Posts Tagged ‘Documentary’

452 results.
Jun20

Tmar a jeho rod aneb Slzave udoli pyramid / Obscurantist and His Lineage or The Pyramids’ Tearful Valleys (2011) DVD9

by movieworld on June 20th, 2018 at 13:10
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Mystery

Obscurantist and His Lineage or The Pyramids' Tearful Valleys 2011
Karel Vachek's documentary essay deals with the fine line between an internal belief in God and institutionalized religion. At the same time it brings up the need for a healthy sense of skepticism and the benefit of not believing in anything that advertises itself as certain. The filmmaker sets out for the USA, Japan, Great Britain, Poland, and the Balkans in his sometimes amusing investigation of spiritual substitutes, such as esoteric "teachings" or various fraudulent and magical practices, to which we sometimes fall prey due to our natural religious cravings. In addition to a Czech "prefab" family, who describe the carryings-on of their poltergeist, well-known mystery buffs appear in the film: Erich von Daniken, Raymond Moody Jr., and Ivan Mackerl. Director Vachek, however, uses no irony or ridicule, and although his position of skepticism in the film is clear, he is quick to point out surprising correspondences between the newest scientific hypotheses and the most ancient religious texts.

Whilst Brno welcomes Pope Benedict XVI. and Barack Obama is promising a world without nuclear arms in Prague, the members of the Academy of Sciences are protesting by the National Theatre, and ghosts appear nearby in the basement of the Film and Photography Academy (FAMU), Egon Bondy mulls over the principle of God in the binary system, Raymond A. Moody lectures about life after life, governments use the media and the intelligence services to keep secret the existence of a UFO and a lady member of a Czech Tai-chi club is being subjected to remote astral torture by the Chinese...
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Jun11

He Stands in the Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986), Quartet Number One (1991) DVD9

by movieworld on June 11th, 2018 at 17:39
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

He Stands in the Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life 1986
The great achievement of American avant-garde film has been the interiorization of the cinema image: the creation of a body of films whose techniques are geared not toward using the film image for objective presentation of external events but for the exploration of the varieties of the private personas and inner visions of their makers. Jonas Mekas’s film, He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life, is one of the most intense, beautiful, and moving examples of that tradition.

While we do see Mekas himself and his family, the film’s focus is on many other, often more public figures. There are a number of “celebrities,” from John and Yoko to Andy Warhol to Jackie O. and various Kennedy children. There is also much footage of persons well known to followers of independent film: Peter Kubelka, Hollis Frampton, Ken Jacobs, P. Adams Sitney, Richard Foreman. There are also many other Mekas friends who are not well known.

For the past 25 years, Mekas has been releasing a series of diary films, each dealing with different periods of his life, which together will constitute a single, massive cinema autobiography. He Stands in a Desert is the first of three films utilizing footage shot over the last 15 years; Mekas sees this film as the one most concerned with material outside his personal life.
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Jun03

Smultronstallet / Wild Strawberries (1957), Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work (1998) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on June 3rd, 2018 at 14:38
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Drama, Romance

Wild Strawberries 1957 Criterion CollectionWild Strawberries captures the thoughtful and compassionate side of Ingmar Bergman rarely seen in his films. It is the story of an aging man’s introspective journey on the meaning of his life, and inevitability of death.

Isak Borg is a doctor well into his autumn years and about to receive an honorary degree celebrating his fifty years in medicine. As he makes the trip to the university, he and his daughter-in-law travel across the areas where he grew up, leading Isak to reflect on his life, which ultimately makes him confront his fears and the fact that he has become a cold, inadequate man. They pick up a group of kids and a husband and wife, and even these strangers begin to meld into Isak's nightmares and reflections. Isak Borg is forced to confront his wasted emotional life, the inevitability of his death, and he struggles to make amends with who he has become.

Wild Strawberries is the most beautiful of Ingmar Bergman's pessimistic films. There are splashes of humor in it, but its effective depiction of the suffocating loneliness elderly people struggle with towards the end of their lives is indeed quite depressing.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin
Country: Sweden
Genre: Drama, Romance
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May10

Miles! The Definitive Miles Davis at Montreux DVD Collection (1973–1991) 10 x DVD

by movieworld on May 10th, 2018 at 15:30
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Musical

The Definitive Miles Davis at Montreux Collection
This historically important 10-DVD set captures all of Miles Davis’ performances at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival between 1973 and 1991, the last being less than three months before his death. Although many tracks are repeated across the years, the concerts are strikingly individual with extensive improvisation and frequent rearrangements. The final concert from 1991 sees Miles Davis paying tribute to his collaborator and close friend Gil Evans who had died in 1988.

With Miles philosophy of never look back it was extraordinary that he would agree to perform such a show and it was a truly unique occasion captured here for posterity. Miles Davis is undeniably one of the most important and successful jazz figures of the 20th century. This unrivalled DVD box set of his live performances at Montreux is a release to be truly cherished.

"These live recordings, spanning nearly 30 years, not only show Miles' creativity but also the major influence he had and still has on today's music. I am very proud that by keeping all these recordings through the years and using only direct mixes, the magic of Montreux can be yours now."
Claude Nobs, director and founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
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Apr27

Adolf Eichmann: the Secret Memoirs (2002) DVD5

by movieworld on April 27th, 2018 at 17:20
Posted In: .Other movies, Biography, Documentary, History, War

Adolf Eichmann: the Secret Memoirs 2002
Alan Rosenthal was living on a kibbutz in the north while on vacation from his business administration studies at Stanford when he got a call from the States. A U.S. filmmaker making a movie on the Adolph Eichmann trial in Jerusalem needed someone in Israel to coordinate the production of the film. Rosenthal accepted the offer and covered the entire trial of the man considered responsible for the murder of over five million Jews in World War II.
Now, Rosenthal has come full circle. Almost 30 years later, Nissim Mossek, a prominent Israeli film director and editor, approached him with the idea of unique documentary film: a profile of Eichmann shown from the view of the murderer and not the victims. The film would be based largely on newly released secret memoirs recorded by a Dutch fascist journalist in Argentina in 1957, before Eichmann was caught by Mossad.
Rosenthal calls these the "assassin diaries" and claims they give a unique insight into Eichmann's motives and inner thoughts. "Unlike the `prison diaries,' which were written with an eye to the judges, these memoirs are really for the Nazis themselves: He's proud of what he does and regrets nothing," says Rosenthal adding, "He says at one point, `I only regret I wasn't harsh enough, I wasn't strong enough. And you see the result, the State of Israel came into existence and the Jewish people go on existing.'"
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Apr05

Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film (1900-1934) 4 x DVD9

by movieworld on April 5th, 2018 at 17:20
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, History

Treasures III Social Issues in American Film
Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film 1900-1934 is a highly researched and annotated collection of rarities from film archives. As explained by curator Scott Simmon, movies arrived at the same time as many social reform movements, and one of film's first jobs was to be a message carrier. The collection is a catalog of the issues that most concerned America in the first three decades of the twentieth century.

In 48 short and feature-length works spanning more than 12 hours, we see issues of the day — immigration, women's and workers' rights, questions of religion, abortion, war and peace — through the new medium that for many audiences was their main source of news, in a time before radio, television and the Internet.

Four discs carry over twelve hours of films, each accompanied by a new music score and a commentary by an expert sociologist or film historian. In addition to many short subjects, instructional and propaganda films, the collection includes several full-length features (one in 2-color Technicolor). Directors include Cecil B. De Mille, William Desmond Taylor, King Vidor, Lois Weber; stars include Richard Dix and Mary Pickford.
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Mar29

Two films by Errol Morris: Gates of Heaven (1978), Vernon, Florida (1981) 2 x DVD and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on March 29th, 2018 at 15:08
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Documentary, Drama

Gates of Heaven (1978), Vernon, Florida (1981) Criterion Collection
When you hear the word "documentary", a few names immediately come to mind. Two of those names might be Werner Herzog ('Burden of Dreams') or Michael Moore ('Roger and Me'). A third name, someone who has made some of the most influential, interesting, and informative documentaries is Errol Morris. Morris even created a new kind of camera system for his documentaries called the Interrotron, which the filmmaking industry continues to use today.

'Gates of Heaven' follows a couple of families and their pet cemetery businesses in California. Without the use of a narrative or even narration or a score, Morris only interviews these families and other people about their thoughts on putting their beloved pets to rest. The result is a charming, funny, and bittersweet outlook on the relationship between humans and their pets. Through these interviews, Morris gets a glimpse of what life means to the common people of America and how business and industry affect our emotions and decisions in these difficult times.

A couple of years later, Morris turned in a documentary called 'Vernon, Florida', which was kind of life threatening at first for the director. The town in Florida was known as 'Nub-City', due to the high number of people who would volunteer to cut off their own limbs as a way to collect insurance money. Originally, this was what Morris set 'Vernon, Florida' to be about, but the citizens weren't too happy about it and began to threaten his life and eventually ran him out of town. A little while later, he came back to the town and focused on the many different and eclectic people who lived in this small community.

It's a genuine, funny, yet oddly charming look at life in a small town. Morris really engraved his name in the annals of filmmaking with these two brilliant films and made an impact on the movie industry and his colleagues that would further his career for many years to come.
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Mar29

Festival (1967) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on March 29th, 2018 at 13:43
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Musical

Festival 1967 Criterion Collection
Festival offers an unforgettable trip back to an era when there was genuine enthusiasm for great original content and desire from artists and fans to connect through the power of music. Director Lerner visited the Newport Folk Festivals between 1963 and 1966 and attempted to document as much of the interactions between the performers and the crowds as possible. The bulk of the content shows future legends such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, and Joan Baez, as well as lesser known folk performers and bands that essentially share their talent while casually interacting with their fans. Occasionally, the two groups also share their thoughts on the different ways music can free people and help them pursue their ultimate goals in life.

Perhaps the most interesting theme that emerges from Festival is that authentic folk music had managed to give people hope that the future would be better so long as they continued believing in freedom and each other. This remarkable sense of optimism is so easy to detect even in extremely short comments, and frankly today feels indescribably refreshing because it also comes from people of all kinds of backgrounds and ages. Wonderful film.
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Mar27

Buka barane / The Children Chasing the Rainbow / The Bride of the Rain (2013) DVD5

by movieworld on March 27th, 2018 at 15:38
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, History

Buka barane 2013
Buka Barane, means The Bride of the Rain in Kurdish. It is the Kurdish phrase used for the rainbow.
The documentary, begins with a photograph of primary school children taken in 1989 in the courtyard of their school in the village of Befircan or Karli, to use its given Turkish name, in the Yuksekova district of Hakkari province. In a corner of the photograph it is possible to see the rainbow that comes out after every fall of rain in this region. 23 years after the photograph was taken, one of the students in the photograph (Irfan) returns to the village for the wedding of another student (Aysun). Most of the other class mates in the photograph will be at the wedding with the bride Aysun as well. As Irfan sets out on his journey towards the village, we also depart on a journey starting in 1989 with the 10 people in the photograph.
This documentary focuses on the experiences of children at a village primary school in the '90s under war conditions and the oppressive environment brought on by war and their longing for peace.

DVD5 | PAL 16:9 | 00:59:50 | 3.56 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Kurdish
Subtitles: English hardcoded
Genre: Documentary, History

Director: Dilek Gokcin
Country: Turkey
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Mar23

Eclipse Series 43: Agnes Varda in California: Uncle Janco (1967), Black Panthers (1968), Lions Love (… and Lies) (1969), Mur murs (1981), Documenteur (1981) 3 x DVD Criterion Collection

by movieworld on March 23rd, 2018 at 14:44
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Documentary, Drama

Eclipse Series 43: Agnes Varda in California
Agnes Varda is one of the underappreciated voices of the French New Wave. Although arguably Wes Anderson must be a fan because he frequently rips off the flat graphic style she utilized in the opening scene of "Cleo from 5 to 7", she is rarely spoken of in the same breath with the bigger "names" of the movement. Not even in discussions of the work of her husband Jacques Demy. But then again, while both of them value a certain amount of playfulness, they are dramatically different filmmakers. Demy concocted elaborate fantasias and musicals, and Varda sticks largely to realistic storytelling, sometimes making documentaries and even frequently shattering the "reality" of her fictions by letting the fact that she is standing on the other side of the lens with a crew inform how a scene is played.

The new Eclipse collection from Criterion highlights two periods when Varda was away from home, living in California. The first period is the late '60s, which began when Demy went to Hollywood to make Model Shop and the family just stayed in Los Angeles for a few years afterward. The second period was around a decade later, after a documentary project fell through and Varda was separated from Demy.
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