Church Cinema

In the summer of 2007, Gan Xiaoer led an independent film projection team, using projectors and self-made screens, to tour villages in Henan province to show his feature film "Raised from dust" for 8 times, and recorded the process. The 81-minute version of Church Cinema records only one stop, the Qiliying Church, where "Raised from dust" was shot.

Red White

A small rural township called Red White was seriously devastated by the May 12th Earthquake in China 2008. A 62-year-old Taoist survived even though his temple was largely torn by the disaster. This documentary tells the story of how the Taoist practices the widely believed Chinese traditional religion and the local people’s daily life during the township’s post-quake reconstruction.

Aoluguya, Aoluguya

Aoluguya, Aoluguya is the first film in Gu Tao’s Ewenki Trilogy. A tale that unfolds in the Aoluguya forest, featuring such unique characters as a mother who dulls her sadness over the absence of her son, Yuguo, with alcohol; her brother; and Maria, the tribal chieftain who watches over them.

Yuguo and His Mother

Yuguo, from Mongolia, lost his father when he was very young. His mother Liuxia was not able to raise him as a heavy drinker. With social support, she sent Yuguo to Wuxi for free education. Liuxia is depressed all day long, and she finds sustenance of missing Yuguo in reindeer and wine. One winter holiday after many years, Yuguo returns to his hometown, the Evenki settlement deep in the Greater Khingan mountains. At that time, he is no longer the boy who just left home, but a thirteen-year-old teenager. Facing alcoholic mother, poetic uncle, pure people from the tribe, familiar yet strange forest, Yuguo, who grew up in the city, doesn’t know what to do. In the snow-laden mountains of Aoluguya, northeast of Inner Mongolia, the film chronicles their brief time together. Yuguo and His Mother is the second documentary of Gu Tao’s Evenki trilogy.

Shattered

A microcosm of China past and present flows through Xu Tong’s intimate docu “Shattered,” in which the maverick indie filmmaker continues to refine his techniques and concerns shown in his previous “Wheat Harvest” and “Fortune Teller.”

New Castle

New Castle is a remote rural village where houses and mountains have been distorted due to excessive mining. Under the "New Village" campaign, all the villagers will be moved into the nearly completed Luxury Buildings. The documentary depicts the life of two groups of people, miners and villagers. The miners who are from all over the country, lost their jobs because of the Olympic Games in Beijing - the mine was shut down to make the air less polluted. The villagers had no better luck. Granny Fan lost two sons and two grandsons in a mining accident. Old Han and Old Wang are still farming. Some youngsters are gambling in the house of Han Bin, who was crippled in another mining accident. In the film, you can also see the village election, the service of local Christians, and people worshipping for a better year to come.

A Yangtze Landscape

A Yangtze Landscape utilizes a non-narrative style, setting off from the Yangtze's marine port Shanghai, filming all the way to the Yangtze River's source, Qinghai/Tibet - filming a total distance of thousands of kilometers. Experimental music and noise recorded live on scene are used in post-production, painstakingly paired with relatively independent visuals, creating a magically realistic atmosphere contrasted with people seeming to be 'decorative figures' right out of traditional Chinese landscape scrolls.

Wheat Passenger

The story took place in 2008. Henan Guo Hui, who was a harvester, went to the provinces to harvest wheat for him. He and his father then invited a driver and set off. I went to Shanxi, Shaanxi, and also included Henan. They met other mairs to talk about the earthquake in Sichuan and talk about the difficulties of collecting wheat. Bargaining with the farmers, thinking of the law less to give the leader a little commission, sometimes to think of the way to get money, sometimes to think of ways to escape the control of the leader. The driver complained that the car owner was too bad, and the owner complained that the driver had eaten too much. In the middle of the road, I also encountered the need to collect the toll, and finally met the young and confused.

Hyacinthine Scar

Hyacinthine Scar condenses the undigested emotions in me while traveling from Hong Kong to my brother’s wedding in Guam. Presences and gazes of all sorts, to look and to be looked at, repetitive camera work of the hired videographers, the vow that is rehearsed over and over again by the priest, all the uncontrollable clickings of the shutter from all us (including myself), and the endless sightings of different sides of the fragmented Western Pacific. The many spots I visited appear as though they belong to passersby. They are as real as they are dreamy.

China. The Arts – The People

China marks the beginning of the extensive Asian theme in Ottinger’s filmography and is her first travelogue. Her observant eye is interested in anything from Sichuan opera and the Beijing Film Studio to the production of candy and sounds of bicycle bells.

Village Diary

Building Archaeology

The documentary Building Archeology (jiànzhú kǎo) (2011) considers the more recent past. It’s made up of three vignettes about different buildings in Beijing: a museum, an abandoned hospital, and a detention center. The latter two vignettes are especially interesting. In the second, a woman wanders around the ruins of a hospital built in a week to deal with the 2003 SARS outbreak. The third concerns a former prisoner, tracing out a map of the detention center where he was held in 2011.

Disappearance

Yu Tian (played by Hu Tian) is a senior this year. He hasn't returned home for a few years while studying in a big city. The estrangement between him and his mother (Lin Jiehua) is somehow getting bigger and bigger. He is immersed in his artistic dreams and is not practical, but his mother, who has always been conservative, does not understand. His friends remained the same, still the same young people in the small town. Friends booed that he would be the most promising one among them, but he himself was convinced. He told his sister (played by Sun Nan) that he would go to the big city to make a fortune.

China Gate

"China Gate" tells the story of young Chinese fight to change their fate through studying. Right before dawn, students in Huining have already started their self-studying session; hard working youngsters have filled up the space of school ground. This is one of the most poverty-stricken Counties in Western China; here people's only hope is in education, as the way to change their social status. Therefore all their effort point towards the College Entrance Examination, the process is like going through a gate, those who pass can study at urban Universities, and have the chance to build a better life. During the same winter season in Beijing, a graduate student faces a big decision. Should he keep trying to survive in the big city or get back to his countryside home? The exhausted faces at the Beijing underground seem to be revealing the truth about their distance in between. The student comes to see the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square, where the pulsing symbol of the nation lies.

The Iron Ministry

Filmed over three years on China’s railways, The Iron Ministry traces the vast interiors of a country on the move: flesh and metal, clangs and squeals, light and dark, and language and gesture. Scores of rail journeys come together into one, capturing the thrills and anxieties of social and technological transformation. The Iron Ministry immerses audiences in fleeting relationships and uneasy encounters between humans and machines on what will soon be the world’s largest railway network.

The Road

The documentary film, The Road, reveals the status of 22 students who study in a private village school in Hunan Province. Through in-depth interviews, the inner world of these “left-behind children” who are lack of parental love has been explored. We hope that through this film, we could hear the responses and actions from our society.

Beyond the Mountains

Daqi Village is located in Shichao Township, Wuchuan Gelao and Miao Autonomous County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. The village has 985 households with 4119 people, including 435 households with 1803 persons. It is one of the 2,760 deeply impoverished villages in Guizhou Province.

Singing on the Construction Site

Don't forget to have poetry when making a living. This is romance. Even if you live in a sheepfold, you have a holy smile like a baby. This is romance. Listening to folk songs from the workers' hometown at the construction site in Shenzhen is touching. Once the song stops, you become eager for it. This singing series is also called "Sharing Hometown" and “Lingering Songs". You see, the eyes of the singing workers are shining, because we are all close to the Buddha.

Autumn, Winter and Summer

Two families' oral history of the Cultural Revolution and their current life.

Seedlings Protection Rite

Seedlings protection rite (also called the parade of big rice dumplings) is a spring agricultural festival of Hakka people in Western Fujian, China. People worship the God of Grains (Shennong) in the rite. People collect thousands of fresh bamboo leaves, sew them together and make a pair of big dumplings filled with 120 kilograms of rice each. They also make tens of thousands of finger-sized rice dumplings for believers to take home. On the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month, villagers carry out the statues of the God of grains and big dumplings. Followed by flowers cars, eight sheds carry children chosen from every clan name in the village who are dressed up as ancient heroes, as people parade around the village. After the rite, villagers believe that farmland is awakened and that disasters are averted. A new agricultural cycle begins.

My Mom Jayne

Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.

I Am Heath Ledger

The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.

John Candy: I Like Me

Those who knew iconic funnyman John Candy best share his story, in their own words, through never-before-seen archival footage, imagery, and interviews.

The Cheshire Murders

In the early-morning hours of July 23, 2007, in Cheshire, Conn., ex-convicts Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the family home of William Petit, his wife, Jennifer, and their daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied to a pole in the basement. The three women were bound in their bedrooms while the men ransacked the house. The brutal ordeal continued throughout the morning, ending with rape, arson and a horrific triple homicide.

The Menendez Brothers

Serving life in prison for murdering their parents, Lyle and Erik Menendez speak out in this documentary explaining the shocking crime and ensuing trials.

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

The Class of ‘92

A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.

Sherman's March

Documentarian Ross McElwee originally set out to make a travelogue of sorts tracing General William T. Sherman's infamous scorched-earth march through the Confederacy in the latter stages of the Civil War. Instead, haunted by a recent breakup with a girlfriend, McElwee ends up documenting his progress -- or lack thereof -- in starting a new relationship. His journey then becomes one of self-reflection and self-discovery rather than a historical/sociological exploration.

Ex Libris: The New York Public Library

A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me

From the heights of her modeling fame to her tragic death, this documentary reveals Anna Nicole Smith through the eyes of the people closest to her.

Directed by John Ford

A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.

180° South

The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia.

The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends

This documentary focuses on the actors and their journey over two summers to create the remake to the original IT, by Stephen King. The documentary originally released as bonus material, bundled with IT: Chapter Two.

Above Majestic

A look at the origins, history and conspiracies behind the "Majestic 12", a clandestine group of military and corporate figureheads charged with reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.

Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20

An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.

Maria by Callas

Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs, the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time.

Dawg Fight

In a crime-plagued neighborhood near Miami, brutal, bare-knuckled backyard fights give young men a chance to earn money -- and self-respect.

Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes

Serial killer Dennis Nilsen narrates his life and horrific crimes via a series of chilling audiotapes recorded from his jail cell.

Wick Is Pain

Witness the never-before-seen footage and true story behind the John Wick phenomenon – from independent film to billion-dollar franchise.

Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story

Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.