Cinema Futures

Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.

François Truffaut: 25 Years, 25 Films

François Truffaut (1932-1984), once the most influential critic of the French New Wave, became a brilliant, prolific, and uncompromising director, creating 25 films in 25 years. Internationally honored and beloved for his poignant, often irresistibly wry view of the human condition, Truffaut embodied the auteur's intimate grasp of the film medium. This documentary package -- a special supplement to Truffaut's films in The Criterion Collection -- is a multi-feature tribute that includes Truffaut's rare 1957 film, Les Mistons -- which foreshadowed The 400 Blows.

The Man Who Makes the Difference

Promotional documentary for the MGM film "Ice Station Zebra" focusing on the career and cinematographic innovations of cameraman John Stephens.

Blue Velvet Revisited

When David Lynch was making his film Blue Velvet, German filmmaker Peter Braatz was also on set, shooting documentary footage with a Super 8 film camera. Now, on Blue Velvet's 30th anniversary, Braatz presents his footage, along with still photographs, as a "meditation" on Lynch's work.

Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today

Marking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies and legacies. Featuring a rich and surprising range of archive extracts and original interviews with many who created the series, including producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, and directors Mike Leigh, David Hare and Ken Loach.

The Lucky Woman

This film follows the lives of undocumented Vietnamese workers in Taiwan doing odd jobs to survive, after having been forced to flee their employers due to harsh working conditions and lack of medical care. How will living this way for more than a decade shape their lives?

Beyond the mall

Is there an audience for Latin American movies? These are some of the questions posed by an Ecuadorian filmmaker whose latest movie was a commercial flop. He embarks on a query to find answers to his questions and relief for his despair. His research leads him to a giant contraband market in the port city of Guayaquil, where pirated movies from all over the world are sold for one dollar each. Here, he discovers a number of Ecuadorian low budget movies produced by amateurs, with titles he had never heard of before: from action packed productions to evangelical melodramas.

Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red

A feature length documentary about the all-women team at the helm of Pixar's original feature, Turning Red. With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to Director Domee Shi and her core leadership crew, this story shines a light on the powerful professional and personal journeys that brought this incredibly comical, utterly relatable, and deeply heartfelt story to the screen.

Il était une fois... Vincent, François, Paul et les autres

Game of Thrones: The Last Watch

For a year, acclaimed British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay was embedded on the set of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” chronicling the creation of the show’s most ambitious and complicated season. Debuting one week after the series 8 finale, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH delves deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland. Made with unprecedented access, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH is an up-close and personal portrait from the trenches of production, following the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather, punishing deadlines and an ever-excited fandom hungry for spoilers. Much more than a “making of” documentary, this is a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world – and then have to say goodbye to it.

Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas

A film tribute to the inspirational Jonas Mekas.

Stale Popcorn & Sticky Floors

Take a front row seat as we sit down to chat with some of the creators and stars of the best and most beloved exploitation and grindhouse films of the 1970s and 80s. Featuring interviews with John Dugan (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Craig Reed (The Re-Animator), John Russo (Night of the Living Dead), Lynn Lowry (The Crazies), Carl Crew (Blood Diner), and many more independent horror veterans.

Larisa

Elem Klimov's documentary ode to his wife, director Larisa Shepitko, who was killed in an auto wreck.

Boundless

As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.

Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet at Work on a Film Based on Franz Kafka’s Amerika

This film is at once a self-portrait and an homage to Jean-Marie Straub, Farocki's role model and former teacher at the Film Academy.

Takashi Murakami: The Art of Film

A behind the scenes look at the making of Jellyfish Eyes by first-time feature-film director, the world-renowned artist, Takashi Murakami.