Film Category: Thematic

The Love Life of the Octopus
Jean Painlevé

A scientific look at the romantic life of the octopus, filmed over a ten-year period.

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Acera or the Witches’ Dance
Jean Painlevé

Portrays the hermaphroditic acera, detailing its ritual mating habits.

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Liquid Crystals
Jean Painlevé

An under the microscope look at the multicolored molecular structures of liquid crystals.

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The River
Pare Lorentz

The River chronicles the crisis in the Mississippi River Basin: the rapacious lumbering and careless tilling that promoted soil erosion, washing away fertile topsoil and…

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Musical Poster #1
Len Lye

The first of several films Len Lye made for the British Ministry of Information during World War II. Set to wartime jazz tunes, including “Bugle…

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This is Spinal Tap
Rob Reiner

When Marti DeBergi set out in 1984 to capture “the sights, the sounds, and the smells” of British rock band Spinal Tap, what he ended…

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Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Francois Girard

These 32 brief sections, each set to a different piece of Gould’s music, serve to illustrate the life of well known Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.…

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Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser
Charlotte Zwerin

A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Includes Michael and Christian Blackwood’s extensive 1968 footage of Monk—including the very…

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Dont Look Back
D A Pennebaker

Dont Look Back is about the sixties and the man who got people through them. Bob Dylan is more than the folk singer touted by…

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The Afghan Alphabet
Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Mohsen Makhmalbaf tracks the children who do not attend school in the villages between Iran and Afghanistan with his digital camera and questions why they…

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