Andrés Caicedo: A Few Good Friends

Thank You, Mr. Robertson

1985 · ★ 7.5

A glimpse of the pre-history of cinema starting with the projections of Etienne Gaspard Robert (also known as M. Robertson), who used magic lanterns and other optical illusions to develop the genre of the Gothic phantasmagoria in the late eighteenth century.

Music Palace

2005

Previously a central part of communal life, the movie palaces of New York’s Chinatown are now extinct. This documentary short takes us inside the title theater located on the Bowery, as it’s about to close its doors, with its caretakers ruefully looking back at the life that once was. Eric Lin’s poignant first film serves as a glimpse into the usually private—and, according to the Music Palace’s projectionist, “lonely”—operations of a theater, and mourns the loss of a once-vital movie-going locale.

Peter Lorre: The Master of Menace

1996 · ★ 6.5

Documentary overview of Peter Lorre's ascension to fame as a master purveyor of silky but disquieting peril.

Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace

2019 · ★ 6.3

Celebrating the splendor and grandeur of the great cinemas of the United States, built when movies were the acme of entertainment and the stories were larger than life, as were the venues designed to show them. The film also tracks the eventual decline of the palaces, through to today’s current preservation efforts. A tribute to America’s great art form and the great monuments created for audiences to enjoy them in.

O Cinegrafista de Rondon

1979

Record of the life and work of Luiz Thomaz Reis, a cameraman who accompanied Rondon's expeditions through the interior of Brazil since 1915. He documented, in photographs, the revolutionary movements of the 1920s, especially that of Catanduva. In the montage, iconographic material, old films and filming made at the National Museum of Cinema were used, where some of his cameras are located.

Tin Tan

2010 · ★ 7.2

Germán Cipriano Gómez Valdés Castillo, a young radio announcer from Cuidad Juárez, succeeds in drawing attention to the pachuco movement through his character Tin Tan, laying the groundwork for a new form of binational and mass linguistic expression: Spanglish. He soon became a leading figure in theater and film on the American Continent. Singled out by critics as a destroyer of the language, he quickly won the approval of the public. His ability to improvise revolutionized the film industry. His talent as an actor, singer, dancer and comedian contributed to the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. From El Hijo Desobediente to Capitán Mantarraya, from Cuidad Juárez to Havana, from mambo to rock, the legacy of Tin Tan makes him one of the great icons of Mexico today. This film tells his story as it has never been told before.

Um Cinema Quase Paradiso

2019

This short documentary presents the singular movie theater of the historic city of Ouro Preto, in Brazil, the Cine Vila Rica. Throug the looks of five characters that represents different ages and different reasons for the existence of the movie room, the directors put on screen a sentimentalist view of cinema itself and of seeing yourself as a part of one special theater.

Islands of Forgotten Cinemas

2016

A poetic documentary about the lost film culture in the small villages on the Croatian islands during the SFR of Yugoslavia.

Sexo en el plató

2007 · ★ 5.8

How are the sex scenes filmed? What tricks are used to fake the desire? How do the interpreters prepare and feel? Spanish actors and directors talk about the most intimate side of acting, about the tricks and work methods when narrating exposed sex. In Spain the general rule is that there are no rules. Each film, each interpreter, faces it in very different ways.

Cine São Paulo

2017 · ★ 5

Chico has dedicated his whole life to CINE SAO PAULO. The building, inherited from his father, is now badly deteriorated. Refurbish it, in order to make the old movie theater get back to work, becomes his great obsession.

Out of the Interior: Survival of the small-town cinema in British Columbia

The hard-working cinema owners and operators of the small towns found in BC's southern interior are doing more than showing movies and selling popcorn––they are bringing their communities together.

Disney: Through the Looking Glass

2010 · ★ 10

Tito del Amo, a passionate 72-year-old researcher, takes the final step to unravel the enigma about the alleged Spanish origin of the American cartoonist Walt Disney, making the same journey that his supposed mother made to give him up for adoption in Chicago. A journey that begins in Mojácar, Almería, Spain, and ends in New York. An exciting adventure, like Alicia's through the looking glass, to discover what is truth and what is not, with an unexpected result.