In the Mirror of Maya Deren

Václav Havel - Living in Freedom

December 2014 •Czech

Bohemian, playwright, and suddenly president at the end of 1989: Czech European Václav Havel played a decisive role in shaping the history of the continent in the second half of the 20th century. Andrea Sedláčková recounts Havel's almost novel-like life, drawing on a wealth of archival material. It is a story of dramatic highs and lows, and several defining moments in European history.

Zelenskyy: Spirit of Ukraine

December 2023 •English

On February 24th, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war has since killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed entire cities. Despite international appeals for Volodymyr Zelensky, and his family, to be evacuated to a safe location during the opening days of the invasion, the 44-year-old president stayed in Kyiv with his defence forces. It's hard to imagine how this bright, comedic, family man, has ended up in one of the most dangerous positions in the world, with a giant target on his back. 10 months on, and still fighting from the ground, Zelensky has been named TIME Person of the Year 2022. With comparisons to Winston Churchill, as a war time leader, his impact is undeniable. Utilising his acting skills he is embodying everything it means to have the spirit of Ukraine.

Women in Rock

January 1986 •English

All the legendary women of rock 'n' roll are brought together in this stunning collage of artists and their music. Through a music-driven mix of rare historical footage, music videos, riveting live performances and personal interviews, the lives and times of the greatest women in rock history are revealed.

Moving Together

February 2023 •English

Moving Together is a celebratory love letter to music and dance that brims with kinetic life and energy. This documentary explores the intricate collaboration between dancers and musicians, moving seamlessly between Flamenco, Modern, and New Orleans Second Line.

Underground New York

January 1968 •English

A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change American culture forever. A German TV crew, led by journalist Gideon Bachmann, explores the epicenter of the sixties revolution in art, music, poetry and film and interviews the main players in the “New American Cinema,” that was born on the streets of New York. Against a backdrop of cultural upheaval in all of the arts and growing political agitation against the Vietnam War, Bachman interviews the most prominent figures in “underground film,” including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, the Kuchar Brothers and Bruce Connor, and visits the most notorious location in the New York art world of the era - Andy Warhol’s Factory - to conduct an interview with the genius of Pop Art himself.

Our Need for Consolation

June 2012 •English

Swedish writer Stig Dagerman (1923-1954) was a literary sensation who after a few productive years, suddenly fell silent. Struggling with writer's block, Dagerman wrote the essay "Our Need for Consolation" about his inner demons and his quest for freedom. For the first time in English, featuring Stellan Skarsgard as an on-camera narrator, this film brings Dagerman's powerful words to life in the form of a visual poem.

Recycled Life

January 2006 •English

The dramatic and touching story of thousands of adults, children, and generations of families who have been living and working in the largest and most toxic landfill in Central America, the Guatemala City Garbage Dump, over the last sixty years.

Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge

June 1989 •English

A camera crew follows Helmut Newton, the fashion and ad photographer whose images of tall, blond, big-breasted women are part of the iconography of twentieth-century erotic fantasy. He's on the go from L.A., to Paris, to Monte-Carlo, to Berlin, where he was a youth until he escaped from the Nazis in 1936. We see him on shoots, interviewing models, and discussing his work.

Bela Lugosi: The Fallen Vampire

October 2007 •English

On Valentines Day, 1931, Universal Pictures released the film Dracula - the first true horror movie. Its worldwide success catapulted the film's lead actor, Romanian-born Bela Lugosi, to overnight stardom. "Bela Lugosi: The Fallen Vampire" traces the life and career of this mysterious man whose name became synonymous with the evil, yet magnetically compelling Count Dracula. Using archival still and film clips as well as interviews with film historians, actors and Lugosi himself, the special chronicles the meteoric rise and then precipitous decline of a talented yet tragic man who forever changed the face of horror films.

Trumping Democracy

November 2017 •English

Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States by winning three key states, a victory engineered by an ultra-conservative faction that quietly mapped its way to power using fake news, lies and psychometrics. This explosive documentary follows the money to the elusive multi-billionaire Robert Mercer who bought Breitbart News and funded the effort, while inserting Steve Bannon into the presidential campaign as its manager.

Monsieur René Magritte

January 1978 •English

Documentary about the Belgian surrealist artist who died in 1967.

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?

Gwendolyn

December 2017 •English

Gwendolyn is facing a year full of changes. Having left Austria for England in the 70s, she recently moved from her old house in Central London to a new high-rise building without her Ivorian husband Charlie, 20 years her junior, who wants to live on his own. A much bigger challenge though is her soon to come third salivary gland cancer surgery. Her body is weakened, part of her face currently paralysed, the situation is serious. But rather than engage in the prescribed rest, she defends herself against illness and aging and wants to become world champion once more. With her loyal trainer Pat, she prepares for the upcoming weightlifting season.

Pandas

April 2018 •English

In the mountains of Sichuan, China, a researcher forms a bond with Qian Qian, a panda who is about to experience nature for the first time.

Fraňo Kráľ

January 1954 •Slovak

The Pain of Others

January 2018 •English

Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, say they have it. But the mainstream medical community says Morgellons is not a disease at all, but a delusion propagated and reinforced by social media. “It’s all in your head,” they say. The Pain of Others is a found footage documentary about Morgellons, a mysterious illness whose sufferers say they have parasites under the skin, long colored fibers emerging from lesions, and a host of other bizarre symptoms which could be borrowed from a horror film.

The Beauty Academy of Kabul

May 2004 •English

What happens when a group of hairdressers from America travel to Kabul with the intention of telling Afghan women how to do hair and makeup? This engaging, optimistic documentary tracks a unique development project: a shiny new beauty school, funded in part by beauty-industry mainstays, which sets out to teach the latest cutting, coloring, and perming techniques to practicing and aspiring Afghan hairdressers and beauticians. The American teachers, all volunteers, include three Afghan-Americans returning home for the first time in over twenty years. The Beauty Academy of Kabul offers a rare glimpse into Afghan women’s lives, and documents the poignant and often humorous process through which women with very different experiences of life come to learn about one another.

Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale

July 2010 •English

BAD BLOOD chronicles how a "miracle" treatment for hemophilia became an agent of death for 10,000 Americans.

Sing Your Song

January 2012 •English

Most people know the lasting legacy of Harry Belafonte, the entertainer. This film unearths his significant contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and to social justice globally.

La petite dame du Capitole

January 2006 •French

Lucienne Schnegg is an energetic little woman. At eighty, she is still at the helm of the "Capitole" cinema. Hired as a secretary in 1949, she became the heiress and soul of the cinema. Cashier, housekeeper and director all in one, she tells us all about her cinema, Lausanne's oldest, largest and most beautiful.