Moments Before Dying (2024)

Birth of a Nation

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.

Our Death

Two teen boys living in an isolated house in the mountains contemplate their existence while maintaining a video diary of their daily lives.

Read It and Weep

A young girl turns into an A-List celebrity over night when her private journal is accidently published and becomes a best-seller.

Dreams of the Past

A film about peace, love and war. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in Russia. The film takes place at the end of the summer of 1917, when Russia and the whole world were at a crossroads between two eras. None of the people could even imagine how much his life would change in the very near future. In a strange way, the atmosphere of the film echoes our current reality and what is happening in Russia today. According to the form of visualization, the film belongs to experimental mockumentary cinema. To give greater authenticity to what is happening on the screen, the shooting was carried out on black-and-white negatives of 16 and 35 mm, hand-operated cameras were used and the material was developed in manual spiral tanks. The documentary chronicle of the Kolchak army of 1919 and the White army in the Far East of 1922 is embedded in the finale of the film.

Dear Diary

Nanni Moretti recalls in his diary three slice of life stories characterized by a sharply ironic look: in the first one he wanders through a deserted Rome, in the second he visits a reclusive friend on an island, and in the last he has to grapple with an unknown illness.

The Parson's Widow

A newly elected village parson is required to marry his predecessor's widow. However, he's already married, and the woman is old enough to be his grandmother.

A Night at the Silent Movie Theater

A raucous comedy of errors about a singer stuck in a dead-end job who sees his last, best shot at rock stardom threatened by freak accidents, movie theater politics, stressed-out relationships and a janitor who is much more than he seems.

The Cinematograph: Birth of an Art

Throughout the 19th century, imaginative and visionary artists and inventors brought about the advent of a new look, absolutely modern and truly cinematographic, long before the revolutionary invention of the Lumière brothers and the arrival of December 28, 1895, the historic day on which the first cinema performance took place.

Exhuming London After Midnight

London After Midnight (1927), directed by Tod Browning and starring Lon Chaney, is the most sought-after lost film by fans of fantastic cinema. Has this mythical treasure finally been found in an old South American cinema?

For Heaven's Sake

An irresponsible young millionaire changes his tune when he falls for the daughter of a downtown minister.

Man of a Thousand Faces

The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.

Nana

Count Moffat becomes infatuated with Nana, a presumptuous stage actress, vulgar, hypocritical and promiscuous, willing to do anything to succeed.

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

The epic life story of Alice Guy-Blaché (1873–1968), a French screenwriter, director and producer, true pioneer of cinema, the first person who made a narrative fiction film; author of hundreds of movies, but banished from history books. Ignored and forgotten. At last remembered.

Lost, Lost, Lost

Drawn from footage shot between 1949 and 1963, Jonas Mekas’s autobiographical diary film chronicles his early years in exile, capturing the struggle to build a new life in New York and his gradual discovery of a vibrant artistic community.

The Magic of Méliès

A walk through the life and work of the brilliant French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861-1938), pioneer of special and visual effects.

The Day Tomé Was Shot

A man is robbed and creates a plan to get his money back from the robber.

Fantômas: A Thoroughly Modern Villain

The story of Fantômas, the first villain of modernity, from his birth in 1911 as a novel character to his contemporary vicissitudes, passing through Louis Feuillade, André Hunebelle, surrealism and Moscow.

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 Mystery of Puerta del Sol

Pompeyo and Rodolfo work in a newspaper, but they dream of becoming film actors, so they go to a casting for an American film that will be shot in Madrid for a few days; but things will not turn out as they expect…

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

AHAM

Aham is a Sanskrit term which means "self" or "I." Aham Brahmasmi is a popular saying used in the Upanishads, the ancient philosophical texts of Hinduism. With Brahmasmi referring to Brahman, or the Absolute Reality. We focused on the self. We chose not to have any dialogues. Silence offers opportunities for self-reflection and daydreaming, which activates multiple parts of the brain. It gives us time to turn down the inner noise and increase awareness of what matters most. And it cultivates mindfulness — recognition and appreciation of the present moment. The ability to focus on different tasks is often accompanied by a little background noise, the BGM will guide you through the film.

In the Bathtub of the World

On January 1st, 1999, Caveh Zahedi started a one-year video diary. The idea was to shoot one minute each day. This is the result.

The Méliès Mystery

A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.

Let It Rip

Soare is a musician with too little inspiration and too many neurons baked from smoking weed. One day, he decides that his life has become too chaotic, so he begins writing a guide for surviving the moments when his reality stops making sense. Passing various surreal episodes, Soare hopes to regain his inspiration.

Luke's Movie Muddle

Lonesome Luke has a movie theater and also works the box office and as an usher. He has to put up with, among other things, an incompetent projectionist who falls asleep all the time. Complications ensue.

Ufff Yeh Siyapaa

Kesari Lal Singh’s wife leaves him, believing he was flirting with the neighbor—he wasn’t. To make matters worse, a drug parcel is mistakenly delivered to his home, leading to chaos when a dead body turns up. As he tries to dispose of it, another body arrives, plunging him deeper into mayhem.

Borodino

An experimental sitcom, shot in the style of silent films of the early twentieth century. A parody of military-patriotic films. The plot of the film is the battle of the Russian army with Napoleon in 1812.

Le Grand Méliès

A biographical film about cinematic illusionist Georges Méliès featuring Méliès’s widow, Jeanne d’Alcy, as herself, and their son André as his own father.

Tempo Rubato

The night before her eighteenth birthday recital, an overworked and undertalented pianist is abducted by three ghouls.

Yellow cat with blue eyes

A gray world filled with black animals, gray everyday life, and damp weather, where suddenly a yellow cat with blue eyes climbs out of its shabby cathouse.

Tourist;Drifter

An experimental coming-of-age odyssey through someone's troubled mind, going from country to country, landscape to landscape, growing up in the process. A documentary, travelogue, vlog, dream and self-portrait. A reflection on life, death and history.

Diary of A Hungry Man

A passionate foodie loses his beloved hawker stalls to corporate pressure, he reluctantly turns to processed food he calls 'trash' in a moment of deep sorrow and disappointment as he grieves the loss of his favourite food stalls.

Eigi Sylhet

'Eigi Sylhet' is a journey of my self-discovery. With no narrative, this two-minute diary film paints a portrait of my resilience and artistic awakening, weaving together my self-portraits and cityscapes captured in 2018, a year I spent in oblivion, solitude and contemplation. It's a letter I wrote to my future self.

Puss in Boots

A boy falls for a princess, his cat for hers. But her father does not like the idea of a commoner marrying a noblewoman and kicks him out. After seeing a Rudolpho Valensino movie at the local theater his cat has the idea that he could try impressing the king as bullfighter, to win his daughters hand. Bullfighting is relatively easy, when you can hypnotize the bull, but why does his cat need new boots ?

Matrimony

Three couples experience contrasting moments: one argues at home, another at a restaurant, while the third — the same couple from the domestic scene — shares an intimate moment at that same restaurant.

DEPÈN

Plot unavailable

this evening out of boredom washed my hands three times in succession in the bathroom

Reminiscences of a trip to Čáslav