Very Nice, Very Nice
★ 6 · 1961 · 7m · Documentary
Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
More Like This
Sensible Soccers: Manoel
2025
"Manoel" captures Sensible Soccers' journey as they celebrate a decade together as a band by reimagining soundtracks for Manoel de Oliveira's classic films. The documentary delves into the poetic intersection of cinema and music, revealing the delicate harmony between these two timeless art forms.
More info →Message from Geneva
1936 · ★ 8
This expository film shows the mood of European society on the eve of the Second World War while promoting the values of international cooperation. Using the Swiss office of the BBC as an example, the film describes the functioning of radio and presents the possibilities opened by mass communications. After the advent of sound film, Cavalcanti promoted experimentation with sound, and in this connection he was interested in the communicational, organizational, and social aspects of radio.
More info →
The History of the Hands
2016 · ★ 2
The film is a study of nature and significance of the hands in cinema. Besides review of movements and actions, which creates an independent story, it reveals interactions and interdependence of cinematic traditions of various authors, countries and periods
More info →
The Beauty President
2021 · ★ 6
In 1992, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, activist Terence Alan Smith made a historic bid for president of the United States as his drag queen persona Joan Jett Blakk. Today, Smith reflects back on his seminal civil rights campaign and its place in American history.
More info →The Red Bank. James Joyce: His Greek Notebooks
2013
This documentary aims to register this unknown side of James Joyce: His Greek Notebooks. Trieste. Bloomsday, 2013. Dance in slow motion, accompanied by text. By deconstructing the body, we turn it into a memory: of the body, of life, of texts. The biographical references to Joyce and Mando Aravantinou, combined with the diagonal slicing of the image, cancel the realism of the landscape, including that of the Narrator’s space/study. As a culmination, Joyce’s letter “A request for a loan in Greek” functions as a timely denunciation. Various routes through cities, such as Trieste, London, New York, and Athens; languages such as Greek and English. In addition to the primal myth of Ulysses, there is another issue: Greek is “the language of the subject of Ulysses”
More info →
Superheroes without Superpowers
2019 · ★ 7
The main (super)hero of Beatrice Baldacci’s documentary is a person depicted as the sum of her memories. The story of the director and her family is told in the first person, with home VHS recordings that show both Beatrice’s mother and Beatrice as a child taking on the role of an agent of memory. Outdated technology transforms the events of twenty years ago into an archaeological object.
More info →
After Two Hours, Ten Minutes Had Passed
2019 · ★ 6.5
Time as punishment — of juvenile inmates and bodies that become heavy in prescribed spaces.
More info →
Condor
2019
The July 2, 2019 solar eclipse, filmed in 100% totality, over the Chilean coast, in 16mm black and white. Condor is the national bird of Chile.
More info →
Liquidation
2013
Scratches. Cross-outs. Stripes. Arnaud is tirelessly attacking ancient masters' painting reproductions with the tip of his pen. His free and living interlaces highlight shapes and figures.
More info →
The Guns of James Bond
1964 · ★ 6.5
Short 1964 black-and-white documentary featurette hosted by Sean Connery and featuring the real-life inspiration for the character of Q, Major Geoffrey Boothroyd with a discussion of the gun weaponry used by James Bond.
More info →
Echo
2023
A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?
More info →