Discover Movies

Part of the Cinéastes de notre temps series.

Bruno Muel's documentary on the coup in Chile in 1973. Muel, who was part of the famed Medvedkine group, along with Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard, among others, captured one of the most powerful portraits of the early days of Dictatorship. Profound solidarity with the socialist cause, Muel and his team showed great courage to mix the official registration of images with those triumphant, clandestine, of the nascent opposition.

At the edge of our solar system supposedly lies an immense planet. Five to ten times the size of the Earth. Several international teams of scientists have been competing in a frantic race to detect it, in uncharted territories, far beyond Neptune. The recent discovery of several dwarf planets, with intriguing trajectories, have put astronomers on the trail of this mysterious planet. Why is this enigmatic planet so difficult to detect? What would a ninth planet teach us about our corner of the universe? Could it help us unlock some of the mysteries of our solar system?

An anti-music video for a Patrick Juvet song.

Françoise Dorléac et Catherine Deneuve were nearly twins. Only 18 months separated these sisters who liked to say “Both of us could make the ideal woman”. Françoise Dorléac created her own style, unique even in France : a rare mix of elegance, humor, glamour. This is a touching portrait of an actress whose glory was cut short, seen through the eyes of her sister Catherine.

Amber Galloway, a trailblazer in ASL interpretation, takes us on a journey into the deep bond between the Deaf world and music. We follow her as she teaches struggling recruits who she hopes will have what it takes to join her at ACL music festival.

A group of students interviews customers of an organic store about their eating habits.

On June 23, 1959, Boris Vian died of a heart attack while watching the film "I Spit Οn Your Graves", a frivolous adaptation of his novel of the same name, which he released under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. Taking as a starting point this fateful date for Vian's relationship with cinema, the documentary looks back at his cinematic experiences, his appearances in several films, his friendship with director Pierre Cast and his many unrealized screenplays. From the post-war period to the dawn of the 1960s, from the cellars of Saint-Germain-des-Prés to his apartment in Place Blanche, it is about the portrait of a diverse author who loved cinema with passion.

Olivier Assayas’ Eldorado is a riveting documentary chronicling the efforts of Ballet Preljocaj to choreograph an otherworldly icon of 21st century music: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ethereal Sonntags-Abschied.

For years Néhémie has been subjected to racism. As a young adult, she decides to talk to her white parents and adoptive brothers and sister. Her mum waters down her reaction but her dad accepts to talk about his past. Every one will react to her truth.

A short 6-minute essay-documentary by Maurice Pialat on the region in which much of the action of Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble unfolds.

A soldier stands guard at a sentry box and leaves it unprotected for a moment, a moment that two men take advantage of to put up posters where it is prohibited.

The Indigenous Bunong practice agriculture by hand and end up in conflict with Cambodia's lucrative trade in CO2 certificates, losing the forest of whose ownership they have no conception. Now and then, split screen. A visual firework display.

In late summer 1939, the French learned that Adolf Hitler had attacked Poland. On September 3, France entered the war, twenty years after the carnage of World War I. Although France was considered the world’s leading military power, with a vast empire and a powerful ally in the United Kingdom, everyone was overcome with a sense of dread. Yet the fighting would not begin until May 1940 and would end with France’s defeat in June. How did the French people experience those few months—among the most decisive and darkest in the country’s history?

It is the story of a love affair between a musical score and a screenplay! Chief editor Bernard Sasia observes and interviews the key figures of this journey. Centered on the collaboration between composer Michel Petrossian and director Robert Guédiguian, Sasia uses his editing tools to capture the sudden emergence of a musical creation for the cinema.

Featuring previously unissued photographs and video archives as well as interviews of his friends and partners in crime, this documentary tells how the kid from the poor suburbs turned superstar photographer. It draws the intimate portrait of the life and work – being so closely interwoven – of and artist fiercely determined to be purveyor of happiness.

Winter is approaching in the remote Iranian Zagros Mountains, and 16-year-old Sogol lives a fragile life on the edge of childhood and adulthood. Her family's existence, rooted in nature and sustained by tradition, is shaped by patriarchal customs and the pressures of a changing world. Though she lacks a formal education, Sogol dreams of a different future for her younger family member Delaram, believing education can break the cycle of tradition and offer new possibilities. Sogol dares to imagine a future beyond the mountains for Delaram, but delicate dreams can be easily lost in the harsh wilderness.

A male voice describes, with ruthless precision, the physical and mental journey of a man who has just become homeless.

Esther Gorintin became a star at 85, having survived the harrowing 20th century, from her native Poland to the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Between Cannes to the local fast food joint, with a taste for Ted Lapidus designs and a thing about plastic bags, Estherka is the heroine of this comic documentary, the portrait of a woman in the twilight of her life and at the dawn of her career As well as recording the incredible career of this 85 year-old débutant, I wanted to tell the story of her entire life. I had started filming Esther Gorintin before she started acting: her journey through the past century, her memories, her storytelling style, her unique relationship with the world around her, and her very special relationship with her son Armand. Here are the reasons why I followed her for more than ten years.

Victim of a terrible plot, Captain Dreyfus was sentenced in December 1894 to deportation for high treason. His wife Lucie made a pact with him: to live, whatever the cost, while awaiting rehabilitation. During five years, the Dreyfus spouses exchanged hundreds of letters. They became a weapon of survival for Alfred. This film is the story of the correspondence of a man and a woman who unwittingly became the unsung heroes of the case that bears their name.

HipHop as a language and an outlet for young people: The film follows the youngest class members of a dance academy on their way to becoming professional dancers. Many of the students come from the socially deprived areas of Paris. Accompanied by a pulsating, dancing camera that pulls the audience right into the action, the film negotiates themes such as origins, pains, dreams and hopes.

Epidemics are rare events but when they do occur, they can be devastating. Throughout human history, many viruses have claimed lives and caused panic throughout the world. How prepared are health officials for future outbreaks? And what does the latest viral research reveal about these mysterious organisms?

French director Frederic Rossif presents this historical documentary that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Stock footage from both World Wars are included with 30 minutes of new scenes filmed especially for the project. The historical timeline is traced from the time Czar Nicholas II is crowned. The emergence of Lenin, his death in 1924, and the later contributions of Trotsky and Stalin give the viewer a sense of death, betrayal, and ideological devotion to the communist agenda. Rossif effectively uses scenes from the landmark 1929 film The Man With A Movie Camera by celebrated director Dziga Vertov. Rossif researched the film archives from several countries in his meticulous gathering of materials for this timely historical feature.

Investigative journalists working for Disclose spent over a year investigating the production chain of the furniture giant which generated a 44.6 billion euros revenue in 2022 and attracts over 5 billion visitors to its stores and website every year. From the boreal forests of Sweden to Brazilian plantations and New Zealand coastlines, they uncovered how IKEA intensively exploits wood around the world, fuels the illegal trafficking of this resource and threatens the last precious European forests. Long overlooked, intensive logging is now sparking outrage and anger among citizens in Poland and the Baltic countries, who are increasingly concerned about the fate of their countries' public forest domains and biodiversity loss. In Romania, where IKEA owns 50,000 hectares of forests, activists are risking their lives mobilizing against the timber mafia. This film tells the expansion of a discreet forest predator, grappling with the limits of the planet's resources.

Behind-the-scenes footage showing Alice Guy directing an early sound film.

Orientalism is a literary and artistic movement born in Western Europe in the 18th century. Through its scale and popularity, throughout the 19th century, it marked the interest and curiosity of artists and writers for the countries of the West (the Maghreb) or the Levant (the Middle East). Orientalism was born from the fascination of the Ottoman Empire and followed its slow disintegration and the progression of European colonizations. This exotic trend is associated with all the artistic movements of the 19th century, academic, romantic, realistic or even impressionist. It is present in architecture, music, painting, literature, poetry... Picturesque aesthetics, confusing styles, civilizations and eras, orientalism has created numerous clichés and clichés that we still find today in literature or cinema.

A short film by Walerian Borowczyk in two parts. The first 'panel' follows the morning routine of Leon Boyer who, despite being almost 100 years old, still farms the land, drives a vintage car, and plays with his two dogs. The second panel shows shots of beautiful flowers and a cat, to a recording of Tino Rossi singing 'La romance de Nadir / Je crois encore entendre' from Bizet's opera 'Les pêcheurs de perles'.

When Siham passed away, Namir didn’t realize that she was gone forever. In a child’s mind, mothers are immortal… To keep her memory alive, Namir delves into his family history across Egypt and France. With the cinema of Youssef Chahine as his companion, a story of exile — and above all, of love — begins to unfold.

This distinctly personal journey into the artistic possibilities of independent film is not to be missed. Jonas Mekas, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Robert Kramer and many other visionaries and mavericks of the silver screen – as well as a book seller, a critic and a psychoanalyst – discuss what cinema has meant to them, what it is and what it could be and, implicitly, how it has changed over the 18 years in which this film was shot. Director Boris Lehman leads the charge, drawing in moments of absurdist humour and inventive camera work; he keeps things raw and spontaneous. His encounters with the now much-missed Jean Rouch and Stephen Dwoskin are particularly touching and stand testament to their personal playfulness and candour. An engaging, absorbing, epic odyssey of a movie.

Afghan documentary maker Najiba Noori offers not only a loving and intimate portrait of her mother Hawa, but also shows in detail how the arduous improvement of the position of women is undone by geopolitical violence. The film follows the fortunes of Noori’s family, who belong to the Hazaras, an ethnic group that has suffered greatly from discrimination and persecution.

A moving and very funny portrait of the personal and professional life of the magnificent French comedian Louis de Funès (1914-83), as well as a detailed analysis of his masterful acting technique.

Highlighting the work of emerging fashion world all-stars like Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier and agnès b., Klein surveys the state of women’s fashion in the 1980s with this eccentric hybrid documentary scored by Serge Gainsbourg.

French actors Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Aïssa Maïga, Sonia Rolland, Deborah Lukumuena, Marie-France Malonga, Gary Dourdan and others speak up on the reality of black actors in the French movie industry.

A short documentary about a young Malian student in Guangzhou who reflects on the challenges of living abroad as an African Muslim woman.

The French-Italian border at the Montgenèvre pass. Daytime reality: tourism, capital invested to make the mountain profitable. At night: the fragile destiny of more than ten thousand men, women and children who, in four years, risked their lives to cross the border.

"And God Created Woman", "Il Sorpasso", "A Man and a Woman", "The Conformist", "Amour"... the list of successes by Jean-Louis Trintignant (1930-2022) may be impressive but his films say little about the man himself. A look back over the life of a discrete and deliberately enigmatic actor.

This is a documentary on the 70's French porn industry. There are generally two kinds of porn documentaries--those that actually take an insightful look behind the scenes, and those that are just an excuse to show a lot of nudity and XXX porn footage. This is actually somewhere in between. It's generously seasoned with porn footage, but there are also a lot of (fully-clothed) interviews, and they even talk to the owners of porn theaters, some typical porn customers (including some pre-adolescent boys who are walking by the the theater--I wonder what their parents thought of that?), as well as a guy who makes promotional billboards for porn movies although he claims never to have seen one!

On December 17, 2012, Maureen Kearney was found at home, tied to a chair with the letter "A" carved into her abdomen and a knife handle forced into her vagina. Was this rape linked to her work as a union representative at Areva? At the time, she was locked in a battle with management to block technology transfers between France and China; she found herself caught in the eye of a political storm involving the French state, set against the backdrop of a rivalry between two French industrial giants: Areva and EDF. This documentary serves as a counter-investigation into the Maureen Kearney affair—a complex political and legal saga that has shaken the nuclear industry from 2012 to the present day.

To help Francis Hallé in his fight to save the last tropical forests, a documentary filmmaker with a passion for nature decides to make his first film: "The Botanist", an ecological thriller with Leonardo DiCaprio. He traces his path with malice, obstinacy, and discovers, with candor, the arcana of the seventh art. Even if he never gives up, will his film ever exist?

The planet is filled with dust and particles of all kinds, natural or originated by man. Such a state of things has of course a great many consequences for public health, with diseases like silicosis, inherent in various human activities, some of which are detailed (farming, notably the treatment of flax; industrial activity, particularly porcelain and cement work, coal mining).

The 1905 law proclaiming the separation of church and state is 120 years old. This law affirms freedom of conscience and religious freedom. It is considered the founding text of secularism. Secularism is the subject of endless controversy and debate.

A documentary about the life and career of Maurice Pialat produced by his widow, the accomplished film producer Sylvie Pialat. The film interweaves clips from his films with interview footage of Pialat, who speaks of growing up as an only child, his interest in painting, his early influences in cinema from Yasujiro Ozu to John Ford, his disaffection with the French New Wave, and the theme of abandonment in his films. Pialat’s remarks offer insights into his aesthetic strategies and hint at his reputation as a challenging, irascible director, known for having pushed his actors to deliver raw and powerful performances.