Documentary Movies

Adios

"Shortly after Amos went into home hospice he began filming ‘Adios’, a short film, compiled of 16mm and Super 8 footage, to premiere at his memorial, chronicling all the family and friends who have come to visit. Even Courtney our absolutely wonderful hospice nurse is in it. […] Only twice have we forgotten to film a visitor. Amos designated me the Director of Photography. Since I have to focus and shoot using my bad left eye the joke in our home is that it’s a film by a dying director and a blind DP." – Claudia Summers

Incognito

The protagonist of the film is Tomasz Machciński, a man with a hundred faces, or rather with one face, but one that is both a material and a work of art. Machciński photographs himself disguised as famous people.

ORGAN

A poetic documentary detailing the spiritual relationship between an organ and its player

Gavotte

Cléo de Merode dancing the gavotte in 1900.

Vanessa Paradis, la soirée

Baránok Boží

Carmita

Nearly half a century ago, Carmen Ignarra arrived to Mexico after leaving behind her Cuban homeland, in the hopes of becoming the greatest Caribbean actress in Hollywood. But the American dream tur- ned out to be more difficult than she’d thought, and her brief initial success was followed by a slow, painful decline. Today, at 80, the woman who was once Cuba’s most beautiful actress lives totally forgotten in an old mansion in Monterrey. There she survives thanks to her tenants—strange men who she is constantly blaming for mysterious thefts and disappearances. Laura, a young woman also from the Caribbean, arrives at the mansion to work as an assistant in cleaning and housekeeping. With her she brings a video camera and the secret intention of making a documentary about the diva. Together they talk about the past, about wasted talent and lost loves.

Garbage

A short film about paper commissioned by Garage Museum Moscow.

Something Better to Come

Right outside of Moscow – home to the highest number of billionaires pr. capita – you’ll find the largest junkyard in the world: The Svalka. It’s a hard place run by the Russian mafia. And it's where Yula lives with her mother, her friends and many other people. Life is tough in the Svalka, but it’s also a place where beauty and humanity can arise from the most unlikely conditions. It is from this place that Yula dreams of escaping and changing her life, even if it seems impossible. Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak followed Yula for 14 years, bringing us along on Yula's journey to achieve this dream.

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line

Born Ruby Stevens, she was orphaned when she was four. A chance audition led to a chorus job. By 17 she was a Ziegfeld Girl. At 20 she earned excellent reviews for a bit part in a Broadway play — and she had a new name: Barbara Stanwyck.

Super Paradise

In the 1970s, a small Greek island emerges as a symbol of hope, freedom, and self-expression. Mykonos was "paradise on earth," and for some, it still is. The island was a haven for extramarital and queer love during the dictatorship of the military junta that ruled Greece between 1964 and 1974 following a coup d’état, a regime of dominant patriarchy when even pronouncing the word «gay» on the streets of Athens could be considered a criminal act. In an overall conservative Greece, the Italian entrepreneur Pierro Aversa, a mythical figure of the European queer highlife, opened a gay bar where atmosphere and partying took precedence over profit. A free-spirited, encapsulated environment where forbidden desires could be manifested was cultivated; however, its image is not only reflected through idealistic lenses in the film – many people died in the drug-fuelled madness, and many kids were lost as well, as the locals admit.

Earthquake

Short film about the earthquake in Montenegrin littoral.

Fatal Assistance

Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a 2-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.

Riding Giants

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

It's There For You

An elderly woman reflects on her complicated relationship with music and playing piano.

Congorilla

The first sound movie made entirely in Africa, Congorilla premiered in 1932 and permitted audiences to hear what they had only been able to see during previous safari films. Martin and Osa Johnson began in Kenya and Tanzania before moving to Uganda and the Congo Basin (Zaire). Along the way they filmed Zebra in the Serengeti, charging Rhinos in the Northern Frontier District (Southern Somalia), and recorded exciting encounters with Crocodiles and Hippos as they went down the Nile. The latter part of the film is devoted to the 7 months the filmmakers spent in the Ituri Forest with the Mbuti people as they captured village life despite the humidity, which caused batteries to deteriorate, wires and connections to erode, and mildew to form on camera cases.

Romantic Comedy

This documentary goes beneath the surface of our favorite films, seeking to better understand the way we view love, relationships, and romance. From clumsy meet cutes to rain-soaked declarations of love, these films reflect our experiences but are often just as problematic as they are comforting. Helped by a chorus of critics, actors, and filmmakers, and original songs by her band Summer Camp, director Elizabeth Sankey embarks on a journey of investigation and self-discovery.

Disney: Through the Looking Glass

Tito del Amo, a passionate 72-year-old researcher, takes the final step to unravel the enigma about the alleged Spanish origin of the American cartoonist Walt Disney, making the same journey that his supposed mother made to give him up for adoption in Chicago. A journey that begins in Mojácar, Almería, Spain, and ends in New York. An exciting adventure, like Alicia's through the looking glass, to discover what is truth and what is not, with an unexpected result.

Money From The Dead

The short documentary film Money from the Dead reveals the daily lives of a group of the Chinese Benteng community involved in the funeral industry. Koh Edy, the owner of a coffin-making business, continues his family tradition with deep dedication. His story intersects with Koh Kiki, a maker of teng who carefully preserves the details of his craft, and Kak Luna, a mortician who provides the final touch with respect and reverence. Although they do not know each other personally, they are connected within a complex network that sustains funeral rituals and preserves ancestral culture amidst modernization.

NOA, un viaje al subdesarrollo

In August 1999, a group of friends began a trip through the Argentine northwest aboard a mobile home. His initial goal was to screen films for free in small towns over 3,000 kilometers. An extreme and contradictory country comes out to meet him. Kilometer by kilometer, the original certainties become more and more diffuse. During his last screening something happens. The course is totally lost.