Blank city is an "absorbing snapshot of a daring time" (LA Times) when a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. From the late 1970's through the mid 80's, when the East Village was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors created bold works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today. Made on DIY...

Features four discs highlighting events from the 20th century, and memorabilia recreated from original materials at The National Archives, London, England, which include Henry VIII's will, the warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, a report of the amputation of Admiral Nelson's arm, a battle map of the Crimean War, plans for Buckingham Palace gardens, drawing from the Boer War, and documents from WWI and WWII....

Art deco and moderne originated in Europe and were marked by stylized ornamental detailing. We will visit homes that stand as works of art, featuring mosaics, detailed metalworks magnificent stained glass. Only a few homes in Canada including Ottawa's French embassy were built during the styles' short life before World War II.

Koji Wakamatsu's epic docudrama explores the political unrest of 1960s Japan, when mass student uprisings coincided with the beginnings of the far-left United Red Army group, which tortured and murdered its "deviant" members during a 1972 training session. An uncompromising piece of filmmaking from one of Japan's most controversial filmmakers, with a score by American musician (and ex-Sonic Youth member) Jim O'Rourke.

Uncle Chatzkel portrays the patient triumph of one man’s dignity and intellect over genocide, oppression and personal adversity. Chatzkel Lemchen has lived through the Russian revolution, two world wars, a communist regime and the transition of Lithuania from Soviet republic to an independent state. During the Holocaust his parents and children, along with many of their fellow Jewish citizens, were killed by the Nazis and their Lithuanian supporters....

It was a flood of biblical proportion rampaging for two months, cutting a swath across 9 Midwestern states killing 50 people and destroying or damaging 55,000 homes. Hardin, Missouri, population a little over 600, was a small, close-knit farming community. Residents watched over each other and their history by taking exceptional care of the local cemetery where their ancestors rested. What the inhabitants of this small Missouri town came to realize...

At mid-career, Meier guides the viewer on a retrospective of his white buildings, from private houses of the 1960s to the Frankfurt and Atlanta Museums of the 1980s--all variations on his trademark spatial and planar treatment. His influences from Corbusier, Wright, Mies, and Baroque Germany are shown. Clients and colleagues offer opinions. At the end of the film Richard Meier stands on an empty hill in Brentwood (L. A. ) speculating on the issues...

While there's been no shortage of commentary about the structural crisis plaguing the American economic and political system, from wage stagnation and chronic unemployment to unchecked corporate and state power and growing inequality, analyses that offer practical, politically viable solutions to these problems have been few and far between. This illustrated presentation from distinguished historian and political economist Gar Alperovitz is a rare...

Widely regarded as Australia’s greatest living artist, the exuberant 80-year-old John Olsen talks with acclaimed art commentator Betty Churcher about his life’s work. Still painting with all his creative energy in his studio in the NSW Southern Highlands, Olsen speaks of the influence of poetry and Spain on his art and his restless love of Sydney Harbour and the Australian bush. Now at the height of his creative powers, Olsen has won many awards...

During this critical decade in American life, artists built on the styles of the 1950s. An explosion of artistic energy produced Pop art, Minimalism, color-field painting, and hard-edged abstraction. Sculptors and painters on both coasts explored new methods and new subject matter. American art in the sixties examines the key figures of that decade including Rauschenberg and Johns, two crucial transitional figures between Abstract Expressionism and...