Little Alien

Kurt Gerrons Karussell

1999 · ★ 8

This documentary tells the story of an unusual victim of the Nazi holocaust -- Kurt Gerron, a German film actor and cabaret star. During World War II, Gerron went from being a leading light of the German entertainment community (he made over 70 films and sang "Mack the Knife" in the first performance of The Three-Penny Opera) to a prisoner directing a propaganda film for the Nazis about a makeshift club at Theresienstadt, which was described as a "concentration camp for celebrities." Gerron was eventually executed at Auschwitz. Director Ilona Ziok combines archival footage of Gerron with interviews of peers and survivors who describe how Gerron tragically believed his gifts as an entertainer would save his life -- and how he enthusiastically kept performing right up to his death.

Joan Crawford: Always the Star

1996 · ★ 7.5

Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her 50-year career, she made over 80 films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.

Freedom Fields

2018 · ★ 7.5

In post-revolution Libya, a group of women are brought together by one dream: to play football for their nation. But as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the “Arab Spring” begin to fade, can they realise their dream? And is there even a country left to play for? Freedom Fields is a film about hope and sacrifice in a land where dreams seem a luxury. Through the eyes of these accidental activists we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love, struggle and aspirations collide with History.

Don't Blink - Robert Frank

2015 · ★ 7

The life and work of Robert Frank—as a photographer and a filmmaker—are so intertwined that they're one in the same, and the vast amount of territory he's covered, from The Americans in 1958 up to the present, is intimately registered in his now-formidable body of artistic gestures. From the early '90s on, Frank has been making his films and videos with the brilliant editor Laura Israel, who has helped him to keep things homemade and preserve the illuminating spark of first contact between camera and people/places. Don't Blink is Israel's like-minded portrait of her friend and collaborator, a lively rummage sale of images and sounds and recollected passages and unfathomable losses and friendships that leaves us a fast and fleeting imprint of the life of the Swiss-born man who reinvented himself the American way, and is still standing on ground of his own making at the age of 90.

Where Gods Are Dead

1993 · ★ 5.5

A Norwegian TV-worker tries to prevent her son, which she has with her former husband, a Serb now living in Jugoslavia, to become a soldier in the starting civil war.

Suzan Pitt: Persistence of Vision

2006

A short documentary about Suzan Pitt and her animated films, Asparagus (1979), Joy Street (1995) and El Doctor (2006).

A Plan to Work On

1948

Documentary on town planning in which an architect looks at the history of Dunfermline, Scotland and its possible future development.

Breaking Glass: The Pat Summitt Story

2026 · ★ 9

Chronicles the life of the legendary Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach.

New Girls 24 Hours

2015 · ★ 4.2

A documentary investigation across five countries on the big business of sexual slavery.

Sylvia Plath: Inside The Bell Jar

2018 · ★ 6.3

The story of the making of The Bell Jar, the unique, semi-autobiographical novel written by American writer Sylvia Plath (1932-63), published in February 1963, shortly before her death.

Black Out

2014

Every evening during exam season, as the sun sets over Conakry, Guinea, hundreds of school children begin a nightly pilgrimage to the airport, petrol stations and wealthy parts of the city, searching for light to study. This evocative and poignant documentary shows how children reconcile their daily lives in one of the worlds poorest countries with their desire to learn.

A Woman Like That

Filmmaker Ellen Weissbrod merges her own coming of middle-age story with her pursuit of the truths behind the legends of 17th century female painter Artemisia Gentileschi’s dramatic art and life. This unconventional but heartfelt hunt upends typical artist biographies and delivers instead a funny, engaging and all together different kind of documentary. "a woman like that" is a freewheeling tribute to an artist whose own bold life and inspiring message leaps across centuries to speak to us all. The enduring power of storytelling – in paintings, in films and in our lives is revealed, as the filmmaker learns that who gets to tell the story matters, and that maybe she too, can be “a woman like that.” [from official website]