A. S. Hamrah Selects
Ovid asked me to recommend a selection of films streaming on their channel. Initially attracted by the documentaries they offer about musicians I love, including Ornette Coleman, Pulp, Bill Callahan, and the Magnetic Fields, instead I picked ten features that are not music docs.
Nevertheless, I do have to recommend Joe Angio’s Revenge of the Mekons (2013), because everyone should hear the story of the night in the late 1970s in Dublin when U2 opened for the great punk socialists and told them U2 was going to be bigger than they would ever be. They were right! But so wrong.
Now, here are ten films you can see that are better than the one showing with U2 at the Sphere, and you don’t have to go to Las Vegas to see them. —A. S. Hamrah
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A Man Vanishes
Directed by Shohei Imamura • Documentary • 1967 • 130 minutes
One of the most important and complex works by two-time Palme d'Or winning director Shohei Imamura, A MAN VANISHES begins as an investigation into one of the thousands of missing persons cases that occur in Japan each year.
The film ...
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Le Crabe-Tambour
Directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer • Drama • With Jean Rochefort, Jacques Perrin, Claude Rich, Jacques Dufilho • 1977 • 120 minutes
A French naval frigate crosses the Atlantic, bringing supplies and medical care to the French fishing fleet off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. On board are three v...
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The Last Bolshevik
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1998 • 116 minutes
Based on the life and work of the Russian film director Alexander Medvedkin (1900-1989), THE LAST BOLSHEVIK is a tribute from one filmmaker to another. An archeological expedition into film history that reveals new cinematic treasures, ...
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Time Regained
Directed by Raúl Ruiz • Drama • With Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, Vincent Perez • 2018 • 163 minutes
Raúl Ruiz’s most ambitious literary adaptation and considered his greatest cinematic achievement. An Official Selection at both the Cannes and New York Film Festivals and starring an out...
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Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi & Abbas Kiarostami)
Directed by Jafar Panahi • Written by Abbas Kiarostami * Drama • With Hossain Emadeddin • 2003 • 95 minutes
Two master filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami (A Taste of Cherry) and Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Taxi) team up as writer and director, respectively, on Crimson Gold, a subtle tragedy on class con...
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Almayer's Folly
Directed by Chantal Akerman • Drama • With Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion • 2011 • 127 minutes
Somewhere in Southeast Asia, in a little lost village on a wide and turbulent river, a European man clings to his pipe dreams out of love for his daughter. A story of passion, loss and mad...
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Little Feet
Directed by Alexandre Rockwell • Drama • With Lana Rockwell, Nico Rockwell, Rene Cuante • 2014 • 64 minutes
Determined to set their pet goldfish free, Lana and Nico embark on a magical urban odyssey from their Los Angeles home to the ocean. Their adventure, seen through the eyes of the brother/s...
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Little Sister
Directed by Zach Clark • Drama • With Addison Timlin, Ally Sheedy, Alex Karpovsky • 2016 • 91 minutes
Young nun Colleen (Addison Timlin) is avoiding all contact from her family, until an email from her mother (Ally Sheedy) announces, Your brother is home. On returning to her childhood home in As...
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Hanagatami
Directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi • Drama • With Shunsuke Kubozuka, Tokio Emoto • 2017 • 169 minutes
In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of the cult Japanese film HAUSU was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Despite not much time left, for what was supposed to be hi...
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Reason (Part 1)
Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 2018 • 95 minutes
Those who witnessed the scientific spirit fostered by the Enlightenment would scarcely believe that over 400 years later, Faith would still have an upper hand over Reason. Today as technologically advanced nations still debate the me...
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Reason (Part 2)
Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 2018 • 123 minutes
Those who witnessed the scientific spirit fostered by the Enlightenment would scarcely believe that over 400 years later, Faith would still have an upper hand over Reason. Today as technologically advanced nations still debate the m...
