Pierre Desproges Une plume dans le Culte (2018)

Celebrating the Rice Media Center

Through the Fondren Fellows program, the Rice Media Center Archive Project has spent the past few months sifting through material stored at the now-defunct Rice Media Center. The team has identified several films as especially notable and will be presenting them in conjunction with documentary footage the team shot of people involved with the films. From lectures featuring Roberto Rossellini and Werner Herzog to films from former Rice students and faculty, the film presentation will tell the narrative of the Rice Media Center through the films and filmmakers that passed through its corridors.

Jackass 4.5

Through outrageous, never-before-seen footage, witness the making of the Jackass crew's last go at wild stunts.

Marlon Brando: The Wild One

An examination of the craft of Marlon Brando, narrated by professionals of the film industry. The film follows his career from the stage with "A Streetcar Named Desire", through the Actors Studio and professional relationships with Elia Kazan and Stella Adler to Hollywood. An actor who redefined the limits to which a professional may go in becoming the character not only intellectually but emotionally, Brando changed the meaning of film acting.

Belgique nazie

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Sorolla: Journeys of Light

A journey through the life and work of the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), master of Nature, creator of light.

The Armstrong Lie

In 2009, Alex Gibney was hired to make a film about Lance Armstrong’s comeback to cycling. The project was shelved when the doping scandal erupted, and re-opened after Armstrong’s confession. The Armstrong Lie picks up in 2013 and presents a riveting, insider's view of the unraveling of one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of sports. As Lance Armstrong says himself, “I didn’t live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one.”

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.

Die Rote Fini

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Mario Camus según el cine

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

High Maintenance

A fascinating journey through the life of Israeli artist Dani Karavan, an irreverent and charismatic creator, recognized worldwide for radically transforming public space with his monumental environmental installations.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes

Newly discovered interviews with Elizabeth Taylor and unprecedented access to the star’s personal archive reveal the complex inner life and vulnerability of the groundbreaking icon.

Les Mains magnétiques, Ernest Pignon-Ernest

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Paul McCartney - Eine Beatles-Legende

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Capitulation, the Final Hours that Ended World War II

A film made of archives mostly unknown, on the last day of the Second World War in Europe and on the events which preceded it. This film also shows the growing tension between the Allies and the Soviets at the time: May 8, 1945 is also the first day of the Cold War.

The Best of Me

In 1993 while living in suburban Atlanta and working as an exterminator, a young and alienated Ricardo López began his all-consuming fixation with the Icelandic experimental pop musician Björk. What would transpire over the next three years would lead to hundreds of diary entries, dozens of hours of home video footage, an assassination plot, and the eventual violent death of Ricardo López by his own hand.

6 morts dans la nuit : « De sang-froid » – Truman Capote

To write In Cold Blood (1966), a nonfiction novel that revolutionized world literature, Truman Capote (1924-84) spent five years in Kansas researching the murder of members of the Clutter family and collecting the confidences of its two authors.

Mein Name sei Altmann

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Helen Mirren - Queen of Actresses

Helen Mirren, the most versatile of British actresses, has played diverse roles in her long and distinguished career, from sexually charged Shakespearian roles to secret agents to Queen Elizabeth II. This documentary paints a portrait of a strong woman, guided by her feminist convictions as a performer and in her private life.

Searching for Ingmar Bergman

A meaningful account of the personal and professional life of the great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) that explores his film legacy, with interviews with his closest collaborators and a new generation of filmmakers.

Det står efter livet

Portrait of the author Sara Lidman.

The Music of Life

Eldar Ryazanov reads his poetry. An introspective movie on his multifaceted work.

The Enigmatic Charlotte Rampling

Screen icon Charlotte Rampling has fascinated the world of cinema, fashion and photography with her mysterious and almost inaccessible beauty. A major figure in genre and auteur films, she is unclassifiable: between presence and absence, shyness and audacity, she's always hypnotic, magnetic and fascinating. From her film debut in the mid-1960s in England, to her unconventional career path, through the tragic loss suicide of her older sister that will irremediably mark her acting, this film is a dive into the existential quest of a complex actress, whose every facet is discovered through her roles. Through a conversation with the actress herself, along with personal archives and extracts from her films, this documentary raws a dazzling portrait of her life and career.

Milan Kundera: From the Joke to Insignificance

The brilliant Czech writer Milan Kundera has not given an interview in thirty years; nor does he appear in public. How did he become a legendary author? What is so unique about his books?

Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand, jazz musician and composer extraordinaire, has left his mark on the history of cinema, including the films of Jacques Demy, especially The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the 60th anniversary of which is being celebrated in Cannes. Using never-before-seen archives and personal accounts, the film looks back on a lifetime dedicated to music, and the career of a man who served it masterfully to the very end.

François Truffaut: My Life, a Screenplay

At the end of his life, gravely ill, François Truffaut took refuge with his ex-wife Madeleine Morgenstern. She tried to keep him occupied during his long agony. The filmmaker confided in his friend Claude de Givray, with the intention of writing his autobiography. Too weakened, he abandoned the project. The film reveals part of this final story.

Faye

Through honest reflection, complemented by insight from colleagues and friends, Faye Dunaway contextualizes her life and filmography, laying bare her struggles with mental health while confronting the double standards she was subjected to as a woman in Hollywood.

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th

A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.

La corte de Ana

She appeared when Spain was waking up from a long post-war period and crying with melodramas starring children, a child prodigy unlike any other; a girl who, in time, would become a symbol of freedom and a total artist. Actress, singer, friend, lover. This is the story of Ana Belén.

The Editing of the Brazilian Northeast

In order to invent a region, it is necessary to create its culture, preferably with the help of cinema. Inspired by the book and play “A Invenção do Nordeste”, this is a re-editing of Brazilian films essential to the foundation of the Northeastern imaginary.

Jodie Foster, Hollywood Under the Skin

From her precocious status as a sex symbol to her consecration as a filmmaker, Jodie Foster's story is about a feminist struggle, albeit atypical, fought on and off the screen. This film sets out to retrace her remarkable journey within the Hollywood industry.

42 Up

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

Known for his spectacular pyrotechnic displays, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang creates his most ambitious project yet: Sky Ladder, a visionary, explosive event that he pulls off in his hometown in China after 20 years of failed attempts.

Woodstock

An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into Frank Zappa’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Filmmaker Werner Herzog combs through the film archives of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft to create a film that celebrates their legacy.

Elton John: Never Too Late

Sir Elton John looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts his struggles with adversity, abuse, and addiction, and how he overcame them to become the icon he is today.

Vincent Lindon - Cœur sanglant

For three years, Vincent Lindon recorded himself on his iPhone to document his insecurities, fears and fits of rage as if in a diary. Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai use these unique recordings to paint an unusual portrait of the actor, who openly addresses personal questions about his profession, his age and his emotions.

Génération Club Dorothée - L'incroyable histoire d'une émission culte

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Film Adventurer Karel Zeman

A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.

Words, Maps, Secrets and Other Things

A portrait of the internationally acclaimed Spanish film director Isabel Coixet and an analysis of her particular world and her sensibility as a creator: her fictional universe, her career and her life through the words of actors, technicians, family, friends, journalists, specialized critics and those filmmakers who have been inspired by her work.

ABBA-dabba-doo

This first documentary about the pop group ABBA was made around the time of the release of their fourth album 'Arrival'. It contains unique archive footage filmed at the secret location where they made the record, concert footage, specially made promotional videos, photos from the group members' private collection and interviews in Swedish with each of them: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Stig was also interviewed briefly and was shown playing and singing part of Tivedshambo on acoustic guitar.

Egon Schiele: Between Love and Hate

An account of the short life and the astonishing and provocative work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), seen through the peculiar point of view and the critic voices of the women who defined the paramount milestones of his existence: Gerti, his sister; Wally, his main model and lover; and Edith, his wife. A brief story of love, hate, betrayal and misfortune.

Val

For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

A chronicle of Bob Dylan's strange evolution between 1961 and 1966 from folk singer to protest singer to "voice of a generation" to rock star.

Jane by Charlotte

Charlotte Gainsbourg looks at her mother Jane Birkin in a way she never did, overcoming a sense of reserve. Using a camera lens, they expose themselves to each other, begin to step back, leaving space for a mother-daughter relationship.