The Amateur Circus

Oct 11, 2025

1h 5m

★ 0.0

Overview

Tucked away in northern Indiana, the city of Peru, Indiana is the circus capitol of the world. Thousands of visitors and townspeople come to this town for two weeks to see the annual amateur circus. Performed by only the local kids, fueled with the rich history and culture of the circus in Peru, this show is anything but amateur.

Genres

Documentary

The Amateur Circus Trailers

Cast

No Cast found.

In this documentary film a team of researchers examine the social contexts that influenced the emergence and permanence of heavy metal music in Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Peru. Colonialism, dictatorships, terrorism and neoliberal exploitation serve as points of reference for how heavy metal in the region has been directly linked to each country's social and political context.

8.5

Neirud

Jun 14, 2023

Neirud died shrouded in mystery, leaving behind no trace of her past. Confronting family secrets, the filmmaker pieces together the life of her enigmatic aunt, who toured Brazil as a wrestler in an underground all-female circus troupe throughout the 60s and 80s. As she investigates Neirud's controversial ring persona, Gorilla Woman, the filmmaker uncovers a taboo-breaking love story, revealing the surprising nature of Neirud's role in her own family.

8.0

Máxima

Apr 27, 2019

A multi-billion-dollar mining project is launched by the American Newmont Mining Corporation and lays claim to the land belonging to Preuvian highlander Máxima Acuña.

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0.0

The Medicine of Forgiveness

Jan 1, 2001

Benito Arévalo is an onaya: a traditional healer in a Shipibo-Konibo community in Peruvian Amazonia. He explains something of the onaya tradition, and how he came to drink the plant medicine ayahuasca under his father's tutelage. Arévalo leads an ayahuasca ceremony for Westerners, and shares with us something of his understanding of the plants and the onaya tradition.

0.0

Voices That Heal

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Herlinda Augustin is a Shipibo healer who lives with her family in Peruvian Amazonia. Will she and other healers be able to maintain their ancient tradition despite Western encroachment?

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0.0

Ayahuasca Diary

Jan 1, 2009

Four Westerners with various ailments travel to Peruvian Amazonia to drink ayahuasca, a traditional medicine renowned for its healing powers.

7.4

Chuy, The Wolf Man

Sep 25, 2015

Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.

0.0

Hatching by Cirque du Soleil

Jan 1, 2013

A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil

8.0

Circus Kid

Oct 9, 2016

The Pickle Family Circus was founded by Lorenzo Pisoni's parents in 1974. The film documents the spirit, the lunacy, the daring, the danger and the dynamics of growing up in a circus family.

7.5

Touching the Void

Sep 5, 2003

The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

0.0

River of Gold

Mar 26, 2016

Narrated by Academy Award winners Sissy Spacek and Herbie Hancock, River of Gold is the disturbing account of a clandestine journey into Peru's Amazon rainforest to uncover the savage unraveling of pristine jungle. What will be the fate of this critical region of priceless biodiversity as these extraordinarily beautiful forests are turned into a hellish wasteland?

9.0

A Farra do Circo

Nov 30, 2013

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.

0.0

Back To Africa

Apr 1, 2008

An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and followed their lives for a year. The artists, from villages in Ghana, Gambia and Congo, were the subjects of Africa! Africa! touring across Europe, but they have unbreakable roots to their homeland and their families. Schmiderer lovingly portrays his heroes, who tell their stories about themselves, their art and what it means to them to be African with captivating honesty. The interviews are interwoven with dance scenes and colourful vignettes set to authentic music.

5.8

Prater

Feb 10, 2007

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

7.5

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam

Dec 26, 1999

A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her world and she finds herself in the universe of QUIDAM, where she is joined by a playful companion, as well as another mysterious character who attempts to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling and the terrifying.

7.7

Cirque du Soleil: Alegria

Nov 19, 2001

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth - it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.

7.1

Cirque du Soleil: Saltimbanco

Jan 1, 1997

From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.

7.8

Cirque du Soleil: Varekai

Oct 7, 2003

Icarus is the main character of Varekai, who falls to the ground, breaking his legs as he does. He is suddenly in a strange, new world full of creatures he has never seen before. Parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, this young man sets off on an adventure both absurd and extraordinary.

6.8

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Oct 3, 1997

Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.

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0.0

Cirkus Kludský

Jan 1, 1967

No overview available.

The Amateur Circus

Overview

Genres

The Amateur Circus Trailers

Cast

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