Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net
★ 7.7 · 2022 · 98m · Documentary
As Cirque du Soleil reboots its flagship production, O, more than a year after an abrupt shutdown, performers and crew members face uncertainty as they work to return to their world-class standards in time for the (re)opening night in Las Vegas. With unfettered access, filmmaker Dawn Porter captures the dramatic journey of the world's most famous circus act on its way back from the brink.
More Like This
Quarantine
2021
A short film of the first weeks of strict national lockdown, filmed in Barcelona on a classic home video camera Hi8. Narrates the story of three women who share a flat and who create a microworld not only to survive the global pandemic but also to survive themselves.
More info →
Los locos que no pararon la tele
2021 · ★ 6
The famous Spanish comedian Andreu Buenafuente, CEO of the production company El Terrat and prestigious TV host, tells how he and his numerous collaborators, both on set and behind the cameras, managed to carry on with their work despite the chaos and the several logistical and human problems caused by the global pandemic that began in early 2020.
More info →
Discovering Hamlet
1990 · ★ 5.9
IN 1988, rising star Kenneth Branagh tackled the role of Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark for the first time in his professional career under the guidance of celebrated actor Derek Jacobi. Narrated by Patrick Stewart, this hour-long film documents how Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi, two intelligent and passionate men, found new depths in Shakespeare’s classic drama, Hamlet. Filmmakers Mark Olshaker and Larry Klein follow the company through four weeks of rehearsals, from the first read-throughs to opening night.
More info →
Pretend Not to See Me
2009
Life and art intersect on a spectacular Newfoundland farm where visual artist Colette Urban mounts thirteen art performances in the fields and barns of her property. Resilient, determined, self aware and funny, Colette embraces the transformative power of art as she restages the significant art performances of her thirty-year career. With the camera as her audience she transforms the quotidian into a playful world of the imagination with elaborate costumes and idiosyncratic self invented rituals.
More info →This Is Not a Dream
2012
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.
More info →
Inocentes
2021 · ★ 10
In a time marked by longing and uncertainty, at the beginning of a social isolation, two friends disappear. The pandemic becomes a backdrop for the loss of innocence and the rescue of long-lost things. Ingenuous is like a farewell gift from the only link that united these two missing figures; two strangers who get lost, or maybe, just maybe, just met.
More info →
Cirque du Soleil: Full Circle
1996
Come in under the Big Top for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Cirque du Soleil's ninth creation, which critics have described as "the most dramatic, the most esthetic and perhaps the most melancholy show in the history of this marvelous circus" (La Presse, Montreal). Full Circle shows you the making of Quidam, from its very beginnings to its triumphant finish.
More info →
The Last Cruise
2021 · ★ 6.4
Using intimate footage recorded by passengers and crew, The Last Cruise is a first-person account of the nightmare that transpired aboard the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship, which set sail from Japan on the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More info →
Almost Thirteen
2020
A father’s heartfelt plea to have lifesaving talks with pre-teens and teens comes after his 12-year-old son’s suicide from COVID-related isolation.
More info →
Marcel Duchamp: The Art of the Possible
2020 · ★ 6
A remarkable walk through the life and work of the French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), one of the most important creators of the 20th century, revolutionary of arts, aesthetics and pop culture.
More info →
Salvador Dalí at Work
1964 · ★ 5
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows the surrealist artist around the streets of New York documenting staged public art events.
More info →
Pussy Versus Putin
2013 · ★ 5.5
In 2012 two members of anarchistic female band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in a Mordovian labor camp for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". Russian film collective Gogol’s Wives follow each step of the feminist punk band’s battle against Putin including their first disruptive performances on a trolley bus, shooting a video about transparent elections, a controversial performance in a Red Square cathedral, and footage shot in a jail cell. Support comes from many corners including Madonna who painted the words "Pussy Riot" on her back and wore a balaclava during her Moscow show. The documentary portrays the grim state of present-day Russia, a country starkly divided between conservatism and anarchy. Pussy Riot believes that art has to be free and they're willing to take it to extremes. "Pussycat made a mess in the house," they say, and the house is Russia. The filmmakers do not seek to moralize, they simply edit events and leave viewers to draw their own conclusions.
More info →