Mikio Naruse 100th Birth Anniversary(2005)

Teruo Ishii Fan Club(ja)

A documentary on Teruo Ishii, the Japanese "King of Cult".

Seijun Suzuki: kabuki & yakuzas(es)

Film director and screenwriter Seijun Suzuki (1923-2017), who in the sixties was the great innovator of Japanese cinema; and his collaborator, art director and screenwriter Takeo Kimura (1918-2010), recall how they made their great masterpieces about the Yakuza underworld for the Nikkatsu film company.

Bâtons d'encens pour Mizoguchi(fr)

Kiki Kirin's Life(ja)

This documentary follows the last days of actress KIKI Kirin, who passed away on September 15, 2018. The documentary is the first long-term, in-depth coverage of Ki-kin, and is a re-edited version of the NHK documentary of the same title that was broadcast on September 26, 2006, adding previously unseen footage. She was loved all over Japan for her blunt remarks, her attentive concern for those around her, and her overflowing sense of humor. Despite her busy schedule, she valued her daily life and had her own unique style, even though she talked about life as it came. This film captures the last days of her life and gives us hints for living from her "life as it comes" and her many inspiring words.

Sat-chan Tadashi-chan: Sengo minshu-teki dokuritsu pro funtō-ki(ja)

After the war, many filmmakers were expelled from the Japanese film industry due to the Toho Dispute and the Red Purge. Amid such circumstances, there were people who set up their own independent production companies and embarked on film production without relying on corporations. This documentary film focuses on the passionate "spirit of film" of directors such as Satsuo Yamamoto and Tadashi Imai, who, despite many hardships, produced a succession of masterpieces overflowing with humanism and rebellious spirit.

Ken San(ja)

KEN SAN pieces together the puzzle of the life and legacy of Japan's mythical acting icon, Ken Takakura. Collaborators, friends and family tell intimate stories of Ken's journey: how one man of quiet dignity became a cultural barrier-breaking film star.

The Erotic Empire(en)

A short documentary primarily focused on Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series.

A. K.(fr)

An intimate chronicle of the shooting of Ran (1985), a film directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

By Player(ja)

The film is a series of vignettes from Taiji Tonoyama's life and film clips, interspersed with a dialogue to camera by Nobuko Otowa, addressing the camera as if she is addressing Tonoyama himself, recollecting events in his life. The film focuses on Tonoyama's alcohol dependence and his various sexual relationships, as well as his film work with Shindo.

Nezumikozo Jirokichi(ja)

Legendary anime director Rintaro’s (Metropolis, X/1999, Galaxy Express 999) first new work in over a decade depicts pioneering 1930s director Sadao Yamanaka and the production of his Nezumikozo Jirokichi. Despite dying before the age of 30, Yamanaka was a pivotal influence in Japanese cinema whose work would go on to inspire future generations. While most of his films have been lost to time, his scripts remain, and Nezumikozo Jirokichi recreates one of these lost films—a tale of a famous, virtuous bandit in old Edo—as imagined by Rintaro together with an all-star team including Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Memories), Taro Maki (Pluto, Millennium Actress) and Masao Maruyama (Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue).

Red Shade(xx)

Keichi Tanaamis new animation work Red Shade (2021) is based on paintings that he had produced on the premise that they will be set in motion. Each of the 80 selected scenes was given a distinct movement of its own, and the edited version of the completed work became the first film. The 80 scenes are each independently complete, and can be freely rearranged. For example, you can start from scent 80 and end in scene one, or arrange them irregularly like 1, 4, 8, 7, and so on. In other words, the essence of the work does not change no matter how the scenes are arranged. Even so, it is possible to produce a strong impact by exchanging the images for each frame, and one can also for instance, create an impression of a refreshing breeze sweeping through the green meadows.

東京シンデレラ娘(ja)

Thomas Sankara(en)

Captain Thomas Sankara was the leader of the Burkinabe Revolution. This film is a biographical profile of the revolutionary, the improvements he generated in his country and the new socio-political dimension he instituted in Burkina Faso.

Biker Fox(en)

Frank P. DeLarzelere III, a middle-aged car part salesman, operates as a motivational bicyclist under the pseudonym Biker Fox. He soon reveals his misunderstood personality and various complexities all while attempting to conserve local wildlife, overcome harassment by law enforcement, deal with his brash mood swings and become a public figure in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Crips: Strapped and Strong(en)

Documentary of the lives of Dutch gangsters

An American Candidate(en)

A filmmaker follows the campaign of Daniel Byington, a libertarian going up against Democratic Party House Leader Dick Gephardt in the 2002 Congressional elections. The film explores the question of the value of a two-party system.

Attack! The Battle for New Britain(en)

Actual footage by the United States Signal Corps of the landing and attack on Arawe Beach, Cape Glouster, New Britain island in 1943 in the South Pacific theatre of World War Two, and the handicaps of the wild jungle in addition to the Japanese snipers and pill-box emplacements.

Freiheit im Herzen – Lasst es uns eilig haben, menschlich zu sein(en)

Freiheit! – this is the cry that thousands of people are uniting to protest against oppression in Tehran and around the world following the death of the young Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022. Arrested by Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing an incorrect headscarf, Amini died in custody just three days later, sparking international outrage and solidarity. The protests have reached as far as Germany, where Iranian exiles who escaped the Iranian regime in the 1970s took to the streets side by side with young second-generation German-Iranians such as Jasmin Shakeri, Pegah Ferydoni, Natalie Amiri and Enissa Amani. Together they are fighting for a free future in which Iranian society can also live without fear and in dignity.

The Last Ambassador(fa)

The Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, is in a bizarre situation since the Taliban took power: she represents a country whose old government fled and whose new Taliban government has no international recognition. Under increasingly difficult conditions, she decides to stand up to the Taliban and continue her courageous fight for the rights of Afghanistan's women.

Hugh MacDiarmid: Rebel Poet(en)

A profile from 1972 of celebrated Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid on the occasion of his 80th birthday. In this film he talks about his uncompromising life and the ideas and circumstances that have shaped its progress.