Documentary taking a warm and celebratory look at the countless ways the Star Wars universe has inspired fans all over the globe. Whether it be adhering to the scriptures of Jedi, perfecting one's light-saber skills, designing a Wookie costume, or making a self-financed fan film, this show revels in the bright side of the Force.
Contributor
Documentary taking a warm and celebratory look at the countless ways the Star Wars universe has inspired fans all over the globe. Whether it be adhering to the scriptures of Jedi, perfecting one's light-saber skills, designing a Wookie costume, or making a self-financed fan film, this show revels in the bright side of the Force.
2015-12-12
5.5
Did you know that the quaint custom of Christmas caroling actually began with drunk and rowdy revelers threatening people door to door looking for food and liquor? Early versions of the heartwarming legend of Santa Claus described him as a horrible devil named Krampus who beat and kidnapped naughty children. In America during the 17th and 18th Centuries, celebrating Christmas was against the law! There's a lot to tell about the history of Christmas, and a lot you may not know. Along the way, meet Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey, The Grinch and Rudolph, and learn the true origins of our Christmas traditions. So grab some eggnog and a slice of fruitcake as HISTORY unwraps THE REAL STORY OF CHRISTMAS.
The gritty tale of an Imperial stormtrooper who is forced to confront his past in the heat of a battle.
There are eight episodes in stories full of adventure and play in the neighborhood of Limoeiro, with a new car ride, lost treasure, art exhibition in the square, puppet theater, an unexpected escape from Cascão (again?), Characters Saltimbancos and a lot more.
Postal inspectors investigate a con man who uses the identities of others to falsify credit card purchases. Stealing credit card offers from mail boxes, he obtains cards in others' names, makes many purchases until the card is maxed out, but is always careful to pay minimum balances. According to the story, it is possible for individuals such as this to run many credit cards at a time without being caught.
Promotional short film on an aspiring young actress Sharon Tate and her first film Eye of the Devil (1966).
In November 2011, the Devin Townsend Project performed their quadrilogy live in a series of four concerts. On November 12, the band played their third album, Deconstruction, from front to back at the University of London Union.
This Hal Roach comedy short I found on the "American Slapstick" DVD collection of rare silent comedies starts bizarre and has an anything goes-quality one rarely sees in Mr. Roach's output. It stars Snub Pollard who is initially introduced as a baby left on a doorstep before we see him fully grown about 20 or so years later still in that basket! From there, he gets bumped car to car crossing the street prior to getting literally thrown through a window as an auction is taking place! Also appearing is James Finlayson as a man who's items accidentally get sold.
Married couple's son is hit by a car and killed. Their marriage comes very close to falling apart, and while they're working back toward their relationship, they learn about a son born to a former girlfriend of the husband's; the child may be his. And then...
This Korean thriller begins as an organized crime kingpin murders his wife and child and then turns his gun on himself. His policeman brother, an identical twin, returns to his hometown only to find, to his surprise, that he is immediately mistaken for his dead brother. As disillusioned with law enforcement as his brother was with criminal life, the policeman takes on his brother's identity, enmeshing himself in the violent life that ultimately lead to his brother's demise.
"Silver lute", the choral society of the Vác Engine Works, led by Réz, the conductor, is preparing for its 25th anniversary. All the important members of the society, among them Seregély, a magician, are, at the same time, all "fathers" of Zsóka, daughter of a former colleague, who has been killed in an accident, and whom they then adopted.
English-language version of Baroud, sometimes referred to as Love in Morocco. 'A sergeant in the Foreign Legion falls in love with Zinah, the daughter of a Berber chief.' (British Film Institute)
At the heart of the Coral Triangle, Indonesia's Lembeh Strait is renowned for it's huge diversity and concentration of marine life. This special stretch of water is home to an astonishing array of weird and wonderful aquatic creatures. In a practice known as "muck diving", explorers seek out exotic marine animals amongst the fine sediment and discarded trash on the seabed. Bubble Vision videographer Nick Hope takes us underwater and reveals the secrets behind this cornucopia of life. Along the way we encounter corals, stingrays, unusual sharks, eels, shrimps, crabs, octopus, cuttlefish, sea snails, sea slugs and of course a huge variety of tropical fish. Learn about the clever strategies such as camouflage, mimicry and symbiosis that these animals depend on in their ongoing struggle for survival on the seabed. Mucky Secrets is a fine resource for scuba divers, aquarists, students of marine biology, or anyone who is fascinated by the mysterious life that inhabits the underwater world.
If the melting pot theory ever existed in America, it happened in New Orleans. This presentation examines a group of marginalized mixed-race Americans who are both multi-cultural and multi-ethnic. This documentary is the first authentic treatment of a group of Americans who proudly identify themselves as creoles. It provides first-hand accounts of their experiences in New Orleans. After reconstruction, the Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), divided America into two worlds: one white and one disenfranchised black. The Creole stories they tell in this documentary speak to the social history of the united states where the fruits of the american dream were rewarded to those with European features, light skin, and good hair. Often, survival meant giving up one's gens de couleur [colored people] identity to assimilate into white america. The process of becoming a productive american has been fraught with both rejection and racism for creoles of color. This is their story.
Channel 4 documentary Britain's Racist Election follows the controversial 1964 Smethwick election battle between Peter Griffiths and Gordon Walker, fought on grounds of racial denomination
Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.
Turkish film industry has been experiencing a breakthrough in the last ten years. According to 2015 figures, there is a bold uptrend in terms of viewers and film production. Yet without any regulations at work, this growth only made injustices in distribution bigger. While a single cinema chain controls more then 50% of the market, it also started to control distribution and production. In this monopolized environment, there seems to be no country for independent production. With the guidance of producers, distributors, and economists, the film traces the distortion created by the bad economy that has become an obstacle for freedom of choice.
Stony Paths is the story of a walk across Anatolia. Arnaud Khayadjanian starts a trek in Turkey, on the land of his forefathers who survived the Armenian Genocide. Starting from a painting, from encounters and from accounts by his relatives, he goes on exploring the little known issue of the Righteous, all these anonymous people who saved lives in 1915.
Seven-year-old Polina and her 13-year-old sister Nastia live and breathe ballet. Both of them are studying at the Boris Eifman Dance Academy in frigid Saint Petersburg. They’re currently awaiting their grades to find out if they’ve done well enough to be promoted to the next year, with Nastia lovingly guiding he little sister through the process. But in the meantime, Nastia also has to deal with the high demands that the academy places on its students. The gorgeously styled shots are sometimes calm, even clinical, and sometimes warm, lively and funny.
In Finland, a small child is waiting for his time to begin. His heart is broken. A major heart surgery is expected. There is a fight against time. The boys parents are wandering in the corridors of the hospital. The heart is stopped during the surgery operation. Le Locle, a village in Switzerland acts as the heart of watch industry. Narrow streets of the village carry vital parts to watches and nowdays also into human bodies, for example pacemakers. Village is formed as a big factory line and appears as a time-twisting machine. There pieces are refined and workers hands turns the time on and off.
In Buenos Aires a group of acclaimed dancers create the first Contemporary National Company of Dance under their collective leadership. This is the story of four talented dancers, Ernesto, Bettina, Victoria and Pablo, along six years of their journey. We follow their lives, we attend their rehearsals and performances in the emblematic building of the National Library, along with their premiere and backstage in the historical National Theatre of Cervantes. They expose their dreams as dancers, individuals and members of our society, as we observe the fulfilment of their biggest dream: the demand of a National Dance Law. Amazing choreographies, beautiful folklore songs and original Latin-American contemporary music reveal the beauty of dance becoming life.
The story of four pioneering lesbian politicians and the battles they fought to pass a wide range of anti-discrimination laws.
A 32-year-old PhD candidate Onur finds himself in a dilemma whereby he needs to make a decision between doing paid military service and serving the army for 6 months. Throughout this decision making process Onur not only questions the ethical and political aspects of the choice he will make, but also the compulsory military system in his country. He has only 2 months to decide. Will he go or pay?
PBS Frontline takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar "persuasion industries" of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives. Through sophisticated market research methods to better understand consumers and by turning to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their messages come from sources we trust, marketers are crafting messages that resonate with an increasingly cynical public.
A look back at the 1000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency.
A documentary exploring the existence of UFOs and the possible visit of aliens to Earth at sometime in the past
Popular Seduction Cinema and Cult Film stars discuss the intimate details of their lives and then get intimate with one another! Discover how these luscious ladies used their stunning beauty, performance and acting talents, hot young bodies, and naughty lesbian cravings to carve out a sizzling career in the softcore movie industry. All of their juiciest secrets and tastiest "assets" will be thoroughly revealed in this steamy, ultra-erotic, TELL-ALL, BARE-ALL, DO-ALL portrait of the most uninhibited babes in the late-night sexploitation biz.
A new documentary on the Criterion Collection edition of Roman Polanski's 1971 adaptation of Macbeth featuring interviews with the director, producer Andrew Braunsberg, assistant executive producer Victor Lownes, and actors Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw.
A 1971 documentary by Frank Simon featuring rare footage of the film’s cast and crew at work.
550 artists were interviewed over ten years. At some point during those interviews, they were asked a question and told to answer with one word only. Some stuck to one, some said more, some answered quickly, some thought it through, and some didn't answer at all. That question… Lennon or McCartney?
Ellie Goulding: LIVE at the Troubadour - Official HD Director's Cut (2012)
As children, British actor Paul Blackthorne and Australian photographer Mister Basquali both fell in love with America. Later they each fulfilled their dream to live here, but after two wars, a near economic collapse, and uncertainty about the country's direction, these two expats began to have doubts -- was America still the great place they once dreamed of? They drive across America to find out, interviewing random people about issues that affect and confront us all. From the ghetto to the gun show, the courthouse to the cattle yard, they are touched by the wisdom and insight of the people they meet. This American Journey is a cinematic postcard from the people to the people, teaching us that hearts can be healed at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected places.
After the insurrection erupted in Libya in the spring of 2012, more than a million people flocked to neighboring Tunisia in search of a safe haven from the escalating violence. When a massive refugee camp was hastily constructed near the Ras Jdir border checkpoint in Tunisia, a trio of filmmakers carried their cameras in and began filming with no agenda. This on-the-fly chronicle of the camp's installation, operation, and dismantling captures a postmodern Babel complete with a multinational population of displaced folk, a regime of humanitarian aid workers, and international media that broadcasts its “image” to the world. Visually stunning and refreshingly undogmatic, Babylon reveals a rarely seen aspect of the Arab Spring.
Bomarsund 1854 tells the story of two humanists, whose actions during the Crimean War prevented bloodshed. They are the British hydrographer, Bartholomew James Sulivan, and the Russian commandant, Jacov Andreyevitch Bodisco, two men who fought on opposite sides in the war. It also traces the rise and fall of the multi-cultural community of Bomarsund. The small island of Åland, located in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, played a significant role in the war that raged during 1854, originally called the Oriental War and partially fought in Northern Europe. The Baltic campaigns became the forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. The attention awarded events elsewhere has overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which lay close to the Russian capital of St Petersburg.