Chaika

Devil in the Room

July 2013 •English

Have you ever woken in the night unable to move, certain that you are not alone? This is an experimental documentary examining what happens when dreams leak into waking life. It is about what is real, what is not, and if it even matters.

Wonders of the Arctic

March 2014 •English

Wonders of the Arctic 3D centers on our ongoing mission to explore and come to terms with the Arctic, and the compelling stories of our many forays into this captivating place will be interwoven to create a unifying message about the state of the Arctic today. Underlying all these tales is the crucial role that ice plays in the northern environment and the changes that are quickly overtaking the people and animals who have adapted to this land of ice and snow.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

March 1895 •French

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.

Quite Like Paradise

September 2024 •Spanish

Ugo Conti, charismatic Italian aristocrat and influencer, arrives in Mexico where he seduces the Mexican high society. When he meets Frida Becker again, the love of his past, he will end up in the center of a struggle for political power.

Z

February 1969 •French

Amid a tense political climate, the opposition leader is killed in an apparent accident. When a prosecutor finds evidence of a cover-up, witnesses start to get targeted... A thinly veiled account of the 1963 assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis and its aftermath, Z captures the outrage about the US-backed military junta that ruled Greece at the time of its release.

Mr. Brooks

June 2007 •English

A psychological thriller about a man who is sometimes controlled by his murder-and-mayhem-loving alter ego.

Snake's Mouth

October 2020 •Spanish

Chicán (chi'kaan), a Mayan word meaning "Boca de Culebra", is a small Mayan community in southern Yucatán where for generations its inhabitants have been born with a particular characteristic and share the same surnames. This documentary portrays the life of a local family and their resilience in a town where tradition will continue unless someone breaks the cycle.

DIYSEX

November 2019 •Spanish

DIYSEX is a film that reflects on the use of the image and the language of mainstream pornography, and wonders how far this use can transcend when making your porn film.

Dos corazones

August 2020 •Spanish

The Invitation

December 2016 •English

Three schoolgirls get more than they bargained for when attempting to communicate with the dead.

Nice Chinese Girls Don't!

June 2019 •English

Kitty Tsui, Chinese American writer, poet, body builder, and lesbian activist, tells of her arrival as an immigrant to San Francisco and, amidst the anti-Vietnam war protests, finding her way to San Francisco State, which influenced her on her path as an activist and poet. In this first ever documentary about a Chinese American Lesbian, Tsui brings to life her coming of age in San Francisco in the 1970s, her challenges, and her continued rise to celebrity by being re-discovered by a whole new generation of Feminists.

But I Love the Zine

June 2019 •English

This film reveals the resurgent San Francisco Bay Area culture of zines - artistic publications that are self-made, accessible, intentionally tactile and NOT the Internet. We meet remarkable zine authors in their studios, a major art museum curator, and avid zine festival goers and promoters.

The Train to Moscow

November 2013 •Italian

In the aftermath of Stalin’s death, three Italian communists engage in a trip to the Soviet Union to challenge their utopia with an 8mm camera. In 1957, Sauro, Luigi and Enzo all live in Alfonsine, a small town in Italy ruled like a miniature Soviet Union by the Italian Communist Party. As many communists in the West, they dream of the Soviet Union, and hope for the great Revolution. But with the wind of reform and self-criticism blowing through the Eastern Bloc after the death of Stalin the image of the Soviet Union as the workers’ paradise begins to crumble. They therefore decide to travel to the USSR to find out what is true and what is false in this supposed land of milk and honey. They film their entire journey with their 8mm camera. Through this invaluable personal archive, our film tells the hopes, disappointments and challenges of three young men faced with the reality of what seemed to be a utopia come true.

I Don’t Want to Be Just a Memory

February 2024 •German

Berlin queer community members mourn the substance abuse-related loss of their friends by sharing memories and rituals. Resembling glow-in-the-dark fungi, they radiate light together as a network of support and care.

Terror in Times Square: A Guide To Nightmare's Grindhouse Kingdom

January 2015 •English

2015 featurette documentary behind the experience of Nightmare and grindhouse cinema.

Le revers de la médaille

January 2014 •French

Gattaca

September 1997 •English

Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.

M

May 1931 •German

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

We Own the Night

October 2007 •English

A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.

Half Sour

April 2014 •English

A group of young skateboarders find direction in their lives when they move to New York and start a pickle business.