This video essay, featuring film scholar Leonard Leff, addresses the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes' British context and political underpinnings and the details and techniques that undeniably make it a 'Hitchcock picture.'
Self - Film Scholar / Narrator (voice)
28 Aug 2017
The intricate history of UFA, a film production company founded in 1917 that has survived the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, the Adenauer era and the many and tumultuous events of contemporary Germany, and has always been the epicenter of the German film industry.
06 Aug 2017
The greatness, fall and renaissance of Hammer, the flagship company of British popular cinema, mainly from 1955 to 1968. Tortured women and sadistic monsters populated oppressive scenarios in provocative productions that shocked censorship and disgusted critics but fascinated the public. Movies in which horror was shown in offensive colors: dreadful stories, told without prejudices, that offered fear, blood, sex and stunning performances.
21 Dec 2017
Superfan David Whiteley celebrates the unsung British heroes behind the first film in the Star Wars’ franchise, 1977’s eponymously titled Star Wars. The Star Wars saga ends with the release of The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019. This documentary celebrates where it all began. It includes previously unheard stories from the people who made one of the most successful movies of all time, with additional interviews and previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage. The presenter, Star Wars superfan David Whiteley, who has his own connection to the original film (he was born on May the 4th), tracks down the often modest British talent who brought the galaxy to life. David explores the contribution of the London Symphony Orchestra and meets Ann Skinner, who was in charge of continuity. As well as seeing her original stills from the set, Ann reveals how she helped Sir Alec Guinness with one of the most famous speeches in Star Wars.
20 Apr 2010
A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.
A documentary about the career of legendary production designer Joe Alves and his four decades in Hollywood.
07 Sep 2004
Documentary short focusing on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 film I Confess.
01 Aug 2012
Lloyd Kaufman from Troma sits down for a Q&A at The Prince Charles Cinema in London on the evening of a Troma Triple-bill.
17 Sep 1992
Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.
17 Jul 2005
How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)
04 Feb 2011
This documentary explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.
26 Oct 1984
A non-stop roller coaster ride through the scariest moments of the greatest terror films of all time.
20 Oct 2015
Cast, crew and fans explore the 'Back to the Future' time-travel trilogy's resonance throughout our culture—30 years after Marty McFly went back in time.
28 Mar 2019
Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce.
01 Apr 2026
The ultimate companion to John Carpenter’s "The Thing", digging deep into the proverbial iceberg to enhance your viewing experience with new insights, stories, and revelations.
15 Oct 2021
The story of how sound was paired with images in early years of cinema; offering an in-depth look at the people behind-the-scenes and the technological innovations that culminated in Warner Brothers' ground breaking film, "The Jazz Singer" (1927).
05 Sep 2015
Filmmakers discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book “Hitchcock/Truffaut” (“Le cinéma selon Hitchcock”), written by François Truffaut and published in 1966.
09 Nov 2004
This documentary is featured in the 4-disc Collector's Edition DVD set, released in 2004, for Gone with the Wind (1939).
14 Mar 2023
Legendary British actor Michael Caine, who began his brilliant career on stage during the 1950s, talks about his private life, his work in film and the books he has written.
25 Oct 2002
Richly illustrated with film clips and interviews, OUR TIME, OUR STORY tells the still-evolving story of the Taiwanese "new wave," from its rise in the early 1980s, as the island was democratizing after decades under martial law, through growing international recognition and domestic debate in the 1990s. Spearheaded in its early years by such filmmakers as Edward Yang, Ko I-cheng, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Wan Jen, the movement revitalized Taiwan cinema through low-budget experiments that emphasized personal stories, political reflection and stylistic invention. Said filmmakers, writers and actors like Wu Nien-jen and Sylvia Chang, even "second wave" directors Tsai Ming-liang and Lin Cheng-sheng provide fond reminiscences and retrospective insights in this compelling account of one of the most distinctive national cinemas of the last quarter-century.
17 Oct 2020
A documentary on how composer Kevin MacLeod unwittingly became one of the most heard composers in the world by releasing thousands of songs for free.