A war behind the screen
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) caused a great impression on the lives of most of the American artists of that era, so many movies were made in Hollywood about it. The final defeat of the Spanish Republic left an open wound in the hearts of those who sympathized with its cause. The eventful life of screenwriter Alvah Bessie (1904-1985), one of the Hollywood Ten, serves to analyze this sadness, the tragedy of Spain and its consequences.
Alvah Bessie (voice)
Self - Abraham Lincoln Brigade Member
Self - Actress
Self - Alvah Bessie's Son
Self - Writer
Self (archive footage)
Self (archive footage)
Self - MPAA President (archive footage)
Self (archive footage)
Self (archive footage)
John 'Kit' McKittrick / Self (archive footage)
Self - PCA Administrator (archive footage)
Self (archive footage)
Self (archive footage)
30 Oct 2008
A peculiar, meticulous, vocationally archeological account of the professional life of the actor, Spanish by birth, Argentinean by adoption, Narciso Ibañez Menta (1912-2004), spiritual disciple of Lon Chaney, the new man of a thousand faces, master of horror, star of Argentinean theater, cinema and television for decades.
24 May 1941
Using edited archive footage, mockery is made of Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini.
29 Jun 2024
What if I told you the plot of Vertigo is true, but the story even more perversely rooted in the traumatic history of a dictatorship, in a nation’s obsession with a woman who became a goddess and a savior, and in the real-life attempt to reincarnate her in the body of her successor? Through supernatural means, Isabel Martínez de Perón attempts to extract from the embalmed body of Eva Perón the dose of charisma she lacks.
01 Jan 2007
The memory of a defeat, a barbarism: the destruction at the dawn of the civil war of people who fought for freedom, a group of anarchists from A Coruña located in the Atochas area. Through valuable witnesses and historical images a reconstruction of a metaphorical episode in the history of the country. This projection is made in collaboration with its author and the Commission for the Recovery of Historical Memory.
29 May 1940
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It starts with a vignette in rural America. A mother and daughter go to town to buy a new dress. In the dress shop window is a designer dress worn by Joan Crawford in a recent movie. We then go to Hollywood and visit Adrian, MGM's chief of costume design, and see how multiple copies of a single clothing pattern are produced. The film ends with short segments of several MGM features.
01 Jul 1983
While running a free medical clinic in the 1960s, missionary couple John and Bettie Dreisbach face heavy government opposition in their attempt to preach the Gospel to the Muslim community of West Africa.
24 May 1964
A portrait of the life and work of the great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, exploring both his music and his passionate interest in his country's folklore.
04 Apr 2006
A documentary about the making of The Long Good Friday, including interviews with John Mackenzie, stars Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, producer Barry Hanson and Phil Meheux.
06 Mar 2025
In August 1969, Charles Manson's followers killed seven people on his orders. Why? Explore a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments, and murder.
13 Oct 1983
A superb, moving and thrilling interview with American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-86), held in Besançon, France, on board a dilapidated barge, when he was 65 years old. An unparalleled portrait, in his own words and without any qualms, of a legendary Hollywood star, icon of film noir and the western, who was also a marine, an OSS agent, an anti-communist informer, a writer and a wandering sailor: the hero of his own life.
23 Apr 2024
Confronted with death, National Health Service founder Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Winston Churchill.
10 May 2024
A portrait of the actress and singer Pepa Flores, an incarnation of the recent history of Spain, who, in just twenty-five years of intense career, went from being Marisol, child prodigy of the Franco dictatorship, to being one of the first communist militants, icon of the Transition; an idol of the masses who became a discreet person after having claimed her right to remain silent.
01 Jan 2003
A documentary presenting the behind the scenes of Rob Reiner's classic "Misery", with Reiner himself, Kathy Bates, James Caan, Frances Sternhagen, writer William Goldman, Barry Sonnenfeld (the film's cinematographer) presenting their views on the film years later of its release and the impact "Misery" had in their professional lives.
24 Oct 2021
The life story of Vicente Miguel Carceller (1890-1940), a Spanish editor committed to freedom who, through his weekly magazine La Traca, connected with the common people while maintaining a dangerous pulse with the powerful.
13 Jun 2019
No overview found
26 Dec 1995
Made for TV documentary including interview and behind the scenes footage from the James Bond movie GoldenEye (1995).
01 Jan 1944
Know Your Ally: Britain was a 45-minute propaganda film made in 1944. It was narrated by Walter Huston and produced by the United States War Department and Signal Corp to solidify Anglo-American solidarity within the ranks as well as counter Nazi propaganda aimed at weakening the Alliance.
28 Aug 2015
A former spy in the Chinese Nationalist Party falls for an opium-dealing widow, as China is ravaged by war and revolution.
13 Nov 1967
This documentary in the Look At Life series – made by the Rank Organisation for screening in Odeon and Gaumont cinemas – was released in 1967 and anticipated a radical redevelopment of Piccadilly Circus, which never actually happened.
01 Nov 2024
In World War II London, nine-year-old George is evacuated to the countryside by his mother, Rita, to escape the bombings. Defiant and determined to return to his family, George embarks on an epic, perilous journey back home as Rita searches for him.