An Anatomy Lesson

Restoring a Masterpiece: The Renovation of Eastman Theatre

April 2010 •English

Take a look behind the curtain to see the vast history and recent renovation of one of Rochester, New York's most famous landmarks. Architects, theater personnel, historians, community leaders, and citizens provide in depth insight from start to finish in one of the most extensive renovations the city has ever seen.

Tale of Time

November 2021 •Indonesian

Fajar Suharno was a theater maestro from the 80's to the 90's. He was imprisoned because his theater activities were considered against the New Order government. At its peak, he made a show entitled "Geger Uwong Ngoyak Macan" about the events of crushing people who were considered thugs/criminals (Petrus). The show was held exactly the day before the massacre took place

Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation

June 2021 •English

The parallel lives of writer Truman Capote (1924-84) and playwright Tennessee Williams (1911-83): two friends, two geniuses who, while creating sublime works, were haunted by the ghosts of the past, the shadow of constant doubt, the demon of addictions and the blinding, deceptive glare of success.

Círculo de Tiza

August 2020 •Spanish

A storyteller, mime and actor, at the age of 86 years old, self-represents and tells the story of his life, moving between reality and fiction; showing us how art and imagination change the way we see life. A poetic journey between creation, play, loneliness and old age.

Quijote

October 2012 •Spanish

As a child, Jairo William Gutiérrez traded a few onions for a ticket to the circus and from then on he only wanted to be an actor and playwright. Today Jairo is 50 years old and farms the land, milks his cow and writes theater. His passion for the stage is so great that he set up a theater company, which is made up of his wife, two daughters and a few neighbors.

La Virgen Loca, Lado B

December 2015 •Spanish

A feature-length documentary that delves into the life of an old spinster who, by convention, must be called señorita. Bound by rigid moral and family precepts, well-born ladies do not usually tell intimacies. However, the virgin - as the people of Xalapa have always called her - has agreed to confess and show her personal refuge, marked by solitude and the daily fulfillment of a sacrificial ritual.

Passing Strange

August 2009 •English

A young black artist leaves his Los Angeles digs and travels to Europe to find himself. A theatrical stage production of the original Broadway musical.

Leónidas

February 2019 •Spanish

Portrait of Leónidas Barletta, founder of Teatro del Pueblo, the first independent theatre in Latin America. This film on the controversial theatre director and left wing journalist is constructed from the letters and books Leónidas sent to his young sister María Angélica, godmother of director Miguel Colombo, who decides to leave her brother's legacy in the hands of her godson before she dies.

One Ticket Please

March 2017 •English

A documentary about a 78-year-old Indian woman in New York who is the world's most passionate theatergoer. Nicki Cochrane has been seeing a play every day for more than 25 years, acquiring free tickets using a variety of ingenious means.

Jan Borna aneb Dokreslení Janka

August 2020 •Czech

Exhalación: vida y muerte de De La Puríssima

December 2019 •Spanish

The duo made up of musician and actress Julia de Castro and double bass player Miguel Rodrigáñez thus premieres their latest show, Exhalación: vida y muerte de De La Puríssima. With it, they intend to put an end to the ten-year revolution of EL CUPLÉ this scenic musical genre, which the singular tandem has merged with jazz, cumbia and electronics on stages around the world. Show nominated for the Premios Valle Inclán. As the duo explains, De La Puríssima was born in 2009 “as a transit project, in which music was the most direct and ritualistic medium from which to raise core issues such as sex, bullfighting, folklore or religion”. Now, a decade later, it is time to remove the peineta and celebrate the end of a stage in which the provocative lyrics by Julia de Castro have traveled through numerous audiences to bring up to date a genre that was in the forgetfulness of national folklore, the cuplé.

Jean Nouvel: Guthrie Theater

September 2008 •English

French architect Jean Nouvel has long been known in Europe for his bold, shimmering glass museums, concert halls, and high-rise towers. Now the much-acclaimed new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which opened in 2006, is displaying Nouvel's remarkable talents to an American public. With a cantilevered lobby that extends 175 feet over the Mississippi River, the dark midnight-blue, aluminum-paneled structure has captivated the culturally conscious city and helped spur the rejuvenation of a once-industrial waterfront. In the tour, Nouvel takes us through three distinctive theaters he designed for the Guthrie, and out onto the cantilevered deck to view the legendary river that inspired the boldly elevated design.

Hoteliér

October 2013 •Czech

Rwanda & Juliet

December 2016 •English

A feature documentary set in Kigali, Rwanda, the epicenter of the genocide that left a million dead two decades earlier. The film follows eccentric retired Dartmouth Professor Emeritus, Andrew Garrod, as he mounts Romeo and Juliet with college students from both Hutu and Tutsi backgrounds. Hopes, expectations, pasts, personalities and cultures collide as opening night approaches.

Conversation Behind the Scenes

May 2019 •Italian

A documentary that follows the story of Dario Pasquarella, deaf director and actor, and his company. Through his work, Dario seeks to bring together the deaf and hearing community, who are usually separated by a lack of communication. In his shows he uses both languages, LIS, sign language and spoken language, to tell stories in which the deaf and hearing can live in symbiosis.

Six by Sondheim

December 2013 •English

This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.

Music Palace

March 2005 •English

Previously a central part of communal life, the movie palaces of New York’s Chinatown are now extinct. This documentary short takes us inside the title theater located on the Bowery, as it’s about to close its doors, with its caretakers ruefully looking back at the life that once was. Eric Lin’s poignant first film serves as a glimpse into the usually private—and, according to the Music Palace’s projectionist, “lonely”—operations of a theater, and mourns the loss of a once-vital movie-going locale.

Ulrich Seidl - A Director at Work

October 2014 •English

This cinematic portrait shows the Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl at work. The much-discussed ‘Seidl method’ is conveyed here vividly and directly: The camera watches over Seidl’s shoulder during the filming of his new production IM KELLER, and observes him at the rehearsals for his latest theatre production ‘Böse Buben / Fiese Männer’. The film paints the picture of a fascinating and exceptional artist using a combination of extensive interviews and excerpts from earlier works.

Watch the Tempo

March 2018 •Italian

On 18th of December 2017, the Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino, directed by Timothy Brock, presented "The Gold Rush" by Charles Chaplin, with live performance of the soundtrack. But let's go back a few days: this short film takes us in the backstage of the concert!

The Fifth Hamlet

January 2009 •Latvian

What does the question “to be or not to be?” mean? 86 year-old director Olģerts Kroders stages his fourth production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Valmiera Drama Theatre. The theatre is more than merely his occupation, for he not only works there but also spends all of his time in it. The film depicts his routine and the rehearsal process up until the premiere, and provokes a dialogue using the four actors who have all played Hamlet in the different productions. Kroders’s life and the lives of the actors tell the history of Latvia and the fates of different generations.