Riots and Rumours of Riots

Radical resistance in the postwar British Caribbean community, from the 1948 Nationality Act to the 1958 Brixton riots.

Las Hurdes

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time. (Silent short, voiced in 1937 and 1996.)

Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

Am I Irvine Welsh?

A year in the company of Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, as he publishes a new novel, launches a record label, works on two television series and adapts his most famous work Trainspotting into a West End musical.

Clarissa & the King's Cookbook

Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How did this ancient manuscript influence the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.

Soul Food Junkies

To many African Americans, soul food is sacrament, ritual, and a key expression of cultural identity. But does this traditional cuisine do more harm to health than it soothes the soul?

Living in a Reversed World

Fascinating -- and unintentionally funny -- experiments at Austria's famed Institute for Experimental Psychology involve a subject who for several weeks wears special glasses that reverse right and left and up and down. Unexpectedly, these macabre and somehow surrealist experiments reveal that our perception of these aspects of vision is not of an optical nature and cannot be relied on, while the unfortunate, Kafkaesque subject stubbornly struggles through a morass of continuous failures.

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Hviezda

A documentary on Jan Slovak, a 55-year-old welder, who fell in love with acting. His desire began, when he got the lead role in a theatrical adaptation of the worst movie of all time, Plan 9 From Outer Space by Ed Wood Jr. The passion for theater became his destiny.

Flying Stewardess

A short documentary depicting a typical day in the life of a 1940s era flying stewardess.

Streetdance Family

The journey to the world championship is fraught with difficulties for Entity, the UK's most successful and controversial under sixteen street dance crew, as they battle to overcome the many challenges that face them in their bid for glory on the world stage.

La Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Give Us the Earth!

This "Theater of Life" documentary was produced in cooperation with the International Committee, YMCA. It focuses on the work of Dr. Spencer Hatch, as he shows residents of small Mexican villages how to make their land better able to grow food and make them more independent.

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.

El manual del entrenador mexicano

In this comedic docufiction, Javier (Javier Raphael) is a young man who has always wanted to be a football coach like his idol “El Chelís” (José Luis Sánchez Solá), but has never done anything to fulfill his dream. Now, guided by a nosy narrator (Jorge Pietrasanta), he will look for some of the most unorthodox amateur football coaches in Mexico, and for his beloved "Chelís", so that each one can give him lessons until he is fully trained to manage a match and thus become a true "Mexican football coach".

Discovering Heaven

A documentary about Captain Dale Black, a pilot who died in a famous airplane crash in Burbank, California which was covered by the LA Times. After coming back to life, Black shares his near death experience as the sole survivor of a non-survivable plane wreck.

From You were Black You were Out

About the black community in Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill which grew up in the 1950s. “No Irish, no coloured, no dogs" read the rooms-to-let signs in what was already a decaying inner area of London. In the Grove black people had to face the brunt of a crude and brutal racism and a grassroots defence was organised against white racist attacks in 1958, to become part of the more general community resistance. And that strength was reflected in the emergence of several major 'Black Power' organisations. Since the 1960s the vital sense of black community which developed in the Grove has resisted attempts to disperse and weaken the community and in particular the attempt to suppress the annual Carnival - the major Afro-Caribbean event in Britain.

Hymn of the Nations

Hymn of the Nations, originally titled Arturo Toscanini: Hymn of the Nations, is a 1944 film directed by Alexander Hammid, which features the "Inno delle nazioni," a patriotic work for tenor soloist, chorus, and orchestra, composed by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi in the early 1860s. (For this musical work, Verdi utilized the national anthems of several European nations.) In December 1943, Arturo Toscanini filmed a performance of this music for inclusion in an Office of War Information documentary about the role of Italian-Americans in aiding the Allies during World War II. Toscanini added a bridge passage to include arrangements of "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the United States and "The Internationale" for the Soviet Union and the Italian partisans. Joining Toscanini in the filmed performance in NBC Studio 8-H, were tenor Jan Peerce, the Westminster Choir, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

L'arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

Superman Now

Writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely take over the Superman stories to refocus and revitalize them, centered on a more relaxed and reflective Superman.