Made for Play: Board Games and Modern Industry

Jettingen Germany is home to Ludo Fact, one of the world's largest manufacturers of board and card games. This documentary shows how a board game makes the leap from an idea to your table. You'll see every aspect of the manufacturing process: the technology and machines, the many detailed steps, and the hundreds of people that are involved in the production of a single game. Mostly, we hope the film gives you a greater appreciation of the time, effort and investment that goes into every quality board game that makes it to the marketplace and your home. The business of fun requires a lot of hard work!

Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History

America’s favorite board game, Monopoly, is a love letter to unbridled capitalism and the impulses that make our free-market society tick. Contrary to the folksy legend spread by Parker Brothers, Monopoly’s origin involves a radical feminist and a community of Quakers in Atlantic City. If not for the determination of an economics professor and impassioned anti-monopolist, the real story behind the creation of the game might never have come to light.

The Game Designers

Board games are exploding in popularity. With scores of players, huge conventions, countless media outlets, and thousands of games coming out each year, the board game industry is truly a global phenomenon. But who makes all of the games that fuel this industry? And how are all of these games designed, developed, and eventually released to the public? The answer is found in The Game Designers!

Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine

Garry Kasparov is possibly the greatest chess player who has ever lived. In 1997, he played a match against the greatest chess computer: IBM's Deep Blue. He lost. This film depicts the drama that happened away from the chess board from Kasparov's perspective. It explores the psychological aspects of the game and the paranoia surrounding IBM's ultimate chess machine.

Friendly Local Game Store

The unlikely story of the world’s largest game store – The Sentry Box – located in Calgary. Communities are not just bound by borders – they are often comprised of people with shared passions. A friendly local game store (FLGS) is a unique place where people can connect with each other, create memories, and build community. Celebrating over 40 years of operation, the Sentry Box in Calgary, Alberta has grown to become the world’s largest game store. It has achieved this incredible milestone by being an inviting and welcoming space for people of all backgrounds to enjoy table top games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. The documentary from CUFF alumnus and Calgarian Garry Snow shares the unique history of the Sentry Box by interviewing the owner, long-time customers, current and former employees, and local industry influencers who have all been connected by the friendly local game store.

Who Did It? The Story Behind the Clue VCR Mystery Game

A documentary about the makings of two Parker Brothers VHS games - 'Clue VCR Mystery Game' and 'Clue II: Murder in Disguise'.

Word Wars

The classic board game, Scrabble, has been popular for decades. In addition, there are fanatics who devote heart and soul to this game to the expense of everything else. This film profiles a group of these enthusiasts as they converge for a Scrabble convention where the word game is almost a bloodsport.

Space Lions: The Story of Twilight Imperium

Popular review site Shut Up & Sit Down follows the creative heads of Fantasy Flight Games as they develop a new edition of their flagship game Twilight Imperium.

Monopoly - Spiel ohne Erbarmen

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story shows how the classic board game has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon and follows the colorful players who come together to compete for the coveted title of Monopoly World Champion.

Über Goober

Über Goober focuses on the often-misunderstood, sometimes-controversial, and always-kind-of-geeky world of Gamers. Director Steve Metze examines several different groups including historical miniature gamers, role-players, and those known simply as "LARPers." The film also explores opposition from religious groups, negative media portrayals, and some of the meanest 'man-on-the-street' interviews ever committed to video. Meet the Gamers, learn their exotic language, see their bizarre rituals, gasp at their semi-authentic costumes, and thrill to the painting techniques on their miniatures!

Jouer sa vie

In this Gilles Carle feature documentary on the game of chess, the international chess match is cast as a classic Western shoot-out. Three chess greats dominate the film: Russia's Anatoly Karpov; Viktor Korchnoi, a Russian defector; and American Bobby Fischer. Chess aficionados Camille Coudari and Fernando Arrabal analyze the personalities and strategies of the players and comment on the interplay of politics and chess.

Scrabble: A Night on the Tiles

Scrabble is experiencing a renaissance. The younger generation have rediscovered the game online - through the copyright busting Scrabulous - and they're having night after night on the tiles. Alan Yentob sets out to discover why the word game leaves us spellbound, tracing its surprising history, meeting the American tournament Word Freaks, and paying a visit to the SAS-style training camp that the Nigerian government trains their players at.

Loups-Garous

When an old card game comes to life, a family jumps back in time to a medieval village where they must unmask werewolves to secure their return home.

Jumanji

When siblings Judy and Peter discover an enchanted board game that opens the door to a magical world, they unwittingly invite Alan -- an adult who's been trapped inside the game for 26 years -- into their living room. Alan's only hope for freedom is to finish the game, which proves risky as all three find themselves running from giant rhinoceroses, evil monkeys and other terrifying creatures.

Zathura: A Space Adventure

After their father is called into work, two young boys, Walter and Danny, are left in the care of their teenage sister, Lisa, and told they must stay inside. Walter and Danny, who anticipate a boring day, are shocked when they begin playing Zathura, a space-themed board game, which they realize has mystical powers when their house is shot into space. With the help of an astronaut, the boys attempt to return home.

Clue

Clue finds six colorful dinner guests gathered at the mansion of their host, Mr. Boddy -- who turns up dead after his secret is exposed: He was blackmailing all of them. With the killer among them, the guests and Boddy's chatty butler must suss out the culprit before the body count rises.

Haunting Inside

An agoraphobic woman with autism begins summoning spirits to be her friends while her brother/caretaker is gone during the day, but the more time she spends with the spirits the more it becomes clear they aren't so friendly after all.

A Fairy's Game

Two siblings are whisked away by an intelligent fairy to become part of a real life game they must complete before coming back to the real world.

신의 한 수

A professional GO player gathers a team to help him carry out his revenge against the man who killed his brother.