Posts Tagged ‘Documentary’

503 results.
Jan06

Nanook of the North (1922), The Wedding of Palo (1934) and other Films of Arctic Life 2 x Blu-Ray Flicker Alley

by movieworld on January 6th, 2021 at 18:06
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Drama, Romance

Films of Arctic Life
Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North is considered one of the greatest films of all time.

Nanook follows an Inuit (not named Nanook in real life) and his family as they live, hunt and trade in north Quebec the way their ancestors have for centuries. With no plant life, the Inuits rely entirely on hunting animals, a diet that produces stretches of hunger and hardship in the trying climate. To see Nanook in action is to enjoy a fascinating view of a lifestyle distant from ours.

Knud Rasmussen and Friedrich Dalsheim's The Wedding of Palo is the more intimate and clearly the more relaxed of the two films. In it life is still difficult for the Eskimos, but nature never looks as dangerous as it does in Nanook of the North. More often than not the focus of attention is also on the Eskimos' feelings and emotions rather than on their daily struggle for survival.

Flicker Alley's two-disc Blu-ray set collects numerous other anthropological and educational films about the time and region, as well as the indispensable "Nanook Revisited", a 1988 return to the community that reflects not only on how the people have changed but on Flaherty himself.

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: , , ,
Jan06

Nanook of the North (1922) DVD5 Criterion Collection

by movieworld on January 6th, 2021 at 17:01
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

Nanook of the North 1922
Modern audiences are inured to movies about arctic life (or any far-flung corner of the globe) but we have people like Flaherty to thank for it.

Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North follows a great Inuit hunter Nanook and his family (his two wives Cunayou and Nyla and his two children Alle and Allegoo), living the traditional life. We see him ice fish, hunt walrus, seal and fox, and build an igloo. The Eskimos are living almost as purely as they always were, hardly touched by the modern world and industrialization.

The film gave the westerner who, in all probability, never saw what life was like on the frozen tundra, a chance to observe the harsh primitive world and the Eskimos constant fight to survive in such a fierce environment. It helped that Nanook was such a pleasant guide, someone the camera took an instant liking to, especially in the film’s most hilarious scene wherein the good-natured leathery faced Nanook heartily laughs as he listens in amazement to sounds coming out of a record player.

In 1989, Nanook of the North was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: ,
Dec21

The Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection: Fando y Lis (1968), El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973), Psychomagic: A Healing Art (2019) 4 x Blu-Ray Arrow (abkco)

by movieworld on December 21st, 2020 at 15:31
Posted In: .Other movies, Adventure, Documentary, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Western

The Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection
Some pundits along the way have said that there's a very fine line between being a visionary and being a madman, and it may be at least arguable that no contemporary filmmaker has blurred that line so vigorously (and most likely intentionally) as has Alejandro Jodorowsky. Just listing some of Jodorowsky's other activities in addition to his filmmaking may give some indication of both of the characteristics listed above, at least in terms of how the combination of them all being done by one person might be perceived by outsiders as indicating both visionary and mad aspects. Jodorowsky at various points in his long life has been a puppeteer, a composer, a mime, a writer of comics, a therapist and a self- described mystic with a penchant for magical realist and/or surrealist thinking.

Jodorowky first came to at least some prominence on the global cinema scene with El Topo in 1970, though Fando y Lis, also included in this set, preceded it by two years, causing more than a bit of a scandal upon its release, including being rather quickly banned in Mexico after its debut, something that probably kept it from greater renown at the time. El Topo at least managed to screen internationally, including in New York City, where it caught the attention of none other than John Lennon, who convinced Apple executive Allen Klein to fund further Jodorowsky efforts. This set also aggregates two other films from Jodorowsky, including 1973's The Holy Mountain (one result of Klein's financing efforts), which, like El Topo, has had a previous release on Blu-ray. Bookending the never before released Fando y Lis, the first feature length film from Jodorowsky, is Psychomagic, A Healing Art, Jodorowsky's most recent effort from 2019.

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: , , , , , ,
Dec16

Robert Kramer Work volume 04: Guns (1980), Naissance (1981), La peur (1983) DVD9

by movieworld on December 16th, 2020 at 13:47
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Drama

Robert Kramer Work volume 04
Following a series of films questioning commitment and politics in America and culminating with Milestones 1975, and a 1977 documentary on Lisbon’s Carnation Revolution, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal, Robert Kramer moved to France with his family. The first film he made there was Guns, an intricate feature which echoed the paranoid films of 1970's Hollywood. With Guns, Kramer continues his exploration of the militant psyche, while at the same time experimenting with different forms of narration.

"There are two distinct strands of reality in Guns. One deals with
the world at large. Tony (Patrick Bauchau), a journalist, speaks of 'a nonsensical story'. We no longer have any way to penetrate this wider world. The other strand concerns our intimate and personal experiences, as represented by Margot (Juliet Berto), who has decided to dedicate herself to caring for her dying mother. This strand comprises everything that results from her decision. I used the decline of Margo’s mother as a means of discussing certain things." (Robert Kramer)

Director: Robert Kramer
Cast: Patrick Bauchau, Juliet Berto, Peggy Frankston
Country: France

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: , ,
Oct14

Giorni di gloria / Days of Glory (1945) DVD5

by movieworld on October 14th, 2020 at 15:40
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

Giorni di gloria 1945
The first documentary on the German occupation of Rome and Italian resistance in the waning years of World War II.
It focuses on a notorious massacre of over 300 Italian prisoners in reprisal for a partisan attack on the SS in March 1944, and the post-war trial of some of the Italian fascists responsible. Several sequences (the removal of bodies from the Ardeatine caves and the executions by firing squad of the fascists in particular) are gruesome in the extreme, but the film is an essential complement to the picture given in works such as Rossellini's "Paisa" and "Rome, Open City".
Commissioned by the Allies’ Psychological Warfare Branch, the film was shot over two years by four soon-to-be major figures in postwar Italian cinema.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:10:27 | 4.12 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italiano
Subtitles: English, Italiano
Genre: Documentary

Directors: Giuseppe De Santis, Mario Serandrei, Marcello Pagliero, Luchino Visconti
Country: Italy, Switzerland
↓ Download movie...

└ Tags:
Oct14

1789 (1974) 2 x DVD

by movieworld on October 14th, 2020 at 12:38
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

1789 1974
The cooperative production of "1789" brought Theatre du Soleil worldwide attention when it was performed at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 1970-71, the first time the company had ventured out of France.

In "1789", the French Revolution is conceived as an extravagant performance piece, a spectacle that is part Brecht, part commedia dell'arte, part puppet show and largely carnival. The revolution that included more street drama than any other is shrewdly reconceived in the terms most accessible and sympathetic to ordinary citizens.

Ariane Mnouchkine's film is not a true work of cinema, though; it is a filmed version of actual performances by the Theatre du Soleil, shot in 1973 at the end of the play's three-year run. As the movie begins, we see actors putting on elaborate stage makeup, and through the next two and a half hours we rarely lose sight of the audience, standing spectators who look as if they are gathered at a sideshow. The film insists on remaining a self-consciously theatrical experience.

Director: Ariane Mnouchkine
Cast: Roland Amstutz, Lucia Bensasson, Jean-Claude Bourbault
Country: France
Genre: Documentary
↓ Download movie...

└ Tags:
Oct13

The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye: Janine (1990), She Don’t Fade (1991), Vanilla Sex (1992), An Untitled Portrait (1993), The Potluck and the Passion (1993), Greetings from Africa (1996) DVD5

by movieworld on October 13th, 2020 at 12:59
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Documentary, Drama

The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye
Vilified by conservatives in Congress, defended by major newspapers, and celebrated by audiences and festivals around the world as one of the most provocative, humorous and important filmmakers of our time, Cheryl Dunye practically invented a new form of cinema – call it the ‘Dunyementary.’ Using a mixture of narrative and documentary techniques, the ‘Dunyementary’ challenges social and cultural norms through a sharply funny and reflexive lens. Never scholarly or didactic, Dunye appreciates the value in entertaining viewers.

Her acclaimed first feature THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1996) introduced Cheryl to wider audiences, who fell in love with her self-depreciating and insightful wit – not to mention the great casts she assembled (including herself). But what came before this modern-day classic?

Presented here are the films that started it all – the early works which gave birth to an extraordinary and original filmmaking talent. Made with great creativity on often miniscule budgets, they represent the first chapter of the Cheryl Dunye oeuvre.

DVD5 | NTSC 4:3 | 01:11:21 | 4.37 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Documentary, Short, Comedy, Drama

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: , , , ,
Oct13

The Occult History of the Third Reich (1992) 2 x DVD5

by movieworld on October 13th, 2020 at 11:55
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, History

The Occult History of the Third Reich 1992
The murderous deeds of Hitler's Third Reich are still widely recalled today, but what is less well-known is the strange concoction of beliefs that underpinned the Nazi regime.

In the early 20th Century, the young Adolf Hitler was just one of many German-speaking people attracted by a new Germanic mythology that combined ancient legends and esoteric cosmologies with cutting-edge theories of genetic science. In the hands of the Nazis, the result was a new ideology that saw racial purity as the key to human destiny.

By the time of the Third Reich, Hitler and the Nazis had evolved an entirely new faith, complete with holy book, venerated relics and a priestly elite in the form of Himmler's SS. It was a religion based on obedience, power, and the cult of the leader, with Hitler himself conceived in Messianic terms.

With archival footage and narration explaining the influences of the occult on the Third Reich, this four-part documentary further unveils the twisted mind of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

2xDVD5 | NTSC 4:3 | 210 min | 8.37 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Documentary, History

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: ,
Oct12

Scorsese Shorts: What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963), It’s Not Just You, Murray! (1964), The Big Shave (1967), Italianamerican (1974), American Boy: A Profile of – Steven Prince 1978) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on October 12th, 2020 at 13:17
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Horror

Scorsese Shorts
“A filmmaker shows what his career will be in his first 150 feet of film,” François Truffaut once wrote. He was talking about Jean Vigo at the time, but he might as well have been talking about Martin Scorsese, whose early short films — from the narrative works of his student years at New York University and immediately afterward to the midlength documentaries he made as his feature-filmmaking career was getting underway — reveal the energy, eclecticism, and invention that would make him one of the most exciting American directors of the seventies and, eventually, one of the great artists of our time.

Criterion’s release of five early Martin Scorsese shorts reveals that the filmmaker knew the kind of artist he was and wanted to be at a young age. All of the films included in this set contain seeds of future Scorsese classics, and they’re all formally playful and sophisticated, with lasting career reverberations: Four of the five shorts center around the rapture and mythology of storytelling, while the fifth plumbs the theme of self-annihilation that would become a Scorsese leitmotif. Collectively, the five films span two distinct periods in Scorsese’s career: as an N.Y.U. student and graduate in the early-to-mid 1960s, and as a rising filmmaker in the mid-to-late ‘70s.

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: , , , , , , ,
Sep23

Peter Nestler: 9 Films 1962-2009 2 x DVD9

by movieworld on September 23rd, 2020 at 16:54
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

Peter Nestler 9 Films
Admired by the likes of Jean-Marie Straub and Harun Farocki, Peter Nestler was one of the most important filmmakers to emerge from postwar Germany. From his early films about the changing realities of rural and industrial areas in Germany and the UK, to his work for Swedish television, Nestler has remained a precise observer of the poetry and politics of labor, crafting meticulous portraits of industrial processes, working conditions, and workers themselves, as well as the background of struggle and oppression against which the era’s proletariat toiled. A vigorous yet nuanced opponent of fascism, an excavator of lost histories and a masterful formalist whose works are rich with a materiality all their own, Nestler has spent five decades chronicling how things get made, whether in a factory or at the level of ideology.

Nestler’s films are beyond documentaries. He is not engaging in mere journalism. Nor are these films essays, whereby Nestler expounds on working class life or the ravishing changes of industry.

Rather, Nestler is a kind of poet connecting the dots between environmental shifts and the resilience of human beings. Whether it is the innocence of schoolchildren, or the contemplative suffering of community elders, Nestler presents us with the enduring joy of the human heart.

↓ Download movie...

└ Tags: ,