Cinematic Era: 2005 Vintage

As if their day jobs weren't dangerous enough, the hardest of hard-core New York City bike messengers seek out even more thrills in their off time by organizing wild-and-wooly street races. This documentary follows a small group of these riders. The result is an intimate portrait of the madmen (and women) who risk life and limb in a series of harrowing races, culminating in the annual Halloween night Alleycat race through rush-hour traffic.

Karen advertises for a roommate, and a charming young woman, named Christine, charms her way into the apartment and into Karen's life. But soon, Christine is revealed to be a dangerous psychopath who proceeds to sabotage Karen's life any way she can, as well as kill all her friends whom suspect her secret past

2005 release

This DVD celebrates IDG's 150th release. The label has since grown into a full-scale world of its own. "Gigolo Freakshow" also does something else - take the viewer deep into the realms of past reality, into the lives of everybody involved. The DVD is directed by Angelika Lepper, which has beautifully managed the areas of research and storytelling: Most of this material is previously unreleased, almost impossible to get. Private recordings, intimate film material and very rare moments of the artists' lives generously compiled, so that the story of IDG is told yet again ... but not by any journalist or reporter. The story is told by the artists, the Gigolettas and the people.

2005 release

2005 release

Short film by Tyler VanderWallen.

2005 release

Recorded at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in 1977, this performance captures tenor saxophone great Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis in peak form. Presented by legendary jazz impresario Norman Granz, the set features Davis’s powerful tone, blues-infused phrasing, and effortless swing, backed by an exceptional rhythm section. With a repertoire blending soulful ballads, driving blues, and bebop influences, this concert is a vivid snapshot of one of jazz’s most distinctive voices performing in an intimate yet world-class setting.

Jamal is a thirty something man, facing the deterioration of everything he has ever believed in: the political party, Islam, and more importantly, traditional family life. He leaves his home to look for answers.

Most of us spend the greater portion or our lives working for someone else, and are constantly reminded that we are all merely "human resources"... one guy finds out the true meaning of "Cubicle Hell" when he is unwittingly drawn into the bowels of the corporate world, and quickly learns the he's truly in a 'dead-end' job. Never mind the benefits... the overtime will kill you.

Documentary about making of the album “Sing Sing” by Obojeni program, recorded in the Netherlands.

Experimental documentary about the long-term effects of Argentina's 1970's state terrorism. The film vividly reveals current life in Buenos Aires through the eyes of a long-gone native, while it also records and uncovers compelling testimonies of resistance, transformation, and hope. The film establishes links between the struggles of the Argentine people with today's world's necessity to defend human rights, and preserve human dignity and democratic values.

Included in Carrazana’s Red Videos series. “This series of videos appropriates paintings from the Socialist Realism style, mixed with experiences of a past remembered.” yaimacarrazana.com

High school short film directed by Mike Cheslik

A proof-of-concept short film made in-engine for the then upcoming sequel to the video game "ICO".

Five years after Blackboard (2000) by Smira Makhmalbaf, in 2005, Whiteboard was released. It is directed by Fardin Batmani. This film tells the story of the negative impact of the Blackboards on the villagers in general and Said's social life in particular. It shows the realistic side of literate and cultural life in the region.

Friends and acquaintances remember their friend who was disappeared during the Argentine Dirty War.

Sexual purity, money and a mother's worries come together in this humorous guided tour of America's status-obsessed Iranian Jewish community. The film follows Tanaz, the narrator, a hip New Yorker whose Iranian family attempts to marry her off now that she's reached the age of 25. Tanaz vacillates between soppy American ideas of romance, and a more business-like Iranian approach, and in the end may be unable to execute either. When Tanaz breaks from her family's expectations and dates American men, she can't help bringing with her the immense pressure to get married, and the American boys tell her that this obsession kills love. Tanaz fantasizes about simply finding another Iranian "weirdo" like herself - who is caught between two cultures and two very different marital traditions.

This is a semi-autobiographical story of Tina, a Vietnamese woman who seeks freedom in America during the first wave of the "boat people" exodus. During a horrendous month - long journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong in a small, flimsy boat, Tina, her husband and their 6 month old child had to endure tremendous hardships. Their craft, loaded down with 40 refugees, was attacked twice by pirates, who took all their money and belongings. They also managed to survive a violent storm which almost destroyed their craft. Their 6 month old son was not so lucky, however, and died of exposure. Penniless, and devastated by the loss of her son, she makes her way to the west coast of Canada, where she realizes that the "American Dream" is not at all what's it's made out to be. What happens when the American dream turns into a nightmare?

The tale of how the cunning fox got what he deserved. And the wolf learned to fish with a fishing rod.

In this sumptuously shot short film from writer-director I. Michael Toth, a disillusioned man's chance encounter with a hitchhiker and his dog forces him to reconsider the possibilities of his life.

Misteri Bondowoso went viral in 2006-2007, it was released on VCD and shocked the public because it promised sightings of local ghosts in the Bondowoso area.

In this interview, illustrated with these works and with other key installations including Socle du Monde and Corps étranger, Mona Hatoum explores the diverse sources of her work and her engagement with a wide range of often surprising materials. The artist talks vividly about the centrality of the body to her installations, and the ways in which her work employs changes of scale, intimations of restriction and constraint, and contradictory ideas of attraction and repulsion.

A man anguished by a disturbing job, and her: an enigmatic woman who wanders the streets, trying to seduce with her beauty anyone who can help her and rescue her from her madness. Together, trapped in a strange and desolate world, they will experience a strange relationship between the Shadows of parallel worlds...

The director was already in Baghdad to cover the U.S. air raids when they began in March 2003. Shouting in front of a U.S. Army tank, he portrays the real situation that befell the Iraqi civilians. As he shows how different families fall victim to heavy air raids and the horrors of war, he questions the “meaning” of war.

Kiera Chaplin visits famous Serbian trumpet festival.

A documentary comedy that seeks to get to the bottom of collective German melancholy and pessimism.

This documentary examines the impact on a Spanish town as men murdered in 1936 under Franco's regime are exhumed nearly 70 years later and laid to rest.

One boy, one girl. One close space, one silent night. What is the relation between them? The great works in art history structure, influence their relations, and show us something. At the same time, the boy and the girl convey their experience and taste on these works. Usually, a boy and a girl will make love to end a scene or a film, but it didn’t happen. It seems that they spend the night clearly, but the tomorrow is still unknown.

The life of a piñata may be poor, nasty, brutish, and short. A camera pans slowly down from a blue sky and a fluffy cloud to a tall leafy tree. Hanging from one branch is a piñata, a bright yellow donkey. The donkey opens its eyes when it hears children approaching. The donkey is pleased to see them until, to the strains of "La Cucaracha," five children start to whack it with sticks. The donkey is bewildered, and after a while, figures out how to pull itself up by the teeth out of the children's reach. Then an adult enters the frame, with a big stick. The donkey is frightened, and, involuntarily happens on a solution that just may save its life.

A meticulously filmed documentary portrait of the hard life of the cargadores who trek through the mountains of Peru with baggage on their backs.

A man and a woman who continue to drive while following the strange "suicide note" of a former colleague who is in the hospital

«71» is guided by impressions and feelings of an artist during shooting: a feeling of absurdity that comes when one travels to the back of beyond without ever reaching anywhere.

They were the glamour girls on James Bond's arm, the vestal virgins in Up Pompeii, and the girls-next-door in Man About The House. They were the vampire victims dispatched in the first reel of Hammer Horrors. And they were the Carry On dolly birds, guaranteed to elicit a 'Phwooar' from Sid James. They were Crumpet! And this is their story.

Straight 8 is an exploration of a collection of 8mm home movies of film enthusiast Tom D’aguiar, an Anglo-Indian who lived in Bangalore. Drawn from home movies made around the 1940s, we see scenes of everyday life around Tom’s house including amateur fictional thrillers shot with his friends and graceful dances of the renowned figure Ram Gopal. Instead of a nostalgic re-presentation of the past, the video creates montages of everyday personal life strung together with personal anecdotes that indicate a precision about the domesticated use of technology. Through its enigmatic grainy images, Straight 8 evokes an enticing realm of memory and imagination that governs the relations technology, creativity, and ordinary lives of people.

The lives of two men who live on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, are followed in a documented prophecy of the coming underground rebellion.

Stand up special

Once upon a time, Dora and Boots went exploring in Fairytale Land. But when Boots falls under a mean witch's spell, Dora must set out on her toughest adventure yet - she must become a true princess to awaken Sleeping Boots! Will you help her become La Princesa Dora?

DIRT is about primal forces: horsepower and ego, passion, fuel and fire. The racecars are usually held together with duct tape.

One shot on May 15, 1993 ended the life of Maître Babacar Sëye, the vice-president of Senegal's Constitutional Council.

Presenting "Cheryl" the home-shopping motivator as a surrogate and cheesy consumer goods as art objects, Cheryl the artist questions hype and material value in a personality-driven art market.

A road or a road that leads zero. Through a landscape in a permanent transformation, inexhaustible, unattainable. Deça, further, Elvis ahead at the turn.