Online Traveller: AVATARA

Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

February 2008 •German

Documentary about filmmakers of the New German Cinema who were members of the legendary Filmverlag für Autoren (Film Publishing House for Authors). Among them are Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim Wenders.

Grizzly Man

July 2005 •English

Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

Understanding The Georgian Republic

February 1993 •French

Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb

December 2016 •English

Documentary which follows the construction of a trailblazing 36,000-tonne steel structure to entomb the ruins of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story

October 2013 •English

Documentary about the musician Mike Oldfield, whose 1973 album Tubular Bells launched the Virgin record label and became the biggest selling instrumental album of all time.

The Color of the Chameleon

March 2017 •Spanish

During the Pinochet dictatorship, Jorge Lübbert became an instrument for the Chilean secret services, who forced him to work for them in an extremely violent way. He was able to escape from Chile and became a war photographer based in Belgium. Today, his son Andrés takes him back to the places of his unfinished past.

A Marriage

April 2021 •Czech

When Zdenka, a single woman in Czech Republic, started playing online games with strangers, she didn't know it would change her life. Neither did Tabish, a computer scientist a world away in Pakistan.

Spookers

October 2017 •English

Documentary from Kiwi filmmaker Florian Habicht on the most successful haunted attraction in the Southern Hemisphere, Auckland’s Spookers.

150 Miles of Rotting, Rutted, Lumpy, Dilapidated Pavement

March 2021 •English

A Woman Watches People.

Wir Weltmeister – ein Fußballmärchen

May 2006 •German

A Documentary on the Making of 'Gore Vidal's Caligula'

January 1981 •English

A Documentary on the Making of 'Gore Vidal's Caligula'

The Characters of Star Wars

September 2004 •English

The Characters of Star Wars is a Video Documentary included in the 2004 DVD release of the Star Wars Original Trilogy. It explained the Mythos of many of the "Star Wars" Characters.

Operation Welcome Home

May 1991 •English

An original documentary, this film contains previously classified footage provided by the Defense Department. Included is an exclusive on-camera "host" appearance by General Colin Powell, actual archival and pictorial footage, interviews, narrative with celebrities and key military personnel and the returning home after Desert Storm.

Hearts and Minds

December 1974 •English

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

Pressure Cooker

January 2008 •English

A committed, passionate teacher tries to make all the difference in the lives of disadvantaged students.

Gnomebrook

November 2014 •English

Once a year 2000 garden gnomes and 10,000 gnome carers gather in the sleepy mountain hamlet of Glenbrook, for the Annual Australian Garden Gnome Convention.

Paul Schrader: Man in a Room

January 2020 •English

In the sixth installment of the Criterion Channel's Meet the Filmmakers series, director Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell, Listen Up Philip) visits the ever-iconoclastic auteur Paul Schrader during the making of his 2017 masterpiece First Reformed. On set and at home- where, for his own pleasure, he continues to work and rework his previous films- Schrader reflects on the highs and lows of his legendary career, the challenges and rewards of slow cinema, and the influences and experiences that continue to shape his approach to filmmaking. With this insightful portrait of one of his filmmaking heroes, Perry captures an artist who is continually at play, intentionally provocative, and never less than vital.

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue

August 2009 •English

An exploration of the appeal of horror films, with interviews of many legendary directors in the genre.

Madwoman of God

January 2008 •French

This feature-length film tells the story of the passion between Marie de l’Incarnation, a mid-seventeenth-century nun and God, her "divine spouse." Fusing documentary and acting by Marie Tifo, whom we follow as she rehearses for this demanding role, the film paints an astonishing portrait of this mystic who abandoned her son and left France to build a convent in Canada, where she became the first female writer in New France.

The Lives of Albert Camus

January 2020 •French

Albert Camus died at 46 years old on January 4, 1960, two years after his Nobel Prize in literature. Author of “L'Etranger”, one of the most widely read novels in the world, philosopher of the absurd and of revolt, resistant, journalist, playwright, Albert Camus had an extraordinary destiny. Child of the poor districts of Algiers, tuberculosis patient, orphan of father, son of an illiterate and deaf mother, he tore himself away from his condition thanks to his teacher. French from Algeria, he never ceased to fight for equality with the Arabs and the Kabyle, while fearing the Independence of the FLN. Founded on restored and colorized archives, and first-hand accounts, this documentary attempts to paint the portrait of Camus as he was.