Death of Yazdgerd, is a poetic and political work exploring the cruel and tragic dynamics of a class-based society. War is raging. King Yazdgerd’s body is discovered in a run-down mill in the Iranian desert. Charged with murder, the miller, his wife and his sickly daughter must tell their story to the commanders to escape torture and death. Who killed the King? Was Yazdgerd indeed the revered God-King, or a puny, immoral man caught in the destructive whirlwind of his times?
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
In the village of Tankuy, farmers are roused to revolutionary action against US based imperialism after one of them, an indigenous man, is brutalized by a landowner. Native non professionals contributed to and helped direct this example of radical, collective oriented Latin American filmmaking.
Assemblage is an experimental film that shows Merce Cunningham’s dance company performing in a public square in the San Francisco bay. Through special effects, the bodies of the dancers appear superimposed against the architecture of the plaza. Colorized by artist Charles Atlas and with a soundtrack created by John Cage, David Tudor, and Gordon Mumma, Assemblage is a psychedelic collage of movement, time, and space.
British farmer Mark Warrow and his hot-tempered wife, Martha, have a loveless marriage that reaches its breaking point when Martha shoots Mark’s beloved dog. In a rage, Mark murders Martha. On the run following his crime, Mark meets Jo Trent, a seemingly naïve woman who offers him a lift; in fact, she recognizes Mark as the man the police are chasing and is gathering material for a book called “I Met A Murderer” about their time together.
The very first full-length documentary on Scorsese offers an invaluable look at how he was perceived by his colleagues, and himself, in 1977. Catching Scorsese while while he was in post-production on New York, New York and editing The Last Waltz, British filmmaker Peter Hayden gets the manically hyper Scorsese to comment on his youth, his relation to his lead characters, and most importantly, his approach to direction. The doc doesn’t quite move at the pace of Scorsese’s revved-up speed-talking, but it does offer some real insight into his productivity in the 1970s, thanks to an impressive array of talking heads. Included are Scorsese’s collaborators Jay Cocks, Mardik Martin, Brian De Palma, Steven Prince (who co-produced this doc), and his mentor John Cassavetes. Also the performers, who discuss his working methods in detail — Jodie Foster, Liza Minnelli, and, of course, Robert De Niro.
The Mexican Tapes is an acclaimed series of four videos which portray Louis Hock’s growing friendship and empathy with his Mexican neighbors in San Diego in the 1980s, his acceptance into their community, and an examination of their day-to-day struggles.
Produced at the height of Japan’s economic boom of the 1980’s, Yama documents the struggles of unionised day-labourers in the San’ya district of Tokyo, on the frontlines of a violent class war. It is a film for the workers, intended to function as a weapon in their struggle – one that cost director Sato his life. On December 22 1985, during filming, he was murdered by Yakuza gangsters whom Sato intended to expose for their criminal involvement in the restructuring of the job market. A collective of directors headed by Kyoichi Yamaoka finished the film, before Yamaoka, too, was later murdered.
Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll is the definitive story of the rock music phenomenon – a highly-entertaining chronicle of 25 years of music and youth in action. The basic ingredients of this special are those rarely-seen film performances that are the milestones of rock history – the greatest stars at their greatest moments. From the vaults of the major motion picture studios comes a wealth of classic footage on film and on tape. And, from a variety of independent sources, this visual history offers newsreel, cinema trailers, interviews, rehearsals and rare private footage.