Supersurface: An Alternative Model for Life on Earth

The Green Fog(en)

A tribute to a fascinating film shot by Alfred Hitchcock in 1958, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, and to the city of San Francisco, California, where the magic was created; but also a challenge: how to pay homage to a masterpiece without using its footage; how to do it simply by gathering images from various sources, all of them haunted by the curse of a mysterious green fog that seems to cause irrepressible vertigo…

Mediocre(de)

What Is to Be Done? A Journey from Prague to Ceský Krumlov, or How I Formed a New Government(cs)

Quite a few years have passed since November 1989. Czechoslovakia has been divided up and, in the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus’s right-wing government is in power. Karel Vachek follows on from his film New Hyperion, thus continuing his series of comprehensive film documentaries in which he maps out Czech society and its real and imagined elites in his own unique way.

Bohemia Docta or the Labyrinth of the World and the Lust-House of the Heart (A Divine Comedy)(cs)

A labyrinthine portrait of Czech culture on the brink of a new millennium. Egon Bondy prophesies a capitalist inferno, Jim Čert admits to collaborating with the secret police, Jaroslav Foglar can’t find a bottle-opener, and Ivan Diviš makes observations about his own funeral. This is the Czech Republic in the late 90s, as detailed in Karel Vachek’s documentary.

Filmfarsi(en)

A found-footage essay, Filmfarsi salvages low budget thrillers and melodramas suppressed following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Cooking Show(en)

The cooking show is as old as television itself. But why do we like watching the making of a meal that most of us will never cook, let alone eat? Dirty Furniture’s jam-packed video essay is a rollercoaster ride through the history of the genre, at once a staple of television viewing and a hotpot of shifting perspectives and sociocultural values.

Long Live Hunting!(cs)

This documentary essay introduces a peculiar trio of men united by their passion for hunting. Each of them conceives of hunting in his own way, luring the viewer to an exotic safari, to an antlered trophy collection or to a sitting in the woods.

In the Intense Now(pt)

A personal essay which analyses and compares images of the political upheavals of the 1960s. From the military coup in Brazil to China's Cultural Revolution, from the student uprisings in Paris to the end of the Prague Spring.

Visions of Europe(en)

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

To Stay Alive: A Method(en)

Iggy Pop reads and recites Michel Houellebecq’s manifesto. The documentary features real people from Houellebecq’s life with the text based on their life stories.

The March on Rome(it)

The fascinating story of the rise to power of dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy in 1922 and how fascism marked the fate of the entire world in the dark years to come.

Everyday Maneuver(xx)

Everyday Maneuver is a video that presents the viewer with an unrealistic scenery. Shot from a drone, it shows a city at daytime, but there isn't a single human being in it. What seems disconnected from everyday life, and as artificial as a landscape created with computer graphics, is in fact a recording that was made during one of the annual "Wanan Air Raid Drills" that have been implemented in Taiwan since 1978.

Vowellet - An Essay by Sarah Vowell(en)

This Pixar documentary short follows Sarah Vowell, who plays herself as the title character, on why she is a superhero in her own way. (This short piece is included on the 2-Disc DVD for "The Incredibles", which was released in 2005.

The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography(en)

Every image in The Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography comes from gay erotic videos produced in Eastern Europe since the introduction of capitalism. The video provides a glimpse of young men responding to the pressures of an unfamiliar world, one in which money, power and sex are now connected.

Arcadia(en)

A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.

White Noise(fr)

A reflection on the fate of humanity in the Anthropocene epoch, White Noise is a roller-coaster of a film, a whirlwind of sounds and images. The fourth feature-length work by Simon Beaulieu, this film essay plunges viewers into a subjective sensory adventure—a direct physical encounter with the information overload of daily life. White Noise transforms the imminent collapse of our civilization into a visceral aesthetic experience.

The So-Called Caryatids(fr)

Commissioned by French television, this is a short documentary on the neo-classical statues found throughout Paris, predominantly on the walls of buildings, holding up windows, roofs etc.

Michael Berger: A Hysteria(de)

Depicting the biography of a corrupt banker poses a cinematic dilemma. How can the intentions of an individual systematic contexts and historical eventualities be brought into harmony? Thomas Furhapters nearly one hour film Michael Berger Eine Hysterie turns this problem outward by not covering up the moment of speculation. The subject of the film, Austrian investment banker Michael Berger, who became a dollar millionaire through a risky hedge fund, remains a chimera an absent individual who also cannot be captured through his crime.

Linklater: On Cinema and Time(en)

If cinema is the art of time, Linklater is one of its most thoughtful and engaged directors. Unlike other filmmakers identified as auteurs, Linklater’s distinction is not found on the surface of his films, in a visual style or signature shot, but rather in their DNA, as ongoing conversations with cinema, which is to say, with time itself. A visual essay produced by Sight and Sound.

Opera About Poland(pl)

Pole, who are you? This film collage that combines archival and contemporary materials, documentary and staged pictures, press reports, social announcements, sale offers and speech excerpts is an attempt to answer this question. Referring to the Polish tradition of a creative documentary in the style of Wojciech Wiszniewski, the film presents various manifestations of Polishness: patriotic and religious rituals, everyday traditions as well as characteristic landscapes or intimate memories from childhood.

Explosion en mer(fr)

The Wakeful Sleeper(fr)

B., a film-maker and insomniac, decides to rescue his hours of insomnia from the void by filming his quest for sleep. The insomniac asks questions about these different states of consciousness and about the difficulties humans have in synchronising their social rhythms and biological ones.

Sissy Sheriff(en)

After losing 12 sheriffs in twelve days, the town of Lizzard Gizzard Gulch makes Woody sheriff number 13, with the task of arresting notorious bank robber Dirty McNasty.

Die Alpenklinik(de)

After an alleged malpractice that led to the death of his brother, heart surgeon Daniel Guth took the consequences: he gave up his beloved job and retreated into the solitude of nature. At his place of refuge, the Salzburg mountains, the heiress to a private clinic is desperately looking for a capable chief physician. Daniel declines the post, although he finds the woman attractive. When a boy is seriously injured in a bus accident, he is confronted with his trauma again.

Sálvame(es)

American Terrorist: April 20, 1999(en)

This film is about the proliferation of student school shooter and bombers who kill their classmates and teachers in kamikaze attacks.

Vivo o muerto(en)

Cowboy/western: hero fakes cowardice to trap the bad guys into showing their hands.

Lady Against the Odds(en)

A private detective becomes involved in a new cast when her partner's guardian is murdered.

Greedy for Tweety(en)

Sylvester Cat chases Tweety Bird into busy city streets as he himself is being chased by a bulldog. All three are in an accident and taken to an animal hospital, each with a broken leg.

Undercover Kids(en)

Nicole and Nelson are twins with psychic powers. On the first day of school everyone is talking about the recent vandalism at school. Nicole and Nelson decide to go undercover to find the culprit. The twins get child genius George & his high tech gadgets to help them solve the mystery. With the clock ticking, the kids race to break the case open before the big school board meeting where they must reveal the true person responsible for the vandalism. Will the Undercover Kids solve the crime before time runs out?

Paul Bowles: The Complete Outsider(en)

This documentary chronicles the life of expatriate writer Paul Bowles through archival footage, photos and interviews with the author, who talks about his writing, his friendships with artists such as Tennessee Williams and Aaron Copland and more. Shot in Tangier, Morocco (Bowles's longtime home), this revealing portrait sketches out Bowles's rebellious life story, including his love relationships with men and women, his drug use and his music. - Paul Bowles, Edouard Roditi, Allen Ginsberg

The Lone Road(en)

"The Lone Road" is a suspense thriller in the vein of "Witness" and "Breakdown". It's the story of a young woman, Elizabeth, who after a couple of personal set backs, takes a mind-cleansing road trip, eventually coming to a remote town where she witnesses a brutal murder by a prominent citizen with a sinister secret. Trapped in the small town, she is pursued by a bunch of crazed killers with the family values of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Elizabeth, who once had her whole life ahead of her, now has death hot on her tail.

The Love Potion(da)

The pharmacist Peter Pille and Colonel Sejrsberg's beautiful niece, Inger, are in love. Unfortunately, the Colonel is against the idea of an engagement and generally detests men who court young girls. Peter Pille finds out that the Colonel's negative attitude is due to jealousy and envy, because he himself has never really had luck with the ladies. Maybe a homemade love potion will do the trick? (stumfilm.dk)

Emergency Call(en)

A surgeon and an ambulance driver fight racketeers who take over their hospital.

All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos(en)

During a Day of the Dead celebration, the dead come to life to prey upon the living. In the remote Mexican village of Santa Bonita, a nightmare lay buried for over a century. But when a group of hard-partying students from the OC are stranded in this strange town, they discover an innkeeper with a dark secret a sheriff with a shocking past and a holiday that demands the most horrific sacrifice of all. Now the ceremony can commence. The hordes of the undead have been unleashed. And on this day, an unstoppable feast of human flesh has begun!

Diorama(uk)

Life flows in its everyday reality, but then suddenly something elusive changes its course. All that is left is the chance to plunge into memories where everything is preserved, as if in a museum.

Life, Love, Soul(en)

The tragedy-to-triumph story of Roosevelt Jackson (Robbie Tate-Brickle), a seventeen-year-old honor student coping with the sudden death of his mother (Tami Roman), his tumultuous relationship with his previously estranged father (Chad Coleman), and his own journey to manhood. It's the story of a young man who loses everything and triumphantly finds himself.