AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Thrills

Behind the Planet of the Apes

September 1998 •English

Roddy McDowall takes you, film by film, from production meetings to make-up sessions, then right onto the movie set to see the actual filming of the science fiction masterpiece. The most comprehensive history of Planet of the Apes ever created, this fascinating 127-minute documentary explores one of the most imaginative and influential series in movie history.

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains

June 2003 •English

The American Film Institute celebrates 100 years of film by recognizing the top 50 film heroes and top 50 film villains of all time.

Twentieth Century Fox: The Blockbuster Years

November 2003 •English

Behind-the-scenes footage, rare screen tests and insightful interviews highlight this engrossing two-hour look at one of Hollywood's greatest dream factories. Such film luminaries as Tom Hanks, William Friedkin, George Lucas, Oliver Stone and Robert Altman discuss their work at the studio. Clips include scenes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Patton, Young Frankenstein, Star Wars, Alien, Big, Home Alone, Die Hard and dozens more.

Warren Oates: Across the Border

November 1993 •English

A retrospective of the work of the late actor Warren Oates, with clips from his films and interviews with cast and crew members who worked with him.

Boom! Hollywood's Greatest Disaster Movies

January 2000 •English

Narrated by Bill Mumy (Will Robinson from TV's "Lost in Space"), this documentary spotlights some of the most thrilling scenes the disaster genre has ever produced. From 1970s classics such as Airport and The Towering Inferno to James Cameron's Oscar-winning epic Titanic, no celluloid disaster flick is omitted. Interviews with directors and actors (including Will Smith) and newsreels of real historical disasters are also included.

Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years

January 1997 •English

The first half century of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation from its beginnings under Hungarian immigrant William Fox to it emergence as a major studio.

The Great Dictator: The Clown Turns Prophet

May 2011 •English

In this visual essay, Charles Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance, author of "Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema", draws upon a wealth of photography as well as a wide range of interviews (Paulette Goddard, Sydney Chaplin, Chuck Jones, Leni Riefenstahl, Mel Brooks, Joan Collins et al.) to examine the production history of "The Great Dictator", the film's importance as a satire, and legacy.

The Omen Legacy

October 2001 •English

The true stories that spawned the serie tale of Damien, a small boy with an angelic face, whose very name still conjures up thoughts of Satan. This documentary shares spine-tingling information about the the all-too-memorable flick that has terrorized film audiences since 1976.

No Magic for Socialists

February 2025 •Burmese

Artist Htoo Lwin Myo excavates the lesser-known and wildly joyful history of Myanmar’s horror and genre film industry in the 1950s that has persisted through political turmoil and archival neglect, told directly by the people who made it.

Cinema Againts Power

May 2017 •Bulgarian

There was an undeclared war for nearly half a century in Bulgaria between the then government and the majority of democratic-minded filmmakers during the Communist regime. Paradoxically, most of the banned or censored out movies were made by members of the Communist Party, believers in their party's ideas and justice. The Communist Party aesthetics against the freedom to tell truth.

The Sneeze: Part Two

August 2025 •English

A comedic docu-essay looking at the legacy of "Fred Ott's Sneeze," one of the first films ever made. Official selection of The Indie Gathering International Film Festival.

Memorias Encuadradas

July 2025 •Spanish

One hundred years of the cinematic memory of a small country told through motion graphics. A brief tour of previously unseen images and forgotten fragments of Costa Rican cinema, which, amid state efforts and industrial ambitions, prevailed throughout the 20th century.

Lezioni di Cinema di Paolo Mereghetti

September 2023 •Italian

Searching For Kurosawa

Invalid date •Japanese

Searching for Kurosawa chronicles Kawamura Mitsuhiko’s journey from the set of Kurosawa’s Ran in 1985 to its final release three decades later. Now, with the rediscovered clips and Mitsuhiko’s own recollections, the film pieces together an intimate portrait of cinema’s “Emperor,” revealing how a young cinephile’s passion helped preserve invaluable fragments of film history. In the course of unearthing lost footage, Kawamura’s life takes an ironic course; he loved movies so much that his life became a movie.

Button Blanket

October 2009 •English

This short impressionist documentary looks at the creation of a Button Blanket by integrating the performance of a traditional dance with the art of the West Coast Heiltsuk Nation.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Woodstock '99

July 1999 •English

Filmed live at Woodstock 99 Festival in Rome, New York, July 25, 1999.

Claudia Cardinale, la créature du secret

December 2019 •French

How a young and wild tomboy Tunisian girl became a great actress by accident. Claudia Cardinale : the fanciful destiny of a paradoxical movie star, who appeared in Federico Fellini's, Luchino Visconti's, Blake Edwards' and Sergio Leone's films.

Wilfred Buck

March 2024 •English

Moving between earth and stars, past and present, this hybrid feature documentary follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, a charismatic and irreverent Indigenous Elder who overcame a harrowing history of displacement, racism, and addiction by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.

Motherboard

August 2025 •English

Joys, sorrows and life's great tragicomedy in a video diary about motherhood and much more, recorded over nearly 20 years by award-winning British director Victoria Mapplebeck. A deeply personal and completely unsentimental film.

E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea

October 2024 •French

A love triangle of jealousy in the Parisian art scene of the 1930s is brought to life in a stylish docufiction about iconic artist and architect Eileen Gray, who built her modernist dream house on the Riviera, only to be upstaged by Le Corbusier.