Days of Thrills and Laughter

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

Los 5 Faust de F. W. Murnau

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

Carmencita

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.

El circo

Madrid, Spain, 1949. The Circo Americano arrives in the city. While the big top is pitched in a vacant lot, the troupe parades through the grand avenues: the band, a witty impersonator, the Balodys, acrobats, jugglers, acrobatic skaters, clowns and… Buffallo Bill.

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge...

The Last Word in Chickens

This 10-minute short documentary exploring the shifting state of the American poultry industry was preserved in 2015 from an original nitrate print. More information is available on the film's page in the National Film Preservation Foundation's website, where this version can be found featuring original music by Michael D. Mortilla.

La remise des décorations

Crude Oil

Filmed in the Inner Mongolian portion of the Gobi Desert, this film follows a group of oil field workers as they go about their daily routine.

The Dangers of the Fly

The Dangers of the Fly is an educational film made by Ernesto Gunche and Eduardo Martínez de la Pera, also responsible for Gaucho Nobility (1915), the biggest blockbuster of Argentinean silent cinema. De la Pera was a talented photographer, always willing to try new gadgets and techniques. This film experiments with microphotography in the style of Jean Comandon's films for Pathé and it is part of a series which included a film about mosquitoes and paludism and another one about cancer, which are considered lost. Flies were a popular subject of silent films and there are more than a dozen titles featuring them in the teens and early twenties.

A Day with the Gipsies

A troupe of gypsies takes a traveler along with them on their day trip.

Secrets & Deals

In 1971, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE ceased to be part of Britain’s empire in the Middle East and became fully independent states. BBC News Persia and BBC Arabic collaborate in this gripping film, to uncover the secrets and shady deals that underpinned the decolonization process. From eye-witness accounts of a British-organised coup to Iran being left in control of disputed islands, it's a fascinating insight to a murky history.

Collapse

From the acclaimed director of American Movie, the documentary follows former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. He recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.

Man with a Movie Camera

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

Dickson Greeting

William K.L. Dickson brings his hat from his one hand to the other and moves his head slightly, as a small nod toward the audience. This was the first film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company to be shown to public audiences and the press.

Nuuca

In this evocative meditation, a disturbing link is made between the resource extraction industries’ exploitation of the land and violence inflicted on Indigenous women and girls. Or, as one young woman testifies, “Just as the land is being used, these women are being used.”

Kings of Comedy: Masters of the Silent Screen

A documentary about some of the comedians of the silent era featuring clips from their films and biographical information.

The Funeral of Vera Kholodnaya

This film records the vast public response to the early death of Vera Kholodnaya, the first star of Russian cinema.

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.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Kathleen Madigan: Madigan Again

Kathleen Madigan drops in on Detroit to deliver material derived from time spent with her Irish Catholic Midwest family, eating random pills out of her mother's purse, touring Afghanistan, and her love of John Denver and the Lunesta butterfly.

Re-Existences

“Re-Existence” is a documentary about migration stories of individuals from the Brazilian queer community.

The Godthumb

From Steve Odekirk's "Thumb Parodies" series, a take on Coppola's classic involving those thumb-headed mafiosos and their struggle for power. You'd might even call it a thumb war...

Don't Worry, Be Happy

With his vitriolic pen, Désiré Loncle, does not make the life of filmmakers easy. But chickens come home to roost, don't they? As a matter of fact, Désiré gets his due punishment when Manu, his girlfriend, kicks him out of home. At a loss, he finds refuge with Alex, a young actor. He is soon joined by Eduardo, an Italian producer, dumped like him by his wife. While Désiré tries to rebuild himself, the three men decide to write a film script that will be the basis of a vehicle for Alex.

Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Vol:2

Thirty more cartoons from the vaults of Warner Bros. to spotlight the inimitable Looney Tunes characters

The Magnificent Five

The villagers of Chai Dong gather the little money they have and hire five unusual heroes to find their kids who have been traded into slavery. This group must forget their own differences to succeed.

Tony Roberts: Wired!

Live from Hollywood! As seen on Showtime

Tomás

Tomás is an old man who suffers from Alzheimer's disease dependent on his family who has a complicated relationship with him due to his condition, which causes a conflict of interest with Tomás' daughter wanting him to live, her granddaughter being completely indifferent, and his son-in-law. wanting him to die.

Tipped

A waitress copes with a difficult table by serving up her own dish of revenge.

Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians

As a result of the Holocaust and later, AIDS, the male homosexual community has sustained bitter losses and, according to Praunheim, lesbian women have now placed themselves at the head of the so-called queer movement. The female protagonists in the film represent two different generations; they also incorporate the past and present status of homosexuals in society.

Mi fido di te

Two different men living in Milan lose their job at the same time. They will become a funny couple of thieves thanks to the poorest of them that was already a thief.

Cat's Eye

A woman visits a personal stretcher, only to have unexpected objects pulled out of her body. A near silent witness statement to the reopening of invisible wounds in an abstract pursuit of healing.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob, knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

Fighter

Aïcha, a high-school student, is a passionate kung fu fighter. Her Turkish parents expect her to get good grades so she can get into medical school, like her brother Ali. But school doesn´t inspire her. Defying her family, Aïcha starts secretly training at a professional, co-ed kung fu club. A boy, Emil, helps Aïcha train for the club championship and they fall in love. But the rules of life are not as simple as the rules of kung fu, and Aïcha is forced to decide who she is and what she wants.

Impeccable

Pao gia dimarhos

Vasilis Tsivilikas is running for mayor, not in Athens but in London. In this English comedy, he plays a Conservative Party candidate for mayor of London who is forced to impersonate a starlet in order to get involved in various adventures...

Nu är pappa trött igen!

An enterprising star agent and party-maker is a heavy drinker. He is struggling to keep everything moving. He tries to get his life in shape, but is surrounded by chaos.

Liberxina 90

A drug has been discovered, Liberxina 90, which will erase "establishment" conditioning from the human mind. It has fallen into the hands of some diversely anarchistic revolutionaries who spend most of the film discussing how and whether to use it; should they wait for the forces of "history" to undermine society or speed things up using the drug? They are finally forced into action by the police who are, somewhat ineptly, hunting them down.