The First Look (2024)

Boundless

As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.

Frankenstein (Re)Membered

Since its publication 200 years ago, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has influenced vast swathes of popular culture. Adaptations have starred cinema legends from Boris Karloff to Robert De Niro – and even Alvin and the Chipmunks. From tales of science gone mad (Jurassic Park) to stories of understanding the other (ET, The Hulk, Arrival), traces of the story and its themes have spread across our media. With Frankenstein Re-membered, video artist and film historian Chris Gerrard collects these diverse fragments from the birth of cinema until the present day and in the tradition of Victor Frankenstein himself, attempts to stitch them back together into an adaptation of the original Shelley novel.

From the Earth to the Moon

Humankind has always dreamt of the night sky. Of the infinite freedom offered by the black void, and of the strong, shining beacon inviting us to ascend. This is a story, a history of the events that led up to our conquest of space, and the consequences throughout wider humanity. The film is a collage. Of genres, documentary and comedy. Of media, drawing from painting and film. Of films, cannibalising all film history. Of truth, both objective and subjective. Watch the small steps and let your mind take a giant leap.

What Lurks Beneath?!

An homage to the weird and wonderful world of B-movies, this short fauxdocumentary by film artist Chris Gerrard splices together classic clips with some new footage to tell the ludicrously fake story of the mysterious people (and things) lurking beneath us in the eerie River Tay. Feast your eyes on this unique archaeology of aquatic-themed film.

The Lantern and the Music of Light

The Magic Lantern was an projector of information and stories than preceded the cinema. How did its visual style translate into the moving image? This film traces the aesthetic narrative from the 19th century up until the 21st, calling in at the Victorians, Melies, Welles, Godard, Spielberg and Carly Rae Jepsen. It also shows how these techniques can inspire your own creativity.

How Every Film You Watch Tells You To Love The Rich and What To Do About It

"How Every Film You Watch Tells You To Love The Rich and What To Do About It" explores the representations of wealth in cinema. It looks into how most beloved characters are subtly more well-off than they should be, how criticisms of the system are crushed, how the rich have become the average in the world of the cinema. And it shows how these stories distort the view of the real world, and are used against you by politicians.

Far from the Trees

An unprejudiced portrait of Spanish folklore and a crude analysis in black and white of its intimate relationship with atavism and superstition, with violence and pain, with blood and death; a story of terror, a journey to the most sinister and ancestral Spain; the one that lived far from the most visited tourist destinations, from the economic miracle and unstoppable progress, relentlessly promoted by the Franco regime during the sixties.

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story

Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, two young composers and romantic partners, are caught in the web of silent film star Gloria Swanson when she hires them to write a musical version of Sunset Boulevard, her 1950 film directed by Billy Wilder.

Mifune: The Last Samurai

An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

Tales of the Uncanny

A detailed look at the history of horror anthology films.

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone

An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.

Sweet Black Film: The Birth of the Black Hero in Hollywood

In 1971, director Melvin Van Peebles turned the figure of the black hero in US cinema upside down with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: the story of the making of a seminal movie that initiated the Blaxploitation movement, a short-lived but highly influential sub-genre in the years that followed.

Audrey

An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

Salvador (Puig Antich)

The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.

Video Nasties: Draconian Days

The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A time when Britain plunged into a new Dark Age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.

Elcano & Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World

The first journey around the world began under the command of Ferdinand Magellan and was concluded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Five boats left Seville on September 20, 1519. Storms, famine, tribes… Three years later, only one made it back. An incredible adventure around the planet whose roundness was finally proven.

Las sinsombrero II: ocultas e impecables

When Spanish Civil War ends in 1939, some of the women who played a leading role in the creative and literary boom known as Generation of 1927, stay in Spain, freely or not, sacrificing the spirit that had enlightened them, adapting themselves —or pretending to do so— to the new feminine role imposed by the victors, who were determined to cage these free souls at home, to live just as wives and mothers.

The 'Frankenstein' Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster

The history of Frankenstein's journey from novel to stage to screen to icon.

Trespassing Bergman

In the sixties, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) built a house on the remote island of Fårö, located in the Baltic Sea, and left Stockholm to live there. When he died, the house was preserved. A group of very special film buffs, came from all over the world, travel to Fårö in search of the genius and his legacy. (An abridged version of Bergman's Video, 2012.)

The Longest Voyage

Spain, 1519. Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator in the service of King Charles I, undertakes, at the command of five ships, a commercial expedition to the Moluccas. The story of the first circumnavigation of the world, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522.

Planet of the Apes: A Milestone of Science Fiction

Since its release in 1968, Planet of the Apes, the masterful film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Charlton Heston, and its subsequent sequels have asked its viewers challenging questions about contemporary society under the guise of a bold science fiction saga: a fascinating look at a hugely successful pop culture phenomenon.

Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks

The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.

La calle del Agua

Benjamina Miyar Díaz (1888-1961) led an unusual life in her house on calle del Agua in Corao, Asturias, at the foot of the Picos de Europa mountain range in northern Spain: she was a photographer and watchmaker for more than forty years, but she also fought in her own humble and heroic way against General Franco's dictatorship.

El instante decisivo

Spain, 1997. The story of twelve days in July during which Basque society left indifference and fear behind and faced the threat of the terrorist group ETA.

Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire

From Murnau to Herzog, and until modern incarnations, a mischievous exploration of a cinematographic legendary character, with Nosferatu himself as a guide...

The Prado Museum: A Collection of Wonders

Actor Jeremy Irons embarks on an epic journey through the halls of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, two hundred years after its inauguration, along corridors where thousands of masterpieces of all time tell the lives of rulers and common people, and tales about times of war and madness and times of peace and happiness; because, as Goya said, imagination, the mother of the arts, produces impossible monsters, but also unspeakable wonders.

In Search of the Last Action Heroes

The most comprehensive retrospective of the '80s action film genre ever made.

Lost in La Mancha

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.

El Quijote desde la platea

How Don Quixote de la Mancha, the immortal character created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605, has been depicted in cinema, television, cartoons, theater, opera, ballet and other artistic disciplines. An adventure that began more than four hundred years ago in the pages of a book and is far from coming to an end.

In Search of Tomorrow

A nostalgic journey through ’80s Sci-Fi-films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artist who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.

Land and Freedom

David Carr is a British Communist who is unemployed. In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War begins, he decides to fight for the Republican side, a coalition of liberals, communists and anarchists, so he joins the POUM militia and witnesses firsthand the betrayal of the Spanish revolution by Stalin's followers and Moscow's orders.

Die Liebe des Hans Albers

He is considered to be one of the greatest German film stars, Hans Albers, known as "Der blonde Hans", a man made for the cinema. He was an actor, singer, idol of the Germans - and darling of the Nazis. Nevertheless, he could not protect his great love, the Jewess Hansi Burg. In 1938 she had to flee to London from anti-Semitism in Germany. But Albers himself stayed in Germany and continued to film, driven by a desire for a career and the call of money. In 1946, one year after the end of the Second World War, they meet again: Hansi Burg returns to the land of the murderers of her parents in the uniform of the British Army and visits Hans Albers in his villa on Lake Starnberg. He lives there with another woman. The rival has to go, then there is a tense debate. For a day and a night, the blonde Hans has to face uncomfortable questions and even more uncomfortable truths.

Best Worst Movie

A look at the making of the film Troll 2 (1990) and its journey from being crowned the "worst film of all time" to a cherished cult classic.

Fallas 37: el arte en guerra

In November 1936, a few months since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the government of the Second Republic moves to Valencia. In this situation, several Valencian artists and intellectuals decide to build four fallas — satirical plasterboard sculptures created to be burnt — to mock fascism.

My Journey Through French Cinema

Famous French director Tavernier tells us about his fantastic voyage through the cinema of his country.

Home Movie

A young man returns to his hometown in the countryside of Minas Gerais and revisits the memories of his grandparents through conversations and restored personal files.

Mario Camus según el cine

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker Mario Camus (1935-2021).

The Spanish Golden Age

A journey through the Spain of the Baroque, the glorious 17th century, an unfortunate era of endless wars and political tribulations; but also of great painters and sculptors who created astonishing pieces of art: el Siglo de Oro.

Històries de Bruguera

The history of Bruguera, the most important comic publisher in Spain between the 1940s and the 1980s. How the characters created by great writers and pencilers became Spanish archetypes and how their strips persist nowadays as a portrait of Spain and its people. The daily life of the creators and the founding family, the Brugueras. The world in which hundreds of vivid colorful paper beings lived and still live, in the memory of millions, in the smile of everyone.

Frank and Ollie

Before computer graphics, special effects wizardry, and out-of-this world technology, the magic of animation flowed from the pencils of two of the greatest animators The Walt Disney Company ever produced -- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Frank and Ollie, the talent behind BAMBI, PINOCCHIO, LADY AND THE TRAMP, THE JUNGLE BOOK, and others, set the standard for such modern-day hits as THE LION KING. It was their creative genius that helped make Disney synonymous with brilliant animation, magnificent music, and emotional storytelling. Take a journey with these extraordinary artists as they share secrets, insights, and the inspiration behind some of the greatest animated movies the world has ever known!

Clawing! A Journey Through the Spanish Horror

In the late sixties, Spanish cinema began to produce a huge amount of horror genre films: international markets were opened, the production was continuous, a small star-system was created, as well as a solid group of specialized directors. Although foreign trends were imitated, Spanish horror offered a particular approach to sex, blood and violence. It was an extremely unusual artistic movement in Franco's Spain.

Michael Douglas: The Prodigal Son

As the eldest son of the legendary actor and producer Kirk Douglas (1916-2020), it was not easy for Michael Douglas to make his way in Hollywood and, like his father, become a recognized actor and a prestigious producer.

Moonwalk

This short documentary film captures the natural movement of the moon mixed with an experimental musical track that accompanies the rhythm of the "walk" on the stage that the protagonist occupies, the sky.