Born in 1948, Peter Street struggled at school with epilepsy and illiteracy in Bolton, Lancashire, and, later in life, as a slaughterman, a gravedigger and a war poet. At 66 years old he was then diagnosed with autism, and his world changed forever.
Peter Street
as Himself
Peter D. Firth
as Narrator
Documentary tracing the extreme life of outlaw writer, performance artist and punk icon, Kathy Acker. Through animation, archival footage, interviews and dramatic reenactments, director Barbara Caspar explores Acker's colorful history, from her well-heeled upbringing to her role as the scribe of society's fringe.
Documentary about the Dutch author, illustrator and performer Joke van Leeuwen, who has won various awards for her literature for children which sometimes uses a quest as a theme.
Well known for its exploration of seduction and revenge, the “Dangerous Liaisons” by Choderlos de Laclos caused a scandal from its first publication in 1782. Despite – or because of the scandal – the book was a top-seller. Since then, it stood the test of time. Combining eras, continents and people, the novel is adapted around the world. Marvelous tool for reflection on the female condition, social satire announcing the Revolution, remarkable work on the conflicting nature of love but also of the gender war, consecration of the power of the words, a libertine manual… “Dangerous Liaisons” is all of these at once.
Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.
Award winning documentary by Joslyn Rose Lyons exploring the relationship between spiritual connection and the creative process in hip-hop music.
Jewish people - and a few Gentiles - muse on what it means to be Jewish in 1960s Britain. The challenges of maintaining faith and culture outside Israel, and in a society where ‘Jewish’ and ‘English’ are seen as mutually exclusive identities are perceptively explored in this astute documentary. Some secular Jews are keen to distance themselves from traditional Judaism and especially Zionism (one defines himself simply as a Marxist). Gentiles are on hand to cheerfully perpetuate some of the old stereotypes, and we’re treated to colourful snapshots of the Jewish community in London: the rag trade, a kosher butcher and restaurant.
The documentary is a true story of four real intellectual Europeans from different cultures who are worried about the decline of literature’s life and the destiny of the street level bookshops in every country. That is why they have a mission to save symbolically “the world's last quality books”.
Filmed on location in Montana and Washington State, this 1976 biography of poet and teacher Richard Hugo features readings of some of his most famous poems as well as interviews with his family and friends.
Cartoneras is a documentary that grapples with Latin America’s urban realities, and the cardboard publishing movement that has emerged from these in the 21st century. Reflecting on the different contexts that propelled this form of community publishing, like Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, the independent art scene, and the movements which formed around waste-pickers, the film’s narrative is developed through conversations with important actors from the cartonera world.
An account of the life of the French poet Jean de la Fontaine (1621-95), author of more than one hundred fables and a model for many other European fabulists of later times.
A group of educators led by Fernand Deligny are working to create contact with autistic children in a hamlet of the Cevennes.
A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.
Documentary looking back at a Britain during the darkest days of WWII using stunning new archived footage and interviews with people who lived through it.
A visit to Smithfield Market, Covent Garden and Billingsgate, at their busiest time, the early morning.
This documentary shows the life and work of the Galician poet from O Courel, Uxío Novoneyra, from a double perspective: the intimate and familiar analysis of his work, both poetic and artistic, and that of his ideological commitment, and a reinterpretation of a selection of his poems for signify the living mode of his verses. The documentary is directed by one of his sons, Uxío Novo Rey, and different artists, biographers, politicians and neighbors collaborate in it, showing the different aspects of the poet, from his origins, the life of the Courel, the Brais Pinto group, the thought politics and even the Galician language. The story establishes a parallelism with the most outstanding events that have occurred in Galicia and in the world in the second half of the 20th century and how the poet was affected by these events.
A documentary about Spitting Image (1984) and the impact it had, including clips of the most memorable moments and contributions from many of the cast, crew and some of celebrities portrayed on the show.
An installation film that consists of a six-hour-long monologue performed by Edith Clever, who reads texts by Syberberg and many different authors, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist, Plato, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Mörike, Richard Wagner, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, and Chief Seattle.
