Hotel Diaries

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.

Es Para Un Videodiario

November 2024 •Spanish

Mike is a young student of cinema, who receive the task to make a Videodiary for his fiction production class in the fifth semester of his career; with only a cellphone in hand begins to document his life day after day, without imagining that he will capture important and emotional moments that will remember forever.

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.

Coogan's Runner

June 2003 •English

Video diary from behind the scenes of 2002's "Cruise of the Gods."

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.

Nevermore Eleanor

October 2024 •English

Nevermore Eleanor (2024) | 2160p

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

August 2024 •Portuguese

Play Dead!

October 2023 •French

If there is one person Matthew Lancit can’t get out of his mind, it is his uncle Harvey. Dark rings around his eyes, pale, blind, his legs amputated. Like Harvey, the filmmaker also suffers from diabetes. He has the disease under control, but one question is always nagging at him: How much longer? His long-term (self-)observation reliably revolves around fears of infirmity and mutilation. He translates the feared body horror into film, stages himself as a zombie, vampire, a desolate figure. Lancit playfully anticipates his potential decline, serving up a whole arsenal of effects which – as video recordings prove – go back to his youth. It is not for nothing that the “dead” in the title is also reminiscent of “dad.” Because “Play Dead!” also negotiates his own role as a father.

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.

Become Successful and be the Master of the World

October 2023 •English

Filmed mostly on a Mini DV camera Gavin has thought of a quick way to become successful and be the master of the world but he has to wait for it all to fall into place… he has to wait for the postman to start production documenting the process of being master of the world.

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.

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

November 2013 •English

An epic portrait of the New York avant-garde art scene of the 60s.