Clear years

Video Album 5: The Thursday People

January 1987 •English

The comings and goings of the late underground filmmaker, Curt McDowell—and the people and activities that came and went along with him—are the themes that run through this existential diary of daily life. McDowell was dying from AIDS-related illnesses during the production of the diary. “An elegy for McDowell, the videowork captures Kuchar’s mournful remembrances of his long-lasting friendship with the young filmmaker. But it also has the inquisitive charm, perverse humor, and quirky candor that places Kuchar’s visual expressions in a gritty niche all their own.”

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.

La deuxième femme

November 2008 •French

Over the course of more than fifteen years, Clémenti films a series of intimate diaries, starting from daily encounters. In La deuxième femme, we see Bulle Ogier and Viva, Nico and Tina Aumont, Philippe Garrel and Udo Kier, a performance by Béjart, a piece by Marc’O, concerts by Bob Marley and Patti Smith (not always recognisable)... It’s like a maelstrom of psychedelic images that are passed through a particle accelerator.

Werner We Love You

October 2017 •German

When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.

Oliva Oliva

July 2005 •French

A filmed diary which chronicles two visits to the Olivas, a family of Spanish beekeepers from Salamanca, at the time of the honey harvest, in August and September. Their work and their itinerant life are seen from a friend's point of view.

Fale Comigo Verão: O diário de um cineasta amador

June 2023 •Portuguese

For years, together with his partners from the production company O Quadro, he has been betting on cinema as a tool to explore the typical issues of youth. In this film, Evandro Scorsin turns the cameras on himself as he deals with the dilemmas of the passing of time and the imposition of adulthood. In an exercise in autofiction where cinema and life merge, the film is also a cinematic love letter to the beloved masters (especially Nicholas Ray). Coming and going between two countries and times, it records the vertigo of displacement and the reinventions inherent to an immigrant experience.

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.

Urute vv

May 2024 •Portuguese

An intimate glimpse into 3 years of serene moments, compiling video, polaroids and other things that were lying around when editing.

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.

Birth of a Nation

August 1997 •English

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.

June

December 2024 •English

A letter of love to my past self who discovered himself.

Erasmus Diary

March 2023 •English

The director goes to the city of Cuenca in Spain, Castilla-La Mancha for Erasmus. In this process, he records his experiences, days, and trips with a digital handheld camera and Super 8mm. A visual diary of the director is documented by witnessing the 2022 spring period in Spain and Portugal with images.

Looking for Lennon

May 2018 •English

Documentary exploring the truth behind the legend of John Lennon.

Eautopsie

August 2024 •English

A glimpse of life through movement and memory, negotiating a narrative through images and sounds both personal and found, private and public, recounting four years of the filmmaker's life, relocating from Iran to the US.

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.

Mathilde

January 1985 •French

An old man comes across a fascinating archive, then meets a woman who introduces him to the life of a banker, patron and philanthropist. A moving essay that is part documentary, part film diary.

Lost, Lost, Lost

September 1976 •English

Jonas Mekas adjusts to a life in exile in New York in his autobiographical film, shot between 1949 and 1963.

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

November 2013 •English

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

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

November 2000 •English

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

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

August 2024 •Portuguese