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Grand Opera: An Historical Romance

Mar 15, 1979

1h 30m

★ 8.0

Overview

Grand Opera marks a stock-taking of Benning's work and his life, presenting a personal and artistic autobiography woven together with a series of events dealing with the historical development of the number pi, Benning's travels, and homages to Michael Snow, Hollis Frampton, George Landow (Owen Land), and Yvonne Rainer.

Genres

Documentary

Grand Opera: An Historical Romance Trailers

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Cast

Max A. Zorn

Hollis Frampton

Al Rutcurts

Owen Land

Wilma Schoen

Michael Snow

Kristina

Yvonne Rainer

Himself (voice)

Stan Brakhage

Clouds 1969 by the British filmmaker Peter Gidal is a film comprised of ten minutes of looped footage of the sky, shot with a handheld camera using a zoom to achieve close-up images. Aside from the amorphous shapes of the clouds, the only forms to appear in the film are an aeroplane flying overhead and the side of a building, and these only as fleeting glimpses. The formless image of the sky and the repetition of the footage on a loop prevent any clear narrative development within the film. The minimal soundtrack consists of a sustained oscillating sine wave, consistently audible throughout the film without progression or climax. The work is shown as a projection and was not produced in an edition. The subject of the film can be said to be the material qualities of film itself: the grain, the light, the shadow and inconsistencies in the print.

6.3

Gifted and Challenged: The Making of 'Shortbus'

Mar 13, 2007

A look at the unusual process used in the making of the film Shortbus (2006) featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the feature film. Director John Cameron Mitchell starts with the concept of using real sex in a film with a positive message. The cast of unknowns is selected from homemade audition tapes and then a callback audition workshop. More acting workshops are used to develop the characters and script. The project overcomes a number of obstacles and the rest of the film's development is followed up until its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

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0.0

Brise-glace : Bateau givre

Dec 15, 1987

First part of the collaborative project "Brise-Glace" showing the diverse travels on the icebreaker "Frej". Directed by Jean Rouch.

6.1

The Wild Blue Yonder

Sep 5, 2005

An alien narrates the story of his dying planet, his and his people's visitations to Earth and Earth's self-made demise, while human astronauts in space are attempting to find an alternate planet for surviving humans to live on.

5.0

Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul

May 14, 1993

An insider's account of Jack Warner, a founding father of the American film industry. This feature length documentary provides the rags to riches story of the man whose studio - Warner Bros - created many of Hollywood's most classic films. Includes extensive interviews with family members and friends, film clips, rare home movies and unique location footage.

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8.0

Dreams of Ice

Nov 15, 1994

In 1992 the Universal Exhibition in Seville was held in Spain. Chile participated in this exhibition by displaying in its pavilion an ice floe captured and brought especially by sea from Antarctica. In these true facts is based the fantasy narrated in Dreams of Ice. Filmed between November 1991 and May 1992 on board the ships Galvarino, Aconcagua and Maullín, in a voyage that goes from Antarctica to Spain, in this documentary film in which dreams, myths and facts converge towards a poetic tale turned into a seafaring saga, in the manner of the legends of the seafarers that populate the mythology of the American continent and universal literature.

7.6

Somniloquies

Feb 12, 2017

Works with sound recordings of Dion McGregor, who became famous for talking in his sleep.

0.0

Sermons and Sacred Pictures

Mar 25, 1989

"An experimental documentary on Reverend L.O. Taylor, a black Baptist minister from Memphis, Tennessee who was also an inspired filmmaker with an overwhelming interest in preserving the social and cultural fabric of his own community in the 1930′s and 40s. I combine his films and music recordings with my own images of Memphis neighborhoods and religious gatherings" -Sachs

7.0

Dogtown and Z-Boys

May 10, 2002

This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.

4.2

Song 5

Mar 20, 1964

SONG 5: A childbirth song (the Songs are a cycle of silent color 8mm films by the American experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage produced from 1964 to 1969).

5.5

One Second in Montreal

Sep 25, 1969

A silent succession of black-and-white photographs of the city of Montreal.

10.0

it's a girl!

Dec 2, 2020

A self-portrait short film on 16mm from a trans male perspective.

8.2

Night and Fog

Apr 27, 1959

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

0.0

Oat Boy

Jun 8, 2021

Folk portraiture, images of children in suburbia.

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8.0

Distance-Landscape: Football Field

Feb 18, 2011

Study of the relationship between observer and landscape in the contemplative experience. The view building the landscape from the necessary distance. The delimitation of its borders against the total continuum of nature. The observer immersed in the path of his gaze across the landscape. Resting the gaze in the details that make the globallity. The view selecting the space included as a landscape.

10.0

A Place of Our Own

Mar 23, 2014

No overview available.

7.3

Let Us Persevere in What We Have Resolved Before We Forget

Jul 4, 2013

On the island of Tanna, a part of Vanuatu, an archipelago in Melanesia, strange rites are enacted and time passes slowly while the inhabitants await the return of the mysterious John.

5.2

Todo Todo Teros

Aug 18, 2006

Basically an artist is also a terrorist, the protagonist thinks in an unguarded moment. And if he is a terrorist after all, then he might just as well be one. Not an instant product, but an experimental feature in which diary material is brought together to form an intriguing puzzle.

Grand Opera: An Historical Romance

Overview

Genres

Grand Opera: An Historical Romance Trailers