Talking About Myself Is Hard

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

June 1896 •French

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Caligari: When Horror Came to Cinema

February 2014 •German

On February 26, 1920, Robert Wiene's world-famous film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin. To this day, it is considered a manifesto of German expressionism; a legend of cinema and a key work to understand the nature of the Weimar Republic and the constant political turmoil in which a divided society lived after the end of the First World War.

War Photographer

November 2001 •English

Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.

The Case of Bruno Lüdke

February 2021 •German

The incredible story of Bruno Lüdke (1908-44), the alleged worst mass murderer in German criminal history; or actually, a story of forged files and fake news that takes place during the darkest years of the Third Reich, when the principles of criminal justice, subjected to the yoke of a totalitarian system that is beginning to collapse, mean absolutely nothing.

This Is Not a Dream

October 2012 •English

The video revolution of the 1970s offered unprecedented access to the moving image for artists and performers. This Is Not a Dream explores the legacies of this revolution and its continued impact on contemporary art and performance. Charting a path across four decades of avant-garde experiment and radical escapism, This Is Not a Dream traces the influences of Andy Warhol, John Waters and Jack Smith to the perverted frontiers of YouTube and Chatroulette, taking in subverted talk shows and soap operas, streetwalker fashions and glittery magic penises along the way.

My Journey Through French Cinema

October 2016 •French

Famous French director Tavernier tells us about his fantastic voyage through the cinema of his country.

In Search of Tomorrow

February 2022 •English

A nostalgic journey through ’80s Sci-Fi-films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artists who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.

Matthew Perry: Not just Friends

May 2023 •English

Hitler's Hollywood

February 2017 •German

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)

Madonna: Truth or Dare

May 1991 •English

From the rains of Japan, through threats of arrest for 'public indecency' in Canada, and a birthday tribute to her father in Detroit, this documentary follows Madonna on her 1990 'Blond Ambition' concert tour. Filmed in black and white, with the concert pieces in glittering MTV color, it is an intimate look at the work of the icon, from a prayer circle before each performance to bed games with the dance troupe afterwards.

Morgana

August 2019 •English

A lonely house-wife’s plan to end it all takes an unexpected turn when her last hurrah begins a radical journey of sexual exploration and personal re-invention.

Sabine Weiss, One Century of Photography

August 2023 •French

In nearly a century, Sabine Weiss (1924-2021) has left behind a monumental and eclectic work: thousands of faces, collections of the greatest fashion designers in prestigious magazines, a Parisian working-class now disappeared, photoreports around the world… By focusing on the margins of society, she was an exceptional witness of the 20th century. For the first time, a film draws the portrait of this hard-worker artist and captures the last words of the greatest female figure of the Humanist photography (Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson).

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

September 2021 •English

An exploration of the cinematic history of the folk horror, from its beginnings in the UK in the late sixties; through its proliferation on British television in the seventies and its many manifestations, culturally specific, in other countries; to its resurgence in the last decade.

Hollywood rueda en España (1955-1980)

September 2018 •Spanish

The turbulent history of the twenty-five years during which, in the midst of Franco's dictatorship, Spain was turned into an immense movie set on which many foreign production companies shot dozens of films, from westerns to historical epics.

Yo soy Arturo Fernández

July 2019 •Spanish

A gentle portrait of the mythical Spanish actor Arturo Fernández (1929-2019) in the hour of his passing, in his own words, through his latest interviews, not previously broadcast, and the words of those who knew him thorough decades of charming and good performance on stage, his true home, as well as in cinema and television.

The Man Who Defied Beijing

May 2019 •French

A portrait of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017), a witness of the Tiananmen Square massacre (1989), a dissident, a woodpecker who tirelessly pecked the putrid brain of the Communist regime for decades, demanding democracy loudly and fearlessly. Silenced, arrested, convicted, imprisoned, dead. Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2010, alive forever. These are his last words.

Salvador Dalí: Génie tragi-comique

March 2019 •French

Auge in Auge - Eine deutsche Filmgeschichte

July 2008 •German

This is not merely another film about cinema history; it is a film about the love of cinema, a journey of discovery through over a century of German film history. Ten people working in film today remember their favourite films of yesteryear.

The Armstrong Tapes

July 2019 •English

Never-before-heard audio tapes recorded with Neil Armstrong during the final years of his life reveal an intimate portrait of this iconic - and famously private - man. Illustrated through previously unseen personal photographs and archival footage, this documentary special takes viewers on an emotional journey into the thoughts and experiences of the first man on the Moon.

Pornocracy: The New Sex Multinationals

March 2017 •French

Never before have we watched as much porn as today yet the traditional porn industry is dying. The arrival of web sites showing amateur clips has transformed the way porn is made and consumed. Behind this transformation lies one opaque multinational.