Terence Davies (1945- ), filmmaker and writer, takes us, sometimes obliquely, to his childhood and youth in Liverpool. He’s born Catholic and poor; later he rejects religion. He discovers homo-eroticism, and it’s tinged with Catholic guilt. Enjoying pop music gives way to a teenage love of Mahler and Wagner. Using archival footage, we take a ferry to a day on the beach. Postwar prosperity brings some positive change, but its concrete architecture is dispiriting. Contemporary colors and sights of children playing may balance out the presence of unemployment and persistent poverty. Davies’ narration is a mix of his own reflections and the poems and prose of others.
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Documentary
Trou Story (2011) Richard Desjardins, Robert Monderie, Documentary
A documentary on past and current business practices in Canada’s mining industry, and the involved natural resources, health and taxation issues.
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Come on Children (1973) Allan King, Alan Dunikowsky, Ken Gibbs, John Hamilton, Documentary
Born of talks with four hundred disaffected teenagers in the suburban belt around Toronto, the film reflects their recurring theme: “Wouldn’t it be great if we weren’t hassled by parents and police, didn’t go to prison-like schools and could just get out of this polluted city and into the coun¬try and hang out with a bunch of kids like ourselves.” Would it? The filmmakers invited five boys and five girls ages 13 to 19 to live on a farm for ten weeks, to be filmed, and to see what might emerge for each of them personally.
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Oscar Niemeyer – A Vida É Um Sopro (2010) Fabiano Maciel, Chico Buarque, Carlos Heitor Cony, Le Corbusier, Documentary
The film is based on face-to-face conversations with the Brazilian architect, with an in medias res beginning and a ’spontaneous’ ending: “The interview is over, isn’t it?” asks Niemeyer, when they begin to talk about women as everyday pleasures for the 100 year-old architect. Besides a wide range of the architect’s mostly public buildings in the biggest Brazilian cities, and also in France, Italy and Algeria, director Fabiano Maciel tries to show us the post-war intellectual and political atmosphere in Brazil, and Niemeyer’s relation to it. We also get to know him as a fighter for social justice and about his role in the construction of Brasilia as a symbol of the workers’ movement in the fifties.
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La persona de Leo N. / The Person de Leo N. (2005) Alberto Vendemmiati, Documentary
As a twelve-year-old boy, Nicola de Leo already knew she wanted to become a woman. Today, the now forty-year-old transsexual lives in Venice and has changed her name to Nicole. She has undergone a hormone treatment and grown breasts, but she still lives inside the body of a middle-aged man, including a penis, a beard and a substantial Adam’s apple. This is why Nicole is applying for a sex change through official channels. ‘I never thought it would be so hard. I thought making the decision was enough,’ she says. During five tense years, Nicole fights her emotional and physical struggle in the presence of director Alberto Vendemmiati’s camera. Working as an actress, a seller of carnival masks and a prostitute, she finances her cosmetic treatments and looks forward to the subsidised sex change operation. Meanwhile, she turns to her elderly mother for support, who has a hard time accepting that her son will soon be a daughter.
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Les Gants blancs / The White Gloves (2014) Louise Traon, Luís Miguel Cintra, Documentary
Louise Traon never films Manoel De Oliveira directly. Instead, she chooses to avoid him, skirt round him, skim past him and keep her distance, yet all the while drawing close to the art of cinema itself, homing in on its very essence. Her film tells the story of a girl who grew up with the images of an old gentleman, and who now wants to show her own images. This touching self-portrait gives insight into a man who appears to have lived many lives, showing his work through a remarkable link with time.
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Pays de cocagne / Land of Milk and Honey (1971) Pierre Étaix, Maurice Biraud, Michel Lewin, Documentary
After the events of May 1968, the French went on vacations – and they were filmed during three months on the rural fairs, on the beaches, on promotional campaigns for products and politicians. And they spoke to the director’s candid camera on a variety of subjects – from man walking on the moon to eroticism, from advertisement to marriage…
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300 hommes / 300 Souls (2014) Aline Dalbis, Emmanuel Gras, Documentary, Biography
‘Three hundred men’ is one long night at Saint Jean de Dieu, in Marseille. The center welcomes and confines three hundred homeless men every night over the winter. This documentary is neither the description nor the chronicle of the life of a shelter. It portrays humanity reduced to its essence, when only remain speech, humor, anger or madness to affirm that one still exists.’
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The Nature of Existence (2010) Roger Nygard, A-Ha, Nancy Ellen Abrams, Rob Adonis, Documentary
Filmmaker Roger Nygard roams the globe to the source of each of the world’s philosophies, religions, and belief systems. He interviews spiritual leaders, scholars, scientists, artists, pizza chefs, and others who have influenced, inspired, or freaked out humanity.
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Alex Gibney, John Beard, Tim Belden, Barbara Boxer, Documentary
Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate. Along the way, we watch Enron game California’s deregulated electricity market, get a free pass from Arthur Andersen (which okays the dubious mark-to-market accounting), use greed to manipulate banks and brokerages (Merrill Lynch fires the analyst who questions Enron’s rise), and hear from both Presidents Bush what great guys these are.
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La vallée close / The Enclosed Valley (1995) Jean-Claude Rousseau, Documentary
My films are like that: in a room, but looking out onto an open sky. I can’t really say it except to repeat that Bresson note, ‘that without a thing changing, everything is different.’ The film exists. The fiction is set up, and we believe in it. The justness of the agreement leads us to believe it, because everything plays equally at being a sign.
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Rupa u dusi / Hole in the Soul (1994) Dusan Makavejev, Rambo Amadeus, Melodie Annis, Dennis Jakob, Documentary, Biography, Comedy
A self-portrait documentary of Dusan Makavejev who travels to former Yugoslavia, and charts the changes of the society which parallels to his own life.
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Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016) Bostjan Virc, Ziga Virc, Documentary, Drama
Cold War-era international intrigue, declassified top-secret documents, and a clandestine deal between John F. Kennedy and Yugoslavia’s president Josip Tito are just the tip of the iceberg in this absorbing directorial debut from filmmaker Žiga Virc. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Houston, We Have a Problem! explores the myth behind the origins of America’s race to be the first country to send a man to the moon, and a supposed multi-billion-dollar deal involving America’s purchase of Yugoslavia’s space program in the early 1960s.
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Llámale Jess Redux (2014) Carles Prats, Jesús Franco, Lina Romay, Documentary
Jesus Franco, also known as Jess Franco, was one of the biggest names in cinema “B” worldwide. With more than 200 works and a large and peculiar use of pseudonyms, his work remains difficult to categorize, which makes it more exciting if possible. Through a series of interviews with Franco, “Call him Jess Redux” about the viewer sadist, esoteric and erotic world of the director, as refined as rogue. This new version of “Call him Jesus” (2000), considered the documentary reference Franco and directed by Carles Prats and Manel Mayol, incorporates new unpublished statements irreducible Madrid filmmaker and pays homage to his muse and companion, Lina Romay incorporating their active presence the story.
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Bouzkachi, le chant des steppes / Bouzkachi The Chant of Steppes (2009) Jacques Debs, Ali Choriev, Stasys Eidrigevicius, Dilbar Gunayeva, Drama, Documentary
The Chant of Steppes builds on a love triangle. Mohabat likes two men but she can not make the right choice and decides to marry the one who wins the bouzkachi contest. A poet and an artist have to cross mountains and steppes to engage in a noisy and dusty contest of horsemen in order to gain the hand and the heart of the beautiful Mohabat. The rules of the traditional Oriental game called bouzkachi are strict – a team of riders has to get the headless carcass of a ram clear of the other players to win the contest.
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