direct cinema
39 movies and shows
Grey Gardens
Thu, 19 Feb 1976
Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.
Dont Look Back
Wed, 17 May 1967
In this wildly entertaining vision of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, Bob Dylan is surrounded by teen fans, gets into heated philosophical jousts with journalists, and kicks back with fellow musicians Joan Baez, Donovan, and Alan Price.
Gimme Shelter
Sun, 13 Dec 1970
A detailed chronicle of the famous 1969 tour of the United States by the British rock band The Rolling Stones, which culminated with the disastrous and tragic concert held on December 6 at the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, an event of historical significance, as it marked the end of an era: the generation of peace and love suddenly became the generation of disillusionment.
Salesman
Thu, 17 Apr 1969
This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.
Primary
Tue, 08 Nov 1960
Primary is a documentary film about the primary elections between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in 1960. Primary is the first documentary to use light equipment in order to follow their subjects in a more intimate filmmaking style. This unconventional way of filming created a new look for documentary films where the camera’s lens was right in the middle of what ever drama was occurring. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1998.
Monterey Pop
Thu, 26 Dec 1968
Featuring performances by popular artists of the 1960s, this concert film highlights the music of the 1967 California festival. Although not all musicians who performed at the Monterey Pop Festival are on film, some of the notable acts include the Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Otis Redding, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix's post-performance antics -- lighting a guitar on fire, breaking it and tossing a part into the audience -- are captured.
Titicut Follies
Tue, 03 Oct 1967
A stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers, and psychiatrists.
The War Room
Wed, 03 Nov 1993
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.
Campaign
Sat, 06 Oct 2007
Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election if he is backed by the political giant Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party? This cinema-verite documentary closely follows a heated election campaign in Kawasaki, Japan, revealing the true nature of "democracy."
Seafighters
Sat, 21 Oct 2017
Living among the percebeiros of the Coast of Death (Galicia), this documentary shows a unique relationship between man and his surroundings, man and the sea. At the end of Europe, years after the Prestige oil spill disaster, these fishermen face an uncertain future.
Rhythm Thief
Fri, 09 Sep 1994
Simon is a street retailer, his shop a corner on the lower east side in New York, his stock bootleg cassette tapes, the ambience provided via boombox. He scrounges food from restaurants, exists on vodka and peanut butter, sleeps on the floor, and cares for an unloved cat. Marty, who may be an old girlfriend, visits. Down and out in New York.
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
Mon, 21 Oct 1963
During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.
The Lovely Month of May
Wed, 01 May 1963
Candid interviews of ordinary people on the meaning of happiness, an often amorphous and inarticulable notion that evokes more basic and fundamentally egalitarian ideals of self-betterment, prosperity, tolerance, economic opportunity, and freedom.
Cinema Company
Fri, 27 Jul 2012
Four intimate friends who dream to make a film. Plot The film traces the journey of four friends as they strive to give life to their dream cinema. And how their lives are upturned as the cinema becomes their life.
Enbathettu
Fri, 28 Jul 2017
A family-oriented man is caught off-guard when his number is misused by a bunch of gangsters. He then tries to find a way out this trouble, highlighting how people, especially the youth, should use technology wisely and be wary of being too exposed to it.
The Mother
Fri, 02 Nov 2007
The film chronicles everyday struggle of a Russian woman for “ordinary” happiness of her family.
Scenes From Choir
Wed, 01 May 2024
A documentary film about the goings on of L’Anse Creuse High School’s Choir. Featuring behind the scenes footage, rehearsals, and their choir concert on April 19, 2024. The film is presented in a direct cinema/cinema verité style. Made independently from L’Anse Creuse High School.
Valldaura: A Quarantine Cabin
Sun, 24 Jul 2022
A group of young architects, confined to a forest in Barcelona during the COVID crisis, explore the problems generated by the ambition of wanting to be completely self-sufficient.
High School
Wed, 14 May 1969
Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students.
Carmina
Thu, 12 Mar 2020
Carmina, a 20-year-old girl, hopes to have a night like any other in the city, which unexpectedly turns into an introspective, cathartic journey into her turbulent past when she accepts an invitation from a man much older than herself to visit his apartment. This direct film experiment captures an overwhelming real-life patriarchal dynamic.