Chops

The Cell Phone Revolution(en)

The Cell Phone Revolution is a revealing look at the enormous impact this small device has had on the way we live -- and the surprising dead ends and detours it took along the way. From a futuristic dream at the 1939 World's Fair -- the cell phone became a reality some thirty years later.

Cool(en)

Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music that started in the 1940s in the bars of New York and LA, and became known as cool jazz.

Britain's Racist Election(en)

Channel 4 documentary Britain's Racist Election follows the controversial 1964 Smethwick election battle between Peter Griffiths and Gordon Walker, fought on grounds of racial denomination

Gender Me: Homosexuality and Islam(no)

Gender Me is a road movie about Mansour’s voyage into the world of Islam. It is a personal odyssey through a world of taboos, filled with contradictory images. He explores questions regarding faith and gender in Islam with a special focus on the unusual stories of Muslim gays. Mansour is a homosexual Iranian refugee who has been living in Oslo for the past 18 years where he works as a pharmacist. Now he wants to travel back to Istanbul, where he lived for two years before he was granted asylum in Norway.

Spellbound(en)

This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.

The Road to Fame(en)

China's top drama academy stages the American musical "Fame," China's first official collaboration with Broadway, as the graduation showcase for its senior class. During the eight-month rehearsal, five students compete for roles, struggle with pressure from family and authority, and prepare to graduate into China's corrupt entertainment industry.

The Sound of Music(en)

In the years before the Second World War, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

Traceable(en)

Traceable follows Laura Siegel, a fashion designer who takes a critical look at the fashion supply chain and fast fashion industry, travels through India in order to meet and work together with the artisans who create the majority of the clothing that we wear. The film explores our growing disconnect of how and who makes our clothing, thus instilling a need for traceability in the fashion industry.

The Warp and the Weft(en)

Set in Varanasi, an ancient city of India, Tana Bana offers a rare look at the hidden world of Moslem weavers and Hindu traders and how their lives are interwoven through the production of the silk and the beauty it creates. However, as the technology advances, the trade is threatened by computerization and globalization.

Weegee's New York(en)

The best known, "Weegee's New York" (1948), presents a surprisingly lyrical view of the city without a hint of crime or murder. Already this film gives evidence, here very restrained, of Weegee's interest in technical tricks: blur, speeded up or slowed-down film, a lens that makes the city's streets curve as if cars are driving over a rainbow. - The New York Times

Beauty Factory(en)

From oratory classes to operating room, Beauty Factory follows five girls for four months as they compete for the coveted Miss Venezuela crown; revealing the process that has won Venezuela more international beauty pageants than any other country.

Nas: Time Is Illmatic(en)

Time Is Illmatic is a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of Nas' 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

Hex Hollow: Witchcraft and Murder in Pennsylvania(en)

A documentary film investigating the 1928 murder of a Pennsylvania farmer and the allegations of witchcraft that shocked the nation.

Kids(de)

In Bettina Büttner’s exquisitely lucid documentary Kinder (Kids), childhood dysfunction, loneliness, and pent-up emotion run wild at an all-boys group home in southern Germany. The children interned here include ten-year-olds Marvin and Tommy. Marvin, fiddling with a mini plastic Lego sword, explains matter-of-factly to the camera, “This is a knife. You use it to cut stomachs open.” Dennis, who is even younger, is seen in a hysteric fit, mimicking some pornographic scene. Boys will be boys, but innocence is disproportionately spare here. Choosing not to dwell on the harsh specifics, Büttner reveals the disconcerting manner in which traumatic episodes can manifest themselves in the mundane — a game of Lego, Hide and Seek, or Truth or Dare. Filmed in lapidary black-and-white, Büttner’s fascinating film sheds light on childhood from the boys’ characteristically disadvantaged perspective — one not yet fully cognizant — leaving much ethically to ponder over.

Appalachian Journey(en)

Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there. Performers include Tommy Jarrell, Janette Carter, Ray and Stanley Hicks, Frank Proffitt Jr., Sheila Kay Adams, Nimrod Workman and Phyllis Boyens, Raymond Fairchild, and others, with a bonus of a few African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont. Narrated by Alan Lomax. The Association for Cultural Equity’s Alan Lomax Archive channel on YouTube additionally streams outtakes from this film: other strong performances by Sheila Kay Adams, Dellie Norton, and Cas Wallin, Lawrence Eller, the Hickses, Algia Mae Hinton and John Dee Holeman, Tommy Jarrell, John “Doodle” Thrower, and Nimrod Workman.

King Corn(en)

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Shock Cinema: Volume Four(en)

A documentary about special makeup effects on low budget horror films. Includes behind-the-scenes footage from Murder Weapon (1989), Robot Ninja (1989), Ghoul School (1990) and Skinned Alive (1990).

Born to Lose - Lorenzo Woodrose(da)

Robert Doisneau: Through the Lens(fr)

Featuring previously unissued photographs and video archives as well as interviews of his friends and partners in crime, this documentary tells how the kid from the poor suburbs turned superstar photographer. It draws the intimate portrait of the life and work – being so closely interwoven – of and artist fiercely determined to be purveyor of happiness.

Kukuczka(it)