Category: Documentary
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After That
Film director Shunichi Nagasaki reflects on a near-fatal motorcycle accident that occurred while shooting his commercial feature debut The Lonely Hearts Club Band in September.
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Johnny Goes Home
Johnny Carson makes a nostalgic visit back to his hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska in the fall of 1981, revisiting the places of his youth and talking with some of the people he grew up with.
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Hungermarschen
The film oscillates between depicting the everyday life of workers in 1917 and 1982, where the common denominator is that they in both families have difficulty making ends meet financially.
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Why was Cairo Calm
It begins in the days after Sadat’s assassination in 1981 by an islamist cell of army officers. The American media had led an outpouring of shock and grief in the United States at the death of the heroic president. All the western leaders then travelled to Cairo to say goodbye to the man who had…
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Lights! Camera! Annie! The Making of a Major Hollywood Musical
An in-depth look into the making of the film Annie (1982). It covers the adaptation changes from the original Broadway musical, the hiring of director John Huston, the nationwide search to cast the title role, the production process, and the conception of several musical numbers, including a different version of the song “Easy Street” than…
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The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time
Documentary about the blacklisted folk group The Weavers, and the events leading up to their triumphant return to Carnegie Hall.
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Trances
A portrait of the groundbreaking Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, documenting a series of electrifying live performances in Tunisia, Morocco, and France; on the streets of Casablanca; and in intimate conversations. Storytellers through song and traditional instruments, and with connections to political theatre, the band became a local phenomenon and an international sensation, thanks to…
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Hollywood’s Children
A documentary about child actors, since the beginning of motion pictures (narrated by Roddy McDowell).
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Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter
A retrospective look at 60 years of great moments in film comedy, from the 1920s to 1982.
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Seven Machine Performances
A selection of Survival Research Laboratories early performances, a must for those interested in how such an enterprise ever got started in the first place.
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James Bond: The First 21 Years
A look back at the first 21 years of Britain’s most successful film series.
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A Personal History of the Australian Surf
An autobiographical documentary written and directed by Michael Blakemore in 1981 in which he plays his own father. The film was made on 16mm and first screened in the UK at London’s National Film Theatre.
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I Lived, But…
An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu’s long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu’s accomplishments as…
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Anthem
A series of shots depicting “America” are laid over a classic Gregorian Chant recreated through the distortion of a woman’s screams.
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After the Massacre
97 British soldiers are sent to Beirut as part of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force in the wake of the September 1982 Sabra-Chatilla massacre.
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Jazz Is My Native Language: A Portrait of Toshiko Akiyoshi
Jazz is my Native Language: A Portrait of Toshiko Akiyoshi is a 1983 documentary film by Renee Cho about the jazz pianist, composer, arranger and big band leader Toshiko Akiyoshi.