The Polish city of Lodz was under Nazi occupation for nearly the entire duration of WWII. The segregation of the Jewish population into the ghetto, and the subsequent horrors of the occupation are vividly chronicled through newsreels and photographs. The narration is taken almost entirely from journals and diaries of those who lived–and died–through the course of the occupation, with the number of different narrators diminishing over the course of the film, symbolic of the death of each narrator.
Category: Documentary
A terrifying look into the mind of mass murderer Kenneth Bianchi, who killed two women in Bellingham, Washington, and was one of the Hillside Strangler murderers in Los Angeles. Yet, he almost escaped punishment for these crimes because he convinced a group of experts that he had multiple personalities and was not mentally competent to stand trial.
A compassionate study of aged women living in a retirement home through the observations of Jean Campbell as she moves from room to room talking with other inmates and discussing her experiences within the institution.
This documentary focuses on AIDS activist, novelist and film writer and National Book Award winner Paul Monette’s life, from his childhood in Massachusetts up to his life in Hollywood and diagnosis and death from AIDS. His story is told in readings from his memoirs and by those who knew him. Narrated by Linda Hunt.
Award-winning director Jia Zhangke’s documentary Useless weaves a three-part tale about the Chinese clothing industry. The documentary opens in the textile factories of Guangdong, where workers hunch over massive machines day in day out for low pay, before moving to Paris where fashion designer Ma Ke is unveiling her new collection of organic, avant-garde, haute couture designs. Running counter to the clothing industry’s culture of mass production and reproduction, her new line “Wu Yong”, meaning “Useless”, lends the film its title, and forms the heart of the documentary. The third act of the film travels to a tailor shop in a dusty mining town in Shanxi. Using a down-to-earth montage of people and places, Useless brings out the significance of clothing, and the different faces and sectors of modern China.
Unconvinced by the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy, lawyer Mark Lane begins his own investigation. In this documentary, Lane travels to Dallas to interview witnesses, friends of Oswald’s and other people connected with the assassination. Archival footage of the immediate aftermath, an FBI recreation and visits to the scene of the crime are used to argue that the Warren Commission’s report is fundamentally flawed.
Kurosawa’s lost masterpiece has finally come to light. Filmed in 1970 and aired on Japanese television “Song of the Horse” is his visual poem for the horse, the creature that he loved the most. Told through narration by an old man speaking with his grandson while the visual mastery of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time expands before one’s eyes. Kurosawa ordinarily avoided television work and this is the only time that he had any involvement with the small screen. A rare and beautiful ode to the most gallant member of the animal kingdom!
Journey into Life follows the struggles of three concentration camp survivors-Yehuda Bacon of Israel, Gerhard Durlacher of the Netherlands, and Ruth Kluger of the United States-in rebuilding their lives after World War II. In on-camera interviews, these extraordinary individuals discuss their childhood memories of Auschwitz, internment in Displaced Persons camps, and their search for a new homeland after World War II. Using U.S. Army archival film footage to illustrate these powerful stories, Mitscherlich’s film focuses on the subjects’ attempts to cope with the psychological trauma of their experiences and to comprehend the meaning of the Holocaust.