Vowellet - An Essay by Sarah Vowell(2005)

The Gauntlet(en)

Phoenix cop Ben Shockley is well on his way to becoming a derelict when he is assigned to transport a witness from Las Vegas. The witness turns out to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties—and incriminating information regarding a high-ranking official.

Waking Ned(en)

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.

7 Dwarves: The Forest Is Not Enough(de)

Snow White asks the seven dwarfs for help, because if they don't manage to find out the name of a little boy (Rumpelstiltskin) within two days, her newborn child will be taken away from her. The journey takes the dwarves to a depressive, rhyming Pinocchio and the omniscient wizard Helge, among others, and all the way to the world of humans.

Monkey Business(en)

Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.

Starbuck(fr)

David Wozniak is a perpetual adolescent who discovers that, as a sperm donor, he has fathered 533 children. He is advised that more than 100 of his offspring are trying to force the fertility clinic to reveal the true identity of "Starbuck," the pseudonym he used when donating his sperm. To make matters worse, his girlfriend Valérie is pregnant with his child, but doesn't feel that he is mature enough to be a father.

Highlander: The Source(en)

The world is falling into chaos. As he roams a crumbling city, Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander, remembers happier times before the love of his life left... Hopeless and alone, MacLeod finds his way to a band of immortal companions, including his mysterious friend Methos, and a mortal, Watcher Joe Dawson. Together this small group sets out on a quest to find the origin of the first Immortal.

Obsession(en)

A wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his late wife.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum(ja)

In late 19th century Tokyo, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a legendary actor, himself an actor specializing in female roles, discovers that he is only praised for his acting due to his status as his father's heir. Devastated by this, he turns to Otoku, a servant of his family, for comfort, and they fall in love. Kikunosuke becomes determined to leave home and develop as an actor on his own merits, and Otoku faithfully follows him.

The Paper Chase(en)

A first-year law student struggles with balancing his coursework and his relationship with the daughter of a stern professor.

The Merchant of Venice(en)

Venice, 1596. Bassanio begs his friend Antonio, a prosperous merchant, to lend him a large sum of money so that he can woo Portia, a very wealthy heiress; but Antonio has invested his fortune abroad, so they turn to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, and ask him for a loan.

The Brood(en)

A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband's investigation.

Cries and Whispers(sv)

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

Buddies(en)

David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

Leaving Las Vegas(en)

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

Visitor Q(ja)

In a dysfunctional family where the mother is a heroin addict and prostitute, beaten by her son, and the father is an ex-TV reporter, sleeping with his daughter and filming his son being beaten up, ‘Q’, a complete stranger enters the bizarre family, changing their lives for the better, finding a balance in their disturbing natures.

Soulless 2(ru)

Max Andreev thought the best place to start a new life would be at the other end of the world. What he didn't know, is that you can't outrun your past.

Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead(en)

The Tall Man, that imposing menace from Morningside Mortuary, is back and once again haunting the thoughts of the now-adult Mike and his friend, ex-Ice Cream vendor Reggie. The two continue their hunt for the mysterious figure and in his path of destruction encounter a variety of dangerous situations, friends and enemies.

Foresti Party(fr)

Comedian Florence Foresti supersizes her act in an arena show packed with sketches, celebrity impressions, epic dance routines and special guests.

Green Zone(en)

During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his team of Army inspectors are dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that threatens to invert the purpose of their mission.

The Armstrong Lie(en)

In 2009, Alex Gibney was hired to make a film about Lance Armstrong’s comeback to cycling. The project was shelved when the doping scandal erupted, and re-opened after Armstrong’s confession. The Armstrong Lie picks up in 2013 and presents a riveting, insider's view of the unraveling of one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of sports. As Lance Armstrong says himself, “I didn’t live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one.”

Land Without Bread(es)

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(fr)

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Spiel in Farben(de)

ADMA for Short(en)

This film describes the building of the drilling platform ADMA Enterprise in a shipyard on the Kiel Canal, from where it was rowed to the Arabian Gulf.

Gingers(en)

Redheads. Fire crotches… This film collects samples of their testimonials and their body hair and skin. About being different genetically, about gay gingers, doubly in a minority, from Ireland to Israel to Brazil. A film made especially for ginger lovers.

FIT Hives: Sustainability - The Secret to Survival(en)

A documentary that introduces FIT Hives, a student-run organization whose mission is to educate the FIT community about the importance of bees to the environment, the use of bee-derived resources in the industries related to the majors at FIT and its goal to put a beehive on the roof. FIT Hives is a recipient of an FIT Innovation Grant which also supported the making of this documentary.

Brot der Wüste(de)

Short documentary by Peter Fleischmann

Afrikanische Affen(de)

A study of the behavior of monkeys in the African jungle.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory(fr)

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Displaced(sq)

After Kosovo's independence the first internationally recognized sports federation was the one of Table Tennis. Two local Ping-Pong enthusiasts see this as a great opportunity and start self-financing the training sessions for young players.

Night and Fog(fr)

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Beyond Silence(en)

The lives of Jeff, Lauren and Lloyd—three very different people who share one common experience—have been transformed by speaking up for mental health. These inspiring stories depict what mental health in America really looks like and highlights just how important it is to speak up and seek help.

Everything(pl)

Here's a strange one. First, a song on a blackboard: a Polish translation of “I love my little rooster” by American folk writer Almeda Riddle. Then, two men roll around trash bins and lift them to the garbage truck. They do it several times. A woman shouts in the distance. At the end, the picture stops, and the woman sings the song. An early short by Piotr Szulkin.

Puberty: Sexual Education For Boys and Girls(nl)

This sex education movie explore themes of body development, sexual hygiene, masturbation, menstruation, puberty, sex and giving birth.

The Water Dwellers(en)

This short documentary introduces us to a town where no one pays rent: Simoom Sound in central British Columbia, where loggers live on sturdy river craft. Every week there are visitors: the general storekeeper, the flying postman and most importantly, the forest ranger, who is ever alert to the threat of fire.

The Making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'(en)

A documentary film on the making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

Anonymous(en)

A short film about the changing face of London Soho and the implications of gentrification on Mimi, an aging transvestite.

Milk(en)

What we show in Milk is literally the best of the best when it comes to dairy farming, yet, as soon we view what happens from the perspective of the mother cow, it becomes clear that this is an industry that runs on the exploitation and suffering of animals. By using animation, we are able to show a unique perspective and tell the story of the mother cow in a way that cannot be done from investigative footage alone. Milk centres the cow as the protagonist of her own story and allows us to view what is happening to her from an up close and personal perspective. Organic, free-range, high-welfare, humanely raised. It doesn’t matter what label we put on dairy products, all dairy cows are victims of an industry that forcibly impregnates them, takes their babies from them, exploits their bodies and then sends them to a slaughterhouse to cut their throats. It's time to end the dairy industry.

Der Auftrag(de)

This documentary reports on the master potter Otto Engelmann from Klingmühl, who was commissioned to make black painted clay heads of Karl Marx in the spring of 1973. Engelmann briefly explains the individual work steps from mixing the casting slip to firing the clay heads and then painting them. An old craft is vividly captured on camera and accompanied by original sou

How to Blow Up a Helicopter (Ayako's Story)(en)

Interview of Ayako Fujitani and her dad Steven Seagal.