The Ozu Diaries

I Lived, But...(ja)

An extremely lovely tribute to Ozu, on the 20th anniversary of his death. It uses a combination of footage from vintage films and new material (both interviews and Ozu-related locations) shot by Ozu's long-time camera-man (who came out of retirement to work on this). Surprisingly (or perhaps not), it focuses less on Ozu's accomplishments as a film-maker than on his impact on the lives of the people he worked with..

A Train Arrives at the Station(en)

“This film was a gift to me. I make no claims for it, nor do I offer any apologies. It comes from work on The Thoughts That Once We Had. There was one shot we had to cut whose loss I particularly regretted. It was a shot of a train pulling into Tokyo Station from Ozu’s The Only Son (1936). So I decided to make a film around this shot, an anthology of train arrivals. It comprises 26 scenes or shots from movies, 1904-2015. It has a simple serial structure: each black & white sequence in the first half rhymes with a color sequence in the second half. Thus the first shot and the final shot show trains arriving at stations in Japan from a low camera height. In the first shot (The Only Son), the train moves toward the right; in the last shot, it moves toward the left. A bullet train has replaced a steam locomotive. So after all these years, I’ve made another structural film, although that was not my original intention.”

North Bergen, North Bergen(en)

Footage shot in and around North Bergen, New Jersey presented in a minimalist series of fixed camera angles and long-takes accompanied by the ambient noise of city streets.

Bad Bunny & Reggaeton(es)

Comrade Couture(de)

This film undertakes a journey into the amazing parallel universe of East Berlin’s fashion designers and experts in the art of survival. For, in the midst of the constraints of life in the GDR, there existed a fantasy world where it was possible to dance to another tune, be individual and even provocative. The most important characteristic of this bohemian scene was one’s per- sonal style. But this certainly wasn’t something that could be bought off the peg in the GDR. In this parallel universe it was up to you to create your own individual image – with your own hands. This film tells the story of the desires, the passion and the dreams that were tried and tested, lived and performed in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

Romanekian(en)

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Robin Williams offer commentary on music videos directed by Mark Romanek.

John Cleese's First Farewell Performance(en)

A feature length documentary on the making of A Fish Called Wanda

Tales of the Wild Hunt: Hellboy Reborn(en)

Documentary on the making of the 2019 movie.

FAT: A Documentary(en)

Weight loss expert Vinnie Tortorich and award-winning filmmaker Peter Pardini want you to join their team to make a hard-hitting documentary film that exposes the widespread myths and lies around healthy eating, fat and weight loss and shows how, in spite of all our good intentions, we go on getting fatter and fatter.

The Last Autumn(is)

If the world has an edge, then it is almost certainly visible from Iceland. On the outermost cape, beyond which there is only the inhospitable Arctic Ocean, lies a farm belonging to Úlfar and his wife. This autumn will be the last time their grandchildren come from the city to drive the sheep back down from the hills. An almost tangible cinematic fabric that weaves a tale of an abandoned place where the mist clings to the steel-blue surface of the sea and where the occasional human visitor is sometimes welcome.

Mel Gibson Goes Back to School(en)

Mel Gibson teaches Hamlet to a group of high school drama students.

How to Dance Through Time Vol. 1: The Romance of mid-19th Century Couple Dances(en)

How to Dance Through Time, Volume I gives clear and repeated instructions to teach viewers the Waltz, Gallop, Polka, Schottische, and Polka Mazurka; five dances that were essential for anyone attending a mid-19th century ball. For the first time, dance partners held each other in a face-to-face embrace as they turned and swirled around the ballroom.

How to Dance Through Time Vol. 3: The Majesty of the Renaissance Dance(en)

The third volume of How to Dance Through Time explores Italian Renaissance dance through the famous suite, Nido d'Amore (Nest of Love) comprising a romantic, episodic story of a couple's courtship. The suite begins with a refined introduction (The Opening), explodes with energetic jumps into a male display of bravado (The Galliard), builds to mutual ecstasy (The Saltarello), and culminates in a statement of strong individualism (The Canary). This film includes concise instructions for each step demonstrated by professional dancers in period costume, a historical background, and a final performance.

How to Dance Through Time Vol. 4: The Elegance of Baroque Social Dance(en)

Shows how to dance the most influential social dances of the French Baroque Court. Includes the Minute, Allemande and Contredance.

How to Dance Through Time Vol. 5: Victorian Era Couple Dances(en)

The Victorian Era's themes of freedom and revelry were manifest in the ballroom; dancers added new embellishments to classic dances. Volume V of the How to Dance Through Time introduces 24 versions of the Waltz, Polka, Galop (Gallop), and Mazurka. In Victorian times, the Waltz burgeoned with multiple new turning patterns; the Polka developed whimsical, hopping variations; the Galop rose to a new level of expertise; and the Mazurka blossomed into virtuosic displays of skillfulness.

The Art of Breaking Character(en)

The cast of Extras talking about corpsing on set.

Game Changers: Inside the Video Game Wars(en)

The untold story of the personal battles that gave rise to the $100 billion video game industry and a 50-year-long, multi-generation epic featuring corporate coups, industrial espionage, secret burial grounds and the promise of unimaginable riches being just one cartridge away. The only constant through the saga is this: When you think you've won, you're actually at your most vulnerable.

Canine Soldiers: The Militarization of Love(en)

A documentary exploring the experience of going to war with a Military Working Dog, trained to find bombs before they can kill or maim soldiers, often at the expense of the dog's sanity.

Black Watch Snipers(en)

Documentary with interviews about the Canadian black watch regiment in ww2

Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim(de)

Rosa von Praunheim is an icon in the scene: gay activist, loving provocateur and a very special filmmaker from Berlin for decades. His curiosity for people and their fates runs through his extensive film work. For his 70th birthday he has now made 70 new short films. In the first part of the big project, he confronts Thilo Sarrazin with the mayor of Neukölln, Heinz Buschkowsky, and the Turkish lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates; shows a homosexual hustler in Bucharest; gossip reporter Andreas Kurtz, who knows everything about Berlin's celebrities; Rosa's neighbors who live with her dependent brother; Esther Bauer, who survived Auschwitz, and the Berlin comedian Ades Zabel. High on the roofs of Berlin, the gay chimney sweep Alain Rappsilber tells him about his fetish leather meeting Folsom.