North Bergen, North Bergen(2022)

The Ozu Diaries(en)

Unveiling Yasujiro Ozu’s legacy through his personal diaries, letters, and interviews, the documentary delves into his life, creative process, and lasting impact on filmmaking.

Reconquest of the Useless(en)

RECONQUEST OF THE USELESS, a documentary film which follows the adventures of three young men as they journey nearly 5000 miles through the Peruvian Amazon, searching for inspiration and the legacy of Werner Herzog's classic film Fitzcarraldo & Les Blank's Burden of Dreams thirty years after they were made.

Celebrating the Rice Media Center(en)

Through the Fondren Fellows program, the Rice Media Center Archive Project has spent the past few months sifting through material stored at the now-defunct Rice Media Center. The team has identified several films as especially notable and will be presenting them in conjunction with documentary footage the team shot of people involved with the films. From lectures featuring Roberto Rossellini and Werner Herzog to films from former Rice students and faculty, the film presentation will tell the narrative of the Rice Media Center through the films and filmmakers that passed through its corridors.

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer(de)

With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzog’s everyday life, rare archive material and in-depth interviews with celebrated collaborators – including Christian Bale, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Pattinson, we are given an exciting glimpse into the work and personal life of the iconic artist.

I Lived, But...(ja)

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

A Train Arrives at the Station(en)

“This film was a gift to me. I make no claims for it, nor do I offer any apologies. It comes from work on The Thoughts That Once We Had. There was one shot we had to cut whose loss I particularly regretted. It was a shot of a train pulling into Tokyo Station from Ozu’s The Only Son (1936). So I decided to make a film around this shot, an anthology of train arrivals. It comprises 26 scenes or shots from movies, 1904-2015. It has a simple serial structure: each black & white sequence in the first half rhymes with a color sequence in the second half. Thus the first shot and the final shot show trains arriving at stations in Japan from a low camera height. In the first shot (The Only Son), the train moves toward the right; in the last shot, it moves toward the left. A bullet train has replaced a steam locomotive. So after all these years, I’ve made another structural film, although that was not my original intention.”

Do Rocks Dream of Flying ?(es)

Two young documentarists travel around a forsaken island in the aftermath of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. Their wanders lead them to the encounter of Professor Pereda, an acoustic geologist, conducting researches on geo-acoustics.

Silver Night(en)

It seemed like a typically quiet night... but the most unexpected encounter leads Chris to a difficult choice.

Herzog: The Wrath Of Klaus(en)

A pre-fame Werner Herzog (Adam Ezagouri) is asked to share a flat with a strange new actor only known as Klaus Kinski. Herzog agrees but soon regrets his generous decision as Kinski proves to be one uncanny flatmate. Despite their disagreements, both decide to try and shoot Herzog's own version of Don Quixote, with disastrous consequences.

Tavuri(tr)

Crime considers the themes of crime, crime addiction, society and freedom through the personality of Mustafa Serttas, a.k.a. the Devil (Tavuri) who spent half his life behind bars for theft and fraud. Mustafa Serttas, a primary school dropout raised in a poor, broken home in Cyprus, began stealing as a child. He later developed this early experience into a lifestyle or, as he put it, an 'obsession'.

Anima Mundi: Permaculture, Deep Ecology & the Soul of the World(en)

An independent, unique and interesting feature on peak oil, climate change, permaculture and Gaia theory

Stunned, I Remain Alert(pt)

Journalist Dermi Azevedo has never stopped fighting for human rights and now, three decades after the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, he's witnessing the return of those same practices.

The Making of 'The Color Purple'(en)

This made-for-video documentary treats film fans to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg's oscar-nominated adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about life for a young black woman in turn-of-the-century America. Features interviews with Spielberg, as well as with producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, who share their experiences from working on the project, as well as discuss the special efforts that went into bringing this classic to life.

Alltagsgeschichte – Bundesstraße B54(de)

Circus Tuomento(fi)

Circus Tuomento is a documentary about Finland's most famous tightrope walker, Antti Tuomento (b.1968). After the tragic break of his circus career, he focuses on building his own city. About a dozen fascinating, organic buildings have been made in the garden. The city with its museum, church and theater can be seen as an attempt to take fate into one's own hands – and to build an entire alternative world. The second narrator of the film, Antti's father, novel writer Matti Tuomento (1933-2016), lived with the weight of his own failed career as an artist, his repulsion towards fatherhood and his own childhood trauma. He poured his own childhood trauma and artistic collapse over his family. Trauma, which has moved from one generation to the next, has now turned into Antti's fascinating city. It is one of the most important art environments in our country. Antti has declared the city of Pelimannimäki as an independent kingdom.

In Search of A Portrait(ru)

The film is based on three events in February 1987: the release of the film "Repentance", an exhibition-competition in the Manege of projects for the Victory Monument on Poklonnaya Gora and the 150th anniversary of the death of Alexander Pushkin.

Grandfather Sky(en)

A young Native American man on his way to visit his uncle learns about his Navajo heritage by attending tribal gatherings, traditional ceremonies and listening to old folktales.

Soms. Elles i Beget(ca)

Kyiv Theater, An Island of Hope(fr)

February 2022. Russia invades Ukraine, a war that brings back dark memories and tragic lessons from World War II. Ariane Mnouchkine, the founder of the Théâtre du Soleil who was born when war was declared in 1939, was in shock. For her, going with part of her troop to Ukraine is above all a message of solidarity and gratitude towards this people of resistance who are fighting both for their freedom but also for that of Europe. The desire of Ariane Mnouchkine and her actors is to find with Ukrainian artists, beyond differences of language and culture, a common and universal language: that of theater.

Contacts: Sophie Calle(fr)

Sophie Calle often defines herself as a "narrative" artist. Her photographs are items of evidence through which she tells stories that are both ordinary and disturbing, using her own life and experiences as the raw material for reconstructions that hover somewhere between truth and fiction. The Contacts collection is an invitation to discover the artistic approach of the greatest contemporary photographers from an original angle. Through a series of images (contact sheets, proofs, prints and slides), with a commentary by the photographer, the viewer enters the secret world of their creation and is guided into the heart of the photographic creative process.