Cinema Studies

Features provocative interviews with some of the world's foremost independent filmmakers, interspersed with excerpts from their films, including Chantal Akerman, Emile de Antonio, Les Blank, Robert Frank, Wim Wenders and Robert Young, among many others.

Celebrates the universal and almost magical appeal of motion pictures by showing a Cuban Film Institute mobile film unit traveling deep into the Cuban countryside to show peasants their first movie.

A profile of Fernando Birri, 'Father' of the New Latin American Cinema.

This two-part documentary examines the social and artistic roots of the national cinemas of Latin America.

Traces the career of one of America's best-loved but least-seen actors. During his fifty year career, Daws Butler (1916-1988) provided the voices for such beloved animated characters as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Chilly Willy, Elroy Jetson, and dozens of others.

A documentary portrait of American silent screen star Viola Dana who began her career with the Edison Company in 1910 and starred in more than 100 productions before her retirement in 1929.

At the age of 90, cinematographer Karl Brown discusses his early work with D.W. Griffith, in particular the making of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

Traces the colorful life and filmmaking career of one of Hollywood's most distinctive talents, who directed three classic bullfighting films, several crime thrillers and a series of low-budget Westerns that earned him a cult critical reputation. An outspoken interview with Boetticher is interspersed with clips from many of his films.

Profiles the career of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Howard Koch (1901-1995), best know for such classic films as The Sea Hawk (1940), The Letter (1940), Sergeant York (1941), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) and Casablanca (1942).

Examines the career of a traveling exhibitor who brought motion pictures to America's towns and cities when movies were in their infancy, from the early 1880s through the early 1920s.

This two-part video-including "1911-1940" and "1940-1990" - chronicles Latino participation in the American film industry, profiling major performers and other creative personnel and examining issues of typecasting and stereotypes.

This biographical video traces the career of one of Hollywood's most successful composers of film and television scores, including Conan the Barbarian, Robocop and Starship Troopers

This video features candid interviews with the filmmakers- including Vera Chytilova, Jiri Menzel, Jan Nemec, Ivan Passer, and Jan Sverak, among many others-who created the Czech New Wave.

This video chronicles the life and work of Carmen d'Avino- filmmaker, painter, sculptor, and photographer.

Profiles a variety of women active in independent-feminist film and video, including production, distribution and education, whose work expresses a variety of political and esthetic viewpoints.

This video chronicles a crucial period in the life of the great Soviet filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), when he left Moscow during WWII for the Kazakhstan capital to film Ivan the Terrible (1943).

Profiling the acclaimed Italian film director, blending clips from his films- The Battle of Algiers, Burn!, etc - with an interview in which he discusses his wartime experiences, the influence of Italian neo-realism, his philosophy of filmmaking.