Social & External
Commentary (voice)
A documentary about rap artists from Ceilândia, a satellite-city of Brazil capital, Brasilia. The film portrait the struggle of the lives of the rapers and makes a parallel with the violent building of the city designed to settle the outcast from Brasilia after its completion.
"The theme of the film HIDDEN CITIES is personal urban perceptions, which we call 'the city'. The city, as a living organism, reflecting social processes and interactions, economic relations, political conditions and private matters. In the city, human memories, desires and tragedies find expression in the form of designations and marks engraved in house walls and paving slabs. But what the city really is under this thick layer of signs, what it contains or conceals, is what we are researching in the HIDDEN CITIES project. The source material for the film are 9 sequential photo works created by Gusztáv Hámos between 1975 and 2010. Each of these 'city perceptions' depicts essential situations of urban experiences containing human and inhuman acts in a compact form. The cities in which the photo sequences have been made are Berlin, Budapest and New York – places with a traumatised past: Wars, dictatorships, terrorist catastrophes."
The Richardson Olmsted Campus, a former psychiatric center and National Historic Landmark, is seeing new life as it undergoes restoration and adaptation to a modern use.
A documentary chronicling the pioneering efforts of black filmmaker William D. Foster in the early years of the industry and Oscar Micheaux's controversial impact on the subsequent "race movies".
This is a documentary centered on traditional Japanese patterns. To capture the unique sensibility of the Japanese people, the film features 170 kimono fabrics from the Muromachi to Edo periods, along with over 1,000 family crests that have been passed down through generations. These elements are presented using avant-garde visual techniques. Viewed from a modern perspective, the film transforms the exceptional patterns created by the Japanese in the past into a completely new illustrated scroll. The entire documentary contains no narration, relying solely on visuals and music to convey its message.
This documentary explores the impact and life of one of the most internationally recognized Chilean scientists, an inspiring human being who at his 90 years is more lively than ever.
An amateur silent film documenting the effects of German bombing raids on the city and the docks in May 1941. Liverpool landmarks glimpsed include the Royal Liver Building, Mersey Docks, Our Lady and St Nicholas Church, St Luke's Tower, Derby Square, Haymarket and Lewis's department store.
Striking workers in one Chicago unemployment compensation office talk about working conditions that led to a walkout in July, 1975. Workers and claimants suggest possible solutions to the problems of understaffing and compulsory overtime. This tape was used to organize other offices to support the strike.
A village in Brittany. During the ten days leading up to All Souls Day, we can see it in its entirety "inhabiting" the cemetery, going from gravestone to gravestone for the rituals of cleaning, flowering and praying. Telling its story through its faces, its voices and its ambulations.
Shakespeare's 'King Lear' travelling on the dusty and risky roads to the remotest forgotten villages in the mountains of Turkey where even drinking water can hardly reach, turns delicately into 'Queen Lear' in the hands of a peasant-women theatre group. In the early 2000s, a handful of peasant women from the mountains of southern Turkey formed a theater group, which later became the subject of the documentary, The Play. The women acted out their own life stories in the village, and the play changed their lives. Now, they take to the road with an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, traveling the dusty, dangerous roads to the farthest-flung mountain villages where there isn't even running water. On the road, their lives merge with the world of King Lear and become bound up with "the good and the bad", "the young and the old", "the rich and the poor", "the honest and the dishonest" of the play.
Hong Kong is home to more than 190,000 Filipino domestic helpers. A working couple hire one to prepare meals and take their child to school. Another house helper looks after an old man who lives alone. For these and many other reasons, Filipino house helpers are in demand in Hong Kong. On Sundays, the house helpers congregate in a square in Hong Kong Island's Central District. Here, they reminisce about their families back home. A beauty contest is held each June to celebrate Philippine Independence Day. The ladies dress up in their finest as they try to take the crown and live their most precious dream - to be free.
A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Created by filmmaker Costa Botes, personally selected by director Peter Jackson, this documentary uses raw footage to reveal the inside story on how the greatest adventure film franchise was born.
A short, documentary that explains e=mc2 in just 8 minutes.
Since taking office last June, President Rodrigo Duterte has been waging a deadly anti-drug campaign. In the past year, police and vigilantes have reportedly killed over 7,000 people suspected of participating in the drug trade.
While reporting on the conflict in Darfur, Phil Cox and Daoud Hari are kidnapped by a local militia. Despite being imprisoned, the two men manage to surreptitiously film their capture. Follow Phil and Daoud on their harrowing journey, from capture to release.
Meet two women fighting against race-based gerrymandering in North Carolina: Val Applewhite, a plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case, and Moon Duchin, a mathematician who empowers organizers to use data to advocate for fairly drawn electoral maps.
Since Narendra Modi first took office in 2014, 47 people have been killed in cow-related hate crimes in India. 76 percent of those who died were Muslim. Asmeena mourns the death of her husband, a dairy farmer named Rakbar, who was allegedly murdered by “cow vigilantes.”
The first air combat of Vietnam People’s Air force on April 4, 1965 in Ham Rong.
Nine lesbians and gay men give us an idea what gay life in USSR is like in these honest interviews. They discuss growing up, coming-out, forming a community and the political climate in which they live.
A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.
In a crime-plagued neighborhood near Miami, brutal, bare-knuckled backyard fights give young men a chance to earn money -- and self-respect.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.
JB Smoove and Martin Starr host a celebration of 20 years of "Spider-Man" movies, from the Sam Raimi trilogy to Marc Webb's movies and the trio from Jon Watts.
An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.
A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
A look at the origins, history and conspiracies behind the "Majestic 12", a clandestine group of military and corporate figureheads charged with reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.
Follow the evolution of the 'Halloween' movies over the past twenty-five years. It examines why the films are so popular and revisits many of the original locations used in the films - seeing the effects on the local community. For the first time, cast, crew, critics and fans join together in the ultimate 'Halloween' retrospective.
A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.
After another 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! and 7 Plus Seven. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
This documentary focuses on the actors and their journey over two summers to create the remake to the original IT, by Stephen King. The documentary originally released as bonus material, bundled with IT: Chapter Two.
Behind-the-scenes documentary about how Lionel Messi succeeded in lifting the World Cup – the only trophy to have eluded him in an incredible career.
In the early-morning hours of July 23, 2007, in Cheshire, Conn., ex-convicts Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the family home of William Petit, his wife, Jennifer, and their daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied to a pole in the basement. The three women were bound in their bedrooms while the men ransacked the house. The brutal ordeal continued throughout the morning, ending with rape, arson and a horrific triple homicide.
A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
Bruce Conner’s most celebrated film for a reason: it takes historical moments that were replayed over and over on television—chilling repetition of Kennedy assassination coverage—and repurposes them into a meditation on how the media tries to exert authority and apply a sense of order to the anarchic. And though it may sound perverse to say so, the film is also—not incidentally—a thrill to watch. -- The A.V. Club