Posts Tagged ‘Documentary’

447 results.
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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Mar23

Buena Vista Social Club (1999) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on March 23rd, 2018 at 13:36
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Musical

Buena Vista Social Club 1999 Criterion Collection
Long before current heartthrob Ricky Martin or even Latino star Selena were making waves, a group of talented musicians were creating wonderful music along the shores and in the capital of pre-Castro Cuba. All but since forgotten, many of them, including the likes of singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, guitarist Compay Segundo, pianist Ruben Gonzalez and several others were brought together in 1997 by acclaimed producer and musician Ry Cooder to record an album, "The Buena Vista Social Club". Some of the long-lived performers on the recording hadn't played their instruments for more than ten years.

In this relaxed and entertaining documentary directed by Wim Wenders, the same group gathers to record a solo album featuring vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer whom Cooder has lionized as "the Cuban Nat King Cole." Among the colorful musicians profiled are 90-year-old guitarist Compay Segundo gifted pianist Ruben Gonzalez, and versatile singer Manuel Licea. They talk about their childhood and how they came to become musicians.

The high points in the documentary are the highlights of the Buena Vista Social Club performing shows in Amsterdam and at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1998. This delightful film is a tribute to cross-cultural cooperation and the variety of Cuban music.
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Mar22

The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), The Immortal Swan (1935) 2 x Blu-Ray

by movieworld on March 22nd, 2018 at 13:52
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Drama, History, Romance

The Dumb Girl of Portici 1916
The Dumb Girl of Portici was director Lois Weber's most magnificent epic, the first film of its kind directed by a woman and the celebrated dancer Anna Pavlova's one moment of screen immortality. Based on a French opera, it tells a lovelorn story against the somewhat reality-based backdrop of Italian peasants fighting Spanish rule. Pavlova is Fenella, a mute resident of a fishermens' village in Naples, who is seduced and abandoned by the son of the Viceroy of Naples before he marries a Spanish princess. This drama is overwhelmed by the anger of the villagers at their oppression as they riot and attempt to defeat the Spaniards.

When the film was made, it was the most expensive that Universal had undertaken (not to mention the most elaborate production directed by a woman), earning it a footnote in cinematic history that, unfortunately, did not prevent it from falling into obscurity.

People who feel cheated that Pavlova doesn't dance much in The Dumb Girl of Portici will delight in a parcel of extras that feature mostly dance. A 48-minute short, "The Immortal Swan", is a 1935 documentary tribute filmed not long after Pavlova's death that depicts the star dancing, including her most famous solo, "The Dying Swan".
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Mar21

Neuf Tours / Nine Turns (2007) DVD5

by movieworld on March 21st, 2018 at 13:16
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary

Nine Turns 2007
A special key has to be turned nine times to deactivate a PNM2 landmine. This rotation requires total concentration because all it takes is the slightest mistake to cause an explosion. Director Olivier Zabat approaches the explosive theme of his remarkable film essay with a similar intensity. Nine short stories about things that at first glance seem different, such as Thai boxing, landmines, fishing, the discovery of a new beast of prey and an eye injury, are all linked by the fundamental experience of a person exposed to violence in its various forms. The individual slices of reality resonate within themselves and merge with each other like an elaborate jigsaw, in which each part is crucial. Nine Turns is a film that lies on the boundary between cinematic experimentation and careful social research. It was created by using images from some of the director' s previous films.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:29:13 | 4.16 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English-Francais
Subtitles: English, Francais (both hardcoded)
Genre: Documentary

Director: Olivier Zabat
Country: France
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Mar20

Eight Films by Jean Rouch: Mammy Water (1953), Les maitres fous / The Mad Masters (1955), Moi, un noir (Treichville) / I, a Negro (1958), La pyramide humaine / The Human Pyramid (1961), La chasse au lion a l’arc / The Lion Hunters (1966), Jaguar (1968), Petit a petit / Little by Little (1970), La punition / The Punishment (1962) 4 x DVD

by movieworld on March 20th, 2018 at 18:42
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, Drama, Horror

Eight Films by Jean Rouch
The roots of such disparate movements as cinema verite and the French New Wave can be traced back to the Ivory Coast, Niger, and Ghana. That’s where the French filmmaker Jean Rouch practiced his unique brand of documentary filmmaking from the 1940s until his death in an automobile accident in 2004. He was 86.

Rouch has remained a cinephile secret for decades, and in the wake of his death, much of his work has been unavailable — until now.

Long-awaited by cinephiles, the box set "Eight Films by Jean Rouch" compiles some of Rouch’s most seminal and groundbreaking work.

"Eight Films by Jean Rouch" is essential for anyone interested in better understanding the development of ethnography and the cross-currents of colonialism and post-colonial social change in Africa, as well as documentary film practice, film history, and world cinema as a whole.

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 570 minutes | 10.9 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama, Horror, Short, Documentary

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Feb26

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival: Monterey Pop (1968), Jimi Plays Monterey (1986), Shake!: Otis at Monterey (1987) 3 x Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on February 26th, 2018 at 14:30
Posted In: .Other movies, Documentary, History, Musical

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival Criterion Collection
Just as the Monterey International Pop Music Festival marked a pivotal and definitive turning point (in this case, upward) in the cultural ferment of the 1960s, so too the film document of that event, D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop, initiated a new way of capturing music and its performance for posterity. The weekend-long Festival, featuring mostly West Coast hippie rock and folk combos, with a few international surprises tossed into the mix, was like a meteor that streaked across the sky of an emerging new civilization, illuminating the landscape, brightening the eyes of its witnesses, summoning a potent mix of emotions: joy, euphoria, ecstasy, bewilderment, even dread.

Criterion's "The Complete Monterey Pop Festival" contains director D.A. Pennebaker's legendary Monterey Pop as well as his Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterey. The three films capture a number of musicians as they perform at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 in front of an enthusiastic crowd. After the festival, some of them would go on to become superstars; others would give up music.

3xBD50 | 1080p AVC | 147 minutes | 112 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none

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