Social & External
Eddy Wally
A family (mother, daughter and son) tries to survive their loneliness and obsessions by going through different sexual experiences and relationships with a new neighbour, a prostitute.
Following the career of Björk, this documentary looks at her early musical career with local icelandic bands, her acclaimed stint in The Sugarcubes, and her massive success as a free-spirited solo artist.
It's a story about post-90 generation in China and how they chasing their dreams through a talent show. The summer of 2013 saw a group of young boys enter a Chinese TV talent show called Super Boy, hoping to be catapulted to fame. The film documents how the young boys coped with their new challenging lives. While under unthinkable pressure, they proved themselves by trying to make the right choices during live shows. Talent shows create a new type of entertainer, but can they still keep their true selves? Can they adjust themselves and balance the ups and downs? What have the ten years of Chinese talent shows given us? What is urging us to grow up?
As a young missionary, Richard Wilhelm in 1899 to China, which was then exploited by the colonial powers. He lived there revolts against foreigners, the end of the imperial dynasties and the First World War. In these times of turbulent upheavals he was indefatigable in search of the deepest truth that helps people deal with change and able to shape their own lives. Richard Wilhelm baptized not only Chinese, but accomplished one of the largest translation services of the 20th century: Confucius, LAOTSE the most important texts of Daoism and especially the I CHING THE BOOK OF CHANGES. The book also served many readers in the West as inspiration. Wilhelm is still one of the most important mediators of Chinese culture in Europe.
This call to arms documentary details the questionable ethics of the food supply industry, pointing out the power of huge supermarket chains to dictate low wages and inhumane labor conditions for farmworkers in the United States.
The film uses a documentary approach to tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers, chosen from the fields of business and the arts. The protagonists reflect upon their life journeys against the backdrop of modern China.
Dwarves Kingdom is a documentary film about a theme park featuring performances by little people with dwarfism who live in a fantasy recreation of a magical empire. Built by a wealthy Chinese businessman, this other-worldly kingdom, officially called World Ecological Garden of Butterfly and Little People Kingdom, is located in the mountains surrounding the city of Kunming in Western China.
Cao Fei recorded her experiences within the online social platform Second Life. The result is a wistful, surreal vision of an alternative reality sprung from the pop culture fantasies and hyper-consumerism of contemporary urban China, while also trying to transcend its real-life limitations. It can be seen as an answer to the challenge posed by River Elegy: how to envision a new Chinese destiny founded on principles of individuality, creativity, discovery, and freedom. The film also reflects the contemporary condition of the virtual supplanting our experience of the real.
Darkly humorous reinterpretation of the zombie film, set in Beijing. Here the undead are real estate agents, nouveau riche businessmen, security guards, manicurists, and sex workers seeking contact in an increasingly individualized, alienating society.
For five grueling years, Li Ning documents his struggle to achieve success as an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance troupe. Li's chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if his experiences can only make sense on screen. Tape shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches, including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. Tape captures a decade's worth of artistic aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression in China.
An exploration of the 'respectable' and 'immoral' stereotypes of women in Indian society told from the point of view of two striptease dancers in a Bombay cabaret.
Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on Aboriginal culture. She speaks of the importance of teaching these kids about their traditions. Aboriginal kids are forgetting about their Aboriginal heritage because they are being taught white culture instead.
Four artists - born in the same city - dig deep to reveal their connection with music. They are modern troubadours. Music is their soul - their lyrics transmit an intimate, sincere and unconventional message. A superb portrait of underground artists.
Photographs present Hermeto Paschoal in the middle of the instruments he plays in the studio in his house. The rehearsals where the sounds are discovered and improvisation sets the tone. Hermeto's testimonies on the self-taught construction of his theoretical knowledge about music and his political position on the market. The musicians who are part of his band talk about the joint process of creation and the admiration they feel for the multi-instrumentalist. The creation of Hermetus from the sounds of bees and next to the frods. The use of unusual objects made of iron and the use of the body itself to generate new sounds.
Chai Jing's documentary about the massive smog problem in China. Chai Jing started making the documentary when her as yet unborn daughter developed a tumour in the womb, which had to be removed very soon after her birth. Chai blames air pollution for the tumour. The film, which combines footage of a lecture with interviews and factory visits, has been compared with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in both its style and likely impact. The film openly criticises state-owned energy companies, steel producers and coal factories, as well as showing the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.
A coming-of-age story about a filmmaker and his family as they struggle to adapt to both a changing world and a traditional one. Can the filmmaker's family accept that he is more interested choosing to document a famine that happened 50 years ago than choosing a wife? Will the family continue to farm their land and grow rice as they always have or sell it to developers? How can they adapt to life in modern China when the country itself is in the midst of identity crisis? The film explores these topics and more in a refreshingly original style that bridges the gap between documentary and narrative feature while providing a delightfully intimate portal into family life in modern China.
For Chinese parents, finding out that their kid is gay usually presents a major tragedy, with the big majority utterly unable to accept the homosexuality of their son or daughter. However, during recent years a fresh rainbow wind has been blowing over the Chinese mainland: a pioneer generation of Chinese parents has been stepping up and speaking out on their love for their gay kids. This documentary features 6 mothers from all over China, who talk openly and freely about their experiences with their homosexual children. With their love, they are giving a whole new definition to Chinese-style family bonds.
Imagine buying the works of true masters, like Renoir, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrant, Matisse and Raphael for just thirty US dollars! Welcome to the most prolific copy artists in China. The Dafen Village, in southern China, is best described as the oil painting copy capital of the world. It’s here where the masterpiece meets the mass market, where the world's great and not-so-great oil paintings are copied. Thousands of artists turn out reproductions of famed European masterpieces, and the not so famous, for homes and businesses around the world. Last year, Dafen generated about US$35 million in sales. Thousands of painters supply 600 galleries that fill orders from around the world. This documentary talks to the copy-artists to find out what in the name of art, is going on.
Patton Oswalt delivers a fresh hour plus of stand-up, covering everything from misery to defeat to hopelessness. It's his most upbeat special to date.
Filmmaker Adam Scorgie explores the illegal marijuana industry in British Columbia, revealing how the international business is most likely more profitable than it would be if it was lawful in this enlightening documentary. Marijuana growers, law enforcement officials, physicians, politicians, criminologists, economists and celebrities—including comedian Tommy Chong—shed light on this topical subject in a series of compelling interviews.
Daniel Tosh performs in front of a live San Francisco audience in this stand-up special for Comedy Central, and touches on topics ranging from sports and pop culture, to religion and politics.
Documentary about the making of American Pie (1999), American Pie 2 (2001) and American Wedding (2003).
Kevin Smith brings his famous and "infamous" Q&A back to his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey for his 37th birthday.
Patton Oswalt, despite a personal tragedy, produces his best standup yet. Focusing on the tribulations of the Trump era and life after the loss of a loved one, Oswalt continues his journey to contribute joy to the world.
Stand-up comedian Kevin Hart talks about his family, travel and a year full of reckless behavior in front of a live sold-out crowd in London.
Kevin Hart serves up laughs and brick oven pizza from the comfort of his home, and dishes on male group chats, sex after 40 and life with COVID-19.
Declared to be the funniest Robin Williams video made, this is a don't-miss comedy.
What begins as a documentary following the final tour of a dying magician - "The Amazing Johnathan" - becomes an unexpected and increasingly bizarre journey as the filmmaker struggles to separate truth from illusion.
In this special live event, giants of stand-up come together to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Russell Simmons's groundbreaking "Def Comedy Jam."
The comedic stylings of four sort-of famous funnymen are brought to the big screen courtesy of this 2002 documentary.
Emmy-winning comedian Dana Carvey blends pitch-perfect tales on big personalities with so-true-it-hurts stories from his life as a dad of millennials.
What does it mean to be a successful comedian? How far can the boundaries of taste be pushed to get a laugh? Four top comics, Ricky Gervais, Louis C.K., Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, discuss and debate their craft.
Jerry Seinfeld returns to the club that gave him his start in the 1970s, mixing iconic jokes with stories from his childhood and early days in comedy.
A look at the work of two stand-up comics, Jerry Seinfeld and a lesser-known newcomer, detailing the effort and frustration behind putting together a successful act and career while living a life on the road.
Kevin, Joe and Nick face down quick wits and deep cuts in this comedy special featuring Pete Davidson, John Legend and more. Hosted by Kenan Thompson.
In a comedy special directed by Spike Jonze, Aziz Ansari shares deep personal insights and hilarious takes on wokeness, family and the social climate.
The making of 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog'.
Bad Grandpa .5 gives you a whole new perspective on the world of Irving Zisman with bonus scenes and pranks also featuring Spike Jonze as "Gloria" and Catherine Keener as Irving's wife "Ellie", plus a look at the evolution of Johnny Knoxville's naughty alter-ego, the makeup effects, and a behind-the-scenes peek at the idiocy it takes to make a hidden camera movie in public.
