Paradise Now: The Living Theater in Amerika (1969)

Paradise Now

At least forty films have been made about the Living Theatre; it remained to the American underground filmmaker Sheldon Rochlin (previously responsible for the marvellous Vali) to make the 'definitive' film about one of the most famous of their works, Paradise Now, shot in Brussels and at the Berlin Sportpalast. Made on videotape, with expressionist colouring 'injected' by electronic means, this emerges as a hypnotic transmutation of a theatrical event into poetic cinema, capturing the ambiance and frenzy of the original. No documentary record could have done it justice.

Love and Anger

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

The Connection

A title card announces that the film is a result of found footage assembled by cameraman J.J. Burden working for the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jim Dunn, who has disappeared. Leach, a heroin addict, introduces the audience to his apartment where other heroin addicts, a mix of current and former jazz musicians, are waiting for Cowboy, their drug connection, to appear. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.

Emergency: The Living Theatre

a 32-minute color film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions “Mysteries” and smaller pieces, “Paradise Now” and “Frankenstein.” “The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” – Andrew Wilson (Artist’s Access Television)

The Brig

Jonas Mekas’s film captures The Living Theatre’s stage production of The Brig, an unflinching portrait of life inside a U.S. Marine Corps jail in Japan in 1957. Over the course of a single day, prisoners endure relentless drills, abuse, and dehumanization, exposing the brutality of military discipline with stark immediacy.

This American Wife

The body of a Real Housewife is an apparatus, an assembly of parts—hair, lips, dress, falsies, mic pack, cell phone, wine stem, camera, restaurant, brand, identity. This body is maintained and degraded, intoxicated and cleansed, in seasons and cycles, systems of supply and denial. The self needs a medium. Who cares who you are when you’re alone anymore?

Cour d'honneur de Jérôme Bel - Avignon 2013

Jérôme Bel's show features the memories of spectators at the Avignon Festival.

El Día de mi Independencia

Manuela dreams of winning the "best folkloric dress" contest in the commemoration of Independence Day at school. Meanwhile, her brother Gabo takes the risk of protesting in the streets to end the dictatorship.

Yatsuhakamura

During the Sengoku period, villagers brutally killed eight samurai, and in the Taisho era, the head of an old family murdered 32 villagers in the Eight-Tomb Village. Terada Tatsuya, who had long been estranged from the Terada family, returns as its successor. However, this return is the beginning of a tragedy. Grandfather, half-brother, monks, nuns... one after another, people related to the family are murdered. Yet, the truth remains elusive. In the midst of this, Tatsuya stumbles into a massive cave system. What he sees there is a wax figure of the head of the Terada family wearing the samurai armor. Meanwhile, Kindaichi, who has uncovered the secret of Tatsuya's birth, finds himself at the same cave. At that very moment, Tatsuya is cornered deep within the cave by villagers who fear the curse.

The Stones and Brian Jones

A look at the relationships and rivalries within The Rolling Stones in their formative years, as well as the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, key to the success of the band.

Seems Like Dawn

Dante works the night shift editing violent content for TV. Several encounters over the course of his day make him realize this overwhelming routine is not the life he wants.

Duutsers

How was the Second World War experienced in Rouveen, Overijssel? This Orthodox Christian village near Staphorst was self-sufficient during the war. And largely isolated from the outside world. The last eyewitnesses of the war, the children of that time, are now all very old. In the Duutsers, residents of the Overijssel village of Rouveen talk movingly openly about their war memories to fellow villager and filmmaker Geertjan Lassche. Their stories are interspersed with historical video fragments and photos from the past. This is how an honest child's view of growing up in a rural village unfolds. How did the war come to the village? Who is that stranger in the village in front of them, that German? And in what those of other strangers? When does unrest arise, and unrest in fear of hatred? What about the Jewish labor camps in the village and how did they view the Canadian liberators?

The Wrong Disguise

Catalina arrives with her family at the costume party for her cousin's birthday, on the outskirts of the city. Her presence makes her cousin behave strangely.

The Scoop

During the final months before Hong Kong's return to China, an ambitious young female reporter stumbles upon a murder scene.

Love Knows No Bounds

Zoe Tay, Martin Yan and Christopher Ming-Shun Lee star in this telemovie about a resolute divorcee who loses her financial assets after the divorce. She works hard in a restaurant business and later becomes successful.

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power

Investigates the politics of cinematic shot design, and how this meta-level of filmmaking intersects with the twin epidemics of sexual abuse/assault and employment discrimination against women, with over 80 movie clips from 1896 - 2020.

Iravin Nizhal

A man on the run looks back on his crime-filled life, the people who have shaped it up, his sins and his one last hope at redemption.

The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka

In 1945, the new Polish government asked for the heart of Chopin previously buried in Paris. A woman called Paulina Czernika approached the government claiming to have some love letters from the composer to her great-grandmother, the Countess Delfina Potocka.

Prophetess

Ajoke, a local prophetess, makes a bogus prediction about a football match which sets off a chain of events beyond her control...

Afternoons of Solitude

The life of the bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey during a day of bullfighting, from the moment he dresses up to the moment he undresses.

Magellan

In the 16th century, Ferdinand Magellan, a young and ambitious Portuguese navigator, rebels against the power of the King of Portugal, who doesn’t support his dream of discovering the world, and persuades the Spanish monarchy to fund his bold expedition to the fabled lands of the East.

Ammani

Ammani is about a 82-year-old woman and her emotional bond with another woman named Salamma.

Jalam

Jalam is an upcoming Malayalam-language movie directed by M. Padmakumar starring Priyanka Nair in the lead role.This is an world's first charity movie, a CSR film by Aries Group directed by M. Padmakumar and produced by Sohan Roy

Salt Bridge

Haunted by his tragic past, Basant befriends a married woman even as the migrant community of Salt Bridge frowns upon this relationship.

BUgS

Two characters who represent two generations... One is 68 with of plenty Soviet Union background, another 2is 3 and without any targets in his life. They don't know each other and they are both not good at the new Russian reality. Urban high contrast life passes by where rapid wave of advertising, glam and joy are on each corner: 'It's going to be best, man ... Win a million! ... You're the first!' But one human life depends on both heroes and solution is huge amount of money that will unite them in tragic circumstances.

July 13th

This is a movie about the start of people's uprising in Montenegro in World War II. After the capitulation of the Yugoslav Royal Army in April 1941, the Italians managed to infiltrate their puppet regime in Montenegro. However, people dissatisfied with the new authorities, on July 13, 1941 decided that the Communists led start to fight for freedom.

The Prosecutor

A poor young man is wrongly charged with drug trafficking after being deceived. An ex-prosecutor investigates the case, uncovers a corrupt lawyer team's scheme, and restores justice despite obstruction from evil forces.

The Surfer

A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.

Santocielo

In paradise, a group gathers to discuss why people still act selfishly, even though Jesus sacrificed himself for them 2,000 years ago. As a result, a new Messiah is sent to Earth to address the issue.

All There Is

A troubled teenage girl's world is upended when a tragedy involving her best friend is blamed on her filmmaker father's controversial new sci-fi movie.

Mourning in Lod

MOURNING IN LOD, takes a microcosmic look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through Musa, Yigal, and Randa — three people whose fates become inextricably linked in a vicious cycle of violence. Lod/Lydd is a “mixed” city inhabited by Arabs and Jews who live side by side in a strained coexistence. In May 2021, two of these three people lost their lives and and one regained hers — thanks to an unlikely organ transplant. The outpouring of love, anger, forgiveness and sorrow that follows in their wake is a ray of light that offsets a collective state of mourning with no end in sight.

Unknown: The Lost Pyramid

Egyptian archeologists dig into history, discovering tombs and artifacts over 4,000 years old as they search for a buried pyramid in this documentary.

Unknown: Killer Robots

What happens when a machine makes life-or-death decisions? This documentary explores the dangers of artificial intelligence in military application.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine

A unique behind-the-scenes access to NASA’s ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, following a team of engineers and scientists as they take the next giant leap in our quest to understand the universe.

Unknown: Cave of Bones

Journey to South Africa’s Cradle of Mankind, where Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger has found the world’s oldest graveyard — which is not human. If Lee and his team can prove that this ancient, small brained, ape-like creature practiced complex burial rituals, it will change everything we know about hominid evolution and the origins of belief.

End Zone

After suffering a traumatic head injury during a game, a youth football player is thrust into a surreal journey through his own psyche.

Bird

12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.