A family moves into a new neighborhood, and a 10-year-old named Laure deliberately presents as a boy named Mikhael to the neighborhood children.Read More »

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Almost the entire hour and three-quarters of Jean Eustache’s 1971 film “Numéro Zéro” is filled with the director’s interview of his grandmother Odette Robert on Feb. 12th of that year. Eustache includes in the film the conditions of its production—the director himself is seated at the table with her, pours her some whiskey, speaks with the camera operator, manipulates the clapboard at the head and tail of the reels, and even takes a phone call from a foreign firm that wants to distribute one of his early short films. Odette Robert had come from her home in the provinces to live with Eustache in Paris and help care for his son Boris (who is seen, at the beginning of the film, helping guide her through the streets of Paris—she had recently had eye operations and had to wear dark lenses, including on-camera).Read More »

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“JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS alternates and sometimes combines life-size cardboard animations with live performances by children and the effect is entirely unified and delightful.” – Edgar Daniels, Filmmakers Newsletter “Suzan Pitt [Kraning]’s films possess an absolutely cosmic sense of patience, of things happening at their own speed and with their own logic. Made with children, JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS is a string of puzzling little episodes, some using cut-out animation, some featuring a pixilated cast clad in moppet wigs with stockings stretched over their faces. After its screening at the 1973 New York Filmmaker’s Expo, critic Rex Reed noted that ‘most of it is quite sophisticated and brilliant. It’s likeable because it’s perfect for what it is – a fantasy – and such things, if done well and with talent and vision, need no outside logic … like looking into a Faberge egg.’ ” – Ron Epple, Media and MethodsRead More »

Convinced she’s dying, a pretty high school senior sets out to lose her virginity before it’s too late, and encounters a boy from her school on the same mission.Read More »

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A young woman receives a letter one morning, she is delighted and calls her maid to help her get dressed. In preparation for her appointment, she also calls a hairdresser and the maid prepares the mirrors accordingly. The hairdresser is very taken with the lady of the house and works on her hair, but gets too close to the woman and she tells him to leave the room.Read More »

On Christmas Eve, a young boy builds a snowman that comes to life and takes him to the North Pole to meet Father Christmas.Read More »

Another great East German children’s film. Pay particular attention to the freon-sucking snowman.

Synopsis
Every day on the beach at Coccatuttibana, a girl stands and waits for the “Wismar“. Her friend Karli will be on this ship, and he is going to bring her something which does not exist in Africa. Finally the day arrives. Asina gets her present – a talking snowman. But the cool man cannot survive the African sun. Asina and her friend Karli must think of something soon….Read More »

In “Ein Kaktus ist kein Lutschbonbon,” a quirky comedy, an ambitious botanist navigates love and hilarity when his rare cactus goes missing, leading to a series of wacky misadventures. Amidst chaos, he learns that some treasures can’t be replanted.Read More »

Kriv Stenders’ Boxing Day is a harrowing film, with moments of absolute release and relief.

It is a low-budget work, filmed on digital video – with Stenders behind the camera – in a single location, with a cast of six. It takes place in real time, and it’s shot in long, sometimes relentless scenes that give the appearance of being a single, continuous take. It’s a film that puts its characters under pressure, and in some ways, its audience too. But it’s also a rewarding work to watch, a raw, vivid, risky movie that juggles intensity and excess, yet shows moments of restraint and grace.Read More »