Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum

Into Our Own Hands

October 2010 •French

When confronted with their lingerie factory (Starissima) going bankrupt, the employees attempt to take it over by forming a cooperative. Soon questions about fundamental economic and social issues pop up amidst the bras and panties. Through this adventure together they discover a new freedom.

My Name Is Salt

November 2013 •English

Year after year, just after the monsoon season has finished, thousands of families travel to a bleak desert in Gujerat, India, where they will stay for an endless eight months and extract salt from the earth, using the same painstaking, manual techniques as generations before them. Director Farida Pacha spent a season with one of these families, observing the very particular rhythms of their lives.

The Decent One

February 2014 •German

Through previously undiscovered private letters, photos and diaries that were found in the Himmler family house in 1945, the "The Decent One" exposes a unique and at times uncomfortable access to the life and mind of the merciless "Architect of the Final Solution" Heinrich Himmler.

Yugoslavia: How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body

April 2013 •Serbian

A research-based essay film, but also a very personal perspective on the history of socialist Yugoslavia, its dramatic end, and its recent transformation into a few democratic nation states.

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

October 1988 •English

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.

Chicken Ranch

May 1983 •English

Documentary on the "Chicken Ranch," a legal Nevada brothel.

Burden of Dreams

October 1982 •English

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

Nose and Tina

January 1980 •English

Nose and Tina are a couple in love. The film captures the domestic details of their life together and documents their hassles with work, money and the law. The unusual bit: He is employed as a brakeman, and she as a sex worker.

Diez Horas con Alberto García-Alix

April 2022 •Spanish

A Place Called Chiapas

February 1998 •English

In 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, made up of impoverished Mayan Indians from the state of Chiapas, took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. The government deployed its troops and at least 145 people died in the ensuing battle. Filmmaker Nettie Wild travelled to the country's jungle canyons to film the elusive and fragile life of this uprising.

Mein Herz sieht die Welt schwarz - Eine Liebe in Kabul

February 2009 •German

Hossein and Shaima have loved each other since childhood. As teenagers they were separated by war. They meet again in Kabul in the late 90s. Poverty forces Hossein to fight in the war. A shell splinter leaves him paralyzed. Shaima is sold into marriage with a man 40 years her senior and falls pregnant. Since Shaima's husband still owes half the dowry to her father he brings her back into the constraining patriarchal fold of the family, where she lives with her 5-year-old daughter. This situation doesn't prevent the two from seeing each other, even though this means going against their families' hard rules. In constant fear of revenge on the part of the male members of both families, they struggle to hold on to their love.

The Diplomat

August 2013 •English

This film chronicles how figure skater Katarina Witt fought for her future in socialist East Germany, how she faced the changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall and how she ended up both a beneficiary and victim of the East German regime.

Où sont les noirs ?

March 2020 •French

French actors Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Aïssa Maïga, Sonia Rolland, Deborah Lukumuena, Marie-France Malonga, Gary Dourdan and others speak up on the reality of black actors in the French movie industry.

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa

May 2008 •English

Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of eco-pioneers, teenage runaways, war veterans and drop-outs, live on the fringe and off the grid, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream.

Grandma's Grammar

January 1996 •French

Documentary about Djibril Diop Mambety.

Nieskończoność dalekich dróg. Podsłuchana i podpatrzona Zofia Rydet

January 1989 •Polish

Andrzej Różycki's film is not only a portrait of Zofia Rydet, a female artist, and her working methods, but also a capture of maturity and great passion. Rydet lets the viewer into her world, allowing them to observe her and peek in without restrictions. With great calm, she talks about the anxieties that accompany old age, the inevitable processes associated with it, which, however, are unable to stop her enormous desire to capture moments that pass irretrievably. Rydet's mission is endless, just as the roads she photographed are endless. The artist's skills were a way of life for her; thanks to them, she created, got to know people, saw beauty, shared it, loved, observed the changing landscape, and communicated everything that words cannot express.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

October 2009 •French

In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. This documentary presents Inferno's incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot's original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot's own notes.

The Best Thing You Can Do with Your Life

February 2018 •English

How does it feel when your brother, someone you felt to be the dearest, brightest and most important person in the world, suddenly decides to join an ultraconservative Catholic religious order? Whilst the two siblings had spent time at Christian summer camps – he at the Legionarios and she with the Consagradas – the members of both orders had always seemed rather odd to them. Her brother swore he would never join the Legionaries and that it didn’t interest him at all. Why did he break this pact, what happened to him?

Everywhere We Are

October 2018 •German

Heiko, 29, is a fun-loving dance teacher from Berlin. For the past seven years he has battled with a fatal illness. Just when his family and his friends had begun to get used to Heiko’s continued survival in spite of all the prognoses, he receives the diagnosis that he does not have much longer to live. He decides to return to his parents’ house to die. But even now, Heiko and especially his father, Jürgen, refuse to give up hoping for a miracle.

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.