Bare Essence of Life

Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein

September 1999 •English

The Chipmunks work in an amusement park attraction. After Alvin drives a crazy tour group, they miss their next performance and are locked in the park after closing time. Little do they know that the real Dr. Frankenstein has been hired in a new attraction called, "Frankenstein's Castle"; figuring that the castle isn't scary enough, the mad scientist recreates the real Monster.

Baise-moi

June 2000 •French

Nadine and Manu are two mad women, as tidy as can be, almost perfectionists. They have several things in common: extreme sex, drugs, beer and the trigger. They find the solution to their problems with guns and beware to those who dare to get in their way!

Frankenstein General Hospital

March 1988 •English

A mad doctor puts together a new body by using body parts he steals from a mortuary at the hospital where he works.

Mom Lost It!

December 2009 •French

Welcome Back

February 2020 •Spanish

After being deported to Venezuela, one of the most dangerous countries in the world, Rosa and her daughter must find a way to escape to Colombia.

The Wild Chicks and Life

January 2009 •German

The Wild Chicks are slowly growing out of their youthful gang years and have to face the worries of growing up on the sidelines of a big class trip before graduation.

Charly

September 2007 •French

Nicolas, an aimless adolescent who hasn't yet found his way in life leaves his grandparent's home, hitchhikes to a small town, and befriends, Charly an outspoken and slightly older prostitute, a red-headed beauty who appears to ply her trade in the same no-nonsense way she clears the breakfast dishes. She seems to find something endearing about Nicolas' mussed hair and dopey face, so she puts him up in the teeny trailer home that she maintains with such hilarious fussiness. As their unusual domestic arrangement evolves, each stumbles vulnerably into new emotional territory.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

June 2002 •English

A mother and daughter dispute is resolved by the "Yaya sisterhood" - long time friends of the mother.

Little Women

December 1994 •English

With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.

Clueless

July 1995 •English

Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother was right about how misguided she was -- and falls for him.

Super Mario Bros.

May 1993 •English

Mario and Luigi, plumbers from Brooklyn, find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in hi-tech squalor. They're the only hope to save our universe from invasion by the dino dictator, Koopa.

Volcán

September 1979 •Spanish

Volcán captures a raised mound of earth set against a grassy riverbank. A white silhouette in the shape of a female body lies atop of the form. The same shot then cuts to a frame where the base of the white figure spontaneously starts smoking. It then quickly sets aflame. As it combusts, a deep cavity is revealed, even as it is cloaked in growing flames and smoke, evoking a volcanic eruption. Finally, the entire body is engulfed so that only ashes remain in the negative space, human remains. Mendieta short the work in 1975 at Old Man’s Creek in Sharon Center, Iowa, near where the artist was living at the time.

The Mad Whale

June 2017 •English

Inmates at a women's mental asylum stage a theatrical production of Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick.'

Gregório de Mattos

February 2003 •Portuguese

The life of irreverent poet Gregório de Mattos, who lived in Bahia, Brazil, in the 17th century. Nicknamed Mouth of Hell, he used his transgressive poetry against the élite of the time.

A Starry Sky

July 1996 •Portuguese

A woman ready to move away from Brazil is kidnapped by her jealous ex-lover.

Chamada a Cobrar

October 2012 •Portuguese

A high class lady from Brazil falls into a fake kidnapping scam when she answers a stranger’s phone call. Believing that one of her daughters has been kidnapped, she is guided by a terrifying voice for 12 hours through the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The Gathering

December 2003 •Indonesian

Between divorce, bad relationships and coming out as gay, a group of affluent friends realize that none of their lives are as easy as they seem.

Barcelona: A Love Untold

September 2016 •Tagalog

Ely, a young man who can't get over Celine, his past love, meets Mia, a young woman who escaped from a painful past in the Philippines and is trying her luck to rebuild her life in Spain. They meet. They fall in love. But can they overcome the hurt of the past to have a future together?

The Butterfly Man

April 1920 •English

Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.

That Ice Ticket

November 1921 •English

An important example of amateur filmmaking during this era, That Ice Ticket was made by Angela Murray Gibson who ran Gibson Studios in the small community of Casselton, North Dakota. Gibson cast community members in her productions, taking on multiple roles herself, writing, directing and acting in the films, operating the camera during filming, then processing the footage and editing the finished picture together. Here she plays a young woman managing multiple male suitors with the "help" of her mischievous kid brother.