Documentaries

This documentary promoting the joys of life in a Soviet village centers around the activities of the Young Pioneers. These children are constantly busy, pasting propaganda posters on walls, distributing hand bills, exhorting all to "buy from the cooperative" as opposed to the Private Sector, promoting temperance, and helping poor widows. Experimental portions of the film, projected in reverse, feature the un-slaughtering of a bull and the un-baking of bread.

A man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.

Documentary about the most famous dribbler in Brazilian Soccer (some say in Soccer's history!) at the zenith of his career, showing classic scenes of 1958 and 1962 World Cup. Garrincha was a very original and talented player, having curved legs. Women and alcohol were his passion, and the cause of his later decadence. After a glorious career, he died in financial misery, forgotten.

Geraldo Sarno tries to understand, in this documentary, why people leave the Northeastern region in Brazil way to São Paulo.

Four dogged door-to-door Bible salesmen travel from Boston to Florida on a seemingly futile quest to sell luxury editions of the Good Book to working-class Catholics.

Nelson Cavaquinho is caught rambling his impressions of music and life in his home in Bangu's quiet day-to-day life, walking through the simple neighborhood and, mainly, singing with his choked voice.

A documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220-minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Caesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.

A documentary about fraud and fakery.

Documentary about the history of Brazil by Glauber Rocha and Marcos Medeiros. The film was made while Glauber was in exile between Cuba and Rome from 1971 to 1973.

A startling and courageous landmark documentary that unflinchingly confronted the United States' involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it.

A documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.

The chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende.

Filmmaker Patricio Guzmán tracks the deterioration of Salvador Allende's position following the attempted coup d'état of 29 June 1973, and analyzes the 10 weeks before Augusto Pinochet's CIA-backed seizure of power.

This film investigates the factory worker's response to the insurrection, as well as Chile's socialist aspirations for the future. The camera captures the optimism in the industrial working class before Pinochet's US-backed coup d'état.

A film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.

Documentary about Brazilian history, from 1945 until the 70s, focusing on president Juscelino Kubitschek, his political rise, his philosophy of economical development, his gigantic project of constructing a new capital city for the country, Brasília, in the middle of the jungle, and his last years, after the military takeover, when he was deprived of his political rights and went into a temporary exile.

Compilation of some of the best moments in the career of Brazilian comedy group "Os Trapalhões", with scenes from their previous films, also telling the story of each individual artist.

A look into the Los Angeles punk rock scene, that was largely ignored by the rock music press of the time.

A collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.

Documentary about the strikes taking place in São Bernardo do Campo, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, circa 1979/1980. That moment was of utmost importance, since it revealed a Union leader, Luís Inácio "Lula" da Silva, who later was to become the President of Brazil. It was also the moment when PT, the Party of Workers became a relevant political force in Brazil.

A filmmaker returns to Northeast Brazil after twenty years to resume his film (a profile of assassinated peasant leader João Pedro Teixeira) which was shut down by a right-wing military coup in 1964.

The story of João "Jango" Goulart, the Brazilian left-wing president deposed by the military.

Moved by the work of director Yasujirô Ozu, Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in Ozu's films.

A film that successfully argued that a man was wrongly convicted for murder by a corrupt justice system in Dallas County, Texas.