Category: Television

January 29, 2023 / Documentary

Hosts Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas trace the evolution of the roles and lives of women in the twentieth century. Examines the conflicting advice given to American women from generation to generation by the clergy, government, doctors, media and society, and shows how women’s lives have been changed by the efforts of women who fought for women’s rights. Includes newsreel footage, stills, radio and television footage, cartoons, and period music.

December 30, 2022 / Television

She is a “girl Spy” they say. Johnny and his friends are suspicious of the young Japanese girl, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, who is staying with his family. After Johnny gets to know the charming and kind Miyeko, he’s forced to confront his prejudices. But can he stand up to his friends, who still want to treat her like an enemy?

December 26, 2022 / Arthouse

The theme of Fredi M. Murer’s contribution to the episode film Swissmade is “Switzerland after us”. Murer’s episode takes place in the year 2069. An “integrated citizen with a latent tendency to become an unintegrated citizen” is commissioned by the “Brain Center” to produce a film report about the unknown mission of a foreign being. The alien being is an extraterrestrial designed by H. R. Giger long before ALIEN with a built-in camera and tape, which travels across the earth in the year 2069 to explore current conditions.

December 10, 2022 / Documentary

Canadian poet Leonard Cohen who now resides on the island of Hydra in Greece, is shown in his native city of Montreal. The program explores Cohens childhood and his subsequent development as one of Canadas leading new writers. The film takes viewers to the house Cohen was brought up in as well as to the places of Montreal he enjoys frequenting his favorite bistro, a three dollar-a-day hotel, the public park, the exclusive section called Westmount, and a Greek grocery store. Cohen himself is shown at a recording session, at public readings of his poetry, displaying home movies of his childhood, and commenting on university life. He also reflects on his visit to Cuba, his girlfriend in Greece, his obsession with danger and his friends and their personalities.

December 10, 2022 / Television

Once Upon a Time was filmed entirely in different spaces in and around John Berger’s house in the Haute Savoie in France. It’s a moving and unusual meditation on our experience of time, as revealed through a careful selection of contrasting and thought-provoking time-centred ‘stories’, both old and new. And whether written by himself or others, all were read by John and beautifully edited, using only the filmed images of things found inside the house in books or on the walls, or outside in the surrounding countryside and nearest town.

July 9, 2022 / Experimental

Director Gaspard Bazin is working on a new feature film. For now, he’s still looking at the fundraising and casting stage of the process. He calls upon Jean Almereyda, a once-fashionable producer who is now going through a bad patch, finding it increasingly difficult to raise the capital he needs for his ventures. His wife Eurydice dreams of being a movie star. A perverse game between the two men ensues, with Almereyda wanting to please his wife, but reluctant to demand a role for Eurydice because of Bazin’s reputation as an incorrigible seducer.

June 23, 2022 / Documentary

Banned by the BBC in 1971, director Tony Palmer’s profile of the late Peter Sellers was, in the words of the film’s subject himself, “the only portrait which really understood me.” Sellers was an icon of comedy and a true innovator, but a look inside reveals a tragic figure. How could one of the world’s most beloved comic talents have such a morbidly distorted opinion of himself? In this documentary, interviews with such friends, fans, and colleagues as Raquel Welch, Yul Brenner, Spike Milligan, Laurence Harvey, and others reveal the true personality behind the man who was loved by everyone, but still viewed himself as entirely alone.

May 25, 2022 / Documentary

In this extraordinary six-part series, film historian and critic Noel Burch uses clips of rare archival silent film treasures to take us on a riveting journey of discovery. How did silent film reach such incredible heights in a mere 30 years? Why did film in the United States so quickly become such a popular art form?