Masters

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    As today’s auteurs take the documentary canon to new heights, Masters selects 19 must-see titles from some of the leading filmmakers of our time. Explore the latest work by these long-established documentary masters.

    Selected for Masters

    2 Pasolini

    • Andrei Ujică
    • 2021

      A poetic montage of images from Pasolini's Il vangelo secondo Matteo combined with archive footage of his visit to Palestine, with a touch of 2Pac. After all, every era has its rebels.

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      Atlantide

      • Yuri Ancarani
      • 2021

        In Venice, city of water, teenagers like Daniele don’t have souped-up mopeds but powerful speedboats, or barchini. This atmospheric, hyper-realistic film progresses from a dreamlike beginning to an operatic climax.

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        Babi Yar. Context

        • Sergei Loznitsa
        • 2021

          A reconstruction based entirely on archive footage of the mass execution in 1941 of some 33,000 Jews, in a ravine near the then German-occupied city of Kiev. From the lead up to the massacre to its aftermath.

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          The Balcony Movie

          • Pawel Lozinski
          • 2021

            The sidewalk in front of his apartment is the stage at which director Pawel Lozinski directs his camera. Passersby stop for a chat, tell their life story, and collectively paint a picture of contemporary Poland.

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            The Banality of Grief

            • Jon Bang Carlsen
            • 2021

              After his wife dies, the renowned Danish documentary filmmaker Jon Bang Carlsen starts work on a new film. But everything he sees reminds him of her absence. His film thus becomes “a little stammering love letter."

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              Becoming Cousteau

              • Liz Garbus
              • 2021

                In this chronological and richly documented portrait of Jacques Cousteau, we discover that his life was packed with plot twists. Cousteau was a pioneering diver, filmmaker, and climate activist, and his warnings have never been more urgent.

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                Beirut: Eye of the Storm

                • Mai Masri
                • 2021

                  Four young women in Beirut document a turbulent period in recent Lebanese history, from the uprising against the ruling regime to the subsequent lockdown and then, just months later, the gigantic explosion at the port.

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                  Cow

                  • Andrea Arnold
                  • 2021

                    An anonymous supplier of milk becomes a cow with a personality. In this cinema verité documentary, Andrea Arnold (American Honey) follows a cow named Luma as she goes about her daily life. A whispered, but powerful indictment of the dairy industry.

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                    Ennio

                    • Giuseppe Tornatore
                    • 2021

                      Fascinating and thrilling homage to the composer of unforgettable film scores such as The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, The Mission, and Once Upon a Time in America. In an extended interview Morricone, who died in 2020, offers insights into his method.

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                      The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation

                      • Avi Mograbi
                      • 2021

                        How to occupy a country? Avi Mograbi provides a step-by-step guide based on the now 54-year-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Supported by archive material and confessions, the resulting film is factual, instructive, and shocking.

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                        Futura

                        • Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher
                        • 2021

                          Italian teenagers talk about their dreams and fears in an incisive portrait of a generation that feels ignored and misunderstood. A film packed with thoughtful, moving, and confrontational perspectives on today’s world.

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                          Homes

                          • Laila Pakalnina
                          • 2021

                            Occupants pose in simple tableaux vivants in front of their own homes. The camera films them from inside, through the window. That's all there is to it in this charming film about people, their houses, and making films.

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                            Mariner of the Mountains

                            • Karim Aïnouz
                            • 2021

                              A dreamlike, melancholy, and highly personal journey to a mountain village in Algeria, where the father of filmmaker Karim Ainouz was born. There Ainouz discovers wonderful places and people, and the remarkable story of his parents.

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                              Marx Can Wait

                              • Marco Bellocchio
                              • 2021

                                With the help of his family, award-winning filmmaker Marco Bellocchio tells the story of his twin brother Camillo, who died at the age of 29. Archive footage illustrates an era and a lost life. A film that acts as a confession.

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                                The Painter

                                • Oliver Hirschbiegel
                                • 2021

                                  Actor Ben Becker plays the German painter Albert Oehlen, directed by Oehlen himself. With visible enjoyment, the resulting docufiction creates confusion about authorship, the myth of the genius artist, and the line between irony and authenticity.

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                                  A People’s Radio – Ballads from a Wooded Country

                                  • Virpi Suutari
                                  • 2021

                                    An array of images of summery Finnish landscapes, in the city as well as the countryside, accompany cries from the heart from various listeners to a popular radio program, offering insights into the Finnish soul.

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                                    René – The Prisoner of Freedom

                                    • Helena Třeštíková
                                    • 2021

                                      Lovable Czech criminal René became a cause celebre in his home country, following the release in 2008 of a prize-winning documentary about his life inside and outside prison. In this sequel, he’s still struggling to get his life on track.

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                                      Returning to Reims (Fragments)

                                      • Jean-Gabriel Périot
                                      • 2021

                                        Archive material and film fragments tell the history of the French working class from the 1950s to today. Woefully little has changed, except that the former Communists are now voting in large numbers for Front National party.

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                                        Shoot from the Heart

                                        • Alan Barker, Joan Churchill
                                        • 2021

                                          A rollicking evening with renowned filmmakers Haskell Wexler, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus—as seen through the lens of Joan Churchill—is at the core of this portrait of Wexler, whose life as a cinematographer and activist were inextricably connected. 

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                                          Song to Bergslagen

                                          • Nina Hedenius, William Long
                                          • 2021

                                            Against the backdrop of the passing seasons, this film observes the iron-ore region of Bergslagen, Sweden, where old ways of life are disappearing and an as-yet unformed future is emerging.

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