Cinematic Era: 2002 Vintage

Have you ever asked yourself how would it be in hell? Clear your doubts immediately in the streets of Los Angeles.

Juan dreams to escape from his country and its problems.

Using archival film and photo materials, Cuban director Manuel Pérez paints a personal portrait of Che Guevara, the legend and symbol of revolution. Ernesto Che Guevara was only 39 years old when he was executed in the Bolivian mountains in 1967. This film tells the story of Che's short life: his childhood in Argentina, his early interest in the Spanish Civil War, the motorcycle trip through Latin America that changed his life forever. Raul Castro and other friends remember Che's first encounter with Fidel Castro in Mexico in 1955, as well as his involvement in the Cuban revolution and rumors of his disappearance in 1965.

Jack's back! The king of glum returns to the stage and he is as bitter and cynical as ever. Recorded live at London's Hammersmith Apollo after a four month sell out tour of the UK and Ireland, Jack continues to demonstrate his inimitable brand of deadpan comedy. If you weren't there this is your chance to experience this outstanding show.

"One week after 9/11, independent filmmakers Jay Rosenblatt and Caveh Zahedi put out a call to over 150 experimental and documentary filmmakers asking for contributions to a collective film project (Underground Zero) addressing those tragic events and their aftermath. My five-minute contribution, Innocence and Despair, provided me with an opportunity to make my first digital video (with material culled from 16mm footage, both archival and my own) and to make something of a public work, something I had never done before. The title is copped from a favorite album of mine (The Langley Schools Music Project) that was originally recorded by Hans Fenger in 1976-77 with his grade school students singing popular songs of the day. I was meditating on ideas of before and after, of how the summering people in my little film could never have imagined looking up at the sky at a world such as existed on the day…" —Phil Solomon

The notorious December killings in Surinam in the early eighties seem to be the starting point for the political thriller Paramaribo Papers. Largely shot in Surinam, this TV film tells about secret agent Robert Lipmann, who is ordered by the Dutch government to start a search for the disappeared journalist Kevin Poelgeest. The country is plagued by great agitation under the military regime of commander Raymond Markelo, who is forcefully thwarting the opposition. During his search, Lipmann meets Elvira, Kevin's sister who is having an affair with the commander. Like Lipmann, she is convinced that Kevin's supposed death involves a settlement in the drug scene. But then, important evidence pops up and the cause of Kevin's disappearance has to be regarded from quite a different perspective. Unknowingly, they head for the tragic events of 8 December 1982.

The relationship between Mavroscoufitsa and the Wolf is shaky. Mavroscoufitsa is almost sure that the Wolf is cheating on her with her mother. What she doesn’t know is that the coke she delivers daily to her addicted and blind grandmother, is stolen from the Wolf by her mother.

Over a long weekend, a group of friends gathers together, a diverse representation of the last twenty-five years of the Italian left. Some of them haven't seen each other in a long time; the occasion is the release from prison of a former friend and comrade, accused of killing a judge in the 1980s. Roberto Ferro is on parole and wants to know which of his former comrades reported him. Among the friends, some have achieved privileged positions; others, like Nanni and Malena, have adapted to a more modest life and have retained, at least in part, the ideals of their youth. Malena, an Argentine exile who experienced torture at the hands of the military, had a love affair with Roberto and, before that, a strong bond with a disappeared comrade. Roberto's return reignites personal and political conflicts within the group.

Reality TV has invaded the world television space for several years. Garbage television, attack to the human dignity, cultural desertification for some, phenomenon of society, new frontiers of the intimacy, formidable gas pedal of television particles for the others; the debate on reality TV arouses a deep and lasting emotion, in short, it produces word. It is this word that we decided to relay by the glance and the images, we propose to decipher some of the paradoxes which riddle the multiple reflections of the many personalities that we interviewed.

A professional intelligence officer, Jan, who performed a special assignment at the Abwehr intelligence school during the Second World War, returns home. Along the way, he is ambushed by the "forest brothers", led by his fellow student at the intelligence school. He fabricates evidence, according to which Jan gets a "tower". Instead of executing the sentence, Yan is made a "doll" for NKVD cadets to practice their combat skills. Jan manages not only to survive in unequal battles, but also to escape. Run away to finally see his wife and daughter, to restore justice.

A humorous look at what women are REALLY saying when they lock eyes across a crowded bar. Find out why some lesbians are too cool for words.

Leyla Zana, the first woman Kurdish MP to be elected to the Turkish Parliament in 1992, was impisoned in 1994 for 15 years for speaking in Kurdish in the Parliament. Kudret Gunes' personal look at the life of Zana takes her to her birth-place, friends and exiled husband.

Hilarious, raunchy. adult comedy. In clubs and theaters across the country, Lisa Lampanelli calls audience members colored, queer, bald, fat, and old. Do they get offended? Angry? No! They laugh uncontrollably and demand to know when she'll be back in town. After watching this hour-long concert--filmed live at Rascal's Comedy Club in West Orange, New Jersey--you'll see why! A cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker, and a vial of estrogen, Lisa lives up to her three favorite F-words: "Fierce, Funny, and Fearless"! She's got a bawdy personality, all-out honesty, and the insult comic's most essential quality--undeniable likability. All this adds up to one important 4-letter word: STAR.

Depression swallows Alex Murphy after the death of her husband and she follows signs to Our Lady of All Nations in Amsterdam for answers.

A man returns to his local community after serving prison time but finds that the locals are less than pleased to see him back.

Commissioner Kool-Aid Adresses Issues Renegade vs. Blitz vs. Diablo (s) Rage vs. Carnage

A boy is forced to face the hardships of war alone.

Miles and Regina move in as roommates, just to move in on each other.

Solito returns to his hometown on Palawan Island and captures the sacred rituals and daily lives of its people on film. We see the ongoing disintegration of the islanders’ way of life due to the intrusion of multinational corporations and other forces, and the resulting anger. The echoes of percussion and rhythm of the images unite harmoniously, drawing the viewer into the extraordinary world of this film.

Baby Scanner is aimed at a more adult audience and deals with a theme that is very much felt by educators: the behavior of "adults" in sports, observed and reproduced by children.

Seventh "The Most Fearful Stories" film by Junji Inagawa.

A horror writer starts to model his stories off of real life and he's not prepared for what follows.

After witnessing the murder of his sister, a boy develops a fear of leaving his home.

Locked away in the Jewish ghetto of an occupied Ukrainian town in 1941, a mother revisits her life in a last letter to her son.

Radha, the daughter of blacksmith, Narayanan, falls in love with Unnikrishnan, the new postman in town. Their love is however opposed by the evil moneylender, Kaalimuthu.

2 minutes where we observe a dog who can't enter a supermarket.

Parents trying to prevent their son from seeing a girl they don't like go too far.

A burmese rom-com, romance and drama movie set in summer, the movie is about the love story of a photographer and a rising star actress

"Made during an artist residency project in Omaha, Nebraska, ‘Midwest’ captures aspects of the daily lives of the town’s residents. Passing from day to night, the film shows groups of people loitering on the street and sitting in a café, while images of run-down houses and cars suggest a neglected urban environment. Within this record of ordinary life, the artist brings out the melancholic side of a community which seems to be both drifting along and waiting for something to happen. Nashashibi is interested in how people use the space around them. The film is a companion to ‘Midwest Field’, which shows how the town’s residents spend their time in the green spaces outside the city." - NationalGalleries.org

A young man heads out to the prairies with an unusual itinerary.

Amateurish voyeurism in a pre-tv era. Glances of female bodies (un)covered by swimsuits on the beach.

Volcano, half hour, silent, shot on 16mm on a volcano in Hawaii, the film attempts to deal with those questions of representation that persist as problematic, for me, for the basic questions of aesthetics, what it is to view, how to view the unknown as to view the known is not possibly a viewing. The question of recognition, the impossibility of recognition or, better said, the impossibility o f a viewer viewing at all if it is predicated up on recognition... at that moment, you the viewer I the viewer am no longer part of a process, a material however metaphysical or not process of making meaning through the conflicts of perception of something...

Kežmarok is another of the towns we will visit in the free cycle of stories Behind the City Walls, so that we can get to know the beauty and part of the history of this town through a heartfelt love story. The story is set during the time of the Rakoczi Uprising. While the city struggles for its existence, Jacob, the son of a senator, fights for his love and his friend, the student Gregor, is haunted by the apparition of the Black Lady. And since Gregor is indifferent to neither the fate of the town nor the fate of his friend, it is Gregor to whom the Black Lady entrusts her treasure.

A drug lord hires three hitmen to get rid of a witness.

Catchy mix of farce and documentary. Portrait of a Berlin theatre company made up entirely of the homeless, alcoholics and junks. They call themselves ‘rats’ and take the film over to have a party.

Dedicated to the sisters who fought back with the last strengths in them, The War of Roses documents the struggles and aftermath of four women in different environments that encountered sexual assaults, shedding light on the underlying structural violence sustaining the unequal power relations in gender.

2002 Sam Taylor-Wood short video art piece featuring a man playing an imaginary string instrument.

Apart from the Rumplund family, the misunderstood toilet researcher Dr. Mugg lives in the small town of Dasseborg. When the wretched Dr. Mugg is not terrorizing the city, he is forging threads down the sewers riding the speed marvel the Pruttomobile. But hold on, the town's only superhero, Captain Filling, is hot on his heels. Captain Filling may not be the most cunning of heroes, but he has big muscles, a big heart and huge summons - Y-front of course!

A boy recounts stories of a girl he sees on the school bus.

A man waits for his lover alone at home. When he finally arrives, the story of their relationship is told while the beautiful lover is indifferent to everything he's hearing.

An Indian family decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada dam Three choices. Move to the slums in the city, accept a place at a resettlement site or stay at home and drown. The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast.

This intimate look into the real world of drag kings -- women exploring their masculinity -- crosses continents, traveling through drag king nightclubs from New York to London.

Is there love after death? The small rural community of Port Oram can answer that. When deranged young Dolores Finley (Zoë Daelman Chlanda) appears out of nowhere to begin work at the Beech's Funeral Home, the local mortuary soon becomes more than just a quiet place of rest. Dolores' passion for cadavers gives new meaning to the phrase "disturbing the peace".

David Blaine does it again. With 'Vertigo', we see some more incredible magic and unusual illusions. Intercut with the Magic is David - standing on a pole in NY for two days. A pole that seemed to be extended 10 stories tall with nothing for him to hang on to - and there was nothing to catch him. This portion of the program was live and at the end of the show - he jumped into a stack of cardboard boxes.

Says Gonzalez: "I remember shooting at dusk in Antibes, my hometown, revisiting all the places I've been while I was a teenage night paperboy. Then I edited this footage with flashes of my corpus' disturbing images. But I see it today as a bad amateur nightmare haunted by the fear of sex and vaguely misogynistic... Pretty good musical choice though: the Coil track I used is soooo intense."

A documentary that looks back on Donald Takayama's half-century as a master of the surfing world, Hawaiian Pro Designs, owner shaper, interviews with legendary surfers around the world, surf scenes, and footage from the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Handel's 1724 opera Tamerlano followed the success of his previous year's Giulio Cesare with another colourful historical costume drama. This time the setting is the court of "Timur the Tartar", who has just defeated the Turkish Sultan Bajazet at the battle of Angora. There are, naturally enough, romantic complications when both Tamerlano and his ally, the Greek Prince Andronico, fall in love with Bajazet's daughter Asteria. She, however, has plans to revenge her father's defeat. This production was directed by Jonathan Miller and staged in the intimate surroundings of the Goethe Theatre of Bad Lauchstadt as part of the 2001 Halle Handel Festival.

The story of a Decoy

The movie follows a group of children living in the streets in the city of Buenos Aires. The only day center working is the CAINA (Centro de Atención Integral a la Niñez y Adolescencia) an institution that assists and shelters street children.

Ottavio Mai understood that if homosexuality isn't represented in this society dedicated to shows and the media which is slowly but surely taking over, then its representation is fundamental, it is the only sign, the only proof of existence. Therefore, he fills the void. With his films which, although poor and consciously making use of new electronic means, range from documentaries to traditional fiction, from poetic short films to experimental films, and which talk directly, without mediation, about gays, transvestites, couples, families, betrayals, battuage, and homosexual normality, touching every genre, like nobody had ever dared to do in Italy before.

A trilogy (Elsa Kirk, Catherine Street, Creased Robe Smile) centered on photographic contact sheets of three different women from the mid-Sixties. Klahr builds imaginary settings for each: Elsa Kirk (99) has the trappings of film noir while Creased Robe Smile (01) is the closest the filmmaker has come to making a Hollywood musical.

Interviews with Christo, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Judith Malin, James Rosenquist and others help to illuminate the life and work of Warhol contemporary Ray Johnson.

Short film from Geoffrey O'Brien

This is a video compilation of trailers from Grindhouse, horror based movies between 1950's and 70's. Includes to many - The Terrornauts, The Vampire and the Ballerina, The Devil's hand, Carnival of blood and some many, many more.

An audio collage of snippets of narration culled from true crime TV shows, juxtaposed against serene Super-8 nature footage.

A wretched man wanders the streets of Cap-Haitien, dreaming of his imaginary kingdom. He thinks he's the King Christophe, the first ruler of the New World, a former slave and liberator of Haiti in 1804. Out of town, "King Chacha," as he is known, took refuge in the imposing ruins of the castle of Sans Souci along with Timothy, a street urchin he took under his wing. Here he reconstructs a junk yard where reigns absurdly.

The New York Mets' 40th Anniversary Celebration was one of the highlights of the 2002 baseball season. As part of that season-long celebration, fans were invited to vote for an All-Amazin' Team of their favorite Mets, by position. On Saturday August 17, 2002, the Mets 40th Anniversary All-Amazin' Team was introduced during a special pre-game ceremony. That ceremony is captured on this limited edition home video, along with career highlights and interviews from many of the baseball greats who were honored by the fans that day at Shea.