Notes on Marie Menken

The Longing of Michael Dudok de Wit

July 2016 •Dutch

Michael Dudok de Wit was asked by the famous Japanese animation studio Ghibli, to create his first feature length animated film. This would be Ghibli's first international co-production ever. Maarten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele followed Dudok de Wit and his team during the complex creative process for over two years. He is a perfectionist that is used to making his own hand drawn animated films by himself. For this new and timely production, he was assisted by a team of 20 to 30 artists from all over Europe.

The Dinosaur and the Baby

March 1967 •French

An hour-long discussion between Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard in which they discuss a variety of art forms, the role of the cinema, their collaboration together, and much more. (Filmed in 1964 but released for TV in 1967.)

Blue Velvet Revisited

October 2016 •English

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.

Billy Yeager The Ineffable Enigma

July 2016 •English

Billy Yeager is a musician, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, activist, humanitarian and an all around living breathing performance artist. He has written and recorded over 2600 songs, produced 6 films and been discovered many times by several well known artists, yet most of his works are extremely hard to find and are considered to be very valuable by serious collectors, but if it can't change the world, the artist wants no part of it. Turning his back on the music and film industries, Yeager retreats into the desert to make his films and create his music.

Mickey Reece’s Belle Île

September 2020 •English

Against a collage of excerpts that span thirty-four films, a filmmaker reflects on the community he has built over more then a decade of low-budget movie making in Oklahoma City.

Larisa

October 1980 •Russian

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

To Make a Comedy Is No Fun

October 2016 •English

Documentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others.

The Blackwell Ghost 5

October 2020 •English

In this 5th installment of "The Blackwell Ghost" series, the ghost hunting filmmaker returns to the "Lightfoot House" where he hopes to solve a newly discovered puzzle which may lead to the location of more undiscovered victims.

In the Interstices of Reality or The Cinema of António de Macedo

October 2016 •Portuguese

He was the most prolific within the New Portuguese Cinema generation. He would try western spaghetti, esoteric allegory, supernatural, and science-fiction. Without state subsidies, he would quit filmmaking in the 1990s. Who remembers António de Macedo?

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

January 2006 •English

Kirby Dick's provocative documentary investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America rates films, revealing the organization's underhanded efforts to control culture. Dick questions whether certain studios get preferential treatment and exposes the discrepancies in how the MPAA views sex and violence.

American Movie

November 1999 •English

American Movie is the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, American Movie is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.

Director Z, el vendedor de ilusiones

April 2018 •Spanish

A documentary film about cult director José María Zabalza. How he made pictures with very little money and was granted little recognition.

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

April 2007 •English

In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.

Absentia: A Retrospective

July 2014 •English

Documentary film on the making of Mike Flanagan's Absentia. Interviews with cast and crew and behind-the-scenes.

Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch

October 1997 •English

An in-depth look at artist/filmmaker David Lynch's movies, paintings, drawings, photographs, and various other works of art. Features interview footage and commentary by family members, friends, fans, and people he's worked with, as well as behind-the-scenes antics of some of his most critically praised efforts.

My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

February 2015 •English

A documentary directed by Winding Refn's wife, Liv Corfixen, and it follows the Danish-born filmmaker during the making of his 2013 film Only God Forgives.

Gonzalo Suárez: Sam Peckinpah, director salvaje (TV)

May 2011 •Spanish

The Prince of Nothingwood

June 2017 •French

French documentarist Sonia Kronlund follows actor and director Salim Shaheen, an Afghan movie star who produced more than 110 low-budget movies in a country devastated by war.

Golden Gate Girls

April 2013 •English

The film traces the life and times of Esther Eng, a San Francisco native known as Hong Kong’s first “directress.” She directed 10 Cantonese talkies.

Overnight

June 2003 •English

Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Overnight chronicles one man's misadventures of making a Hollywood movie. It starts out as a rags to riches story as Troy Duffy, a Boston-bred bartender, sells his first screenplay for The Boondock Saints.