Directed by Francois Caillat • Documentary • With Michel Foucault • 2014 • 52 minutes
'Don't ask me who I am, and don't tell me to remain the same.' -- Michel Foucault From the history of madness, to sexuality and pleasure in classical antiquity, to the law and penal institutions, the breadth of Michel Foucault's thought was astonishing. One of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, Foucault bridged the roles of intellectual and activist, attaining the highest honours of the French academy while using his position to attack the very institutional power that gave him a platform. Divided into four chapters, FOUCAULT AGAINST HIMSELF focuses on Foucault's critique of psychiatry, his work on the history of sexuality, the growth of his radicalism arising from his research into the French penal system, the nature of knowledge and underlying structures of human behavior, and his immersion in American counter-cultural movements - in particular the resistance to current social structures that he found among sexual minority communities in San Francisco. The film brings together leading philosophers, sociologists and historians - among them Leo Bersani, who first invited Foucault to speak at UC Berkeley - as well as footage of Foucault himself and French and American archival material depicting events that profoundly influenced him. Foucault was profoundly opposed to the notion of small fiefdoms of knowledge. His approach was eclectic (a philosopher writing extensively about history and surveying prisoners on their living conditions, to give two examples) and wide-ranging. Philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman calls him an intellectual 'nomad... crossing the territorial boundaries of knowledge. There are certain threads that run through his work - in particular the critique of institutional power and the celebration of resistance - but it was also...
Directed by Rogier Kappers • Documentary • 2005 • 95 minutes
Alan Lomax (1915-2002) devoted his life to recording the world's folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry. In LOMAX THE SONGHUNTER filmmaker Rogier Kappers follows the route that Lom...
Directed by Douglas Wilkinson • Documentary • 1949 • 10 minutes
A demonstration of igloo-building in Canada's Far North, showing how the site is selected and how blocks of snow are used to make a snug shelter in only an hour and a half. As the camera follows each stage, the commentary explains t...
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang • Drama • With Lee Kang-Sheng; Yang Kuei-Mei • 1998 • 89 minutes
Set just prior to the start of the 21st century, this vaguely futuristic story follows two residents of a quickly crumbling building who refuse to leave their homes in spite of a virus that has forced th...