A Life On Screen: Stephen Fry

Good Grief(en)

Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living.

Hugo Pratt, trait pour trait(fr)

Several key words emerge from Hugo Pratt's work, inseparable from his life: travel, adventure, erudition, esotericism, mystery, poetry, melancholy... and of course, Corto Maltese, his hero and alter ego, who established him as one of the greatest names in comic books. Born in Italy in 1927 and dying in Switzerland sixty-eight years later, Hugo Pratt, born without an H and with only one T, grew up in the shadow of a fascist father who took him at a very young age to Ethiopia, which was occupied by Mussolini's forces. The teenager developed a fascination for the wide-open spaces of Africa, soon followed by an irresistible attraction to the Indian world. This was the starting point for a life of travel, success, conquests, rare failures, and marked by his veneration for the American cartoonist Milton Caniff, his absolute master.

I Am a Dancer(en)

Documentary about the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

De Madrid a la Luna(es)

The Look of Silence(en)

An optician grapples with the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966, during which his older brother was exterminated.

The Traverse(en)

Valentine Fabre and Hillary Gerardi, two high-level complete athletes, take on the challenge of establishing the first female record on the non-stop Haute-Route, a legendary ski mountaineering endurance race linking Chamonix to Zermatt in 100km and 8000m altitude difference. A feat that the two women take on, as much for personal reasons as for the representation they offer by achieving this great female first.

The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky(en)

Dramatization of Russian ballet star Vaclav Nijinsky's diaries which detail his madness as well as his homosexual relationship with Ballet Russe impresario Sergei Diaghilev and his marriage to his Hungarian wife.

Julius Fučík(cs)

Leonardo Da Vinci The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection(en)

A portrait of the artist as a "sublime demon with the archangel's face", with an innovative musique concrète soundtrack.

Shohei Ohtani: A Baseball Virtuoso(en)

NHK has followed baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani closely since his 2018 Major League debut. We look at Ohtani’s ability to both pitch and bat at the highest level. We hear from those who have supported him on and off the field and examine the importance of his father’s training regime. Join us behind the scenes at such pivotal points as Ohtani’s battle to recover from elbow surgery and reclaim his place as a baseball virtuoso like no other.

Elton John: A Singular Man(en)

An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.

Otar Iosseliani, le merle siffleur(fr)

Georgian director Otar Iosseliani prepares his film Jardins en Automne. Nothing is conventional in the filmmaker's system: Julie Bertuccelli portrays the gestation and production of a film that seems to follow the freest and most unpredictable poetic intuitions of its creator. The constant and hilarious arguments with the producer, Martine Marignac, a Michel Piccoli transformed into an old woman, and the director's peculiar filming system, in which he signals his actors to start with a whistle, paint a picture of one of the most unclassifiable cinematic experiences in contemporary cinema.

I Am Alfred Hitchcock(en)

Interviews and archival footage weave together to tell the story of the Master of Suspense, one of the most influential and studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.

James Ensor: Demons Teasing Me(en)

This film explains what James Ensor (1860-1949) meant for the development of art and makes palpable where he got his inspiration from.

Bosnia!(bs)

The carnage in Sarajevo provides the focus of this French documentary which seeks to call attention to the terrible conflict in the hopes of finally ending it. The film is divided into five parts. Each part covers a time frame ranging from April 4, 1992, the beginning of the war, to the present. The major issues that occur are three-fold. It depicts the systematic genocide of Bosnians, the silence of Western countries, and the determination of the Bosnians to resist. They refuse to be seen as victims, even though the filmmakers portray them so. Also included are the origins and political aspects of the war. It offers interviews with participants. It also reveals how the U.S. State Department censored reports about Serbian death camps.

The Queen: Mother and Monarch(en)

Following the announcement from Buckingham Palace of the death of Her Majesty The Queen, we examine how Queen Elizabeth II balanced her duties as head of both her family and her country

The Man Who Was There(es)

The Spanish journalist Manuel Chaves Nogales (1897-1944) was always there where the news broke out: in the fratricidal Spain of 1936, in Bolshevik Russia, in Fascist Italy, in Nazi Germany, in occupied Paris or in the bombed London of World War II; because his job was to walk, see and tell stories, and thus fight against tyrants, at a time when it was necessary to take sides in order not to be left alone; but he, a man of integrity to the bitter end, never did so.

Isack Hadjar, le feu intérieur(fr)

Who is Isack Hadjar, the 20-year-old driver who has been predicted as the next Frenchman to enter F1 ? For the past two seasons, he has been competing in the Formula 2 championship, the antechamber to the premier class. This year is crucial if he is to make his mark. After a catastrophic start in which he was plagued by bad luck, he bounced back to lead the championship. From his victories to his moments of doubt and intimacy, he shows himself for what he is: talented and ambitious.

Merkel(de)

Driven by extensive archive material and interviews with those who know her, this is the astonishing story of how a triple outsider – a woman, a scientist, and an East German – became the de facto leader of the “Free World”, told for the first time for an international audience.

The Common Touch(en)

The Common Touch tells the story of Jake Bailey, viral sensation and student of Christchurch Boys High School, who was told one week before his graduation speech about his diagnosis of life-threatening cancer.