Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

January 2008 •English

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows his friend, film director Martin Scorsese, and his cast and crew, through various locations during the shooting of his film The Departed, released in 2006.

Rire (enfin) au féminin

January 2024 •French

The Yes Men

September 2003 •English

A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.

Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade

July 2004 •English

An account of the life and work of American film director Sam Peckinpah (1925-84), a tortured artist whose genius and inner demons changed the Western genre forever.

Night and Fog

April 1959 •French

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Back To Africa

April 2008 •English

Watch Out for Orcas! Danger Off Gibraltar?

February 2024 •German

Since the summer of 2020, boats along the Atlantic coast from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay in the north have been repeatedly attacked by orcas. The whales purposefully attack the rudders and destroy them. Researchers are trying to find out what drives them. Curiosity? Competition for food? Or play?

Life Itself

July 2014 •English

The surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert (1942-2013): his early days as a freewheeling bachelor and Pulitzer Prize winner, his famously contentious partnership with Gene Siskel, his life-altering marriage, and his brave and transcendent battle with cancer.

Remembering Jean Gabin

November 1978 •English

Profile of Jean Gabin, the great French actor of 100 films, who died in 1976 at the age of 73. Here his career is traced and he is remembered by some of the many producers, directors, writers and actors with whom he worked. Illustrated with many photographs and film clips. Narrated by Nadia Gray who played opposite Gabin in the early 50's. Interviews with Directors Rene Clement, Jean Dellanoy, Denys de la Patelliere, Granbier-Deferre. Actors Madeleine Renaud, Michele Morgan, Simone Simon, Jean Desailly, Francois Arnoul, Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux. Cinema Critics and Historians Claude Beylie, Robert Chazal. Screenwriter Michel Audiard. 1978.

Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary

February 2002 •German

Documentarians Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer turn their camera on 81-year-old Traudl Junge, who served as Adolf Hitler's secretary from 1942 to 1945, and allow her to speak about her experiences. Junge sheds light on life in the Third Reich and the days leading up to Hitler's death in the famed bunker, where Junge recorded Hitler's last will and testament. Her gripping account is nothing short of mesmerizing.

Nisei Soldiers: Japanese American G.I. Joes

April 2017 •English

Leaving internment camps to defend their country in Europe, Japanese-American Nisei soldiers of WWII became the most decorated unit in American history.

Jack Kirby: Story Teller

June 2007 •English

A documentary on the life of Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers, The Hulk, The X-Men and the New Gods, among other classic comic book superheroes.

James Gandolfini: Tribute to a Friend

December 2013 •English

In the half-hour tribute, friends and colleagues remember the three-time Emmy winner, who died June 19 at age 51. The special features clips of Gandolfini’s work as well as behind-the-scenes footage.

Orchestrated Mayhem: The Making of Invisible Target

June 2008 •

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Benny Chan's Invisible Target (2007) including interviews with the major stars of the film and the production crew.

Biafra

May 2015 •English

An unnamed graffiti artist produces a new piece in the biting cold of Minneapolis. Despite the illegality of his medium and the harshness of his environment, the film captures why the artist chooses to create on his own terms.

Hockney at the Tate

October 1988 •English

To mark his fiftieth birthday in 1988, London's Tate Gallery staged a major retrospective of his work. Melvyn Bragg joined David Hockney for an exclusive private view of the exhibition and they were filmed discussing pictures from all stages of Hockney's remarkable career.

The Art World's Prankster: Maurizio Cattelan

December 2016 •English

One of the most provocative and elusive figures in contemporary art finds himself the subject of Maura Axelrod's film. Catapulted to worldwide notoriety in 1999 by The Ninth Hour, a sculpture of Pope John Paul II toppled by a meteorite, Maurizio Cattelan's work has bordered on criminal activity (breaking into a gallery and stealing another artist's work) and regularly defies good taste - Him features Hitler in prayer and sold earlier this year for a whopping £12,000,000. Building his career on evasion, trickery and subversion, Cattelan is perhaps not the most reliable of interviewees, but ex-girlfriends, family members, collectors and dealers build a compelling and intimate portrait of an enigmatic figure. Bold, witty and playful as a Cattelan work itself, is this film really all it seems?

Studs Terkel: Listening to America

May 2009 •English

For over 60 years, Studs Terkel elevated the voices and experiences of everyday Americans through his skillful interviews on radio, in books and on TV. This documentary takes a fond and illuminating look back at one of America's most influential authors and media personalities whose curiosity about people never dimmed over the course of a long and brilliant career.

Charlie Chaplin, The Genius of Liberty

October 2020 •French

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1899-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

Leonor Fini

May 1988 •French

Portrait of an Artist