Faces of November

Sans Soleil

1983 · ★ 7.5

A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.

While There's Still Time To Smile

2025

We observe the daily routines of an elderly couple. Within the quiet flow of time, a longing for youth and irretrievable memories begin to surface. This piece reflects the sorrow hidden in the stillness of old age and the deep yearning for the past.

Letters to my Grandma

2024

A young filmmaker maintains an epistolary conversation with his deceased grandmother while he rediscovers the space they both inhabited for more than a decade.

Women in Defense

1941 · ★ 5.6

Short documentary extolling the virtues and necessity for women to participate in America's preparation for war, showing women working in scientific, industrial, and voluntary-services activities. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

Boy and Crows

1968

An early short film by Penelope Spheeris about a boy enjoying the age-old pleasures of making a wish on a dandelion. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

Microcosmos

1996 · ★ 7.6

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Sikkim

1971 · ★ 6.7

Satyajit Ray's poetic documentary was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India. Ray's documentary is about the sovereignty of Sikkim. The film was banned by the government of India when Sikkim merged with India in 1975. The ban was finally lifted by the Ministry of External Affairs in September 2010. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

Going Alone

2022

Every year, five to ten percent of all deceased Berliners are buried by the authorities because no relatives are found. Most of them are put into the ground by mortician Bernd Simon going alone. But sometimes companions do turn up and say goodbye in their very own way. An observational documentary about an undertaker who actually wanted to become an entertainer, a bizarre city portrait and a mirror of how we deal with death, mourning and commemoration.

California's Golden Beginning

1948 · ★ 9

A description and enactment of the discovery of gold by James Marshall, and the role played by John Sutter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

The Dance of Icarus

The study of the artistic work and its relationship with the author generates reflections on the connection between the material and the spiritual. The Dance of Icarus is a poetic documentary that offers an open space for reflection, like a tribal dance. Through the effort, passion and imagination of the artist José Benítez, the pictorial process becomes a profound relationship between the artist and the canvas, raising unanswered questions about creation. This documentary, loaded with symbolism, invites a total immersion in the creative process. Directed by Jesús Jiménez, this debut film is presented as an expressionist work that celebrates art in its purest and most visceral form, exploring the dimensions of artistic creation and its impact on the viewer.

Kitchen Dialogue

2025

A generational trauma through the lens of an Asian American teenager through food and poetry.

Down in Dallas Town

2023

Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the November 22, 1963 assassination on issues in today’s world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K-2.