Bergman Island

Toil And Trouble: Making 'Macbeth'

September 2014 •English

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.

The Cinema Travellers

May 2016 •Hindi

Showmen riding cinema lorries have brought the wonder of the movies to faraway villages in India once every year. Seven decades on, as their cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, their patrons are lured by slick digital technology. A benevolent showman, a shrewd exhibitor and a maverick projector mechanic bear a beautiful burden - to keep the last traveling cinemas of the world running. A critically acclaimed, poignant documentary that celebrates India’s travelling picture shows and laments their demise, filled with exquisite visuals and marvellous eccentrics.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

June 1896 •French

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.

Murdered and Missing in Montana

November 2021 •English

A documentary examining the mysterious deaths of three young Indigenous women in south-central Montana, featuring access to family members, tribal officials, law enforcement, and community activists.

Always in Season

January 2019 •English

When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.

Run Wrake's Guide to Animation

June 2007 •English

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.

David Crosby: Remember My Name

July 2019 •English

You thought you knew him. Meet David Crosby now in this portrait of a man with everything but an easy retirement on his mind. With unflinching honesty, self-examination, regret, fear, exuberance and an unshakable belief in family and the transformative nature of music, Crosby shares his often challenging journey.

Four Daughters

July 2023 •Arabic

Between light and darkness stands Olfa, a Tunisian woman and the mother of four daughters. One day, her two older daughters disappear. To fill in their absence, the filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania invites professional actresses and invents a unique cinema experience that will lift the veil on Olfa and her daughters' life stories. An intimate journey of hope, rebellion, violence, transmission and sisterhood that will question the very foundations of our societies.

The Collector

December 2006 •English

Director/producer Olympia Stone explores the 46-year career of her father, Allan Stone, a famed New York gallery owner and art collector, while examining Stone's obsession with art and his compulsive collecting genius.

The Agreement

November 2013 •Danish

'History is always made in the middle of the night. And when it happens, you are so damned tired, that you couldn't care less,' says Robert Cooper, an EU peace negotiator whose job it is to get Serbia and Kosovo to reach an agreement about peaceful coexistence. National pride and compromise are on everyone's lips, and much is at stake: Kosovo wants to come closer to independence, the Serbs have been promised EU membership if they can reach an agreement, and the EU tries to strengthen its credibility. But how far is each party willing to go? It is the unique characters that make this fascinating film about a delicate political game so vivid and loveable. The stoic, Serbian negotiator has a great passion for rock music, his colleague from Kosovo does not want to miss out on his daily visit to the hairdresser, and Cooper himself has a closet full of ties - one for every conceivable occasion.

Amá

December 2018 •English

Amá is a feature length documentary which tells an important and untold story: the abuses committed against Native American women by the United States Government during the 1960’s and 70’s: removed from their families and sent to boarding schools, forced relocation away from their traditional lands and involuntary sterilization. ​The result of nine years painstaking and sensitive work by filmmaker Lorna Tucker, the film features the testimony of many Native Americans, including three remarkable women who tell their stories - Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Aseytoyer - as well as a revealing and rare interview with Dr. Reimart Ravenholt whose population control ideas were the framework for some of the government policies directed at Native American women.

Gila nunca fue serio

January 2017 •Spanish

Miguel Gila (1919-2001) was a Spanish actor and stand-up comedian, famous for his surreal phone conversations with imaginary people, and a skillful cartoonist; an idolized star, a king of laughter.

Mi Marilyn

January 1975 •Spanish

A memory of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), woman, actress, goddess, myth, in the words of the Spanish director and scriptwriter José Luis Garci, who returns to his childhood and recovers a lost paradise.

Charlton Heston and Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey

July 2011 •English

Feature-length documentary chronicling Charlton Heston's life while filming Ben Hur. Includes behind-the-scenes content and home-movie footage from the Heston family.

The Indispensable Practice of Vagueness

October 2014 •Portuguese

By the director: "Ar.Co embodies each person’s geography, it escapes normalisation. Each individual’s experience is his own. This film is my experience, our experience. Pieced together from the school’s archive, from recordings of classes by Manuel Castro Caldas and from conversations at home."

Semjon Byčkov

January 2024 •Czech

Knights of Geórgian Chants

January 2010 •Portuguese

The Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone

October 2003 •Spanish

An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.

Binka: To Tell a Story About Silence

January 2007 •Bulgarian

A film pioneer, Binka Zhelyazkova was at the forefront of political cinema under Bulgaria's Communist dictatorship. Though she remained faithful to the communist ideals she became an avid critic of the regime and brought upon herself the wrath of its censorship. As a result four of her nine films were shelved and released to the public only after the fall of the regime in 1989, and Binka Zhelyazkova became known as the bad girl of Bulgarian cinema. A provocative portrait that reveals the pressures and complexities that arise when art is made under totalitarianism.

Without a Whisper - Konnón:kwe

November 2020 •English

"Without a Whisper" is the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality. Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner shake the foundation of the established history of the women’s rights movement in the United States. They join forces on a journey to shed light on the hidden history of the influence of Haudenosaunee Women on the women’s rights movement, possibly changing this historical narrative forever.