Joshua Oppenheimer

In 1969, bankrupt pizzeria owner Richard Davis invented the modern-day bulletproof vest. To prove that it worked, he shot himself — point-blank — 192 times.

“Nothing is typical for Werner, only the atypical is typical for him.” This is just one of many attempts to characterize Werner Herzog. Documentary filmmaker Thomas von Steinaecker spoke to actors, directors, directors of photography and producers who have worked with Herzog over his long career—including directors Chloé Zhao, Joshua Oppenheimer and Wim Wenders, singer Patti Smith and actors Nicole Kidman, Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson. We also hear from Herzog himself, with extraordinary anecdotes about film locations and shoots, his admiration for Lotte Eisner, and his eternal search for beauty. The interviews are carefully punctuated by archive footage of Herzog never seen before, iconic excerpts from his feature films and documentaries, and his cameos in cartoon series such as The Simpsons. Together they create a kaleidoscopic image of a radical visionary and dreamer, and of his very own “Werner World.”

At the foot of the Andes Mountains in Chile lies an idyllic German colony called Villa Baviera. However, the beauty of the place – formerly known as Colonia Dignidad – hides a grim past. Systematic child-abuse, medical experiments, torture chambers and mass graves are part of its history. Today, 120 inhabitants still live their lives in the colony which has since changed its name to Villa Baviera and where a disturbing blend of religious fanaticism and extreme conservatism still holds sway.

Five years in the making, this brave and level-headed documentary exposes paramilitary activity in present day Northern Ireland during a supposed time of peace.

The Academy Award-winning director of the heavy documentary 'The Act of Killing' discusses his philosophies in documentary filmmaking, the horrors of 'Night and Fog,' and what makes it the impactful film that it is.

A family that survives the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.

A family that survives the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.

Filmmakers expose the horrifying mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia and those who are celebrated in their country for perpetrating the crime.

Filmmakers expose the horrifying mass executions of accused communists in Indonesia and those who are celebrated in their country for perpetrating the crime.

Joshua Lazarus (Nick Stahl) is a telepath who has been raised in a NSA foster home. Lazarus helps the government by using his abilities. He is told by the agency that the telepathy is a side effect of Widmann's Disease, and that he will become insane in time and eventually die from the illness. However, Lazarus meets a woman with similar powers (Mía Maestro) who does not have any sign of the disease, launching Lazarus to confront the lies he has been told

Joshua Oppenheimer sets images of life in a retirement community in Arizona (as seen through television commercials) to a talk radio interview with a female convict extolling the benefits of her time on Sherriff Joe Arpaio's chain gang. It is two different kinds of sale jobs working at cross-purposes. Oppenheimer takes the luster off the idealistic advertising images through video distortion and electronic interference and cuts-up both the video and audio tracks until the weird poetry of the chain gang prisoner's lessons in life and death gives the commercial presentation a creepy disconnection from any kind of living ideal. It follows A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARADISE AS TOLD BY THE COCKROACHES and MARKET UPDATE as another sharp jab at consumerism as an illusory promise.

Joshua Oppenheimer reimagines a sixty-second stock market update as maniacal monologue by a mumbling madman giving a bizarre play-by-play of floor traders and urban pedestrians as the trading day comes to an end. Created while in the midst of production on the feature-length GLOBALIZATION TAPES, this brief film is Oppenheimer's most concentrated piece of socio-political commentary: a quick, colorful political cartoon of capitalism plucked out-of-context and set to a soundtrack that is both comic and somewhat sinister. The upbeat musical accompaniment only enhances the empty celebration of meaningless activity.

They say that when the Earth is destroyed beyond habitation, the only survivors will be the cockroaches. Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer gives the indomitable insects the floor in this perversely comic commentary on affluence and self-destruction. Leashed with thin ribbons, a small intrusion of cockroaches scramble over magazine spreads of the good life while a schizophrenic pest voice-over mutters like an asylum inmate recalling the good old days, when food was plentiful and the roach traps were the enemy. It is consumption and consumerism as empty activity and madness, played-out as a natural history documentary in the guise of an invasion picture, all set to the theme song from LOVE STORY.

Filmed by Indonesian workers during their working hours on rubber and palm oil plantations, this film exposes the devastating role of militarism and repression in building the “global economy”. Through chilling first hand accounts, hilarious improvised interventions, collective debate and archival footage, the film explores the relationships between trade, Third World debt, and international institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

Meditation on psychlogical warfare, shopping and paramilitary death squads.

For eighty cents an hour, prisoners in a New Mexico prison answer telephones for the state tourism hotline. Co-directed by Christine Cynn.

A kaleidoscopic history of the American heartland, nuclear weapons and the Native American genocide.

Hugh is an elderly man keeping himself active in retirement. His hobbies include teaching children to play the piano, carpentry and driving into town to preach sermons on the evils of homosexuality.

Experimental video and performance meditating on militias, American fundamentalism, the opening of the American West.

Animals are killed and processed for fast food. A man is tarred and feathered. A collage of ordinary horrors on the way to the millennium.

A group of flower arrangers practice their art in this second silent early short from Joshua Oppenheimer.

An early silent short by Joshua Oppenheimer in which a figure reflects light at the camera.

A post-apocalyptic story about a rich family living in a salt mine converted into a luxurious home. The earth around them has apparently been destroyed, but their son has never seen the outside world. As a young girl appears at the entrance of the bunker, the balance of the family is threatened.

Dylan Moran, who after being consumed by grief after losing his wife, begins hallucinating sinister versions of himself, lurking in the shadows. When he ends up accused of murder, Moran undergoes a hypnotherapy treatment built on the idea that with every choice he makes, he creates an infinite number of parallel universes. It’s then he discovers he’s not insane at all. There’s another version of himself, from another reality. A psychopath that not only ruined his life, but countless other Dylans. Can Dylan stop this doppelgänger before he strikes again? Or will he lose himself…to himself?