By the People: The Election of Barack Obama
★ 6.8 · 2009 · 116m · Documentary
By the People: The Election of Barack Obama is a documentary film produced by Edward Norton broadcast in November 2009 on HBO, which follows Barack Obama and various members of his campaign team, including David Axelrod, through the two years leading up to the United States presidential election on November 4th, 2008.
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A Great Day in Harlem
1994 · ★ 6.6
Art Kane, now deceased, coordinated a group photograph of all the top jazz musicians in NYC in the year 1958, for a piece in Esquire magazine. Just about every jazz musician at the time showed up for the photo shoot which took place in front of a brownstone near the 125th street station. The documentary compiles interviews of many of the musicians in the photograph to talk about the day of the photograph, and it shows film footage taken that day by Milt Hinton and his wife.
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Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair
1988 · ★ 6.5
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair is the third feature-length documentary produced by the Empowerment Project. The shadow government of assassins, arms dealers, drug smugglers, former CIA operatives and top US military personnel who were running foreign policy unaccountable to the public, revealing the Reagan/Bush administration's plan to use FEMA to institute martial law and ultimately suspend the Constitution. Strikingly relevant to current events.
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Attenborough and the Giant Egg
2011 · ★ 8.6
David Attenborough returns to the island of Madagascar on a very personal quest. In 1960 he visited the island to film one of his first ever wildlife series, Zoo Quest. Whilst he was there, he acquired a giant egg. It was the egg of an extinct bird known as the 'elephant bird' - the largest bird that ever lived. It has been one of his most treasured possessions ever since. Fifty years older, he now returns to the island to find out more about this amazing creature and to see how the island has changed. Could the elephant bird's fate provide lessons that may help protect Madagascar's remaining wildlife? Using Zoo Quest archive and specially shot location footage, this film follows David as he revisits scenes from his youth and meets people at the front line of wildlife protection. On his return, scientists at Oxford University are able to reveal for the first time how old David's egg actually is - and what that might tell us about the legendary elephant bird.
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Habitual Sadness
1997 · ★ 5
The story of the women at the "House of Sharing" continues. Old women who share a common bond lead a peaceful life in the countryside, raising vegetables, chickens and painting pictures. They are no different from the elderly women we see every day. But they are all scarred by pain and sorrow from their collective history of being comfort women during World War 2. They became subject to prejudice in their own homeland after their return to Korea. It is painful for them to watch other peoples' children and grandchildren, and they feel rage when the Japanese government tries to cover up the unspeakable crimes they committed against them. The film asks us to remember what these women sacrificed and the shame and misery they faced even as these individuals pass away often forgotten by their own people.
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Matchmaking Mayor
2010 · ★ 3.5
A village mayor is trying to bring together local people in their thirties who are still single. 21st century social engineering in a situation documentary by Erika Hníková. Slowly but surely, the Slovak village of Zemplínske Hámre is dying out. But its mayor, a retired general, refuses to give up. In fighting the thirty-year-olds‘ solitude he has used a variety of weapons such as offering a financial incentives for every newborn child or encouraging childbearing via the local PA system. None of it has worked. However, the mayor has a new plan. He decides to organize an evening get-together for singles from all the neighboring villages. Will our heroes find their partners after all?
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Ecco Homo
2015
Provocateur, artist, performer: Peter Vanessa "Troy" Davies was a chameleon. Using layers of identity at will, Davies charmed his way through a lifetime of secrets and lies, prostitution, art, HIV, abuse, incest and gender subversion, leaving a legacy of unanswered questions, influential performances and reams of enigmatic home video. Ecco Homo is a psychological detective story and a testament to a social history rarely documented on film
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The Man in the Silk Hat
1983 · ★ 9
A documentary with many excerpts from the films of French movie pioneer Max Linder, narrated by his daughter.
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Privilege
1990 · ★ 4.7
Privilege is an intelligently conceived, boldly anarchic, and wickedly insightful exposition on the culturally ingrained and socially divisive malaise of isms that artificially define and characterize empowerment in contemporary society: ageism, sexism, economic elitism, and racism. Yvonne Rainer conveys texture through the intercutting of archival footage, video, and film - as well as compositional layering through the film-within-a-film structure, elliptical (and self-referential) fusion of past and present, and the filmmaker's idiosyncratic penchant for superimposed typed text.
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Sink or Swim
1990 · ★ 6.4
Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.
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Shepard & Dark
2012 · ★ 5.5
An indelible portrait of the complex relationship between playwright and actor Sam Shepard and his close friend Johnny Dark as they prepare forty years of their correspondence for publication, stirring up old memories both good and bad.
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Witch Madness
2000 · ★ 8
Witch Madness depicts a neglected chapter of human history: Europe’s three centuries of fanatical witchhunts, which resulted in the genocide of perhaps as many as two million women. But ultimately, the film communicates a message of love and hope.
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The Private Life of a Cat
1946 · ★ 7.2
An intimate study of the life of a domestic cat, taking place over a period of months as she gives birth to a litter of kittens and cares for them as they grow.
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