
This iconic American story was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination. His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explores how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one man's life in parallel to the development of modern America.
2011-04-28
7
7.1Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.
7.4A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.
8.6A live album by American rock band Nirvana, the album features an acoustic performance recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City on 18 November 1993, for the television series MTV Unplugged.
9.0Documentary about the degraded rivers of Canterbury, New Zealand.
7.3Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.
7.8A documentary about urban violence in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Policemen, drug dealers, and shantytown dwellers get trapped in a daily war that knows no winners.
0.0Directed by Marion Grierson, who ran the film unit of the Travel and Industrial Development Association (TIDA), this short film contains some fine photography of the delights on offer to Edinburgh visitors - including trams, bustling streets, restful parks and some familiar tourist sights.
0.0London at its best? This gorgeously photographed portrait of the capital was made by Marion Grierson, sister of the more famous John Grierson, often hailed as the father of documentary film. The film transcends the typical travelogue thanks to the photography of William Shenton and Grierson's poetic approach to editing - which prefigures modern films like the acclaimed From the Sea to the Land Beyond (2012). The film achieved international fame at the time of its original release, yet Marion Grierson is almost completely overshadowed in the history of British documentary film by her brother John.
6.5With being thrown off buildings an occupational hazard, professional stuntwomen Jeannie Epper and Zoë Bell (the alter egos of Wonder Woman and Xena, respectively) would seem well-equipped for any challenges Hollywood might dish out. But finding roles -- and respect -- in a male-dominated field can prove more harrowing than dodging punches.
7.0Made entirely of Scottish film archive, a journey into our collective past, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depth of the vaults to take a starring role. Brilliantly edited together, these silent individuals become composite characters, who emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote's poetic music and lyrics
6.0In 1946, the controversial French writer Boris Vian writes his novel I Spit on Your Graves under the pseudonym of Vernon Sullivan, supposedly a mysterious African-American writer; a work against racism and Anglo-Saxon puritanism whose publication causes a great scandal.
0.0Profile of actress Greta Garbo, narrated by Glenn Close
6.9Join filmmaking duo Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob as their cameras follow Franken to book signings, campaign rallies and the launch of Air America Radio, documenting his transformation from irreverent funnyman to political pundit.
7.6The film discusses the traits and originators of some of metal's many subgenres, including the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, power metal, Nu metal, glam metal, thrash metal, black metal, and death metal. Dunn uses a family-tree-type flowchart to document some of the most popular metal subgenres. The film also explores various aspects of heavy metal culture.
0.0Through post-porn, performance and wrestling, Puck tries to figure out her place in the world.
6.2A group of young women from Ouagadougou study at a girl school to become auto mechanics. The classmates become their port of safety, joy and sisterhood, all while they are going through the life changing transition into becoming adults in a country boiling with political changes. In a country with youth unemployment at 52 percent, jobs are a hot issue. The young girls at a mechanics school in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou are right in the middle of a crucial point in life when their dreams, hopes and courage are confronted with opinions, fears and society’s expectations of what a woman should be. Using interesting narrative solutions, Theresa Traore Dahlberg depicts their last school years and at the same time succeeds in showing the country’s violent past and present. This is a feature-film debut and coming-of-age film with much warmth, laughs, heartbreak and depth.
7.2Life and Debt is a 2001 American documentary film that examines the economic and social situation in Jamaica, and specifically how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's structural adjustment policies have impacted the island.
Initially airing on HBO's "America Undercover" series, this riveting documentary focuses on three families shattered by the psychiatric disorder of schizophrenia. Subjects "Bob," "Missy" and "Steven" have lived for over a decade with schizophrenia. The film documents the difficult day-to-day existence of both those afflicted with this order and the families searching for answers to their loved ones' suffering. This film also shows the varied and variably successful treatment methods for each of the subjects—one is placed in a group home, one is placed in an institution, and one is cared for at home. The documentary was critically acclaimed for its compassionate treatment of mental illness.
5.0Ian Stahlhut's 1992 documentary of Judy Garland's 1964 Australian Tour.
3.5Serial killers have plagued the American landscape for decades, committing gruesome atrocities, and providing some tough cases for criminal investigators to crack. Two detectives are on the trail of a bizarre murderer intent on slaughtering his victims, then using them as real-life puppets in a tale that he is trying to tell.
10.0The Jungle Fight is an action-packed love story about courage, trust, and the triumph of good over evil. David, a handsome football player, and Victoria, a talented singer, are a couple living in the United Kingdom. One day, they decide to go for a long walk in a serene jungle to enjoy nature. David drives them there and brings a black bag filled with essentials like water, fruits, and snacks. Unbeknownst to them, a gang led by Captain and his friends Billy, Rosy, and Spike is lurking in the jungle, searching for monkeys to trade for weapons. Billy mistakenly believes David's black bag contains money and informs Captain. The gang decides to follow David and Victoria. When they finally confront the couple, Captain demands the bag, but David refuses to hand it over. A fierce fight ensues, with David taking on the gang members one by one.
6.0A professional hitman comes to kill a man as his final job. He manages to shoot him to death, but when he is leaving the house, the man he killed shows up again.
7.0In 2011, Ford's workers of Blanquefort have saved their factory and a thousand jobs. But victory's joy quickly move on to new fears of shutting down. Rapidly, those fears became reality, until thedefintive stop in 2020. This film recount their last year of battle, drawing the portrait of a group lead by Philippe Poutou.
A woman hires a day laborer for an hour and gets more than she bargained for.
6.0Cast and crew of "Reds" revisit their memories and stories while making the film.
6.1This is yet another telling of the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as the two try to clear their friend Jim of murder charges.
6.5In a suburb of Paris, Kenza, an introverted and secretive teenager, takes part in the rap workshop of Oréade, a young lesbian rapper whom she admires and whose friends make fun of her. Blocked by her shyness, she gradually reveals her talent as a rapper and awakens her desires through contact with Oréade.
5.2the boys (and Georgina) take on the Emirates stadium in an epic afternoon of parkour! Corruption 4 eva!!!
3.3In the early 1900's, a new invention was created to address the 'problem' of women's hysteria. These devices immediately became an essential household appliance, and were advertised in nearly every women's magazine and sewing notions catalog of the time. 70 Years later, these appliances were condemned as 'perverted sex toys,' and became the subject of heated debate among lawmakers. In California, Texas, and several other states, conservative politicians successfully waged legislative campaigns to outlaw and prohibit the sale, ownership or use of vibrators and dildos while simultaneously criminalizing other 'deviant' sexual practices. Although a number of these laws have been overturned by legislatures or the courts, in the State of Texas freedom fighters are still working to eliminate these absurd and unnecessary laws. Dildo Diaries takes a lighthearted but 'probing' approach to exploring the development of sections of the Texas Penal Code and its effects on the adult sex toy industry.
8.0A shot-on-video straight-to-television comedy adaptation of the Frankenstein story. Co-written by, and starring Gary Cohen (director of Video Violence).
10.0A sensitive portrait of flour production and fishing in the community of Pedras Grandes in Curuçá in the state of Pará. In addition to daily nutrients, these foods are cultural and social pillars, which connect the knowledge and traditions of the families that form this community.
3.5Late at night, a brother and his sister ride in an elevator with their father. Suddenly, the lights go off, and the lift gets stuck between two floors. In the dark and unable to get any help, the father pushes his son through the narrow space between the shaft and the hallway. Alone in the claustrophobic box, the father and daughter stay silent, until a childish whining is heard from the shadows. Someone is inside the elevator... breathing by their side.
8.0A documentary by Justin Arment that explores the 1991 rename of Michigan city 'East Detroit' to 'Eastpointe', and the racially motivated reasonings behind it.
7.0Adaptation of Martin Armstrong's poem about an elderly lady who becomes perturbed by something we can't see. It becomes apparent that she is looking for her past, lost in a memory or the clutches of nostalgia. Miss Thompson's shopping trip to town is in chaotic contrast to the tranquil nature of her lonely home, which on return seems like paradise.