The Birth of the Genre

Boundless

November 2013 •

As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.

Das Boot Revisited: An Underwater Success Story

January 2021 •German

In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II. Millions of viewers worldwide make Das Boot the most internationally successful German film of all time. But due to disputes over the script, accidents on the set, and voices accusing the makers of glorifying the war, the project was many times on the verge of being cancelled.

The 'Frankenstein' Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster

November 2002 •English

The history of Frankenstein's journey from novel to stage to screen to icon.

Jean-Pierre Léaud: The Child of Cinema

September 2024 •French

A portrait of the legendary actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, icon of the French New Wave and closely linked to the work of François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard.

Dracula, l'éternel

December 2018 •French

The Simón's Jigsaw: A Trip to the Universe of Juan Piquer Simón

October 2015 •Spanish

A journey through the work of Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón (1935-2011).

Cannes : Palmes, scandales et tapis rouge

May 2022 •French

How could the Cannes Film Festival become the biggest cinema event in the world? For 75 years, Cannes has succeeded in this prodigy of placing cinema, its sometimes paltry splendors but also its requirements of great modern art, at the center of everything, as if, for ten days in May, nothing was more important than it. This film tells how Cannes has become the largest film festival in the world by opening up to cinematic modernity while never forgetting that cinema remains a performing art, a popular art.

Maria and the Lost Movie

July 2023 •Catalan

The pianist Miguel Ángel Lozano embarks on a personal and artistic journey with the purpose of reconstructing the life of his grandmother, Maria Forteza (1910-60), singer and pioneer of Spanish sound films.

Room 999

October 2023 •French

In 1982, Wim Wenders asked 16 of his fellow directors to speak on the future of cinema, resulting in the film Room 666. Now, 40 years later, in Cannes, director Lubna Playoust asks Wim Wenders himself and a new generation of filmmakers (James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi, Alice Rohrwacher and more) the same question: “is cinema a language about to get lost, an art about to die?”

Return to Nostalgia

October 2015 •English

Local filmmaker Woo Ming Jin and his crew traversed across Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to find 'Seruan Merdeka' (1947) - the first film made in Malaya post-WWII, and also the first film in the history of Malaysian cinema to feature a biracial cast of Malays and Chinese. While tracking the film's whereabouts, Woo met many locals along the way, whom he interviewed in an effort to find out more about the country's history.

Lost in La Mancha

February 2002 •English

Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.

The Lot of Fun: Hollywood’s Fun Factory

May 2014 •German

A documentary about film producer Hal Roach.

Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film

January 2019 •English

Fifty years after its release, the special effects makeup team behind Planet of the Apes reflect on making the iconic film.

Yesterday's Witness

November 1976 •English

For the first 50 years of film history, the newsreel was a fixture in American movie theaters. From 1911 to 1967, these shorts proved an influential source of information – and misinformation – for generations of American moviegoers. Television news and public affairs programs became a great improvement over the scanty information offered by the newsreels. This documentary offers insight into a medium which has disappeared.

Discovering Cinema: Learning to Talk

December 2003 •French

Documentary illustrating the birth of sound cinema.

It's a Wonderful Day

April 1975 •Russian

The cartoon based on the works of Alexander Pushkin was created on the basis of drawings from the exhibition "Pushkin through the eyes of children".

You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story

May 2008 •English

Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.

Butterfly

January 1972 •Russian

The film is devoted to the theme of careful attitude to the nature. It tells us how one of butterflies which are caught by the boy, grows till the huge sizes and the hunter appears in the net. Having tested bondage, the boy lets out the captives.

Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman

June 2006 •English

The history of the comic book superhero, Superman, in his various media incarnations.

Inside the Keystone Project

November 2010 •English

Documentary short regarding the preservation and restoration of the worldwide remains of the Keystone films.