ABC of a Strike captures the 1979 metal workers strikes outside of São Paulo. The footage sat untouched until after the death of highly-regarded director Leon Hirszman in 1987, by which time the material had a new relevance. The gripping film captures the negotiations between the labor unions and the factory bosses and shows the birth of the region’s Worker’s Party, as well as the emergence of its charismatic leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rising from extreme poverty, Lula gained national prominence as a union activist during the late 70s and early 80s. After being jailed during his time as a union leader, he eventually becomes Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010.
Intermissions follows Lula during the hectic election campaign for the presidency in 2002. Lula gave filmmaker João Moreira Salles and his crew complete access, and the result is an intimate documentary of what went on behind the scenes. Sometimes, Lula is afraid that he will lose his freedom as president. Combined with Lula's candor, the film's observational style provides some very special insight into one of Brazil's most popular leaders.
A Spanish documentary from Jean-Paul Le Chanois & Luis Buñuel made during the Spanish Civil War.
Documentary looking at the production of the James Bond movie 'Moonraker'. Narated by Patrick Macnee.
Record of the first ascent of Everest made without the use of oxygen equipment, made in May 1978 by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler. Could it be done? Would their blood vessels burst? Would they suffer brain damage leading to madness? Nobody was sure. Messner: 'I would never come here for trying Everest with oxygen. That is not a challenge for me.' A fascinating piece of history, well filmed by Leo Dickinson and Eric Jones (above the South Col Messner used a cine camera to continue the filming), featuring Messner and Habeler's thoughts. The film follows the usual sequence from Namche to Base Camp, through the Icefall, to Camps I, II and III. It also shows historical footage of the pioneering Mallory and Shipton expeditions.
Documentary looking at the special effects from the bond movies and the men who created them. Narrated by Marie Clairu.
Documentary looking at the production of the James Bond movie 'Octopussy'. Narrated by Patrick Macnee.
On the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, the first public hearing of newly-released taped interviews with his killer by the respected journalist Jack Jones.
A history connoisseur's dream and a compelling, off-beat war documentary all in the same film, "Fury over Spain" chronicles 1936, the first bloody year of the Spanish civil war. Location filming by omnipresent government cameramen helps lend a raw, earthy feel to the desperate, life-and-death struggle against General Francisco Franco's Nationalist insurgents.
Short fictional film made by the anarcho-syndicalist labour union, the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), about the development of the social revolution in Spain.
A pro-Republican propaganda documentary from the Spanish Civil War that combines real images of industrial and agricultural production with fictionalized scenes of fighting on the Aragon front.
A fragment of a pro-Republican documentary short made during the Spanish Civil War. It depicts fighting in and around Madrid in 1937.
The making of the James Bond movie Octopussy (1983) in Udaipur, India during 1982.
Anarchist militia column raised in Valencia (Las Salesas) in 1936; it was particularly feared by a variety of communists and reactionaries and none too well-liked by the CNT leadership because of its ideological staunchness and commitment to social revolution and libertarian communism.
On 21 December 1988 a Pan Am 747 jet exploded over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. On the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on British soil, this is the story.
Two bodies and one mind, this is the extraordinary story of one pair of conjoined twins in today's world.
A pro-Republican documentary made during the Spanish Civil War. It details the offensives of the Durruti Column and the Ascaso Division on the Huesca front between March and April 1937.
This short film employs an anonymous hotline to elevate the voices beneath Vermont's F-35 flight path, the first urban residents to live with one of the military's most controversial weapons systems overhead. Tranquil scenes of unassuming neighborhoods near Burlington International Airport are juxtaposed with voicemails of the unheard, those drowned out by the ear-shattering “sound of freedom.” Exploring the relationship between picturesque residential areas and the deafening fighter jets overhead, Jet Line is a poetic portrait of a community plagued by war machines, documenting untenable conditions in a small city once voted one of the best places to live in America.
Six personalities, six professions and six amazing passions. They all meet together in the magical Royal Castle, where our characters work. We observe as they carry out their duties, and we follow their fascinating hobbies. A great dose of humour, empathy and absurdity.