Lisl Ponger creates an imaginary map of the twentieth century on which the stories of emigration are engraved like well-worn tracks of occidental memory. The pictures, made by observant tourists, are revealed, in their tensile relationship to the soundtrack, as a post-colonial journey. A journey through exactly those countries which long ago have been shrunk together in space and time. Finally the wonderful neon signs of the “Hotel Edison” and “Radio City” remind one of the origins of this form of appropriation of the world, of the time of great expeditions, of Benjamin‘s shop-windows and passages, and of the time when technical apparatus and means of transportation fundamentally altered the perceptions of modern man.
Category: Documentary
Documentary
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The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera
In a documentary about Samuel Fuller, the spectator gets different impressions about the Hollywood director and his films. The film is divided into the three sections: The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera. The first segment covers Fuller’s past as a newsman where he began as a copy boy and ended as a reporter. Part two describes Fuller’s experiences in World War II, in which he participated as a soldier. The last section focuses on Fuller as director. Tim Robbins interviews Samuel Fuller revealing the director’s own memories and impressions. Beside the interview, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino accompany the documentary with their comments.
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Muhammad Ali The Whole Story
Muhammad Ali. He is known as the most thrilling athlete of all time… he is known as The Greatest. The remarkable story of how he became one of the most loved, hated, intriguing, and controversial figures in American history is brought to life in the 6-hour series, Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story. Episode 1: Olympic Gold. Episode 2: The Youngest Heavyweight Champion. Episode. 3: Exile. Episode 4: The Road Back. Episode 5: The Rumble In The Jungle Episode. 6: The Thrilla In Manila.
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Joan Crawford: Always the Star
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her 50-year career, she made over 80 films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.
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Looking for Richard
Al Pacino’s deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare’s significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of “Richard III.”
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Jackie Chan – From Stuntman to Superstar
Jackie Chan – From Stuntman to Superstar is a documentary on Jackie Chan.
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Gray’s Anatomy
The film documents, in an often dramatic and humorous fashion, Gray’s investigations into alternative medicine for an eye condition (Macular pucker) he had developed.
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The Celluloid Closet
What “That’s Entertainment” did for movie musicals, “The Celluloid Closet” does for Hollywood homosexuality, as this exuberant, eye-opening movie serves up a dazzling hundred-year history of the role of gay men and lesbians have had on the silver screen. Lily Tomlin narrates as Oscar-winning moviemaker Rob Epstein (“The Times of Harvey Milk” and “Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt”) and Jeffrey Friedman assemble fabulous footage from 120 films showing the changing face of cinema sexuality, from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990s. Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Harvey Fierstein and Gore Vidal are just a few of the many actors, writers and commentators who provide funny and insightful anecdotes.
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Microcosmos
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.