Directed by Chad Freidrichs • Documentary • 2025 • 93 minutes
From the director of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth comes a documentary about the psychology of film editing.
Why do film cuts work? Why do people around the world – even children – so effortlessly understand them? In real life we don't instantly jump from one viewpoint to another. Such a bizarre disruption of reality would be nauseatingly jarring. And yet, most viewers don’t even notice the hundreds or thousands of edits in their favorite films and shows.
THE CINEMA WITHIN delves into the mystery of how and why an edited movie feels so natural and so effortlessly makes sense. Drawing on the insights of editor Walter Murch, scholar David Bordwell, and a varied group of perceptual scientists, THE CINEMA WITHIN explores the idea that in film’s earliest years, the most common edits were instinctively shaped to fit the contours of human perception – and that this might explain why, more than a century later, most modern-day filmmakers still rely on these exact same techniques.
Up Next in New: Documentaries
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Aida's Secrets
Directed by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz • Documentary • 2017 • 95 minutes
In this moving documentary, the discovery of records from WWII sparks a family’s quest for answers as two brothers separated as babies reunite with each other and their elderly mother, who hid more from them than just each...
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Dangerous Games
Directed by Ann Shin • Documentary • 2025 • 79 minutes
After Katie is assaulted by a predator in Roblox—a virtual world with 78 million daily users—she teams up with Alex and Janae to expose what’s really happening in the metaverse. Their investigation uncovers disturbing truths: explicit games,...
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Biocentrics
Directed by Fernanda Heinz Figueiredo, Ataliba Benaim • Documentary • 2022 • 109 minutes
How would you reinvent some part of your world using nature as a model?
In BIOCENTRICS, this and other provocations are answered through the eyes and voice of biologist Janine Benyus. Traveling to different...
