Bright Leaves (2004)
Genre : Documentary
Runtime : 1H 48M
Director : Ross McElwee
Synopsis
Ross McElwee travels through the North Carolina tobacco belt in search of the ancient southern traditions associated with tobacco growing and use, while comparing his filmmaking to commercial cinema, represented by Bright Leaf, a melodrama directed by Michael Curtiz in 1950, starring Gary Cooper, apparently based on the life of his great-grandfather.
Documentary on the London punk-rock scene, circa '78
A strange dream forgotten in the morning and an unaccountable feeling cause Liviu to look with resignation upon the world he's living in. His awakening to reality may coincide with the birth of his child ...
“Our modern technology has achieved a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams. But this technology has exacted a pretty heavy price. We live in an age of anxiety, a time of stress. And with all our sophistication we are in fact, the victims of our own technological strength. We are the victims of shock … of future shock.” No, this isn’t a quote from a Huffington Post column on the Facebookization of modern communication. Nor is it pulled from an academic treatise on the phenomenologies of post-industrial existence. This statement was made by Orson Welles in the 1972 futurist documentary Future Shock, and, unlike some of the more dated elements of 1970s educational films, Future Shock remains shockingly current in verbalizing the concerns and anxieties that come along with rapid societal and technological change. (Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive)
While we watch the ‘cat fail’ of the day in cheerful safety, all that remains invisible in this neoliberal nightmare catches up with us. The cat’s body is consumed, exploited and controlled. The fear of pain is greater than the will for freedom. Objects are fetishized and subjects are made into things – quantifiable and ready for use. They are the natural commodity for a luxury they are not even aware of. We are here, because you were there – and waste is disposed of in the sea. In the end, the bodies reveal the causes and effects of power, lust and hate.
Duras narrates a short story while the camera travels through the streets of Paris with short interludes of solemn music.
A dramatization of the American court case that destroyed the legal validity of racial segregation. One of the most pivotal moments in 20th century American history is bracingly dramatized in Separate but Equal. In telling the detailed story of the Supreme Court's 1953 decision to abolish racial segregation in schools, this superb 1991 TV movie covers a broad spectrum of issues, never taking its "eyes off the prize" while its first-rate cast conveys the importance of the Supreme Court's ultimately unanimous decision.
Shot in 1967 but not released until 1975, actor Pierre Clémenti’s acid-infused experimental whirlwind of colour and music featuring a who’s who of the French 60s underground.
This short film displays the dynamic movement of people as they enter and exit parks in Paris.
A documentary covering the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo.
Oscar nominated documentary about the largest man-made curtain in the world as "sculpture".
Shortlength that recreates the letters exchanged between Victor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami.
The firebrand reporter, feminist and philanthropist Dorothy Day co-founds The Catholic Worker with Peter Maurin, an eccentric philosopher.
Julia, an only child of an affluent, bank owning family living in Madrid, escapes from her family to get over her grief that her boyfriend has been imprisoned. Julia is a well educated woman, having studied in Switzerland and England, who wants to become a writer. Julia drives to a little village in Asturias called "Corralbos del Sella" and there she stays in a mansion "llendelabarca" of an old childhood friend "Pilara" she had spent many a happy summer with. Also living there is Pilara's mother in law Tia Gala, and her grandson Juanito. Julia's relationship with caretakers, teacher and priest makes Julia, a woman of the spanish capital, perhaps for the first time to not feel so alone.
Julia Sweeney tells the viewers the monologue about the hard time in her life when her brother fought with cancer and she was also diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Kay Dillon, a successful modeling agent, meets the young and handsome ranch hand Tyler Burnett in Nevada. She can't help but notice his incredible good looks and invites him to move to New York and start working for her as a male model. Burnett accepts the invitation and goes to New York to start his modeling career. But Tyler longs for more in life: a woman to love and his own ranch. Can he remain the biggest male model in the industry, and still get his heart's desires? Is Kay the woman to give all that to him?
Set on the landing and the stairs of Zwartjes’ new house, then still empty, in The Hague. The filmmaker suggests a mysterious and complex space by using a ‘floating’ camera to film a number of crawling, creeping personages. (MUBI)
A young girl chronicles her divorced mother's relationship with a new boyfriend who has just moved into the house.
As the end of her life approaches, an old woman encounters a strange spirit from a nearby forest.
Chameleons don't just dance, they "chrome" - an explosive combination of crazy moves with wild bursts of color changing. When a timid chameleon named Hue, who can't change colors, attends a dance party, he finds himself unexpectedly thrown on stage, his shortcomings exposed to all.
A survival, silent black & white film shot with a hand camera, a journey into Philippe Garrel's intimate family album featuring the two women who counted in his cinematographic life: Nico and Zouzou.