Paradise Now: The Living Theater in Amerika(1969)

The Connection(en)

A title card announces that the film is a result of found footage assembled by cameraman J.J. Burden working for the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jim Dunn, who has disappeared. Leach, a heroin addict, introduces the audience to his apartment where other heroin addicts, a mix of current and former jazz musicians, are waiting for Cowboy, their drug connection, to appear. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.

Love and Anger(it)

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

The Brig(en)

An ultra-realistic depiction of life in a Marine Corps brig (or jail) at a camp in Japan in 1957. Marine prisoners are awakened and put through work details for the course of a single day, submitting in the course of it to extremely harsh and shocking physical and mental degradation and abuse.

Paradise Now(en)

At least forty films have been made about the Living Theatre; it remained to the American underground filmmaker Sheldon Rochlin (previously responsible for the marvellous Vali) to make the 'definitive' film about one of the most famous of their works, Paradise Now, shot in Brussels and at the Berlin Sportpalast. Made on videotape, with expressionist colouring 'injected' by electronic means, this emerges as a hypnotic transmutation of a theatrical event into poetic cinema, capturing the ambiance and frenzy of the original. No documentary record could have done it justice.

Emergency: The Living Theatre(en)

a 32-minute color film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions “Mysteries” and smaller pieces, “Paradise Now” and “Frankenstein.” “The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” – Andrew Wilson (Artist’s Access Television)

Après la Passion selon Sade(fr)

Rite of Guerrilla Theater(en)

Commissioned work by Julian Beck and members of The Living Theatre (featuring Beck and Judith Malina, co-founders of The Living Theatre, in performance) for broadcast on KQED-TV, San Francisco. The Dilexi Series represents a pioneering effort to present works created by artists specifically for broadcast.

The Connection(en)

A professional recording of the official play. The play has a play-within-a-play format, with characters Jim Dunn as the "producer" and Jaybird as the "writer" attempting to stage a production about the underbelly of society using "real" addicts. Some of the addicts are jazz musicians. They all (except for the "producer", "writer", and two "photographers") have one thing in common: they are waiting for their drug dealer, their "connection". The dialogue of the characters is interspersed with jazz music.

Cour d'honneur de Jérôme Bel - Avignon 2013(fr)

Jérôme Bel's show features the memories of spectators at the Avignon Festival.

This American Wife(en)

The body of a Real Housewife is an apparatus, an assembly of parts—hair, lips, dress, falsies, mic pack, cell phone, wine stem, camera, restaurant, brand, identity. This body is maintained and degraded, intoxicated and cleansed, in seasons and cycles, systems of supply and denial. The self needs a medium. Who cares who you are when you’re alone anymore?

Fierce Hunt(zh)

Tianhai, a criminal gang led by Huo, robs gold stores many times and repeatedly escapes from the police encirclement with their clairvoyant-like "operations predictions." Upon hearing that Mentor Zhang Chenmo and his apprentice are entrusted with a mission at a critical moment, the criminal police quickly lock in on the suspect who is out of the police’s sight; But Huo is fearless, frequently committing crimes in a high-profile manner to provoke the police... And so a cat-and-mouse game between police and criminals begins.

American Expendables: The Films of North American Pictures(en)

The documentary celebrates some of the unsung action stars of the late eighties/nineties in the North American Pictures Catalog. From Cynthia Rothrock and Bolo Yeung to Billy Blanks the film explores the martial arts craze in the U.S. and the ferocious appetite of video store customers for these titles.

10 Days(zh)

The protagonist Junnan went to the hospital for a check-up due to his dizziness. On New Year's Eve before the holiday, he received a call from the hospital informing him that there was a tumor in his brain and he needed brain surgery within ten days. Faced with this sudden and significantly shocking news, he decided to seize the time to capture beautiful memories of traveling with his wife. Despite the concerns from his friends, Junnan decided to complete this film based on his personal experience with his wife, striving to cherish this extraordinary journey of life.

Massacre of The Innocents(sv)

Minou and her mother check in at a hotel after leaving their home due to the big forest fire. When Minou glances into the hotel’s renaissance painting she opens her eyes to all the things the grownups are ignoring.

Nil by Mouth(en)

The family of Raymond, his wife Val and her brother Billy live in working-class London district. Also in their family is Val and Billy's mother Janet and grandmother Kath. Billy is a drug addict and Raymond kicks him out of the house, making him live on his own. Raymond is generally a rough and even violent person, and that leads to problems in the life of the family.

Four Days in September(pt)

Fernando, a journalist, and his friend César join terrorist group MR8 in order to fight Brazilian dictatorial regime during the late sixties. César, however, is wounded and captured during a bank hold up. Fernando then decides to kidnap the American ambassador in Brazil and ask for the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.

Born to Win(en)

A smart-mouthed junkie and a former hairdresser spends his days looking for just "one more fix".

Testament(en)

It is just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.

The Land That Time Forgot(en)

Shipwrecked castaways stumble upon the mysterious island of Caprona in the Bermuda Triangle, confronting man-eating dinosaurs and a stranded German U-Boat crew while trying to escape.