Philip

Two young nuns explore Chicago--from a supermart to the Art Institute and in front of churches on Sunday--confronting people with the crucial question, "Are you happy?" They meet many people--a lonely girl, a happy mother, a nun, some lovers, two hippie musicians, a lady sociologist, a college professor, even Stepin Fetchit; and receive many answers--"Happiness is the absence of fear," "Avoiding people," "Rasberries," "Joy in knowing Christ." The humor and sadness of these honest encounters lift the film beyond its interview format to a serious and moving inquiry into the concerns of contemporary man, and also into the circumstances in which men will actually express their concerns.

Disbelief, shock, hostility and superstition confronted the wife of one of the filmmakers when she decided to give birth without pain medication using the Lamaze method of childbirth. Her tale is about trusting oneself and accepting responsibility even when it means rejecting popular beliefs and establishment authority.

Now available on DVD, "END OF THE ART WORLD" explored the most famous 1960's artists in New York City -- Warhol, Rauschenberg, Johns, Lichtenstein and others -- on 16mm film, ending in a "Bang!" as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York "exploded" in a visual montage that included sayings from the Black Panthers' Minister of Culture, angry examples of Nancy Spero's "Artaud" series, a violin case full of mock dynamite planted in Henry Geldzahler's office by a young performance artist, a count-down from Jasper Johns' number series, and Warhol's silk-screens of an atom bomb. Includes the only 16mm film footage shot at Warhol's opening at the Whitney Museum, surrounded by his superstars; Robert Rauschenberg at work in his studio, making cardboard collages; Michael Snow discussing "Wavelength" in the studio where he shot it, while experimenting with some of the elements used in his art; and other art world scenes of 1970-71. The DVD re-release also features the director's commentary and four additional short films, including "Nancy Spero: A Conversation with the Artist"

Set in an "abode where lost bodies roam each searching for its lost one". The abode is a flattened cylinder with rubber walls fifty meters in circumference and eighteen meters high. It is constantly illuminated by a dim, yellow light, and the temperature fluctuates between 5°C to 25°C, sometimes in as small an interval as four seconds. This leads to extremely parched skin, and the bodies brush against each other like dry leaves. Kisses make an "indescribable sound" and the rubber makes the footsteps mostly silent.

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

This is a 4-part documentary that follows four different contemporary composers performing/creating/building their shows. Peter Greenaway leads us, with a great sense of balance between the performances and the interviews, through the creative process of 4 very different composers in style (sound and noise, repetition and discipline, vocal experimentation, poetry and musical freedom) who are all framed under the same musical genre - contemporary music. A great way to get introduced to this music and to understand how much of it is intellectual or playful.

Philippe Petit reminisces about his St. John The Divine crossing in 1974.

One night in Gotham one couple ends their relationship, then another, and another.

A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.

Guided by seasoned New Yorkers, political figures, and cultural connoisseurs, "Empire City" examines Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs in order to paint a portrait of the ever-evolving metropolis. Appearing to be both adaptable and stubbornly stagnant, New York is a city of juxtapositions. As our narrator notes, "The city is too big, too diverse, and too complex for anyone to comprehend. New York is many cities interlaced with one another, each in constant independent motion." In "Empire City" we see proof of this dynamic through both footage and discussion of extreme wealth, economic success and increasingly expensive real estate versus the hardships faced by the city's minorities such as people of color, immigrants, and the lower class. Leaders and residents such as David Rockefeller, Edward Koch, Norman Mailer, Jane Jacobs, and Herman Badillo offer their insight into the best and worst of New York while tenderly noting the pride and loyalty it's inhabitants hold onto.

The 1986 film version of the theatrical production "Dead End Kids" by the NYC avant-garde theatre group The Mabou Mines which premiered on November 11, 1980, and was presented by Joseph Papp at The Public Theater, NYC.

A very realistic interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars is an in-depth documentation of Robert Wilson's ambitious attempt to stage an epic, twelve-hour, multinational opera for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

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

An old Gothic cathedral built over a mass grave develops strange powers that trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon from the bowels of the Earth.

A man kills his wife's lover. The wife gives birth to a child, the lover's child, and dies. The man is left alone with the dead rival's son. This is the backdrop to the happenings in "Rus" whose protagonist, the son, undergoes a liberation from the past.

Philosophical conversations between a poet, politician, and scientist.

Image and music are intertwined in this third collaboration between director Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass. The film was produced to celebrate the World Wildlife Fund's Biological Diversity Campaign. The film combines images of nature with pulsing rhythms in a Microcosmos (1997) meets Koyaanisqatsi (1983) spectacle.

A film about the life and work of the cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who despite his near total paralysis, was one of the great minds of all time.

A short made for TV with director Peter Greenaway discussing the dazzling 3.5 minute opening sequence from his film, 'Prospero's Books (1991)'. As Prospero (John Gielgud) walks through his library Greenaway comments on the 100 historical, mythological, biblical & fictional characters occupying the library.

Experimental portrayal of the astronomer Adam Morgenstern, his work, his love, which is constantly confronted with death, and his thoughts on the universe's black holes.