1. Érase un vez Juan Marsé (Érase un vez Juan Marsé)
On the occasion of awarding the Cervantes Prize to the Catalan writer Juan Marsé on 23 April 2009, family members, friends and writers offer a sincere portrait of the best chronicler of life in Barcelona, Catalonia, during the post-war period and the worst days of the General Franco dictatorship, in the forties and fifties, and during the economic development and the hard conquest of freedom, in the sixties and seventies.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
2. Freedom Fighter
A documentary regarding the story of Majed El Shafie, who was arrested, tortured and condemned to die in his home country of Egypt after coverting from Islam to Christianity. He now fights for inividuals suffering intense persecution, even putting his life on the line to save a child in Pakistan who was raped at 2 years of age by a Muslim extremist.
3. Good Grief
Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living.
4. The Traverse
Valentine Fabre and Hillary Gerardi, two high-level complete athletes, take on the challenge of establishing the first female record on the non-stop Haute-Route, a legendary ski mountaineering endurance race linking Chamonix to Zermatt in 100km and 8000m altitude difference. A feat that the two women take on, as much for personal reasons as for the representation they offer by achieving this great female first.
5. A Story of Dogs (A Story of Dogs)
(A Story of Dogs)
6. Jackson: Na Batida do Pandeiro (Jackson: Na Batida do Pandeiro)
The life and career history of singer and percussionist Jackson do Pandeiro, whose originality and unusual rhythmic quality influenced several prominent artists in Brazilian popular music. With unpublished testimonies from professional colleagues and family members, as well as archival footage of their participation in cinema and radio, the documentary traces their journey between troubled relationships, dramas, controversies, stardom, ostracism, the return to the artistic milieu, even his death in 1982.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
7. Thierry Le Luron, l'humour de ma vie (Thierry Le Luron, l'humour de ma vie)
(Thierry Le Luron, l'humour de ma vie)
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
8. 100 Years of Ulysses
Paris, France, February 2, 1922. The novel Ulysses, by Irish writer James Joyce , is published by US poet Sylvia Beach , owner of the small bookstore Shakespeare & Co. The book, whose writing consumed seven years of Joyce's life, years in which his family was in financial need, would have a profound and unprecedented impact on 20th century literature and culture.
9. The Valley of the Moon
Wadi Rum, known as the Valley of the Moon, is a vast landscape of sandstone walls in the desert of Jordan. Hoping to lure international climbers, two Israelis team up with a local Bedouin guide to establish a 1,800-foot route, eventually recruiting American climber Madaleine Sorkin to help achieve their dream. Valley of the Moon explores the importance of climbing as a way to cross cultural barriers, build friendships, and chase adventure in one of the most breathtaking regions on earth.
10. Prince: A Purple Reign
Part of BBC Four's Black Music Legends of the 1980s, this documentary explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionized the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as "1999," "Kiss," "Raspberry Beret" and "Alphabet Street." He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie "Purple Rain" in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continues to this day.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
11. Die fremde Frau - Winterreise nach Flossenbürg (Die fremde Frau - Winterreise nach Flossenbürg)
(Die fremde Frau - Winterreise nach Flossenbürg)
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
12. Microcosmos (Microcosmos : Le peuple de l'herbe)
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
It has an average vote of 7.534 on TMDB.
13. Le Grand Méliès (Le Grand Méliès)
A biographical film about cinematic illusionist Georges Méliès featuring Méliès’s widow, Jeanne d’Alcy, as herself, and their son André as his own father.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
14. Chaja & Mimi (Chaja & Mimi)
Chaja Florentin and Mimi Frons have been best friends for 83 years. Born and raised in Berlin, they had to escape from the Nazis to Palestine with their families in 1934. They talk about their complicated relationship with Berlin in a Tel Aviv café where they meet everyday. A film about friendship, homeland and identity.
15. Fegefeuer (Fegefeuer)
The story of Austrian, Johann "Jack" Unterweger, who wrote a book about his criminal past while serving a life term in prison for assault. In 1974, Unterweger murdered 18-year-old German citizen Margaret Schäfer by strangling her with her own bra, and in 1976 was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
16. Cell phones P.s. Just a small add on
A grandson shows his grandmother how to navigate an iPad 2 full of clues for solving a puzzle. Over a phone call, she recites an email she wrote seven years prior.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
17. Cracked Not Broken
Lisa is a middle-class white woman from Toronto, Canada. She's also addicted to crack cocaine. To maintain her habit, she works as a prostitute while living in a hotel room. She's tried to get clean, but knows too well how easy it is to relapse. Meanwhile, she participates in Toronto's needle exchange program to reduce her risk.
It has an average vote of 4.5 on TMDB.
18. המלכה שושנה (המלכה שושנה)
Shoshana Damari was the first Israeli diva. She graced local and international stages, stirring millions with her beguiling voice and spectacular performance. Yet behind the larger-than-life persona and her memorable songs was a woman about whom we know little. She didn’t like to be interviewed and never volunteered details about herself and her family. Hers was the life of a Hollywood legend and she paid the price for it. This is a story about fame and loneliness, acclaim and loss, daring and compromise. For the first time, the woman behind the crown, the cloak and the palace will come to light.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
19. Steel Mask Versus Blue Abyss (Máscara de Aço contra Abismo Azul)
A world of strong colours between documentary and fiction, centered on the life and work of modernist painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso.
It has an average vote of 5.5 on TMDB.
20. Gary Hemming, le beatnik des cimes (Gary Hemming, le beatnik des cimes)
The American mountaineer Gary Hemming marked the era of the 1960s. The story of this "exceptional" character is intimately linked to that of the rescue of the two German mountaineers on the west face of the Drus, in 1966, a rescue which he had took the initiative. While the official emergency services of the EHM try to reach them from above, a pirate rope made up of Gary Hemming, René Desmaison, Lothar Mauch, Gil Bodin, Mike Brurke, François Guillot, the filmmaker Gérard Bauer organizes to join them from below and succeeded after a fierce struggle the rescue. The press seizes the event and elevates Gary Hemming to the rank of national hero. All the newspapers feature this big guy with a cool attitude, mismatched clothes, jovial smile and long blond hair on the front page. From then on, he was nicknamed: "the beatnik of the peaks".
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
