes returns to the sea.Read More »

  • Sharipa Urazbayeva – Mariam (2019)

    2011-2020DramaKazakhstanSharipa Urazbayeva

    Synopsis:
    After her husband mysteriously disappears, all the hardships of survival in the cold winter period in the far away village in Kazakhstan have to be carried out by Mariam, the mother of four small kids. To save the situation, she is forced to make some fatal decisions, but also to rediscover her femininity. When everything seems to start running better, her husband suddenly returns as if nothing has happened. Can the previous life flow be restored now?Read More »

  • Archie Mayo – The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935)

    Archie Mayo1931-1940ClassicsMysteryUSA

    Frank Patton is the promoter of the Lucky Legs Contest. The problem is that he always skips town before paying the $1000 to the winner. Mr. Bradbury, suitor of Cloverdale winner Margie, hires intoxicated Perry Mason to find Frank. Perry knows the scheme that Patton is using and has Spudsy find him, but Frank is dead when Perry arrives. The how is a surgeons scalpel, but the who is not yet known.Read More »

  • Rea Tajiri – Wisdom Gone Wild (2022)

    2021-2030DocumentaryRea TajiriUSA

    Quote:
    A vibrant tender cine-poem; a filmmaker collaborates with her Nisei mother as they confront the painful curious reality of wisdom ‘gone wild’ in the shadows of dementia.Read More »

  • Georges Méliès – Jeanne d’Arc AKA Joan of Arc (1900)

    Georges Méliès1891-1900DramaFranceSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.Read More »

  • Jules White – Hokus Pokus (1949)

    Jules White1941-1950ComedyShort FilmUSA

    The stooges are taking care of their invalid friend Mary who is confined to wheelchair. What they don’t know is that Mary is only faking her disability to swindle the insurance company. When the boys witness a hypnotist, “The Great Svengarlic”, doing his act on the street, they think he might be able to hypnotize Mary so she can walk. Instead, they become subjects for his show and are hypnotized into walking out on a flagpole high above the ground. When they come out of their trance and realize their predicament, they fall into a window, startling Mary, who jumps from her wheelchair just as the insurance adjuster is about to hand her a check.Read More »

  • Kamran Shirdel – Qaleh AKA The Women’s Quarter (1966)

    1961-1970DocumentaryIranKamran ShirdelShort Film

    The deeply moving “Qaleh – The Women’s Quarter” (1966) shows the life of prostitutes in Tehran’s city brothels, an area known as Shahre Now. The film closely follows a number of women and communicates how the burden of social constraints led them to surrender in the face of their common fate. By including photos in the film, a very unique and artistic approach that brings to mind Chris Marker’s classic La Jeteé, Shirdel not only tempers the subject’s emotional heaviness but also respects the individual’s privacy, two pitfalls that often afflict films that deal with themes of this nature. The film does explore the possibility of re-education and development for these women, but in no way does it paint over the hard and brutal reality. As the film closes, a magnificent scene shot in slow motion leaves us with the memory of this ugliness forever imprinted in our minds.Read More »

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