blockheaDs in Britain (2020)

Degenerates In America

On June 3rd Degenerate traveled from the miserable, soggy isles of Britain to the Land of the Free for two weeks of non stop filming, stunts, drinking and smiles.

The Endless Summer

Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer is one of the first and most influential surf movies of all time. The film documents American surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they travel the world during California’s winter (which, back in 1965 was off-season for surfing) in search of the perfect wave and ultimately, an endless summer.

Land Without Bread

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Gimme Shelter

A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.

Primary

Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.

Dont Look Back

In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Bob Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.

La Haute Route au fil des glaciers

The mountains are a barometer of the state of the world because global warming is three times more visible there than elsewhere. After a year marked by the confinements of March and November and the closure of ski resorts, the high peaks have regained their appearance of the first days. It is in this fragile setting of beauty that a young committed rope party sets out to cross the heart of the Alps on ski touring, to decipher for themselves the visible and invisible signs that threaten them, and to question a situation that goes beyond mountaineering

Jean Jouzel dans la bataille du siècle

He was one of the first scientists to provide evidence of the link between greenhouse gases and global warming. That was in 1987. Since then, Jean Jouzel has not stopped fighting against the climate sceptics and urging politicians to commit to the climate. Above all, for more than thirty years, he has encouraged us to change our habits and to take care of our planet to avoid the worst. Between an intimate story and a historical epic, from Janzé in Brittany to Washington via Paris and Tokyo, Jean Jouzel, in the battle of the century is a film about a man and his era, an era that has seen us become aware of the need to change our relationship with the world.

The Red Princess

Who is Kim Yo-jong? In a context of maximum tensions between North Korea and the United States, Pierre Haski paints an unprecedented portrait of the little sister of Kim Jong-un, whose influence in Pyongyang is growing stronger day by day.

Naam Tha Kanhaiyalal

A very spellbinding story about the reel and real life of great old thespian Kanhaiyalal and his bygone era when Indian Cinema was at a nascent stage. The story tells about his inspiring journey from a confused, gullible youth to a mesmerizingly spontaneous actor. It also unfurls the turbulent phases of Kanhaiyalal's life where there is excessive alcoholism and the mysterious death of his son.

Trekkies

Denise Crosby takes a first look at the huge fans of "Star Trek" from around America and how the series has affected and shaped their lives.

Meeting Sebastião Salgado

Part activist and part globe trekking photographer, Sebastião Salgado is most famous for recording the migration of people and culture around the world. In this extensive conversation, Sebastiao Salgado revisits his adventurous career via the breathtaking images he captured.

The Sid Caesar Collection: The Magic of Live TV

One of the greatest comedians of early television, Sid Caesar hasn't had his work shown in perennial reruns, so it's especially gratifying to see a collection of his classic sketches released on video, with Caesar himself introducing the material. Besides being a truly gifted comic, Caesar benefited from having some brilliant supporting players, including Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Nanette Fabray. Some of his illustrious writers, including Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and Mel Brooks, appear in interviews setting up the sketches. The sketches themselves include some all-time classics such as Caesar and company playing the figurines populating a medieval town clock (a brilliant bit partly written by Neil Simon and his brother, Danny, who reminisce after the sketch).

Prater

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls follows the lives of transgender migrant workers from the Philippines who work as health care providers for elderly Orthodox Jewish men and perform as drag queens during their spare time. It also delves into the lives of societal outcasts who search for freedom and acceptance.

Attention: A Life in Extremes

Plot unavailable

The Second Game

A deceptively simple set-up: the director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time. A Bucharest derby between the country’s leading teams, Dinamo and Steaua, taking place in heavy snow, one year before the revolution that toppled Ceaușescu.

Lost Heroes

Lost Heroes is the story of Canada's forgotten comic book superheroes and their legendary creators. A ninety-minute journey to recover a forgotten part of Canada's pop culture and a national treasure few have ever heard about. This is the tale of a small country striving to create its own heroes, but finding itself constantly out muscled by better-funded and better-marketed superheroes from the media empire next door.

The United States of America

A crisscross through the USA, carving it up into a series of static shots of just under two minutes, one for each state, presented alphabetically, from Heron Bay, Alabama to Kelly, Wyoming.

GomaEspuma: El Reencuentro

Plot unavailable

The Immortals: The Wonder of the Museo Egizio

Kha, architect and builder of tombs for the pharaohs, must undertake the journey to the Underworld. Telling us the story of his voyage is Jeremy Irons, in the guise of a narrator. His words take us inside the secret world of Egyptian mythology, religion and funerary culture, interweaving the story with the history of the oldest museum in the world, the Museo Egizio in Turin, founded in 1824 and will soon be celebrating its 200th anniversary. In fact, the Kha’s own Tomb is to be found in Turin along with the most complete and most valuable private collection of grave goods outside of Egypt.

512X512

The search for René Descartes’ daughter Francine leads an internet user into the depths of an AI’s mental space. This intelligence generates limitless images from words given by humans, until it starts working by itself. An alternative, fleshless new world, containing all the world's memory, emerges.

Custaryans

This documentary tells three stories about Jewish properties stored during the Second World War, their Jewish owners and their non-Jewish custodians.

Divorce Denied

No Jewish divorce is complete without the man literally giving the woman her freedom back. With Israel having neither civil marriage nor divorce, women can get trapped. The film follows several such "chained" women together with Batya, a religious lawyer, who embarks on a struggle against the rabbinical courts.

The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder

A hypnotic film debut from Mozambique, where a young director visits his grandmother's village to measure the depths of her memories. Each moment is staged as a drama in itself in a dark and disquieting piece of cinema.

Silent Trees

The main character of the documentary is a 16-year-old Kurdish girl who, after the tragic death of her mother on the Polish-Belarusian border, has to become a mother to her 4 younger brothers.

imagine... French & Saunders: Pointed, Bitchy, Bitter

imagine... profiles the UK’s most successful double act of the last 40 years, French & Saunders, exploring a brand of comedy based on satire, silliness and, above all, friendship.