Vowellet - An Essay by Sarah Vowell(2005)

Capturing Avatar(en)

Capturing Avatar is a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Avatar. It uses footage from the film's development, as well as stock footage from as far back as the production of Titanic in 1995. Also included are numerous interviews with cast, artists, and other crew members. The documentary was released as a bonus feature on the extended collector's edition of Avatar.

Avatar(es)

Tension mounts between a quadraplegic man and his wife as she prepares a bath for him.

Last Call(en)

A boy secludes himself in the countryside to avoid confronting his progressing terminal illness when he becomes haunted by the memory of his dead brother

Attack on Titan(en)

As viable water is depleted on Earth, a mission is sent to Saturn's moon Titan to retrieve sustainable H2O reserves from its alien inhabitants. But just as the humans acquire the precious resource, they are attacked by Titan rebels, who don't trust that the Earthlings will leave in peace.

Super(en)

The main character, Albert, gets lost in the seductive world of pretty packages. When his frivolous fantasy turns into a nightmare he discovers a different world behind the facade of the supermarket.

Unholy Ground(de)

A Swedish village in the 18th Century: the seemingly idyll is disturbed by a group of soldiers they appear to beware their heavily injured comrade from death. Despite of first hospitality the arrivals notice that the villagers are not only devout, it seems that they hide a dark secret. As the mysterious events become more frequent, the suspicion stays inevitable: some villagers seem to believe in another God.

Avatar: Creating the World of Pandora(en)

The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.

Battle for Saipan(en)

On July 7, 1944, a U.S. Army hospital on the remote island of Saipan is overrun by Japanese forces during a relentless attack. Outgunned and surrounded by the enemy, a lone medic puts it all on the line to lead a band of wounded soldiers to safety.

My Avatar and Me(da)

is a creative documentary-fiction film and a film that might expand your sense of reality. It is the story about a man who enters the virtual world Second Life to pursue his personal dreams and ambitions. His journey into cyberspace becomes a magic learning experience, which gradually opens the gates to a much larger reality.

Monster Ark(en)

Archaeologist Nicholas Zavaterro and his student find an antique vase with an inscription that points to where Noah's Ark is hidden. They decide to go looking, but things get out of control when they encounter opposing forces, including a monster named Tama.

Reach Your Limits(bg)

One of the best Bulgarian mountain runners – Kiril Nikolov, known as Disl, attempted to set a new record – to run through the longest and legendary Bulgarian mountain route – 600 km from the mountain peak of Kom on the west border to cape Emine on the Black Sea coast, in less than 5 days. Through steep mountain paths, pouring rain, and sticky mud, the glorious adventure takes him beyond the barriers of his own consciousness, facing hidden fears, pain and exhaustion. Tо the point where he has to make a tough choice – to quit or to push his will to the ultimate challenge, beyond his own limitations.

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3(en)

Zed and Addison are beginning their final year at Seabrook High in the town that’s become a safe haven for monsters and humans alike. Zed is anticipating an athletic scholarship that will make him the first Zombie to attend college, while Addison is gearing up for Seabrook’s first international cheer-off competition. Then suddenly, extraterrestrial beings appear around Seabrook, provoking something other than friendly competition.

Kami's Party(fa)

A road trip takes many unexpected turns.

Facing the Wind(es)

Monica, a renowned choreographer, returns to Spain after a 20 year absence to see her sick father. Upon arriving her father has already died and her mother asks her to stay to sell the family home. In delaying her return to Buenos Aires Monica rediscovers her childhood landscapes and is forced to confront the past.

SUS(en)

Election Night 1979: Margaret Thatcher is about to come into power. A young black man is held on suspicion of murdering his pregnant wife. Officers Karn and Wilby, racist to the core and high on the prospect of a Conservative Party victory, try to lure the suspect into a quick confession. But the night has just begun...Callous humiliation gives way to a barrage of sinister violence, leading to a devastating conclusion.Written by Barrie Keefe, who was behind the British classic The Long Good Friday, SUS is an emotionally charged and incredibly tense crime drama that serves as a powerful outcry against past institutional racism. But in the age of counter-terrorism SUS also begs the question: has history caught up with us?

King Tweety(en)

Everyone's favorite yellow canary unexpectedly becomes next in line for the crown when the queen of an island paradise disappears. His Little Highness’ entourage includes motorbike daredevil Granny and sly Sylvester, whose allegiance is tested when he uncovers a sinister plot to eliminate Tweety for good.

Unexpected Call(bn)

A phone call that shakes a man's life.

Treacherous(en)

A former race car driver who has retired and is the owner of a Mexican resort hotel gets mixed up in a robbery involving $2 million by one of his former girl friends.

Epilogue(en)

By way of a pure Visual Music experience, the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian Institution) commissioned a major new work from abstract film artist Jordan Belson, who distilled 60 years of visionary sound and images into a twelve minute videofilm.

Red Notice 2(en)

The first of two planned sequels to Red Notice (2021).

My age, yours, and the age of the world(es)

After the earthquake, my grandmother is facing the loss of her apartment.

Almantal Yu’un Lekilal(es)

Twenty-two years after the massacre perpetrated by paramilitary groups in complicity with the government, the people of Acteal celebrate their martyrs and persist in their demand for justice.

America; I Too(en)

Three arrested and detained undocumented immigrants must navigate the system to fight impending deportation.

I, Apostate(en)

A fantasia of post-indoctrination, immigration, and iconography. A pageant of wanderers and searchers: Mormon missionaries, a pioneer, polygamists, scouts, hunters, church-goers, and an aspiring prophet walk and walk and walk. A pilgrimage of memory, history, ancestry, and place.

The Scanners Way: Creating the Special Effects in 'Scanners'(en)

This Documentary goes over how the special effects in the 1981 film "Scanners" were done.

Les sentiers culturels(fr)

Meaning of Robots(en)

This short film profiles the benevolent Mike Sullivan, who has been in the process of shooting a stop-motion robot sex film in his New York City apartment for the last ten years. Obsessed with the meticulous construction of the miniature robot porn stars, his apartment now overflows with thousands, leaving him only tiny paths to navigate and no place to film his epic.

Lost Contact(en)

Aldo has always felt like a being from another planet, stranded on Earth. His autism and long struggle to speak fluently alienated him from others. Now, he searches for meaning in the esoteric and for connection with people like himself.

Angel Dust(en)

A documentary exploring the effect of PCP on both the user and society, with particular focus on a Los Angeles salesperson named Jack's recreational usage of the drug.

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. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Group(en)

"Group" follows three convicted abusers as they confront the attitudes and beliefs that led to their violence, with the help of a compassionate group therapy facilitator.

Snow(sv)

A mother and her son are driving through heavy snowfall to bid a final farewell to their dead husband and father. A sudden and unexpected wrong turning takes them to a completely different place from the one they had expected. Some memories exist in a borderland.

Casa Conveniente(fr)

Mónica Calle is fighting with her theatre company to remain an actress, a woman, in a society where the place of art is constantly challenged. She draws this strength from Zona J, a district in the periphery of Lisbon, where she has set up her new place of creation, surrounded by former prisoners.

Daybreak Express(en)

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

Guadalupe Amor, un ensayo mitológico(es)

Algo sobre Jaime Sabines(es)

The Wall(en)

Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological "story". In 1962 Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources and crafted this taut short film about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Straightforward, keenly balanced narration portrays Berliners as "accepting the wall but never resigned to it". The extraordinary footage of the first escapes was propaganda enough-- His challenge was to make the politics human.

Scharnhorst - Der Schöpfer der Volksbewaffnung(de)

Scharnhorst, who said that the army should march at the forefront of progress, is one of the NVA's role models. The film uses historical material to cover the years 1806 to 1813, the Battle of Jena and Auerstädt and the Battle of Leipzig.

How to Break 90 #6: Fine Points(en)

The ultimate Bobby Jones golf series reaches its climactic conclusion on board a speeding train to oblivion.

Tickets s.v.p(en)

An incident from the early days of Québec's quiet revolution, tailor-made for the cartoonist. It is the story of a Montréal commuter train, a unilingual ticket collector and a bilingual passenger. The passenger appears on screen himself to describe his bid to have tickets requested in French as well as in English. What ensued, and how even the railway president became involved, is illustrated with wit and humor.