Polanski Meets Macbeth

A 1971 documentary by Frank Simon featuring rare footage of the film’s cast and crew at work.

Lennon or McCartney

550 artists were interviewed over ten years. At some point during those interviews, they were asked a question and told to answer with one word only. Some stuck to one, some said more, some answered quickly, some thought it through, and some didn't answer at all. That question… Lennon or McCartney?

Zero Bagget

Toil And Trouble: Making 'Macbeth'

A new documentary on the Criterion Collection edition of Roman Polanski's 1971 adaptation of Macbeth featuring interviews with the director, producer Andrew Braunsberg, assistant executive producer Victor Lownes, and actors Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw.

Bukovsky

Alan Clarke's documentary about Soviet writer and dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who had left the Soviet Union in 1976 after years spent in their prisons and psychiatric wards. The film was completed in 1977 but never broadcast, subject only to private screenings. The documentary appears publicly for the first time as a special feature of the BFI's 'Dissent and Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969-1989)' box set, alongside 50 minutes of outtakes.

Thrash, Altenessen

Documentary focusing on the thrash metal band Kreator but also exploring the economic and social situation of Essen at the time.

Growing Girls

After several farmyard analogies featuring chicks and calves, the well-spoken narrator and director of the film, Winifred Holmes, considers the subject of girls and how they reach adulthood and readiness for the 'important job of motherhood.

Run Wrake's Guide to Animation

Run Wrake is an English filmmaker, animation director, and music video director. He studied graphic design at Chelsea College of Arts before completing a master's degree in animation at the Royal College of Art in London. In this interview for the BBC's Channel 4, he describes some of his films, their inception, and their production. He also comments on technological and cultural developments that have changed how animated films are produced and perceived.

This American Journey

As children, British actor Paul Blackthorne and Australian photographer Mister Basquali both fell in love with America. Later they each fulfilled their dream to live here, but after two wars, a near economic collapse, and uncertainty about the country's direction, these two expats began to have doubts -- was America still the great place they once dreamed of? They drive across America to find out, interviewing random people about issues that affect and confront us all. From the ghetto to the gun show, the courthouse to the cattle yard, they are touched by the wisdom and insight of the people they meet. This American Journey is a cinematic postcard from the people to the people, teaching us that hearts can be healed at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected places.

Political Animals

The story of four pioneering lesbian politicians and the battles they fought to pass a wide range of anti-discrimination laws.

Fiddlin Man: The Life and Times of Bob Wills

Legendary western swing band leader Bob Wills rose up in the Great Depression to fame in Oklahoma and Texas that soon swept the entire nation. The documentary FIDDLIN MAN offers a full biography of Wills, using a vast array of on camera interviews with his friends, family, and fellow musicians. The film also draws on a wealth of rare archival footage.

Babylon

After the insurrection erupted in Libya in the spring of 2012, more than a million people flocked to neighboring Tunisia in search of a safe haven from the escalating violence. When a massive refugee camp was hastily constructed near the Ras Jdir border checkpoint in Tunisia, a trio of filmmakers carried their cameras in and began filming with no agenda. This on-the-fly chronicle of the camp's installation, operation, and dismantling captures a postmodern Babel complete with a multinational population of displaced folk, a regime of humanitarian aid workers, and international media that broadcasts its “image” to the world. Visually stunning and refreshingly undogmatic, Babylon reveals a rarely seen aspect of the Arab Spring.

Bomarsund 1854 - The Baltic Theatre

Bomarsund 1854 tells the story of two humanists, whose actions during the Crimean War prevented bloodshed. They are the British hydrographer, Bartholomew James Sulivan, and the Russian commandant, Jacov Andreyevitch Bodisco, two men who fought on opposite sides in the war. It also traces the rise and fall of the multi-cultural community of Bomarsund. The small island of Åland, located in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, played a significant role in the war that raged during 1854, originally called the Oriental War and partially fought in Northern Europe. The Baltic campaigns became the forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. The attention awarded events elsewhere has overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which lay close to the Russian capital of St Petersburg.

JFK Remembered: 50 Years Later

A look back at the 1000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency.

Lords of the Forest

Documentary about the inhabitants, both human and animal, of the Belgian Congo. Released in 1958.

Brendan O’Connell Is Blocking the Bread Aisle

A short documentary by Brendan O’Connell in which he goes into Walmart stores to paint the aisles he walks and the people he sees. O’Connell says “whatever your views are, positive or negative related to Walmart, it just is. From an artist’s perspective, addressing this environment that is an undeniable component to contemporary life is exciting.”