Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

In the Land of Giants and Pygmies

January 1925 •English

IN THE LAND OF GIANT PYGMIES, a diary of Aurelio Rossi's 1925 trek into the immense Belgian Congo, preserves a long-gone-Colonial-era wonder at natural resources, "primitive" tribes, customs and costumes in Europe's cast African possessions, and implies that the "dark continent" could benefit from the "civilizing" influences of home.

Heart of a Tiger

January 2009 •French

Somewhere between a diary and a filmed letter made while Caroline Champetier was shooting Benoît Jacquot's film L'Intouchable in India.

Begins (โผบิน)

September 2024 •Thai

The untold state of mind dealing with an incurable disease. One is wondering if there's still a dream to achieve in life. One is running as if this free spirit of mine has never been taken away.

Eautopsie

August 2024 •English

An enigmatic glimpse of life through precarious vignettes, propelling a narrative through a nebulous and opaque structure that sutures the filmmaker's home movie footage to archival material—from Hollywood narrative films to political selfie videos. A handmade impression of a time suspended between past and present and the ghosts and places occupying it, contemplating the nature and meaning of vision, memory and image making.

Notes before the Wind

January 2020 •

A loose collection of scenes in Hong Kong shot over a five-year period, this film begins with the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and ends right before the summer of 2019, when large-scale social unrest and violent resistance erupted. The everyday scenes capture the ambience and the landscape of change in the city, standing as a quiet prelude to the ensuing conflicts.

Birth of a Nation

August 1997 •English

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.

Voicemails For The Unknown Receiver

July 2024 •Tagalog

Through phone call conversations, an aspiring Ilocano filmmaker relates to his mother working in Italy about his dreams and struggles while documenting the invisible betweenness of their language and distance.

Always/Never (Together Forever)

Invalid date •English

An unhinged, diaristic examination of devastating friendship breakups.

As Janelas Me Diziam Que Os Carros Cor De Lembrança Ainda Percorriam as Movimentadas Ruas do Esquecimento

August 2024 •Portuguese

Hotel Diaries

October 2007 •English

Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries charts the 'War on Terror' era of Bush and Blair through a seven-part series of video recordings that relate personal experiences to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Palestine. In these works, which play upon chance and coincidence, hotel rooms are employed as 'found' film sets, where architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events.

American Teenagers

November 2022 •English

A short documentary project that attempts to encapsulate what it looks and feels like to be an American Teenager in 2022.

In the Bathtub of the World

April 2001 •English

On January 1st, 1999, Caveh Zahedi started a one-year video diary. The idea was to shoot one minute each day. This is the result.

It’s so fucking empty

June 2020 •Hebrew

A Different point from the eyss of Yuval Shamshins's life, in the modern days of the Covid-19. The movie is built upon the small moments of life, full of Metaphors and Images in order to built a cinemathic perspective.

Shotgun Baby

March 2025 •English

A personal documentary questioning the ways in which family imposed narratives force us into roles that we spend our lives either rebelling against or conforming to.

beer cans under my bed

March 2024 •English

This short, started early on into sobriety, finished about nine months in, is a collage of diaries and notes, collected from within addiction and into recovery.

this evening out of boredom washed my hands three times in succession in the bathroom

August 2024 •English

Reminiscences of a trip to Čáslav

Return to Khodorciur—Armenian Diary

January 1986 •Italian

Raphael, Yervant Gianikian's father, survived the Armenian genocide in 1915 in Eastern Turkey. In April 1988, while living in Venice, he sat for his son's camera and read an excerpt from his memoirs, translated from Armenian into Italian.

Focus | Short Film

March 2025 •English

An average nobody explores the struggle of self-recognition through the lens of a photographer who has spent his life documenting everything.

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

November 2000 •English

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

My Son's Wedding to My Sister-in-Law

April 2009 •English

A short documentary by Jim McBride.