Strudel Sisters

The Sixth Side of the Pentagon

Chris Marker and François Reichenbach document the massive anti–Vietnam War protest held in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 1967, where more than 100,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial before marching on the Pentagon. Filmed amid the crowd, the short captures the tension, idealism, and growing radicalism of the American peace movement.

Hakob Hovnatanyan

Exploring the art of Armenian portraitist Hakob Hovnatanyan, Parajanov revives the culture of Tbilisi of the 19th century.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

Stone

Kevin Jerome Everson's single-take film of a street hustler's sleight-of-hand game takes its place in a rowdy crowd of onlookers. The camera stays focused on the man's fleet fingers while the audio is glued to his gift of gab: "Keep your eyes on that little red dot if you want to win cold cash money on the spot." Every bit the performer, the hustler makes us wonder whether the film itself might be a kind of shell game (with the seemingly raw immediacy of the shot concealing its artistic intentionality). - Max Goldberg

Second Place

One of several Kevin Jerome Everson pieces regarding African-American rodeo riders, SECOND PLACE brings us inside the big show. The jerkily pixilated view of a bucking bull offers an aesthetic equivalent of the cowboy's wild ride while the film's silence lends an unexpected repose to the contest. Whether anticipating a bull's blasting out of the gate or watching an old hand stretch out his back, Everson's camera is ever-attentive to the action at the edge of the frame. - Max Goldberg

The Mayberry Practice Calf

Radiating the radical simplicity of a Lumière actuality, THE MAYBERRY PRACTICE CALF shows an African-American cowboy roping a hunk of tire again and again. "Calf roping is a discipline," Kevin Jerome Everson told an interviewer. "People practice it, they know the language of it and they know how to do it." Everson's camera evinces a comparable degree of discipline, with a single long take functioning as a montage through the serial repetition of the cowboy's action. We may wonder if we're watching a loop but gradually our eyes are drawn to small variations. Practice makes perfect. - Max Goldberg

München, Raphaela

A film about a young woman's future plans in Munich, Germany. MUNCHEN, RAPHAELA (also known as RAPHAELA RING MUNCHEN) is part of Mike Plante's Lunchfilm series of commissioned shorts (made for the cost of a lunch between Plante and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson).

Buba

This documentary film is about one of Georgia's regions - Racha. The title of the film is taken from the name of one of Racha's high mountain villages. It tells about the poorest in society living in the mountains and the rise of the SSSR. The product of a remarkable collaboration between the first Georgian female filmmaker and the leading Georgian avant-garde artist David Kakabadze.

Elhallgatott gyalázat

Planet Food: Lebanon

For centuries, the ports of Lebanon dominated the trade routes between Europe, the Middle East, China and India. In this documentary, our intrepid gastronaut Merrilees Parker finds a world of heavily spiced lamb, cooling salads, deliciously strong wines from and sweet pastries filled with pistachios and honey.

Worth Every Minute

A tribute to the late Pat Schulz, an influential Canadian feminist.

Capturing the Friedmans

An Oscar nominated documentary about a middle-class American family who is torn apart when the father Arnold and son Jesse are accused of sexually abusing numerous children. Director Jarecki interviews people from different sides of this tragic story and raises the question of whether they were rightfully tried when they claim they were innocent and there was never any evidence against them.

A 3 Minute Hug

As daylight breaks between the border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, undocumented migrants and their relatives, divided by a wall, prepare to participate in an activist event. For three minutes, they’ll embrace in no man’s land for the briefest and sweetest of reunions.

Brigitte

An insight into the creative process of photographer Brigitte Lacombe, exploring her obsession with taking pictures and how her lens defines her relationship with her subjects and the world.

The Oceans Are the Real Continents

Having Cuba as a background, decadent and in crisis, in a black-and-white lacerated by the Caraibic swinging rain, Alex and Edith, a couple in their 30s, live their love story made of small daily gestures, stories from the past, nostalgia, and a deep intimacy.

2020

Short for his website, kickthemachine.

Not Without My Dogs

Out of love for Huskies, nature and cold winters Dave and Kristen Olesen moved from Minnesota to the North West Territories in Canada 25 years ago to create their own little universe on the magnificent East arm of Great Slave Lake. With their two daughters Annika 15 and Liv 12 and their 37 dogs, the Olesens enjoy a unique lifestyle in the wide open wilderness far away from civilization. One winter they all leave their self-built homestead with ten dogs on a two and a half thousand mile family expedition allowing Annika to run the Junior Iditarod in Alaska. As unexpected obstacles all along the trip culminate in three heavily injured dogs the whole endeavor is at risk. Optimism, love and loyalty prevail on this exciting epic family voyage.

The Search for General Tso

From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.

This was the MARY

Short 18 minute film about QM and her last Transatlantic voyage from New York to Southampton. Joan Crawford makes an appearance and also narrates the first part of the film.

Black Sun

Underscored by French film legend Delphine Seyrig’s evocative recitation of a Henri Michaux poem, Maureen Fazendeiro’s film is a mysterious, multi-textured portrait of eclipse spectators in Portugal.