In the middle of the night on February 11, 1823, the seafaring career of Captain George Pollard, Jr. came to a dramatic end in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Having survived the tragic events of the Essex, one of the world’s most infamous seafaring disasters, and the true life events that inspired Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, Pollard optimistically set sail for the Pacific once again in the whaleship Two Brothers, believing with all his heart “that it was an old adage that the lightning never struck in the same place twice.” In this case it did, and Pollard’s promising career as a whaling captain came to a tragic end on an uncharted reef in the most remote archipelago on earth, and what is now Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists discovered the first clues of the whaleship Two Brothers and began to unlock the mystery of the only Nantucket whaleship ever found on the sea floor.
A retired high school English teacher is confronted by a former student who failed her class 15 years prior. He then involves her in a feature-length presentation on Moby-Dick and the science of reading.
Guy Ben-Ner, one of Israel's foremost video artists, gained international recognition with a series of low-tech films, starring his family in absurdist settings carved out of their intimate spaces and their everyday surroundings. Many of his videos are inspired by screenplays for films, folktales and novels. Analyzing these literary and cinematographic passages allows him to exploit the conventions of film narrative: how to tell a story, captivate an audience through a tale, sustain a degree of tension and entertainment, and so on. At the same time, he corrupts the magic of fiction by openly showing us the entrails of everything he records, without worrying about revealing the tricks of the trade. A large part of his filmic oeuvre features a conglomeration of cinematic and literary references which the artist quotes, adapts or interprets. Ben-Ner self-referentially links the great themes and their literary, cinematic and artistic realization.
A look at US society through the prism of Moby Dick, the mythical novel published by Herman Melville (1819-1891) in 1851.
After witnessing the killing of his mate and offspring at the hands of a reckless Irish captain, a vengeful killer whale rampages through the fisherman's Newfoundland harbor. Under pressure from the villagers, the captain, a female marine biologist and an Indigenous tribalist venture after the great beast, who will meet them on its own turf.
Moby Dick 4 Dummies taps into this child-like subconscious, exploring our relentless quest to decipher the meaning of life.
From Ceará to Bahia, passing through Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Pernambuco (and with the counterpoint of the Northeastern diaspora in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), the documentary seeks to survey the contemporary Northeastern imaginary: a mixture of the most rich or archaic regional traditions with influences from the more modern mass culture of the era of globalization.
Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer is one of the first and most influential surf movies of all time. The film documents American surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they travel the world during California’s winter (which, back in 1965 was off-season for surfing) in search of the perfect wave and ultimately, an endless summer.
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.)
Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.
An experimental documentary on dancing and its part in subcultures from punk to electro.
Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec (Station, 1980) portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.
A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.
Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.
In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Bob Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.
7’30” | DV | Colour | 2001 | Brazil Screening Format: DV Filming Format: Super 8 Original Soundtrack: O Grivo Directed, Photographed and Edited by: Cao Guimarães The illusion of an hypnosis emerges from the serenity of a geometrical succession of forms. In this geometrical 'mini-drama' the pathos is created by colors in movement and the languorous and repetitive beat of a piano.
Follows the footsteps of former Czechoslovak – Vietnamese cooperation and seeks to sum up its importance, regardless of its close political aspects, for lives of few particular Vietnamese citizens and also to report on contemporary Vietnam through experience of local people, who surprisingly aren’t separated from Czech by language barrier.
This film came into being on a farm in the village of Hakushu, Min Tanaka's home. Min Tanaka is a very distinctive personality of Japanese alternative theatre in which the mind questions the tongue and so the body becomes the tongue. Min Tanaka's dance is able to speak even to those who know nothing about Japan and Japanese art. Perhaps it is because, on their road to discovery, Min and his dancers probe deep down to the roots of the culture of all peoples, to the time when we were not yet Europeans and they were not Japanese.
Pavlina is a drug addict imprisoned, as well as her boyfriend, for illegal drug manufacturing. They meet again after the amnesty and the vicious circle of drugs starts rolling again.
René has been in prison since he was 16. He is sick of life and doesn’t care about his parents (just as René’s parents never cared about him when he was a child); he doesn’t even know how many more children they had. After the general amnesty, René just hangs around, not satisfied in any job, and with his younger brother he starts stealing. In no time he is back in prison, this time joined by his brother who is still a youth. History repeats itself and René’s life philosophy seems to be confirmed: You enjoy your freedom for a while, then go to prison and the same thing happens all over again.