AMIP

Chris Marker’s portrait of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky documents the director at work on his final film, The Sacrifice, during the last year of his life. Interweaving behind-the-scenes footage with excerpts from Tarkovsky’s earlier works, Marker crafts a moving reflection on the artist’s vision, methods, and enduring legacy.

Intimate portrait of Abel Ferrara: the result is an eccentric road movie, with the restless film maker as a charming, shabby guide around New York by night.

“I Have to Make the Word Be Flesh” is an insightful and candid interview with the man himself about his films and his motivations. Cronenberg is cheerfully frank about his often grotesque images and controversial subject matter, and clearly relishes in the opportunity to explore the themes and motifs behind each one.

Undaunted by a commission to make a film about his mentors and aesthetic exemplars, the filmmaking team of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Costa records with great sensitivity and insight the exacting process by which the two re-edit their film Sicilia!, discussing and arguing over each cut and its effect. Incorporating comments about the influence of figures as diverse as Chaplin and Eisenstein, about the ethical and aesthetic implications of film technique and such matters as rhythm, sound mixing, and acting. The film becomes a tour de force, immersing us in the mysteries of cinema as practiced by some of its greatest creators. Costa calls the film both his first comedy and his first love story.

Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.

Akerman spends a month in Tel Aviv, in an apartment by the sea, contemplating childhood, family, and her Jewish identity.

As an elderly man on his deathbed looks to give his name to one of his newborn grandsons, he's unable to acknowledge any of them. The three boys grow up with no name in the Syrian mountains, as they struggle to survive in a war-torn country.

The original television version of 'Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?'

Documentary telling the story of legendary Brazilian footballers Pelé and Garrincha, whose emergence following Brazil's defeat at home in the 1950 World Cup Final heralded the dawn of a golden age of football for the country. But while one man became known as the world's greatest footballer, the other died a broken alcoholic at the age of 49.

Documentary about Japanese film director Shohei Imamura.

Jean-Pierre Limosin follows Takeshi Kitano on the set of Kikujiro, films it during an interview with Shiguehiko Hasumi, president of the University of Tokyo and who, as a great film buff, was one of the first to recognize directorial talents of Takeshi Kitano

A documentary look at the fate of Mexicans who cross the border into the United States.

Presented in 2 parts, this 83 minute piece documents Wieder-Atherton's idea to do a set of pieces from across central and eastern Europe, including Russia. Some weren't originally written for cello, but she had them transcribed. Some were songs for voices, which goes with Wieder-Atherton saying in an earlier film she made with Chantal Akerman that she aspires to play the cello in a way that it carries the specificity of emotion of the human voice. She explains at the beginning of both parts how she feels each country in the region has it's own personality expressed in its music, coming from its individual history and culture, but that each land in the area is also 'impregnated' as she puts it, by the others, so there are certain elements that run throughout.

An episode of the television program Cinéastes de notre temps in which the director gives his first on-camera interview.

Documentary on Alain Robbe-Grillet, part of the TV series "Un Siècle d'écrivain"

The film retraces the last two years of Antonin Artaud.

Since the conflict in Darfur spread to the eastern border regions of Chad in 2005, some 13,000 people fled from this region to the refugee camp near the village of Gouroukoun. For them, the war is never far off. Many of these traumatised refugees have lived here for years, with little food, no work and no prospect of returning home. Zuchuat took his camera to the camp and captured their uncertain existence without providing any comment. He captures the refugees' arduous daily life in long shots, often from a single angle. They all have their own stories of how they ended up here, how they saw their families and fellow-villagers perish and no longer have any work, cattle or land. Another striking story is told by a child that uses a drawing to explain how he was chased away from his native village. Little girls sing a battle song while waiting for what comes next in this prison without bars.