A Tomato Tragedy

The Assassination of JFK

July 1992 •English

A variety of experts, authors, and reporters discuss the murder of JFK. If one were to select the ten most significant events in American history, there would be no doubt that the death of President John F. Kennedy would be among the list. This is not only because of the fact that one of America’s most visionary presidents was cut down in the prime of his life, but because for almost 60 years later after the fact, his assassination continues to be shrouded with mystery and controversy. This documentary presents the facts surrounding the events before, and after that horrific moment in Dallas, and includes interviews of those who were on the scene not only at the tragic sight of the murder of JFK but also a number of individuals who possess firsthand knowledge of everything from the politics of the day to the actual autopsy performed on the president.

Losing It

May 1999 •Finnish

Tracking missing socks in the European Union.

Out of Frame

September 2012 •Greek

In Greece the advertisement in exterior billboards has been recently forbidden. As a result there are hundreds of blank billboards that don’t show any messages. But the empty frames are now the message. And Greece is out of frame.

Le Clan Chirac

February 2013 •French

Underground

May 1976 •English

A documentary about the Weathermen, founded as a militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), who fought to overthrow the U.S. government during the 1960s and 1970s. The film consists of interviews with members of the group after they went underground and footage of the anti-war and civil rights protests of the time. It was directed by Emile de Antonio, Haskell Wexler and Mary Lampson, later subpoenaed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to confiscate the film footage in order to gain information that would help them arrest the Weathermen.

Beyond Citizen Kane

September 1993 •English

Beyond Citizen Kane (1993) is a British documentary film directed by Simon Hartog, produced by John Ellis, and broadcast on Channel 4. It details the dominant position of the Rede Globo media group in the Brazilian society, discussing the group's influence, power, and political connections. Globo's president and founder Roberto Marinho came in for particular criticism, being compared with fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, created by Orson Welles for the 1941 film Citizen Kane. According to the documentary, Marinho's media group engages in the same Kane wholesale manipulation of news to influence the public opinion.

Rats in the Ranks

September 1996 •English

Every September Sydney's inner-suburban Leichhardt Council re-elects it mayor. Incumbent Larry Hand was popular with the citizenry but they don't vote for mayor - the 12 councillors do - and after three years of Larry, at least four councillors were after his job. When film-makers Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson settled in at Leichhardt Council in early 1994 the knives were already being sharpened. A battle royal was in the making, and so it came to pass. By the end of September Larry had fought the fight of his life, with Connolly and Anderson documenting every bit of it on film. Ambition, courage, envy, hatred, loyalty, betrayal, disaster, triumph... in other words, a classic study in politics.

Vers Madrid! (The Burning Bright)

September 2012 •English

This film is a newsreel, which presents some views, scenes and mo-ments of the class struggle in Madrid. The “Movimiento 15-M” is the first major “movement” in the beginning of the 21st century. A deep movement, trans-border and trans-historical which reactivates and works ideas and concepts that were long thought to be forgotten: demos, logos, revolution ...

A Sense of Loss

January 1973 •English

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

Purgatorio: A Journey Into the Heart of the Border

March 2013 •Spanish

A deeply human portrait of the chaotic reality of the US - Mexico border. Full of stunnig images and crafted like a classic city-symphony where the sum of the pieces add up to a larger whole, Purgatorio, a Journey Into the Heart of the Border brings together a universe of small stories to create a compelling and visceral cinematic experience that takes audiences into the very soul of life on the border.

The Martyred Presidents

October 1901 •English

This film is difficult to classify. It opens on a scene showing a mourner with bowed head sitting in front of what appears to be a tombstone. Shortly afterwards, the face of Abraham Lincoln and then of two other presidents, Garfield and McKinley, can be seen on the monument and then they disappear. There is a figure huddled at the foot of a statue of Justice, as if asking forgiveness.

Strange Fruit

May 2002 •English

In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update

Illusion

January 2019 •Czech

In the original concept of the film as a computer game, the author presents a personal reportage from Budapest, where she spent a year as a student. The viewer, who takes on the role of a participant in the game, passes through several levels that introduce him to everyday moments touching on sensitive points of contemporary Hungarian society: he sees the capital through the eyes of a tourist, but mostly he is forced to reflect from the subjective perspective of Hungarian citizens on freedom of art, the right to education, the issue of medical care and the complex and controversial political situation in which the name of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is repeatedly invoked.

By the Balls

July 2019 •English

Sport and politics most definitely do mix in this gripping look back at a brutal and turbulent time for New Zealand rugby, told from the point of view of the players themselves including David Kirk and Buck Shelford.

The Assassination of President Kennedy

November 2013 •English

Produced by multiple EMMY® Award-winning executive producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (HBO’s John Adams and The Pacific), and EMMY® Award-winning producer Mark Herzog (History’s Gettysburg) of Herzog & Company (HCO), on Thursday, Nov. 14, CNN will premiere The Assassination of President Kennedy at 9:00pm ET and PT. The two-hour film explores the events on the day that changed the nation – and the world, as well as how the public’s perceptions of what happened that day have changed through the years.

Detection

December 2012 •German

DETECTION. Consideration of past, present and future of a small village in Germany. For over a century — wars and states went by — the military is the largest employer. The everyday life of the community is inextricably linked to the events on the nearby military training area. Diaries, daily instructions, petitions, letters and photos tell about daily life at different times.

Netanyahu at War

January 2016 •English

The inside story of the bitter clash between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Amid violence in the Middle East, the film traces Netanyahu's rise to power and his high-stakes fight with the president over Iran's nuclear program.

Under den gamle Fane

October 1932 •Danish

Tongpan

January 1977 •Thai

Tongpan is a 1977 Thai 16 mm black-and-white docudrama that re-creates a seminar that took place in Northeast Thailand in 1975 to discuss the proposed Pa-Mong Dam on the Mekong. Interwoven are sequences depicting a poor farmer, Tongpan, who had lost his land to another dam some years before, and his struggles to make ends meet.

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files

June 2019 •English

David Olusoga opens secret government files to show how the Windrush scandal and the ‘hostile environment’ for black British immigrants has been 70 years in the making.