My Favourite Documentaries
My Favourite Documentaries
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- DirectorMark CousinsMark Cousins takes his imaginary companion Sergei Eisenstein on a walking tour of Mexico City.
- DirectorViviana García-BesnéStarsGuillermo CalderónJosé Luis CalderónPedro A. CalderónAfter being told that her family had made some of the worst films in the history of Mexican cinema, Viviana spent many years ashamed of that legacy and distanced herself from everything that the Calderón family had ever done. But a chance encounter sparked her interest and led to a 3-year quest to uncover the story of a family that had been involved in all aspects of the film business in Mexico and the United States -- theaters, distribution, and production -- whose rise and fall throughout the 20th century closely mirrored that of Mexican cinema as a whole, a once-powerful film industry that was now virtually nonexistent. The story that Viviana discovered through old film reels, photographs, newspaper articles, clips from the family's film vaults, and interviews with the survivors of Mexican cinema's golden eras included tales of romance and stories about movie and music legends like Ricardo Montalbán and the mambo king Damaso Perez Prado, and allowed her to make peace with a legacy of film pioneers.
- DirectorJeff FeuerzeigStarsDaniel JohnstonMabel JohnstonBill JohnstonDaniel Johnston, manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist is revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.
- DirectorRaed AndoniInspired by his own psychological excavations, Andoni develops the concept to apply to modern-day Palestine, a project that inspires this witty, personal and compelling film. Featuring a colorful array of characters, including members of the director's own family, Andoni explores the individual memories of Palestinians, whose life experiences have been shaped by military occupation, oppression of the people and continuous erosion of citizens' rights. In a place so dominated by collective consciousness and identity, finding individuality becomes the focus of this fascinating - and moving - study.
- DirectorNicolas PhilibertStarsJean-François AchilliEvelyne AdamJean-Claude AmeisenTwenty-four hours in the life of Radio France, from one dawn to another. Along its corridors, inside its recording studios, with its producers, presenters, journalists and various guests. And outside on a motorbike in the wake of the Tour de France or in the company of a thunderstorm photographer.
- DirectorRodney AscherStarsBill BlakemoreGeoffrey CocksJuli KearnsAn exploration of various interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's horror film, The Shining (1980).
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsMartin ScorseseWorld-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.
- DirectorLouie PsihoyosStarsRichard O'BarryLouie PsihoyosHardy JonesUsing state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
- DirectorIlisa BarbashLucien Castaing-TaylorIn the summer of 2003, a group of shepherds took a herd of sheep one final time through the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, in the extreme north-west of the United States. It was a journey of almost three hundred kilometres through expansive green valleys, by fields of snow, and across hazardous, narrow ridges - a journey brimming with challenges. The aging shepherds do their very best to keep the hundreds of sheep together; the panoramic high mountains are teeming with hungry wolves and grizzly bears.
- DirectorNatalia AlmadaFrom dusk to dawn Martin watches over the extravagant mausoleums of Mexico's most notorious Drug Lords.
- DirectorEmmett MalloyStarsAlex DebogorskiMaria DurhamJack WhiteFollow the White Stripes' 2007 tour of Canada, as the duo avoided the conventional by playing in buses, cafes and for Indian tribal elders.
- DirectorJohan GrimonprezStarsRon BurrageMark PerryDelfine BafortDirector Johan Grimonprez casts Alfred Hitchcock as a paranoid history professor, unwittingly caught up in a double take on the cold war period. Subverting a meticulous array of TV footage and using 'The Birds' as an essential metaphor, DOUBLE TAKE traces catastrophe culture's relentless assault on the home, from moving images' inception to the present day.
- DirectorTheo SolnikStarsAnna PavlovaAnna Pavlova, Russian party queen, embodies the brutal happiness and tragedy of the Berlin party generation of our times. Lost on the edge of insanity and rare poetical lucidity, wandering alone through the streets of Berlin, she shows us the side of the party world that we rarely see. An anti-hero of civilized society, her existence is a desperate attempt to live in never-ending happiness, in order not to see the world that begins when the party music ends.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsNoam ChomskyMichel GondryRichard FeynmanA series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.
- DirectorPaulina Sánchez
- DirectorAnna OdellStarsAnna OdellAnders BergDavid NordströmA famous artist isn't invited to her class reunion. She makes a film about what could've happened if she had gone there and confronted her bullies, and later shows that film to her former classmates.
- DirectorAlan BerlinerStarsEli BerlinerStuart BlazerSusan BrownAcclaimed filmmaker Alan Berliner chronicles the deeply personal story of his mother's first cousin--well-known poet/translator/professor Edwin Honig--on his journey into the depths of Alzheimer's disease. Shot over the course of five years, the film presents an unflinching portrait of Edwin's work and life while documenting his slow mental deterioration through visits and interviews with Edwin and his friends, former students, and others, along with archival footage and more.
- DirectorChris SmithStarsMark BorchardtMike SchankTom SchimmelsDocumentary about an aspiring filmmaker's attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before.
- DirectorShirley ClarkeStarsOrnette ColemanJohn GiordanoFort Worth Symphony OrchestraIt captures Ornette's evolution over three decades. Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas in 1983, it chronicles his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsWerner HerzogJean ClottesJulien MonneyWerner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France and captures the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity.
- DirectorMalik BendjelloulStarsRodriguezStephen 'Sugar' SegermanDennis CoffeyTwo South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock n roller, Rodriguez.
- DirectorCatherine van CampenAnne has Tourette's syndrome, which means she sometimes has to go in circles, always to the right, or lick everything in sight.
- DirectorJoonas BerghällMika HotakainenStarsTimo AaltoPekka AhonenAarne AksilaFinnish men in sauna, speaking straight from the heart.
- DirectorRoberto OlivaresThe story of an elderly man from the Nahuatl-speaking village of San Agustin Oapan, Guerrero, Mexico. Told with a lyrical combination of lingering imagery and ethnographic detail, 'Silvestre Pantaleon' follows the protagonist as he struggles to pay for a curing ceremony and provide for his family. He dedicates himself to the only remunerative activities he knows: handcrafting rope for religious ceremonies and building seldom-used household objects that he alone still has the skills to produce. 'Silvestre Pantaleon' is a simple though universal tale of aging. It suggests both triumph (the household provided for and health recovered--through offerings to the hearth, the earth, the river, and the deceased) and reversal (the recognition that healing is but an ephemeral hiatus in the inexorable advance of time).
- DirectorMichael Paul StephensonStarsGeorge HardyPita RayMicki KnoxA look at the making of the film Troll 2 (1990) and its journey from being crowned the "worst film of all time" to a cherished cult classic.