Avant-garde and essay films
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31 titles
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorJonas MekasStarsTimothy LearyEd EmshwillerFranz FuenstlerA chronogical about life including self, family, friend, couple and idol in 6 reels
- DirectorBoris KaufmanJean VigoWhat starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Luc GodardYves BeneytonJuliet BertoA day in the life of a Parisian housewife/prostitute, interspersed with musings on the Vietnam War and other contemporary issues.
- DirectorOrson WellesGary GraverOja KodarStarsOrson WellesOja KodarFrançois ReichenbachA documentary about fraud and fakery.
- DirectorDerek JarmanStarsDerek JarmanTilda SwintonJohn QuentinIn his final - and most daring - cinematic statement, Jarman the romantic meets Jarman the iconoclast in a lush soundscape pulsing against a purely blue screen, laying bare his physical and spiritual state.
- DirectorThom AndersenStarsEncke KingBen AlexanderJim BackusA documentary on how Los Angeles has been used and depicted in the movies.
- DirectorGrant GeeStarsJonathan PryceTacita DeanWilliam FirebraceUsing the late WG Sebald's book "The Rings of Saturn" as its template, this documentary traces the immensely respected author's account of a walk through Suffolk; a tour which prompted tangential musings.
- DirectorBen RiversStarsJake WilliamsAfter working at sea, a man realizes his dream of moving to the middle of the forest.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsFrançois WertheimerAgnès VardaJean La PlancheVarda films and interviews gleaners in France in all forms, from those picking fields after the harvest to those scouring the dumpsters of Paris.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- StarsJean-Luc GodardAlain CunyJulie DelpyAn 8-part documentary chronicling the history of cinema, examining the history of the concept of cinema and how both relates to the 20th century.
- DirectorHarun FarockiStarsUlrike GroteHarun FarockiDocumentary examines the 'blind spot' of the evaluators of aerial footage of the IG Farben industrial plant taken by the Americans in 1944.
- DirectorJohn AkomfrahStarsPervaiz KhanMeera SyalYvonne WeekesDocumentary examining the 1985 riots in London and Birmingham's Handsworth district that erupted in reaction to the repressive policing of black communities.
- DirectorGodfrey ReggioStarsEdward AsnerPat BenatarJerry BrownA collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.
- DirectorChantal AkermanStarsChantal AkermanImpersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsSimone SignoretJorge SemprúnDavos HanichFrench essay film focusing on global political turmoil in the 1960s and '70s, particularly the rise of the New Left in France and the development of socialist movements in Latin America.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardJean-Pierre GorinStarsMarlon BrandoMoshe DayanJames DeanLetter to Jane (1972) is a postscript film to Tout va bien directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a back-and-forth style by both Godard and Gorin, the film serves as a 52-minute cinematic essay that deconstructs a single news photograph of Jane Fonda in Vietnam. This was Godard and Gorin's final collaboration.
- DirectorAlp Zeki HeperStarsHalil TürkmenMarliese SchneidermanAyfer FerayA man living between dream and reality, making the woman he fell in love with as a statue and falling in love with her and then killing her in his dreams.
- DirectorHeinz Peter SchwerfelA documentary filmmaker uses animated segments made by the artist/subject himself to render a complex portrait of a contemporary artist.
- DirectorMan RayStarsKiki of MontparnasseExperimental film, white specks and shapes gyrating over a black background, a light-striped torso, a gyrating eggcrate. One of the first Dadaist films.
- DirectorBill MorrisonStarsTsuru AokiJulia CalhounMargaret CullingtonA meditation on the human quest to transcend physicality, constructed from decaying archival footage and set to an original symphonic score.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageJane WodeningAn experimental film from Stan Brakhage in which a man and his dog ascend a wooded mountain.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsErnie AlloBruce ByronFrank CarifiA gang of Nazi bikers prepares for a race as sexual, sadistic, and occult images are cut together.
- DirectorGuy DebordStarsGuy DebordLeonid BrezhnevFidel CastroGuy Debord's cinematic analysis of consumer society based on his influential book "La société du spectacle" (1967).