Sperduti nel buio (2014)

Nanook of the North

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

Voices of the Battle of Britain

Based on the book of the same title by best-selling author Henry Buckton, this film is enhanced by a fascinating series of interviews with a wide variety of people who played a vital role in Britain’s ‘finest hour’. Included are the captivating accounts of six fighter pilots who risked their lives day after day to combat the Luftwaffe, which was at that time greatly more experienced in aerial warfare. Their memories are enhanced by the recollections of a gunner, two members of the 400,000-strong ground crew who kept as many aircraft flying as possible, a barrage balloon operator and men who helped to build Spitfires.

Notre ami l'empereur Bokassa Ier

Plot unavailable

Beatriz González, why are you crying?

What happened to painter Beatriz González, who made us laugh with the irony of her works, to get to the point of making a self-portrait that shows her crying naked? The path of the artist is intimately linked with the history of Colombia during the past fifty years.

Blackout

First responders, journalists, shop owners, those inside the pressure-packed control center of Con Edison on West End Avenue, and other New Yorkers tell about what happened when the lights went out on July 13, 1977.

De Gaulle, histoire d'un géant

50 years after the death of General De Gaulle, this film retraces his life, from his birth in 1890 to his burial at Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises in 1970.

Snatched from a Burning Death

LeGrande, an old trapper, refuses to vacate his favorite hunting grounds when ordered to do so by Sampson and other settlers, and his life is only saved through the intervention of his daughter, Joan. The rascals soon learn to fear the girl's keen wit and daring, and Sampson, already pledged to marry Sanchezza, a Mexican girl, falls in love with Joan.

The Donner Party

Doomed attempt to get to California in 1846. More than just a riveting tale of death, endurance and survival. The Donner Party's nightmarish journey penetrated to the very heart of the American Dream at a crucial phase of the nation's "manifest destiny." Touching some of the most powerful social, economic and political currents of the time, this extraordinary narrative remains one of the most compelling and enduring episodes to come out of the West.

The Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China

Dan Snow, Dr Alice Roberts and Dr Albert Lin investigate a series of earth-shattering discoveries at a mighty tomb guarded by the Terracotta Warriors in China.

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.

Laurel & Hardy: Their Lives and Magic

The lives of Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957), on the screen and behind the curtain. The joy and the sadness, the success and the failure. The story of one of the best comic duos of all time: a lesson on how to make people laugh.

The History of the Pit Stop: Gone in Two Seconds

The mavericks who pioneered the modern pit stop made it a raceday staple that takes less than two seconds.

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse

The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.

In the Interstices of Reality or The Cinema of António de Macedo

He was the most prolific within the New Portuguese Cinema generation. He would try western spaghetti, esoteric allegory, supernatural, and science-fiction. Without state subsidies, he would quit filmmaking in the 1990s. Who remembers António de Macedo?

In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria

In September of 2017 German writer and director Daniel Raboldt accompanied a group of German and Polish scientists and students into the woods of Masuria, Poland. The expedition aimed to find traces of the so-called "lost villages", left by the Masurians around 1945 by the end of the Second World War. Today only some of the old graveyards can be found deep in the woods of the beautiful Masurian landscape. The documentary "In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria" shows the students at their work in the historic archives and in the woods. How conclusive can this kind of historic research be? How much can we really learn by looking through old files or other sources? And what can we learn from the vanishing of the Masurians? Do we face similar problems today? The film dives deep into themes like the rise of nationalism and identity and uncovers the tragic end of a population that was asked one simple question in the early 20th century: Stay or Leave?

When We Were Kings

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes

This documentary explores the mystery surrounding the death of movie icon Marilyn Monroe through previously unheard interviews with her inner circle.

Operation "Wedding"

Leningrad, 1970. A group of young Jewish dissidents plot to hijack an empty plane and escape the USSR. Caught by the KGB a few steps from boarding, they were sentenced to years in the gulag and two were sentenced to death; they never got on a plane. 45 years later, filmmaker Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov reveals the compelling story of her parents, leaders of the group, "heroes" in the West but "terrorists" in Russia, even today.

Not Quite Hollywood

As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.

Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation

Albert Fish, the horrific true story of elderly cannibal, sadomasochist, and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City. Distorting biblical tales, Albert Fish takes the themes of pain, torture, atonement and suffering literally as he preys on victims to torture and sacrifice.

Finlandia

A documentary from Erkki Karu, one of the earliest pioneers of Finnish cinema: This government-produced propaganda film introduces the nature, sports, military, agriculture and capital of Finland.

The Knights Templar: From History To Legend

A fascinating exploration of the legends accredited to the mysterious religious and military order of the Knights Templar. The Order of the Templar, created after the first Crusade and disbanded by the King of France in 1307, gave birth to fabulous legends which persist to this day. Despite in-depth research, many enigmas still surround this mythical order and its legends - not least whether mysterious discoveries at Gisors and Oak Island can really hold the fabled Templar treasures. Now, this insightful documentary relives an epic adventure based on facts, places, puzzles and legends that feed faiths and have fascinated generations.

Time in the Sun

Second attempt to create a feature film out of the 200,000-plus feet of film which Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein shot during 1931-32 in Mexico for American socialist author Upton Sinclair, his wife and a small company of investors. The projected film, to be called "Que Viva Mexico", was never completed due to exhaustion of funds and Stalin's demand that Eisenstein return to the USSR (he had been absent since 1929). The first attempt at editing the footage, in the USA, resulted in "Thunder Over Mexico", released in 1934. In 1940, Marie Seton, from the UK, acquired some of the footage from the Sinclairs in an attempt to make a better cutting according to Eisenstein's skeletal outline for the proposed film. This film has apparently been lost.

Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience

A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.

The Apollo

The history of New York City's Apollo Theater in Harlem is given the full treatment.

How Animated Cartoons Are Made

Wallace Carlson walks viewers through the production of an animated short at Bray Studios.