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The untold stories of television's favorite comedies.

Léon G. Damas (1912–1978) was the first poet to “live Négritude”, according to the Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist Léopold Sédar Senghor. Cosmopolitan and always in transit, his writing is a chorus of melodies and imagery imbued with angst and melancholy and strongly influenced by jazz and blues. Punctuated by images of the landscapes of French Guiana and the voice of the artist, the film exemplifies the poetic documentary form to which Maldoror frequently returned.

On October 9, 1972, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse hosted an exhibition of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s work, designed by Fluxus artist George Maciunas. That same day, friends including Ringo Starr, Allen Ginsberg, and Paul Krassner gathered to celebrate Lennon’s birthday. Jonas Mekas’s film records the event in both image and sound, capturing the spirit of the moment and the community around Lennon and Ono.

A documentary about the making of the classic film "Casablanca."

This documentary explores whether we can use mathematics to describe the observable universe in order to reveal the potential connection to the mysteries of consciousness.

An interview session with Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron gives us a better understanding of how hard it was making Terminator, The (1984) on such a low budget. Clips from the film are present along with funny and interesting stories from behind the scenes.

Fifteen years have passed since the spectacular images of Jean-Paul Janssen's "Life at Your Fingertips" introduced the general public to free climbing and its embodiment: Patrick Edlinger. We witnessed the birth of a sporting phenomenon that would leave a lasting mark on generations of climbers. But fifteen years later, in 1997, beyond the myth, where is Patrick Edlinger? Gilles Chappaz found him on some of the most beautiful walls of the Verdon Gorge and other cliffs during the filming of Maurice Rebeix's documentary "Roc'n Wall 97," where he shares his climbing practice and philosophy with the younger generation, including Liv Sansoz and Arnaud Petit.

During the filming of her very own documentary, 'A Day in My Life', Edina drops in on her mother who's working in a Help the Aged charity shop. There, she reminisces about the people and events which have made her what she is today.

A documentary chronicling the pioneering efforts of black filmmaker William D. Foster in the early years of the industry and Oscar Micheaux's controversial impact on the subsequent "race movies".

Directed by animator and filmmaker Bill Plympton, this 1997 documentary provides a glimpse into the life of poet Walt Curtis, on whose memoir MALA NOCHE is based.

AIDS victims and activists cope with hardship and society’s ignorance.

The twenty-six-year-old hero, who previously worked as a parking lot watchman, went into business and could not repay the loan. And he has a wife and children. The current situation forces him to look at the world with different eyes.

Before tackling the ascent of urban buildings, Alain Robert was considered one of the best specialists in the "climbing" of cliffs. His passion nearly cost him his life in 1982, when a fall rendered him 66% disabled. At the time the doctors were convinced that he could no longer indulge in this passion. This does not prevent him, by dint of motivation and training, from climbing more than 170 buildings around the world to date, and from soloing technical routes at his maximum level, such as "La Nuit du Lézard". (8a+) in Buoux (France), where here is "L'Ange en Décomposition", in 1991, a mythical course in the Gorges du Verdon.

Get a look at the making of ARCADE, with cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage!

Huck feeds his sister a tainted cheesecake.

Women who have made a career out of starring in the B horror and science fiction genres are interviewed, and clips and trailers from their films are shown.

A kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. A visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world.

Join a team of archaeologists and the Discovery Channel in an investigation into the mysterious lines of the Nazca region in Peru. Created by the Nazcas, these huge sculptures are only visible from the sky and depict people, animal, geometric forms, and strange creatures. See a premier exhibition of pottery and textiles, musical instruments, and mummies from this long-forgotten, pre-Columbian civilization and visit Cahuachi, a buried city of pyramids and ceremonial buildings which may have once been the religious capital of the Nazca people

Biographical notes on the American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976). At the height of his fame and skill, Robeson’s career was cut short by Cold War anti-communist hysteria. This documentary includes historic footage of the US civil rights movement; clips of Robeson’s speeches, performances and visits to East Germany (GDR) and the Soviet Union; and interviews with his son, Paul Robeson Jr., and the musicians and activists Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger and Earl Robinson. Co-produced by the GDR’s DEFA Studio for Documentary Film and the West Berlin production company Chronos, with scenes shot in the U.S.

VHS was the first in Brazil to reach a mark of 100,000 copies sold. In 2000, it was released on DVD and added 6 bonus clips, which were not part of VHS.

In 1971, author and film scholar Donald Richie published a poetic travelogue about his explorations of the islands of Japan’s Inland Sea, recording his search for traces of a traditional way of life as well as his own journey of self-discovery. Twenty years later, filmmaker Lucille Carra undertook a parallel trip inspired by Richie’s by-then-classic book, capturing images of hushed beauty and meeting people who still carried on the fading customs that Richie had observed. Interspersed with surprising detours—a visit to a Frank Sinatra-loving monk, a leper colony, an ersatz temple of plywood and plaster—and woven together by Richie’s narration as well as a score by celebrated composer Toru Takemitsu, The Inland Sea is an eye-opening voyage and a profound meditation on what it means to be a foreigner.

When Barry Levinson wrote the movie Diner, he created characters based on a composite of various guys he hung out with at the local diner. The Original Diner Guys documentary follows the lives of the actual "diner guys". Filmed from 1990 to 1997, it captures the relationships, the humorous ribbing and interactions that have bonded this group for nearly a lifetime. The film follows the guys through reunions, celebrations and the realization of their own mortality.

The inside story of America's race to the moon.

An outstanding poet, student of Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Mykola Vinhranovsky reads excerpts from his teacher's diary, comments on it - thereby emphasizing the tragic fate of the great artist. The film uses a chronicle of the war and post-war years.

A documentary about the life of British satirist and founder of 'Private Eye' Peter Cook.

Portrait of Reinette l'Oranaise, diva of the Arab-Andalusian music, born in Oranien, who was able, in spite of the difficulties made to the women of the time and thanks to her steel will, to learn all the repertoire of Andalusian music.

Join narrator Patrick Stewart on a sweeping journey through Earth's fascinating history -- from the formation of ancient, geological artifacts to the modern exploration of the moon. The film is a storehouse of facts you probably didn't know. For instance, more than 18,000 meteorites strike Earth each year; it's 3,000 degrees four miles below Earth's surface; and Mount Everest's peak was once part of the ocean floor.

An omnibus consisting of three documentary stories from Zagreb life.

By her own admission, Katy Manning is ‘as blind as a bat’ and never knows where she’ll end up. When she suddenly arrived in the UK, Katy was probably as surprised as the rest of us! Determined to thank the legion of Doctor Who fans who had written and supported her during her years abroad, Katy embarked on a whirlwind tour of British conventions and shops before leaving (yet again) for Australia… Along the way bump into Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin, John Leeson, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Michael Sheard and other surprise guest stars!

This film is a moving tribute to French filmmaker Jean Rouch. Pauwels, a former collaborator of Rouch, accompanies him on a trip to Japan. In this cinematic letter, which he himself calls “a journey into the memory”, Pauwels philosophises about the essence of cinema and, consequently, of life.

Before "L.A. Confidential", there was "Shotgun Freeway" -- the groundbreaking 1995 documentary about Los Angeles coming to grips with it's own history. Against a backdrop of never-before-seen archival footage, Shotgun Freeway presents a diverse group of "Angelinos" who guide the film through their own past as well as the city's. We get crime scribe James Ellroy reliving his youth as a burglar, Actor/writer Buck Henry's tour of Hollywood fakery, Jazzman Buddy Collette's trip down Central Avenue, Historian Mike Davis' tour of LA's eventual Armageddon, and writer Joan Didion's take on LA's own ephemerality. From the Beaches to the Valley, "Shotgun Freeway" will show you a Los Angeles you never knew existed.

A spoof on the show "Biography" that presents the life and hobbies of Austin Powers' arch foe, Dr. Evil.

Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne interviews June Allyson on her career as MGM's resident "girl next door."

René has been in prison since he was 16. He is sick of life and doesn’t care about his parents (just as René’s parents never cared about him when he was a child); he doesn’t even know how many more children they had. After the general amnesty, René just hangs around, not satisfied in any job, and with his younger brother he starts stealing. In no time he is back in prison, this time joined by his brother who is still a youth. History repeats itself and René’s life philosophy seems to be confirmed: You enjoy your freedom for a while, then go to prison and the same thing happens all over again.

Former classmates at a school in the Southern Germany city of Ulm, Jewish and non-Jewish, recall their childhood in Nazi Germany.

Based upon documentation of forced confessions made during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia, this film reconstructs the relationship of a young woman, Hout Bophana, and Ly Sitha before they were tortured in executed in 1977.

Intrigued by the desire to have been a Bunny Girl, the director takes a look at what it meant. Interviewing several of the original Bunnies she learns the rules and expectations on the girls as well as the more sinister side of a 1976 murder.

The band Fugazi is documented over a period of more than ten years (1987-1998) through performance footage and interviews with the band and their fans. Director Jem Cohen's relationship with band member Ian MacKaye extends back to the 1970s when the two met in high school in Washington, D.C.. The film takes its title from the Fugazi song of the same name, from their 1993 album, In on the Kill Taker. Editing of the film was done by both Cohen and the members of the band over the course of five years. It was shot from 1987 through 1998 on super 8, 16mm and video and is composed mainly of footage of concerts, interviews with the band members, practices, tours and time spent in the studio recording their 1995 album, Red Medicine. The film also includes portraits of fans as well as interviews with them at various Fugazi shows around the United States throughout the years.

Ciprì and Maresco's delicious documentary portrays Sicilian super-agent Enzo Castagna, a man with some 20,000 extras on his books, who has worked with the likes of Loren, Pasolini, Rosi, Coppola and Cimino (indeed, virtually anyone who's ever chosen to film in Palermo). It's typically weird, witty and wonderful, partly due to its subject, a self-styled 'little big man' who consents to be described as 'almighty' and 'the greatest contributor to Italian cinema in the last 35 years'. The local favourite has also done time for bribery, but refuses to comment on Cosa Nostra. The film is as astonishing as its subject. Shot in luscious b/w, it's driven forward by an offscreen interrogator who alternates between ludicrously hyperbolic flattery and forthright questions about corruption and crime. It also serves as a study of the way ethics get abandoned in the unending pursuit of fame, wealth and self-esteem.

Tragicomic documentary where director Hans Heijnen searches for the Dutch emigrant in foreign parts. The film focuses on a Southern-Limburg clan in California and shows how this small group stays loyal to the Dutch-Limburg traditions and habits. In the spirit of the long-gone 50s the emigrants visit the church every Sunday and arrange a weekly night of cards. Many things they are attached to do not exist in America, and tragically also not anymore in the country they left behind.

Interview with Antonio Margheriti on genre cinema.

Based on more than two decades of systematic research and cross-cultural comparison by comparative mythologist David Talbott, Remembering the End of the World reconstructs a cosmic drama when planets hung in the sky close to the earth–an epoch of celestial wonder giving way to overwhelming terror. This highly visual presentation offers new answers to enigmas that have baffled experts for centuries. Why did every ancient civilization celebrate a former “Age of the Gods”, an age claimed to have ended in earth threatening disaster? What was meant by the lost “Golden Age?” Why did ancient sky worshipers refer to Saturn as “the sun?” Why was Venus worshiped as the “Mother Goddess?” And why did both Old and New World astronomers celebrate the planet Mars as a great warrior whose battles shook the heavens?

Japan is a country of steep mountains surrounding wide flat plains where people have lived for thousands of years. On the largest plain lies the country's largest freshwater lake, Lake Biwa, which is not at all far from Japan's ancient, capital city of Kyoto. The slopes that stretch down towards the lake have been terraced. Here rice seedlings need shallow water in which to grow, and the neat, meticulously constructed paddy fields provide just this. Some of them have been cultivated continuously for thousands of years. Alongside them stand patches of woodland where, for centuries, the people have found their fuel and their food. This is a land that has been touched by people, yet the people tread lightly upon it. It's a land that has been ruled for centuries by the demands of the rice, yet it's still dominated by the rhythmic cycle of the seasons. Here is a landscape that the Japanese people hold so close to their hearts that they have a special word for it: Satoyama.

A journey along the Inlandsbanan, from Mora to Gällivare, in the last summer of 1991 when the passenger traffic is to be shut down. A decision and its consequences. A film about the view of Norrland in these EC times.

The life of Maximo Guillermo "Max" Manus, a Norwegian resistance fighter, before and after World War II.

For three decades the Soviet Union's obsession with space stirred the soul of the nation like a secular religion - from the first space star Yuri Gagarin to the sad saga of cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev who circled the planet for almost a year, a helpless spectator of the momentous events back home on earth. Exploring the spiritual force of this grand obsession, Arena talks to Krikalev and the first cosmonauts, and ventures into the world of relics, icons and the memorabilia of the Soviet space venture.

Throughout the Islamic world, each year hundreds of women are shot, stabbed, strangled or burned to death by male relatives because they are thought to have “dishonoured” their families. They may have lost their virginity, refused an arranged marriage or left an abusive husband. Even if a woman is raped or merely the victim of gossip, she must pay the price. Crimes of Honour documents the terrible reality of femicide – the belief that a girl’s body is the property of the family, and any suggestion of sexual impropriety must be cleansed with her blood. We meet women in hiding from their families, a brother who describes his reasons for killing the sister he loved, and a handful of women who have committed themselves to the protection of young women in danger of losing their lives.

What begins as a genuine attempt to get an interview with the so-called 'Iron Lady' former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, quickly turns into a game of cat-and-mouse in the United States. The filmmaker Nick Broomfield is snubbed at every turn. Aside from the comedy of Broomfield's repeatedly failing attempts to gain access, the film discusses the accusations that Thatcher's son, Mark, used his mother's connections to effect arms deals in Saudi Arabia.

Partially staged documentary by Barbara den Uyl investigates the case of Hans Kok, the squatter who was found dead in an Amsterdam police cell in October 1985.

The recounting of a deadly Canadian bank robbery in the 1950's and the resulting massive man hunt for the killer.

Documentary chronicling the making of the Young Indiana Jones series from pre-production to post-production.

This naturist film, the first produced by Parafotos, records the adventures of Lisa and Tanya, who during a hitch-hiking holiday in France, discover the fabulous naturist resort of Arnaoutchot on the Atlantic coast of France.

Documentary following the Hardcore 900 Degrees Tour, Australia, Easter 1998.

A 1990 PBS documentary around the topic of A cappella music. Artists that performed as part of the documentary include The Mint Juleps, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Rockapella and The Persuasions. It also stars Spike Lee, Debbie Allen and a cameo appearance by Samuel L. Jackson.

In January 1996 filming began on a new episode of Doctor Who set in San Francisco, but shot in Vancouver, Canada. Sylvester McCoy flew out to join the production team to re-create his role as the Seventh Doctor and to hand over to Paul McGann. In this behind-the-scenes video diary, Sylvester gives us a personal account of his final days as the famous Timelord. Reminiscing about the "old days" and drawing comparisons with the experience of working on this latest adventure, he talks to Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook (Dr Grace Holloway) from the new production and Anneke Wills (Polly) from the show's past. All shot on Hi-8 camcorder.

What does modern art mean for ordinary visitors to an exhibition?

The film reveals the moments that preceded the Samba Schools' competitive parade in Rio de Janeiro's 1996 carnival. Narrated by actor Hugo Carvana and filmed by three separate 16mm camera units, the documentary focuses exclusively on the gathering of each school before its parade at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí - the real and imaginary space where everything happens.