A Chef's Voyage follows the celebrated American Chef David Kinch and his team from Manresa, their 3 Star Michelin restaurant in California, for a one-of-a-kind collaboration with three legendary French chefs at their iconic restaurants in Paris, Provence, and Marseille. To mark the 15th anniversary of Manresa, Kinch decides to close shop for a month so he and his staff can embark on their France voyage. …

In 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white crab fisherman at the public town docks in Seadrift, TX. What began as a dispute over fishing territory erupts into violence and ignites a maelstrom of boat burnings, KKK intimidation, and other hostilities against refugees along the Gulf Coast. Taking place after the Fall of Saigon, when hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese nationals desperately …

This award-winning, critically lauded thriller begins in a desolate stretch of the Sahara, where a mysterious car accident leaves a young woman lost and alone. Jake, a reclusive architect, finds her unconscious, suffering from post-traumatic amnesia. Intoxicated by the woman's beauty, Jake claims to be her husband. He names her Kitty and takes her to his remote desert home to recuperate. As Kitty …

Set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, (1914-1918), Frantz recalls the mourning period that follows great national tragedies as seen through the eyes of the war’s “lost generation”: Anna (21 year-old Paula Beer in a breakthrough performance), a bereft young German woman whose fiancé, Frantz, was killed during trench warfare, and Adrien (Pierre Niney, Yves …

Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and mother, staunch Nazi believers, are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parents’ actions. Led by the eldest sibling, 14-year old Lore (striking newcomer Saskia Rosendahl), they set out on a journey across …

As West African cities faced explosive growth in the 1960s, young people found themselves displaced, living in urban centers far from their families and home regions. Enter the goumbés—youth associations combining networking, mutual aid, and a healthy dose of fun. In this short film by Jean Rouch, we meet the Goumbé of Young Revelers, an Ivory Coast group whose bylaws include requirements for …

Alfred Lepetit is a legendary French production assistant with more than 200 films to his credit. Well, not exactly to his credit, since he refuses to let his name appear on-screen. Charlotte Rampling sings his praises, calling him the most important person on set. Roman Polanski claims he once cancelled a production, not because he couldn’t get Travolta, but because he couldn’t get Alfred. But …

Actor Gisèle Braunberger sits across a small table from Jean Renoir. She leans forward, focusing intently on the director, her hands rhythmically fidgeting, as he outlines the premise of the script page he is about to work through with her—a scene from the Rumer Godden novel Breakfast with the Nikolides. Renoir breaks the text down to its basics, a process which slowly and organically allows character …

A squadron commander suffering from an incurable illness searches for an old comrade from Southeast Asia, the "Crabe-Tambour", whose friendship he betrayed during the Algerian war. Filled with remorse, he is determined to recognize his friend's courage before dying.

A platoon of French soldiers and Laotian allies fight their way through enemy territory and dense jungle to meet up with their compatriots as the Indochina War grinds to a halt.

One of the most controversial Italians films of the '80s, DEVIL IN THE FLESH takes Raymond Radiguet's classic novel and updates it to modern times. Dealing with the legacy of Italy's "leaden years" and the aftermath of the social struggles headed by left wing revolutionary groups, DEVIL IN THE FLESH caused a critical uproar upon its release due to its highly-charged political and sexually frank subject … More

Polgovsky’s stunning debut immerses the viewer in the impoverished lives of families in the arid desert region of San Luis Potosi in Mexico (situated on the global parallel known as Tropic of Cancer), who survive by selling plants and animals to motorists by the side of a thunderous superhighway leading to the United States. The film brings together handheld images of searing potency, crafting an … More

Filmed in Times Square, this short film presents a dystopian vision of urban life in which the celebration of high-finance rewrites the topography of the city, while landscapes and indigenous cultures have been entrapped by a hyperbolic visual regime. -Visions du Réel

The once-paradisiacal waterfall of "El Salto de Juanacatlán" in Jalisco used to be known as the "Mexican Niagara”, a source of pleasure and sustenance for the villages surrounding it. This natural idyll was heavily polluted when an industrial corridor was established across the Santiago River. Today as these poisonous waters contaminate everything in their path, the local fishermen and farmers … More

A shaman’s mystical rituals, furious electricians on hunger strike and a euphoric football crowd collide in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s central square, the ancient ceremonial heart of the Aztec empire. The documentary essay Mitote(Nahuatl for chaos or celebration) portrays the square as a wrestling ring in which the fervor of nationalism melds past and present, rage and celebration.

In Lightbyrinth 21st-century digital technology meets 19th-century animation in homage to eminent physicist James C. Maxwell. Filmed in Cambridge using his original zoetrope, the film conjures a sense of wonder at early image-making processes. The intricate editing and sound design create a playful diffraction of colors and a joyful dance of lights and bodies.

The most highly praised and awarded Mexican documentary in many years, THE INHERITORS by Eugenio Polgovsky immerses us in the daily lives of children who, with their families, survive only by their unrelenting labor. The film takes us into the agricultural fields, where children barely bigger than the buckets they carry, work long hours, in often hazardous conditions, picking tomatoes, peppers, or … More

This 1965 documentary portrait of a civil war is today a remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country. FALN chronicles key events of the era, from the 1958 overthrow of dictator Perez Jimenez, and the flawed attempts at social reform by Romulo Betancourt's government, to the 1962 emergence of the national … More

PAUL GAUGUIN uses the artist’s own writings and artwork to trace his creative journey. The film begins with Gauguin losing his job in finance—the catalyst for his commitment to paint every day—and continues through to his final days in Tahiti. After leaving Paris, Gauguin settles in Brittany, where he is inspired the landscape and the locals. In the sound of their clogs, he writes, “I hear … More

In 1937, Spanish nationalists called on Nazi and Italian Fascist forces to bomb the Basque town of Guernica. The horrors of the bombing led Pablo Picasso to create perhaps his greatest work, “Guernica”: a massive painting powerfully representing the horrors of war. Recently restored and digitized, GUERNICA is a short film featuring paintings, drawings and sculptures made by Picasso between 1902 … More