Sunday, December 19, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
From The Byrds To The Eagles
BBC Four
Brilliant documentary on the Folk Rock scene in California from the 60's to the 70's.
The Hobbit
The J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy classic set in Middle-earth was adapted into this excellent 1977 animated feature first broadcast on television. Codirectors Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., working from a script by Romeo Muller, are faithful to Tolkien's story and for that alone they get big points. The vocal cast can't be improved upon: Orson Bean is perfect as Bilbo Baggins, the timorous hobbit who grows brave on his adventure with the wizard Gandalf (John Huston). Otto Preminger is the voice of Elvenking, Richard Boone is Smaug, Hans Conreid is Thorin, and Brother Theodore is very effective as the weird Gollu
Wizards (1977)
On a post-apocalyptic Earth, A wizard and his faire folk comrades fight an evil wizard who's using technology in his bid for conquest
Heavy Traffic
Heavy Traffic is an R-rated mix of animation and live action that creator Ralph Bakshi lists as the favorite among his own films.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Alarma !: Full Length Director's Cut
Alarma! magazine catalogs crime and violence in Mexico City, a town where a cop is killed almost everyday.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Jim Jarmusch: Down by Law (Full Movie)
Down by Law is a 1986 black-and-white independent film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni.
The film centers on the arrest, incarceration, and escape from jail of three men. It discards jailbreak film conventions by focusing on the interaction between the convicts rather than on the mechanics of the escape. A key element in the film is Robby Müller's slow-moving camerawork, which captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou to which the cellmates escape.
Synopsis
Three men, previously unknown to each other, are arrested in New Orleans and placed in the same cell. Both Zack (Waits), a disc jockey, and Jack (Lurie), a pimp, have been set up, neither having committed the crime for which they have been arrested. Their cellmate Bob (Benigni), an Italian tourist who understands minimal English, was imprisoned for manslaughter.
Jim Jarmusch: Dead Man
Dead Man is a 1995 American Western film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, and Robert Mitchum (in his final role). The film, dubbed an "Acid Western" by its director,[1] includes twisted elements of the Western genre. The film is shot entirely in black-and-white. Some consider it the ultimate postmodern Western, and related to postmodern literature such as Cormac McCarthy's novel, Blood Meridian.[2][3]
Plot
William Blake (Johnny Depp), an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, becomes mortally wounded and embarks on a bloody journey through a sordid depiction of the American Old West.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Gits
Watch more free documentaries
(2007) 81 min
Who killed Mia Zapata?
In the early 1990s, Seattle was the focal point of an emerging musical underground. The Gits helped spearhead this new scene. Their sound was proto-grunge and all-out punk aggression. The earnest, blues wail of front woman Mia Zapata was its center. Mia was the very embodiment of riot grrrl intensity, talent, and humanity. Her uncompromised integrity epitomized a way of life that influenced an entire generation of female artists to follow. Upon returning from a successful European tour -and at the height of The Gits’ popularity- singer Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered, unfairly abbreviating the band’s fable. Incredibly, more than a decade later, new evidence would surface, Mia’s case file would be reopened, and a suspect would be brought to justice –as cameras rolled.
The Gits is an account of overcoming adversity, addiction, love, loss and pain. It’s a punk rock mystery, but not merely a tale of tragedy. It’s the mythic story of a great American Rock N Roll band.
(2007) 81 min
Who killed Mia Zapata?
In the early 1990s, Seattle was the focal point of an emerging musical underground. The Gits helped spearhead this new scene. Their sound was proto-grunge and all-out punk aggression. The earnest, blues wail of front woman Mia Zapata was its center. Mia was the very embodiment of riot grrrl intensity, talent, and humanity. Her uncompromised integrity epitomized a way of life that influenced an entire generation of female artists to follow. Upon returning from a successful European tour -and at the height of The Gits’ popularity- singer Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered, unfairly abbreviating the band’s fable. Incredibly, more than a decade later, new evidence would surface, Mia’s case file would be reopened, and a suspect would be brought to justice –as cameras rolled.
The Gits is an account of overcoming adversity, addiction, love, loss and pain. It’s a punk rock mystery, but not merely a tale of tragedy. It’s the mythic story of a great American Rock N Roll band.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Cocaine Cowboys
The film explores the rise of cocaine and resulting crime epidemic that swept the American city of Miami, Florida in the 1970s and 1980s.
Beverly Hills Madam
Beverly Hills Madam
A chic purveyor of high-priced escorts finds her business threatened by personnel problems.
Home
Watch more free documentaries
(2007) 70 min
Young Dubliner Alan Cooke reflects on recently immigrating to New York City.
Young Irish immigrant, Alan Cooke contemplates the great metropolis New York City, and the very meaning of home itself. A vivid moving and poetic portrayal of life in contemporary New York featuring a host of celebrities, native New Yorkers and immigrants via candid interviews including Liam Neeson, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Alfred Molina, Rosie Perez, Colin Quinn, Pete Hamill, Frank and Malachy McCourt, Fran Lebowitz, David Amram, Elaine Kaufman, Drew Nieporent, Armand DiMele, Vinny Vella and Woody Allen.
(2007) 70 min
Young Dubliner Alan Cooke reflects on recently immigrating to New York City.
Young Irish immigrant, Alan Cooke contemplates the great metropolis New York City, and the very meaning of home itself. A vivid moving and poetic portrayal of life in contemporary New York featuring a host of celebrities, native New Yorkers and immigrants via candid interviews including Liam Neeson, Mike Myers, Susan Sarandon, Alfred Molina, Rosie Perez, Colin Quinn, Pete Hamill, Frank and Malachy McCourt, Fran Lebowitz, David Amram, Elaine Kaufman, Drew Nieporent, Armand DiMele, Vinny Vella and Woody Allen.
Captured
Watch more free documentaries
Little Brother is watching big brother, in this riveting document of NYC's once anarchic Lower East Side
Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge he’s recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.
Credits
Little Brother is watching big brother, in this riveting document of NYC's once anarchic Lower East Side
Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge he’s recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.
Credits
Art Video: Artist Dryden Goodwin
At the heart of Dryden Goodwin’s art is a fascination with drawing. But the ways in which he explores this age-old practice are anything but traditional. He combines drawing with photography, film and large-scale screen-based installations. He is engaged with time as well as line, and with the sculptural potential of two-dimensional images. Other concerns in his art are also strongly contemporary: the city, ideas of public and private, voyeurism, desire and emotional distance. Many of Dryden Goodwin’s key works are featured in this profile, including his early animations like Heathrow (1994) and the three-screen installation Closer (2002) which features covert video footage of strangers in the city whose features the artist is tracing with a laser pen. He discusses the ambitious eight-screen Dilate (2003) and his most recent film Flight (2006), which is presented in a gallery alongside a display of the thousands of drawings that he made for its production.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Mexican Narco Cinema (1)
Shane gets decked out in narco-duds and gets a mariachi elegy with a new style of Cinema. Everything you see is real and done with the lowest possible budget. The pimps are real pimps, the hookers are real hookers and the drug users are really doing drugs.
Mexican Narco Cinema (2)
Shane gets decked out in narco-duds and gets a mariachi elegy with a new style of Cinema. Everything you see is real and done with the lowest possible budget. The pimps are real pimps, the hookers are real hookers and the drug users are really doing drugs.
Mexican Narco Cinema (3)
Shane gets decked out in narco-duds and gets a mariachi elegy with a new style of Cinema. Everything you see is real and done with the lowest possible budget. The pimps are real pimps, the hookers are real hookers and the drug users are really doing drugs.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Jeremiah Lohnson ( Full Movie)
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the early frontier. Written by Keith Loh
Cool Hand Luke (Full Movie)
Cool Hand Luke (1967) is the moving character study of a non-conformist, anti-hero loner who bullheadedly resists authority and the Establishment. One of the film's posters carried a tagline related to the character's rebelliousness: "The man...and the motion picture that simply do not conform." With this vivid film, director Stuart Rosenberg made one of the key films of the 1960s, a decade in which protest against established powers was a key theme. One line of the film's dialogue from Strother Martin is often quoted: "What we've got here is...failure to communicate."
Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a 2 year stretch on a Florida chain gang(Road Prison) after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to "get their mind right," it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to give in/submit to anybody. When challenged to a fistfight by fellow inmate Dragline (George Kennedy), Luke simply refuses to give up, even though he's brutally beaten. Luke knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. Luke also figures out a way for the men to get their work done in half the usual time, giving them one afternoon off. Finally, when Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he's caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out by the guards and the captain. Along with stellar performances by Newman, Kennedy, and Martin, Cool Hand Luke features a superb supporting cast, including Ralph Waite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, and Joe Don Baker as members of the chain gang.
Shooting Fish (Full Movie)
Two con artists' plan to steal enough for a house are twisted when a pretty girl enters the picture.
Green Street Hooligans ( Full Movie)
Expelled unfairly from Harvard, an American
undergraduate, Matt Bucker flees to England to his sister's home. Once
there, he is befriended by her charming and dangerous brother-in-law,
Pete Dunham, and introduced to the underworld of British football
hooliganism. Matt learns to 'stand his ground' through a friendship that
develops against the backdrop of this secret and often violent world.
Football Factory (Full Movie)
Based on the best selling novel by John King, 'The Football Factory' is a study of middle England, football violence and male culture. The story centres around Tommy Johnson a bored twenty something who lives for the weekend, casual sex, watered down lager, heavily cut drugs…. And occasionally kicking the f*ck out of someone. Tommy's life ambles along until a violent encounter with a rival firm top boy starts a tit for tat war and a series of nightmares that force him to ask himself the question about his life: is it worth it?
Told through Tommy's eyes and linked together by his relationships with three other generations of males, The Football Factory is a drug fuelled adrenaline rush of a story about friendship, revenge and violence.
This is England's worst nightmare. Enjoy it.
Spin
Artist Brian Springer spent a year scouring the airwaves with a satellite dish grabbing back channel news feeds not intended for public consumption. The result of his research is Spin, one of the most insightful films ever made about the mechanics of how television is used as a tool of social control to distort and limit the American public’s perception of reality.
Take the time to watch it from beginning to end and you’ll never look at TV reporting the same again. Tell your friends about it. This extraordinary film released in the early 1990s is almost completely unknown. Hopefully, the Internet will change that.
Naqoyqatsi
Naqoyqatsi: Life as war is a documentary film released in 2002; it is the third and final film of the Qatsi trilogy by Godfrey Reggio,scored by Philip Glass.
The film focuses on society’s transition from a natural environment to a technology-based industrial environment.
The name of the film is a Hopi word meaning “life as war”.
The first image that opens the film is a painting done in 1563 of The “Little” Tower of Babel, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder with a great significance in the narative sequence of the documentary.
The film focuses on society’s transition from a natural environment to a technology-based industrial environment.
The name of the film is a Hopi word meaning “life as war”.
The first image that opens the film is a painting done in 1563 of The “Little” Tower of Babel, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder with a great significance in the narative sequence of the documentary.
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi, also known as Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance, is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.
The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music.
In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means ‘crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’, and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way.
The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is the best known of the trilogy and is considered a cult film.
The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music.
In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means ‘crazy life, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’, and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way.
The film is the first in the Qatsi trilogy of films: it is followed by Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002). The trilogy depicts different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature, and technology. Koyaanisqatsi is the best known of the trilogy and is considered a cult film.
Smash His Camera
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sued him, Marlon Brando broke his jaw and Steve McQueen gave him a look that would have killed, if looks could kill. To the celebrities he pursued, photographer Ron Galella was the beast who threatened beauty.
As it turned out, he gave them a strange and lasting beauty they might never have known without him. Inherent in the story of this notorious paparazzo are the complex issues of the right to privacy, freedom of the press and the ever-growing vortex of celebrity worship.
He sneaked around and invaded and bribed and held up his camera and shot till he dropped (or someone dropped him). His was the artistry of the sniper. Yet Galella found something essential in his real-life subjects, and he gave it permanence.
Monday, November 15, 2010
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