Architecture & Installation
Cinema
Drama
Fashion
Music
Performance

 
Architecture & Installation
 
Art of Faith

This three-part series explores the art and architecture of the world’s three monotheistic religions. From the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to the madrassas of Samerkand; from the earliest synagogues on the mountain fort of Masada to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Beth Sholom near Philadelphia; to Saint Catherine’s monastery to Chartres and Henri Matisse’s chapel in Vence, France; the architecture and art of each building is brought alive through the eyes of a religious guide. Viewers gain a deeper understanding of the three Abrahamic faith traditions as well as the history and art of these buildings and their importance as places of lived faith.
 
 
The Gates

In 1979, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude proposed one of the largest public art installations in history: a “golden river” of 7,503 fabric-paneled gates in Central Park. Antonio Ferrera’s and Albert Maysles’ film chronicles the artists’ twenty-six year commitment to transform the winter darkness of the iconic park into a garden of light and color. Weaving together archival interviews with committees, politicians and on-site conversations with visitors, the film ultimately poses the question: what is art?
 
 
 
 
 

Cinema

The Five Obstructions

Lars von Trier enters the world of experimental documentary filmmaking by challenging his idol Jorgen Leth to remake his 1967 masterpiece, The Perfect Human, five times, each time with a different ‘obstruction’. Leth rises to the challenge, from filming in Cuba to the red light district of Bombay to Brussels, as von Trier hurtles one obstruction after the other at him. An innovative director, von Trier is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective. This documentary will be discussed and studied by filmmakers, fans and critics for years to come.
 
 
 
The Godard Duo

Jean-Luc Godard was a founding member of the French New Wave and one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. Two of his most overtly political films from the 60s, La Chinoise and Le Gai Savoir, examine the relationship between art and revolution, language and power. La Chinoise focuses on a group of students and engages with the ideas coming out of the student activist groups in pre 1968 France. Le Gai Savoir was rejected by French national television and subsequently banned by the French government for its subversive content.
 
 
La Dolce Vita

Frederico Fellini’s award-winning masterpiece starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg is restored and remastered. Considered by many to be Fellini’s masterpiece, it signals the split between his earlier neo-realist films and his later art films. This two-disc special edition includes interviews with Fellini, Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, and noted critic and film historian Richard Schickel.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nollywood Babylon

Nollywood Babylon chronicles the wild world of “Nollywood,” a term coined in the early ‘90s to describe the world’s fastest-growing national cinema, surpassed only by its Indian counterpart. The film delves first-hand into Nigeria’s explosive homegrown movie industry, where Jesus and voodoo vie for screen time. Peppered with outrageously juicy movie clips and buoyed by a rousing score fusing Afropop and traditional sounds, Nollywood Babylon celebrates the distinctive power of Nigerian cinema as it marvels in the magic of movies.
 
 

Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation

Fenton Bailey’s Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation offers a comprehensive, detailed examination of the origins and transformations of adult media. This six-part series contains commentary from a multitude of sources, including art historians, social critics, authors, collectors, and adult stars themselves. The film tastefully tackles the taboo subject by focusing on pornography’s implications of human nature, the impact of technological advances and social evolution.
 
 
 
 
 
The Tree of Wooden Clogs

Italian director Ermanno Olmi’s film is about a little boy who breaks the precious pair of clogs that he needs for his long trek to school. A late example of Italian neorealism, Olmi used local farmers and peasants rather than actors in this tale of social injustice. The recipient of the 1979 Palme d’Or, many consider Tree of Wooden Clogs to be Olmi’s most important film and one of the great classics of international cinema.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Drama

Antigone: Rites of Passion

This critically acclaimed modern adaptation of Sophocle’s classic tragedy combines dance and narrative to tell the story of Antigone, who risks her own life to arrange the burial of her brother Polyneices. The treachery surrounding his death and the threatening behavior of King Creon provide the drama that motivates this daring interpretation of the classic story. Bonus material includes an extensive interview with Classics scholar Dr. Marianne McDonald.
 
 
 
 
 
Dollhouse

Mabou Mines critically acclaimed interpretation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House rejuvenates a nineteenth century classic with bold staging and conceptual originality. Ibsen’s Doll’s House has been described as a feminist clarion, Freudian drama and bourgeois soap opera. In Mabou Mines’ re-imagining, the production shocks and enlightens audiences as never before. Includes the companion documentary, Looking for a Miracle, which features extensive interviews with director Lee Breuer and the original cast.
 
 
 
 
Hair

Award-winning filmmaker Pola Rappaport’s documentary excavates the origins of this culturally transformative theatre work. Interviews with co-creator James Rado, original cast members and producers as well as director Milos Forman are fused with abundant and rare archival footage. The result is a delectable deconstruction of a musical that defined an era, a generation and its politics. The DVD includes an additional hour of bonus material featuring extended interviews with the original creators and cast. Hair: Let the Sun Shine In is the definitive resource for theater and drama students.
 
 
 
Hedda Gabler

Set in an anonymous corner of suburbia, this contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s play is a shattering exploration of ambition, domestic power and gender roles. Just married, Hedda Gabler and her husband arrive at their new home where Hedda’s romantic rival from the past appears. Hedda must confront her desire for a life lived beautifully and without compromise - whatever the cost. This bracing dramatization brings new dimensions to Hedda Gabler’s character.
 
 
 
 
 
Harold Pinter: Art, Truth & Politics

In late 2005 Harold Pinter videotaped a lecture on the occasion of the award to him of one of the most distinguished of honours, the Nobel Prize for Literature. His speech, delivered directly to camera, is a complex reflection on his own writing and an excoriating attack on the foreign policy of a “brutal, ruthless and scornful” United States. Harold Pinter reflects on the genesis of his plays “The Homecoming” and “Old Times”; on the problems of political theatre; on the tragedy of American actions in Nicaragua; on the invasion of Iraq and on other crimes by the United States in the past half century.
 
 
 
Macbeth

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth has been lauded as the finest production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play for over a quarter of a century. In 2000, it played to packed houses in Stratford, London, and theatres abroad. All twenty actors from the original production, including Antony Sher and Harriet Walter, star in this compelling screen version of Gregory Doran’s original stage production. Cleverly reconceived for the camera, and brilliantly shot at London’s Roundhouse, Macbeth was filmed in a gritty style using the edgy techniques of fly-on-the wall documentaries.
 
 
 
Measure for Measure

Sex and power drive the action of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Set in today’s British army this is a modern realization of a classic problem play where every character must justify their own private morality in a world bereft of discipline and authority. Critics rave that this contemporary dramatization is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Protagonist

This riveting documentary explores the psychological transformation of the modern character. Inspired by the Greek playwright Euripides, Academy Award winning director Jessica Yu weaves together the stories of four men consumed by personal odysseys. The narrative structure mirrors a Greek drama and the film incorporates quotes from Euripides to contextualize their personal stories. Never before has an interpretation of Euripides’ work revealed how relevant he is for audiences today.
 
 
 
Theater of War

Meryl Streep is an unforgettable mother courage in Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece. Filmmaker John Walter’s new movie could easily have been a star vehicle for Streep and Kevin Kline. Instead he digs deeply into Brecht’s motives and politics, unearthing the playwright’s famed (and famously clever) testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (the day after which he quit the United States). Theater of War is about theater and war, capitalism and Marxism, the postwar anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, and one literary genius’s ability to make art from them all.
 

 
 
Fashion
 
Lagerfeld Confidential

For the first time Karl Lagerfeld, the innovative designer who has ruled the House of Chanel for more than two decades, agreed to trust a director to create an artwork based on his life. After three years of crisscrossing the globe filming the outspoken icon, Rodolphe Marconi unveils the inner workings of the influential and enigmatic star.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Music

Glass

Academy Award nominated director Scott Hicks (”Shine”) was allowedunprecedented access to renowned American composer Philip Glass. Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts is an intimate film study of one of today’s greatest living artists. From the creative process and family life to influential spiritual teachers and long time artistic collaborators, this documentary is a remarkable mosaic of an artist and his work. This 2008 feature documentary was shortlisted for an Academy Award.
 
 
 
 
Les Paul - Chasing Sound!

Guitar wizard, inventor and architect of rock ‘n’ roll, the legendary Les Paul tells his own rags-to-riches story in this feature-length documentary. A pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which “made the sound of rock and roll possible,” his many recording innovations include overdubbing, delay effects such as “sound on sound” and tape delay, phasing effects and multi-track recording. This documentary explores the achievements of a famed artist and inventor who combined creativity with technology. An American Master’s production.
 
 
 
Messiah

Critically acclaimed photographer and filmmaker William Klein interprets Handel’s Messiah in a mesmerizing film brimming with visions of the sacred and the profane. Klein’s montage of horrific news images and industrial detritus contrasts with scenes of soaring beauty, all accompanying a complete performance of the oratorio. With his ironic counterpoints, Klein achieves a new revelation of Handel’s themes of faith, doubt and rapture that will challenge viewers’ traditional associations with this musical masterpiece.
 
 
 
 
The Soldier’s Tale

Penned by Stravinsky in 1918 in response to the Russian Revolution, this timeless composition is the powerful tale of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil. Rendered as an animated film from renowned illustrator R.O. Blachman, this award-winning modern adaptation will delight classical music neophytes as well as Stravinsky aficionados. Narrated by Andre Gregory, this visionary work was produced in collaboration with PBS’s Great Performances series.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Performance

Dollhouse

Mabou Mines critically acclaimed interpretation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House rejuvenates a nineteenth century classic with bold staging and conceptual originality. Ibsen’s Doll’s House has been described as a feminist clarion, Freudian drama and bourgeois soap opera. In Mabou Mines’ re-imagining, the production shocks and enlightens audiences as never before. Includes the companion documentary, Looking for a Miracle, which features extensive interviews with director Lee Breuer and the original cast.
 
 
 
 
Hair

Award-winning filmmaker Pola Rappaport’s documentary excavates the origins of this culturally transformative theatre work. Interviews with co-creator James Rado, original cast members and producers as well as director Milos Forman are fused with abundant and rare archival footage. The result is a delectable deconstruction of a musical that defined an era, a generation and its politics. The DVD includes an additional hour of bonus material featuring extended interviews with the original creators and cast. Hair: Let the Sun Shine In is the definitive resource for theater and drama students.
 
 
 
Kiki & Herb Live at the Knitting Factory

The cabaret duo Kiki & Herb began performing in the 1980’s as a reaction to the AIDS crisis, an epidemic which at its height killed many gay intellectuals and artists. This live performance at the NYC Knitting Factory captures the scathing wit and talent of one of America’s cutting-edge theater performances.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
U Carmen

Carmen, perhaps the world’s best-loved opera, is recreated in a naturalistic world of South African pool halls, bars, courtyards and barracks. Rarely has opera been made more modern, relevant or vibrant than in this stunning interpretation featuring Dimpho Di Kopane (DDK), the internationally acclaimed South African theater company.