Celebrating the Rice Media Center

Apr 19, 2024

0h 45m

★ 0.0

AN HOMAGE TO HOUSTON FILM FROM 1961-2015.

Overview

Through the Fondren Fellows program, the Rice Media Center Archive Project has spent the past few months sifting through material stored at the now-defunct Rice Media Center. The team has identified several films as especially notable and will be presenting them in conjunction with documentary footage the team shot of people involved with the films. From lectures featuring Roberto Rossellini and Werner Herzog to films from former Rice students and faculty, the film presentation will tell the narrative of the Rice Media Center through the films and filmmakers that passed through its corridors.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Fondren Fellows

Celebrating the Rice Media Center Trailers

Cast

Self (archival footage)

Werner Herzog

Self (archival footage)

Brian Huberman

Self (archival footage)

Heather Korb

Self (archival footage)

Ashley Fell

Self (archival footage)

Camilla Clements

Self (archival footage)

Basilios Poulos

Self (archival footage)

Michael Miron

Behind-the-scenes footage, rare screen tests and insightful interviews highlight this engrossing two-hour look at one of Hollywood's greatest dream factories. Such film luminaries as Tom Hanks, William Friedkin, George Lucas, Oliver Stone and Robert Altman discuss their work at the studio. Clips include scenes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Patton, Young Frankenstein, Star Wars, Alien, Big, Home Alone, Die Hard and dozens more.

7.2

The Bloody Hundredth

Mar 14, 2024

Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.

7.3

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Feb 5, 2025

The individual journeys of the four members of the band, as they move through the music scene of the 1960s, playing small clubs throughout Britain and performing some of the biggest hits of the era, until their meeting in the summer of 1968 for a rehearsal that changes their lives forever.

6.9

Sophia Loren, a special destiny

Dec 24, 2019

With a maddening sensuality, the unforgettable actress of the film "A Special Day" embodies the golden age of Italian cinema. From the suburbs of Naples to Hollywood, this biographical documentary looks back at the flamboyant career and destiny of Sophia Loren.

7.5

Tokyo Phoenix

May 20, 2017

In 150 years, twice marked by total destruction —a terrible earthquake in 1923 and incendiary bombings in 1945— followed by a spectacular rebirth, Tokyo, the old city of Edo, has become the largest and most futuristic capital in the world in a transformation process fueled by the exceptional resilience of its inhabitants, and nourished by a unique phenomenon of cultural hybridization.

7.5

Woodstock

Mar 26, 1970

An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

6.9

Le Temps de cerveau disponible

Mar 17, 2010

Cruelty, psychological and sexual violence, humiliations: reality television seems to have gone mad. His debut in the early 2000s inaugurated a new era in the history of the audio-visual. Fifty years of archives trace the evolution of entertainment: how the staging of intimacy during the 80s opened new territories, how the privatization of the biggest channels has changed the relationship with the spectator. With the contribution of specialists, including philosopher Bernard Stiegler, this documentary demonstrates how emotion has made way for the exacerbation of the most destructive impulses.

8.0

Phantasia

Mar 13, 2024

X-ray images were invented in 1895, the same year in which the Lumière brothers presented their respective invention in what today is considered to be the first cinema screening. Thus, both cinema and radiography fall within the scopic regime inaugurated by modernity. The use of X-rays on two sculptures from the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum generates images that reveal certain elements of them that would otherwise be invisible to our eyes. These images, despite being generally created for technical or scientific purposes, seem to produce a certain form of 'photogénie': they lend the radiographed objects a new appearance that lies somewhere between the material and the ethereal, endowing them with a vaporous and spectral quality. It is not by chance that physics and phantasmagoria share the term 'spectrum' in their vocabulary.

7.7

Jackie Chan: Building an Icon

Aug 4, 2021

Jackie Chan is a true icon of Asian and Chinese culture. Over a 45-year-long career, he has carved a niche for himself as an actor, stuntman, director, and screenwriter, but also singer and formidable businessman. After starring in almost 200 films, Jackie Chan has reconciled fans of genre film and Hollywood blockbusters, whilst bridging the gap between Asian and Western cinema. Through film excerpts, archive footage and images, and an offbeat approach inspired by the visual codes of the golden age of kung fu films, this documentary will take a look back at the creation of a popular hero who has come to be an icon for China, and for the entire Asian continent.

6.3

Weekend of a Champion

Oct 9, 2013

Filmmaker Roman Polanski spends a weekend with world champion driver Jackie Stewart as he attempts to win the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix, offering an extraordinarily rare glimpse into the life of a gifted athlete at the height of his powers. "Re-cut and restored" version of the original "Weekend Of A Champion (1972)", with a 2011 post-film discussion between Jackie Stewart and Roman Polanski (begins at approx 71:15 minutes).

7.5

Jane

Dec 28, 2017

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

7.4

Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World

Jun 22, 2023

John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Little Richard, The Doors, Chuck Berry, Alice Cooper, and other legendary musicians performed at the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival music festival. This behind-the-scenes look at “the second most important event in rock and roll history” culminates in John Lennon’s first public performance with The Plastic Ono Band, triggering his decision to leave the Beatles.

7.5

Grizzly Man

Aug 12, 2005

Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

7.2

Apollo 13: Survival

Mar 8, 2024

Using original footage and interviews, this documentary tells the nail-biting story of Apollo 13 and the struggle to bring its astronauts safely home.

6.9

ABBA: Against the Odds

Mar 23, 2024

This year marks the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s iconic Eurovision victory, a milestone that calls for a celebratory cinematic tribute fitting for the ultimate pop band. ‘ABBA: Against the Odds’ unveils the epic journey of ABBA’s rise to global fame. Starting with the moment they won Eurovision, it tells the story of how they overcame critical backlash, societal attitudes and marital break-up to deliver their ground-breaking music and prove themselves as a live act.

7.0

Django & Django: Sergio Corbucci Unchained

Nov 15, 2021

A tribute to Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci (1926-90), presented by American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

3.9

The Disappearance of Shere Hite

Nov 17, 2023

Shere Hite’s 1976 bestselling book, The Hite Report, liberated the female orgasm by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Her findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. So how did Shere Hite disappear?

0.0

Milisuthando

Oct 18, 2024

Set in past, present, and future South Africa — an invitation into a poetic, memory-driven exploration of love, intimacy, race, and belonging by the filmmaker, who grew up during apartheid but didn't know it was happening until it was over.

7.8

STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Jan 20, 2023

A short kid from a Canadian army base becomes the international pop culture darling of the 1980s—only to find the course of his life altered by a stunning diagnosis. What happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease?

6.6

Altman

Aug 1, 2014

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.