A video essay by Luiz Rosemberg Filho on the standardization of beauty through mass media.
Social & External
The people behind it
Erica Ornellas
Narrator (Voice)
In the meadow, the boundaries between reality and fiction become almost imperceptible. "Pradera" is a photo essay that explores the themes of loneliness in adulthood and human mortality through photographs and videos of miniatures.
In the idyllic world of Israeli kibbutzim everything has its own pace. There’s a time for work and for rest. There’s a time for fun too, which is when 9‑year‑old Tom and his friends play hide‑and‑seek or attack each other with a drone. Then there are moments when you have to hide and you only get 15 seconds. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, lose a life if you’re too slow. The film is a documentary observation of life in closed‑off settlements located in a military zone less than 5 kilometres from the Gaza strip.
A year in the life of Elsa Michaud and Gabriel Gauthier, students of Fine Arts in Paris, lovers in troubled times, overwhelmed by maddening verbal and auditory stimuli, witnesses of a globalized violence more visible than ever in a chaotic digital era, in which the slow execution of simple gestures in a silent performance is an act of resistance.
A hole gapes in a house wall. A small flaw, something imperfect that we seldom consciously direct our attention to. Filmmaker Ondřej Vavrečka finds holes in every corner. His focus is on the imperfections of human existence. A hole can also mean an uncertain future, or an empty stomach. The gap that partners leave behind after a breakup. Ondřej Vavrečka does not only deal with visible holes. He looks at the incomplete from a philosophical perspective. He also lets a nuclear physicist, a theologian and an ethnologist have their say. He underscores their thoughts and theses with absurd everyday scenes: a woman with a chair on her head or an invisible skier. These scenes combine with interviews, sounds and stop-motion sequences to create a playful collage.
Celestial Night is a film on visibility and questions what it means to see. It is a film about what is invisible apart from the imagination: Celestial Night is a film dealing with this vital power, the ability to envision. It is a search in present day Japan for the mythical Japanese Emperor Amayonomikoto who was blind, and the story of a time when seeing was not believing.
This essay film explores the camera as an extension of the human gaze, tracing the shifting relationship between the act of looking, the spectator, and the figure behind the lens. Moving through and between Blow-Up and Peeping Tom, the film observes how photographing, filming, and enlarging images become gestures of desire, control, and uncertainty. By revisiting these modernist works, the essay reflects on the psychological dimensions of image-making and the fragile boundary between observer and observed, opening a path toward a meditation on cinema’s power to question its own gaze.
A collage-style video essay that explores the idea of love through touch. Guided by fragments of films, paintings, photographs, and other visual images, a sensorial and poetic narrative is constructed around the protagonists of Alan Stephens Foster's painting "The Fall." Like a moving moodboard, the work connects different artistic and cultural expressions to portray gestures of affection, desire, care, and presence between diverse bodies. All of this through the hands.
Framed within the genre of "essay film", and with the landscape of Mar de Cobo as its central core, the film explores the limits between documentary and fiction through a strong poetic imprint.
In home-movies shot in the ‘90s by her father, the filmmaker discovers in these inherited images powerful fictions of the Argentinian middle class and the country’s recent history.
"A refined film essay about the loneliness, wisdom and humility of old women. The film, most valued by Jan Špáta, was awarded the Grand Prize at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, the Trilobit Award and Special Mention at the IFF in Karlovy Vary."
Through his own photographs, the Basque artist Néstor Basterretxea (1924-2014) is portrayed by the art critic and exhibition curator Peio Aguirre, a great connoisseur of his work and personal archives.
The creation of the atomic bomb did not only unleash a destructive force—it transformed the imagination of the nation that made it, haunting its collective mind and giving rise to dreams and nightmares. PARANOIA CITY is a feature-length (54min) archival essay film exploring the Atomic Age through nuclear test footage, government civil defence films, Cold War propaganda, and 1950s science fiction cinema.
A written testimony by co-director Jin Ryoo on his experience preparing for Korean compulsory military service is juxtaposed with images of an empty UCSD campus, the desolate construction sites sprawling off of it, and the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial.
A video essay where the author presumes motivations and insights in a fictionalized biography regarding Debra Paget, a contract player for 20th-Century Fox whom they groomed and coached for stardom.
Made from reimagined/recycled images and sounds from the filmmaker’s archive and other found materials, Undercurrents is a poetic essay documentary about the undercurrents of history playing out in the present. It is also (at its heart) about the power of resistance.
Following Bellavista and Totó, Peter Schreiner completes his informal trilogy of epic, black-and-white digital-video essay-films with the utterly monumental Fata Morgana. Shot in the Libyan desert and in an abandoned building in Lausitz, Germany, it features a man (Christian Schmidt), a woman (Giuliana Pachner, from Bellavista) - and, glimpsed now and again, a guide (Awad Elkish.) They talk, they fall silent. Winds blow. The sun shines. The camera runs. What gradually takes shape is nothing less than a painstakingly concentrated attempt to understand the human condition through the lens of cinema. A lofty ambition, and one that demands a considerable leap of faith on the part of the audience: this film is sedate, "difficult", challenging, often apparently impenetrable. But anyone who has seen Schreiner's previous films will be aware that he is by any standards a major artist, one that can be trusted to find places that other directors may not even suspect exist.
Lies can kill. Transgender Nuclear Suicide Sojourner is an exploration of propaganda, lies, and the overwhelming urge to end it all.
A mythic narrative inspired by the common threads of Arnold Schwarzenegger's filmography and biographical trajectory.
An enigmatic glimpse of life through precarious vignettes, propelling a narrative through a nebulous and opaque structure that sutures the filmmaker's home movie footage to archival material—from Hollywood narrative films to political selfie videos. A handmade impression of a time suspended between past and present and the ghosts and places occupying it, contemplating the nature and meaning of vision, memory and image making.
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.
A night of drunken chaos rocks a quiet Dutch town in this shocking documentary about a teen's birthday invite that accidentally went viral on Facebook.
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
From a prolific career in film and television, Anton Yelchin left an indelible legacy as an actor. Through his journals and other writings, his photography, the original music he wrote, and interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues, this film looks not just at Anton's impressive career, but at a broader portrait of the man.
A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
Experience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
Documentary sequel that offers a close-up look into the personal lives of the legendary porn stars who've survived the test of time and influenced popular culture. Blends rare interviews with erotic clips and additional appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Soderbergh and a host of adult stars, directors and trendsetters.
Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
Journey into the extraordinary world of "The Witcher" — from casting the roles to Jaskier's catchy song — in this behind-the-scenes look at the series.
Global superstar Jennifer Lopez reflects on her multifaceted career and the pressure of life in the spotlight in this intimate documentary.
Vulgar, taunting texts blow up the phones of a teen and her boyfriend. Who's sending them — and why? This twisty documentary reveals the shocking answer.
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.
A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.
The life story of ‘Zen Anarchist’ filmmaker John Milius, one of the most influential storytellers of his generation.
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
