Embassy of the Free Mind

The Last Vermeer

A soldier and member of the Dutch resistance investigates stolen art in the wake of the Second World War, including a Vermeer sold to the Nazis by a flamboyant forger.

Document : Amsterdam Backstreets Diary

This is Amsterdam, the city of pleasure. Where there's a front, there's also a back. This documentary captures the bizarre adventures of Yuji Kitano and his undergarment-clad companion, Tsubaki, over roughly one month, primarily in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Neither husband and wife nor lovers, this odd couple infiltrates various hair-raising danger zones in a foreign land, gets involved with shady characters, and somehow ends up attending secret parties... 90 minutes of cold sweat, laughter, and shock.

Once in a Lifetime

This documentary delves into the history behind the Wellington New Zealand based private LOTR Fan museum, run by Kathy. It plays on request at the museum.

Momias De Quinto

Fifteen naturally mummified bodies were found during the excavations of 2011 in the old church of El Piquete, —a building that suffered almost total devastation as a consequence for being a refuge for civilians during the Spanish Civil War—, this discovery allowed the creation of the Museum of the Mummies of Quinto where this collection with unique characteristics in Spain is exhibited thanks to the research of historians, scientists, bio anthropologists and archaeologists.

The Librarians

As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.

Faces Places

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

All the World's Memory

A documentary about the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It presents the building, with its processes of cataloguing and preserving all sorts of printed material, as both a monument of cultural memory and as a monstrous, alien being.

Katie Tippel

In the late 19th-century, the Tippel family moves to rural Stavoren in search of greener pastures. However, their dreams are quickly shattered, as teenage Katie is terrorized by a male-dominated society who only see her as an object. Her situation worsens when, following her father's sacking and her elder sister's descent into alcoholism, her mother decides that, rather than starving, Katie becomes a prostitute.

Mon Paradis - Der Winterpalast

A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.

A Walk Through Prospero's Library

A short made for TV with director Peter Greenaway discussing the dazzling 3.5 minute opening sequence from his film, 'Prospero's Books'. As Prospero (John Gielgud) walks through his library, Greenaway comments on the historical, mythological, biblical & fictional characters occupying the library.

This Island

How the art in the Detroit Institute of Art connects to life's experiences and the neighborhood.

Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story

'Orsay

National Culture Monument

Besides presenting an actual exhibition, this film about a Monument of National Literatuře also presents an interpretation of the history of Czech literature that was subject to the mores of that time. It looks at the exhibition chronologically, it comments on documents from the beginnings of the national literature up to the 1950s, emphasises the importance of the relationship of the present time with the national cultural tradition. It labels the museum itself as a “people’s university” and draws attention to its educational role.

Biblioburro, the Donkey Library

This documentary follows the life of a one-of-a-kind man, and his one-of-a-kind library. Luis Soriano is a Colombian schoolteacher who spends weekends taking his donkey, and book collection, to the poverty-ridden towns of Magdalena Province. Facing down drug dealers, dangerous creatures, and overbearing heat, Soriano bravely faces down fear to promote education and literature.

Where

The ninth opus of his Walker Films series, which was shot at Centre Pompidou.

Tváře času

Aapje Aram

The Way South

Johan van der Keuken went against the grain in 1980: from Amsterdam (on April 30 with the coronation riots and squatting actions) via Paris, southern France and Italy to Egypt. He made his personal travelogue in three parts for VPRO television. Later, he fused the three parts into one long movie.

The Price of Shelter

Private-sector rented accommodation for the Surinamese and Antillean Dutch who increasingly moved to Amsterdam from these former colonies in the early seventies was woefully inadequate. In 1982, André Reeder graduated from The Netherlands Film Academy (NFTVA) with Onderneming onderdak (The Price of Shelter) – a documentary about this appalling situation.