The Cultural History of Museums (2022)

Re-Generator

A plane containing a highly classified government project crashes outside of a small town in the US. Realizing the level of danger, the government tries to secretly fix the problem. As tensions grow, the situation gets out of control, and civilians from the town find themselves facing their worst nightmare: a genetically enhanced killing machine that doesn't know how to stop.

Brother 2

Arriving in Moscow, Chechen War veteran Danila meets Konstantin, an old friend who tells him that his twin brother has been forced into signing a crooked contract with a US ice hockey team. Soon after this meeting, Danila discovers Konstantin dead and he sets out to avenge his death; a journey that leads him to Chicago and a whole new experience.

Tomie: Rebirth

Young art student Hideo paints an unnerving portrait of Tomie, who whispers that she loves him. Inexplicably, he reacts by stabbing her to death with a painting trowel. Two friends, Takumi and Shunichi, arrive on the scene and help him dispose of the body. To cheer him up, the boys take the unwitting murderer to the nearest bar for a party... but a mysterious girl named Tomie shows up, bearing a few odd physical resemblances to the dead girl in the ground.

The Hustler

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

Stonehearst Asylum

An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.

Thanatomorphose

Bruised from a night of rough sex, a young woman is shocked to find that her body, rather than healing itself, has inexplicably begun to rot. Swept up in the strange sensual experiences brought on by her slowly decaying form, she tries desperately to cling to her new existence — even as the putrid meat sack that was once her young body begins to literally fall off her bones...

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

The Stranger

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor engaged to the Supreme Court Justice’s daughter.

Twin Peaks

An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for the European VHS market and has an alternate, closed ending.)

Juliet of the Spirits

Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.

I Knew Her Well

A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.

Capturing Avatar

Capturing Avatar is a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Avatar. It uses footage from the film's development, as well as stock footage from as far back as the production of Titanic in 1995. Also included are numerous interviews with cast, artists, and other crew members. The documentary was released as a bonus feature on the extended collector's edition of Avatar.

Mirror

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

The Players

Eight short films explore the subject of male infidelity. Serial cheaters, Fred and Greg, spend a night on the town doing what they do best, and with absolutely no regrets. The duo play various characters in assorted extracurricular situations, ranging from sexist to the darker sides of carnal desires.

Lost in Thailand

The story of two rival business managers, Xu and Bo, who are fighting over a revolutionary new in-house technology for control of their company. If Xu wins, his future will be secured.

The Pilgrim

The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.

The Act of Killing

In this chilling and groundbreaking documentary, former Indonesian death squad leaders reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of various film genres. As they recreate their past atrocities, the line between reality and performance blurs, exposing the lingering impact of Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist purge and the unsettling psychology of its perpetrators.

The Young and the Damned

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

The Mother and the Whore

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Island of Java, 1942, during World War II. British Major Jack Celliers arrives at a Japanese prison camp, run by the strict Captain Yonoi. Colonel John Lawrence, who has a profound knowledge of Japanese culture, and Sergeant Hara, brutal and simpleton, will witness the struggle of wills between two men from very different backgrounds who are tragically destined to clash.

Dreams

Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.

Eiffel

The French government is asking Gustave Eiffel to design something spectacular for the 1889 Paris World Fair, but he simply wants to design the subway—until he crosses paths with a mysterious woman from his past.

King of Comedy

Wan Tin-Sau is an actor who cannot seem to catch a break, since his only professional jobs are limited to being a movie extra. As well as being an actor, he is also the head of his village's community center.

One Way or Another

Set during a retreat of Christian Democrat politicians who practice spiritual exercises together, it is an allegory of corrupted power. Disturbing, claustrophobic settings are the background to a series of mysterious crimes.

Night of the Living Dead: Re-Animation

After inheriting the family mortuary, a pyrophobic mortician accidentally exposes hundreds of un-cremated bodies to toxic medical waste. As the corpses re-animate, the mortician's inheritance-seeking younger brother unexpectantly shows up, stumbling upon a full zombie outbreak!

Baasha

Auto rickshaw driver Manickam avoids violence at all costs. When some thugs begin to intimidate Manickam's family, it triggers the revival of Manickam's old self.

Velvet Hands

Engineer Quiller has become rich by selling his completely indestructible shop-window glass to jeweleries around the world. But this got him lots of enemies too: the insurance agencies, who've lost hundreds of customers, and the burglarers. When he temporarily looses his memory and voice in an accident, of all people, a family of thieves finds and cares for him - believing he's a pocket-picker. Things get complicated when he falls in love with his host Tilli.

Night and Fog

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Foreign Correspondent

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.

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.

Waking Ned

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.

The Edge of Democracy

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Metro Manila

Looking for a brighter future in metropolitan Manila, Oscar Ramirez and his family leave their miserable life in the rice terraces of Banaue, in the northern Philippines. In the sweltering capital, where all kind of perils lurk in every corner, Oscar catches a lucky break when he is offered a steady work for an armored truck company and the senior officer Ong takes him under his wing.

Dante's Inferno

The classic tale of Dante's journey through hell, loosely adapted from the Divine Comedy and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré. This historically important film stands as the first feature from Italy and the oldest fully-surviving feature in the world, and boasts beautiful sets and special effects that stand above other cinema of the era.

No Regrets for Our Youth

After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.

The Sprinkler Sprinkled

A gardener is watering his flowers, when a mischievous boy sneaks up behind his back, and puts a foot on the water hose. The gardener is surprised and looks into the nozzle to find out why the water has stopped coming. The boy then lifts his foot from the hose, whereby the water squirts up in the gardener's face. The gardener chases the boy, grips his ear and slaps him in his buttocks. The boy then runs away and the gardener continues his watering. Three separate versions of this film exist, this is the original, filmed by Louis Lumière.

L'Atalante

Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.

Testerep

A team of scientists search for the lost island of Testerep in front of the Belgian coast, venturing into artificial landscapes and virtual realities.

Folkhemmets Estetik

Documentary about the architecture of the Swedish housing boom in the 1960s and how it's viewed today.

Facebook: Cracking the Code

"What's on your mind?" It's the friendly Facebook question which lets you share how you're feeling. It's also the question that unlocks the details of your life and helps turn your thoughts into profits.

Mona Lisa Smile

Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

Hinter dem Vorhang: Das Geheimnis Vermeer

Plot unavailable

Alternate Earth

A scientific expedition travels to an alternative Earth in hope of finding a new home for humanity, which has destroyed its own planet. But is it even possible to escape old patterns?

Somnolence

Close and daily, sometimes comical but often tragic, sleepiness takes an important place in our lives. Suddenly falling asleep, sometimes with their eyes still open, affects more than 10% of the population. The leading cause of fatal accidents on motorways, drowsiness is also prevalent in the world of work. A silent, irrepressible phenomenon... a flaw in a system of performance, speed, reactivity. So what is happening in our brain? Can we control the conditions of sleepiness? By working on sleep and especially on the functioning of wakefulness, researchers are trying to understand the biological and environmental mechanisms that keep humans at the peak of their abilities. After a clear technological improvement, it turns out that man, having become an expert and process controller, finds it very difficult to focus his attention over time.

Leninland

At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, after a long construction, the last and most grandiose museum of the Leader was opened. Soon after the opening, the ideology changed, and the flow of pilgrims gradually dried up. Despite this, the museum still works and the management is looking for ways to attract visitors. Faithful to the Lenin keepers of the museum as they can resist the onset of commercialization. The film tells about the modern life of this amazing museum-reserve and its employees.

Rasputin: Murder in the Tsar's Court

St. Petersburg, Russia, December 30th, 1916. Grigori Rasputin is assassinated. The story of the humble peasant who became the most influential adviser to czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of the last czar, Nicholas II Romanov.

Angkor et Les Mystères de L'Empire Khmer

Plot unavailable

Warsaw: A City Divided

The history of the Warsaw Ghetto (1940-43) as seen from both sides of the wall, its legacy and its memory: new light on a tragic era of division, destruction and mass murder thanks to the testimony of survivors and the discovery of a ten-minute film shot by Polish amateur filmmaker Alfons Ziółkowski in 1941.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon

Are the manned moon landings of Apollo one of the greatest hoaxes ever devised - perhaps even the greatest government conspiracy of all time? Were the moon walks filmed in a secret studio? Do you believe in the Moon Landing Hoax? The evidence will surprise you!

Dark Star: H. R. Giger's World

An account of the life and work of Swiss painter, sculptor, architect and designer H. R. Giger (1940-2014), tormented father of creatures as fearsome as they are fascinating, inhabitants of nightmarish biomechanical worlds.

Francofonia

Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

The Lie Detector

In the first decades of the 20th century, when life was being transformed by scientific innovations, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the “lie detector,” the device transformed police work, seized headlines and was extolled in movies, TV and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other’s fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees’ honesty and government workers were tested for loyalty and “morals.” But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.

Habermas - Philosoph und Europäer

Plot unavailable

Achieving the Unachievable

M.C. Escher is among the most intriguing of artists. In 1956 he challenged the laws of perspective with his graphic Print Gallery and his uncompleted master-piece quickly became the most puzzling enigma of modern art. Fifty years later, can mathematician Hendrik Lenstra complete it? Should he?

Where the Ravens Fly

Set in the dense forests of 1940s Eastern Europe, this story reveals the supernatural encounters that challenge three soldiers' understanding of life and death.

Artificial Roles

Artificial intelligence is taking on different roles in the filmmaking space. The questions we must ask ourselves are: what are the pros and cons of this advancement? How can we work with it, and what power do we have as human beings in the face of this technology?

The Painting

For three and a half centuries, from the same day that Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) applied his last brushstroke to the canvas, the enigma of “Las meninas, o La familia de Felipe IV” (1656) has not been deciphered. The secret story of a painting unveiled as if it was the resolution of a perfect crime.

Sommer '39

In the summer of 1939, people enjoyed the good weather, ignoring politics and pessimistic predictions. Images of everyday life that was about to change dramatically in a Europe in turmoil.

Miss Hokusai

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own mark in the world.

Coast Modern

A core group of architects embraced the West Coast from Vancouver to LA with its particular geography and values and left behind a legacy of inspired dwellings. Today, architects celebrate the influence established by their predecessors.

High Rise and Fall

Documentary about Queen Elizabeth Square, Sir Basil Spence's block of Brutalist style flats built to replace the Gorbal's tenements in Glasgow during the 1960s. His vision was based on architect Le Corbusier's ideas and inspired him to transform the Gorbals into a Modernist Utopia. The film is about the life and times of one building told by some of the people involved in its history. The block was dynamited in 1993 amidst controversy and the death of a spectator. It is mentioned in Pevsner's Notable Buildings of Britain. This film was shown on BBC Scotland's Ex-S strand in 1993. Produced by May Miller and directed by Conrad Blakemore. This film is posted for educational and research purposes only and is copyright of BBC Scotland. Archive material courtesy of the Scottish Film Archive and the film's contributors.

Narbonne: The Second Rome

More than 2.000 years ago, Narbonne in today's Département Aude was the capital of a huge Roman province in Southern Gaul - Gallia Narbonensis. It was the second most important Roman port in the western Mediterranean and the town was one of the most important commercial hubs between the colonies and the Roman Empire, thus the town could boast a size rivaling that of the city that had established it: Rome itself. Paradoxically, the town that distinguished itself for its impressive architecture, today shows no more signs of it: neither temples, arenas, nor theaters. Far less significant Roman towns like Nîmes or Arles are full of ancient sites. Narbonne today is a tranquil town in Occitania

An Unsatisfying Metaphor

Documentary about the history of 20th century globalization through the lens of the World Trade Organization's changing art collection; from works of human subjects showcasing the potential of dignified labor, to their replacement with abstract maps and grids for the valorization of the modern trade system.

Be Still

Already a successful portrait photographer, Hannah sets to reinvent this art form. Abandoning herself to a creative process that might easily be mistaken for madness, she's soon visited by mirror images of herself, as well as her daughter's ghost. Inspired by the life of photographer Hannah Maynard (1834-1918).

Totems and Taboos

In Brussels, Belgium, the Royal Museum of Central Africa is undertaking a radical renovation, both physical and ethical, to show with sincerity, crudeness and open-mindedness the reality of the atrocities perpetrated against the inhabitants of the Belgian colonies in Africa, still haunted and traumatized by the ghost of King Leopold II of Belgium, a racist and genocidal tyrant.

Hitler Versus Picasso

In 1937 the Nazi regime held two exhibitions in Munich: one to stigmatize “Degenerate Art” (which they systematically looted and destroyed) and one, personally curated by Hitler, to glorify “Classic Art”. This immersive new documentary reveals the Nazi’s complicated relationship with classical and modern art, displaying an incredible number of masterpieces by Botticelli, Klee, Matisse, Monet, Chagall, Renoir and Gauguin amongst others, intertwined with human stories from the most infamous period of the twentieth century. A state-of-the-art detective story exploring the Nazis’ obsession with creative expression, Hitler versus Picasso combines history, art and human drama for an unforgettable cinema experience.

Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

As the Metropolitan Museum of Art closes, Big Bird decides to leave his Sesame Street friends behind in search of Snuffy. Once locked inside for the night, educational hilarity ensues as Big Bird and Snuffy team up to help a small Egyptian boy solve a riddle - as the rest of the cast searches for their big, yellow friend.

Living Art

The thousand-year-old tradition of pottery in the Indian subcontinent is now under threat. With the market being flooded with plastic in the evolution of civilization, today this Pal community is becoming displaced.

Ordinary Men: The "Forgotten Holocaust"

Six million Jews died during World War II, both in the extermination camps and murdered by the mobile commandos of the Einsatzgruppen and police battalions, whose members shot men, women and children, day after day, obediently, as if it were a normal job, a fact that is hardly known today. Who were these men and how could they commit such crimes?

Solidarnosc, la première brèche

Plot unavailable

The Revelation of the Pyramids

For centuries, the Great Pyramids have fascinated Mankind. Patrice Pooyard's The Revelation Of The Pyramids reveals what lies behind the greatest of archaeological mysteries: a message of paramount importance for humanity. From China to Peru, from Egypt to Mexico, through the world's most enigmatic and most beautiful sites, the director has spent 6 years meeting eminent scientific specialists and verifying his discoveries. The result will shake the teaching of history to its very core, and revolutionize Egyptology entirely. A great odyssey along a breathtaking route climaxes in a revelation as unexpected as it is staggering.

Wild Wild Space

Follow three rocket and satellite companies – Astra Space, Rocket Lab, and Planet Labs – and the quests of their idiosyncratic founders to conquer the burgeoning space industry.

May the Lord Be With Us

The Defenestration of Prague, which took place on May 23, 1618, was the decisive historical moment that unleashed the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) between several Catholic and Protestant states and changed the course of European history forever. (Additionally released as a heavely edited historical documentary entitled The Defenestration of Prague, 85 min.)

General Magic

A tale of how the great vision and epic failure of General Magic, the "greatest dead company in Silicon Valley", changed the lives of billions.