Lathe of Heaven

Stones and Flies: Richard Long in the Sahara

In the fall of 1987, Philippe Haas accompanied the sculptor Richard Long to the Algerian Sahara and filmed him tracing with his feet, or constructing with desert stones, simple geometric figures (straight lines, circles, spirals). In counterpoint to the images, Richard Long explains his approach. Since 1967, Richard Long (1945, Bristol), who belongs to the land art movement, has traveled the world on foot and installed, in places often inaccessible to the public, stones, sticks and driftwood found in situ. His ephemeral works are reproduced through photography. He thus made walking an art, and land art an aspiration of modern man for solitude in nature.

Magicians of the Earth: Kings of the Water

Cyprien Tokoudagba is from the city of Abomey in the Benin Republic of West Africa, where he paints the religious houses of the vodun. Haas and his film crew follow Cyprien as he first paints and then takes part in the ceremony to open a new temple. The paintings include three vodun figures and several emblems, including a pipe and a duck. Cyprien explains his work in the context of the religion and takes the crew to film two other local ceremonies, one where the dead are believed to come back to instruct the living through wild dancing and, another, where women warriors perform their war dances.

Money Man

MONEY MAN is a documentary film about an artist, J. S. G. Boggs, who draws money. Boggs draws his "notes" (as he calls them) with the same face as regular U.S. currency with his thumbprint on the back. He goes around trying to sell his notes to people in exchange for goods and services.

Young Man's Dream and a Woman's Secret

Filmmaker Philip Haas traveled to the southernmost tip of Madagascar to meet Efiaimbelo, a man in his mid-sixties who works as a funerary sculptor. The film follows Efiaimbelo as he travels to an isolated area in the countryside to cut down a special tree for sculpting. He makes it into a pole of geometric shapes, which he then tops with a finely honed sculpture of a cow. This beautiful sculpture is funerary piece, designed to ornament a grave. The film features remarkable footage of huge tombs covered with cow antlers and poles like the one we see Efiaimbelo sculpt. The tops of these poles are decorated with all sorts of animals, people and tableaux associated with the dead person. Very little has been known or seen of this funereal and artistic tradition outside the region and the film provides an extraordinarily rich visual experience.

A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth

Director Philip Haas and artist David Hockney invite you to join them on a magical journey through China via a marvelous 72-foot long 17th-century Chinese scroll entitled The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour (1691-1698), scroll seven . As Hockney unrolls the beautiful and minutely detailed work of art, he traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689.

Magicians of the Earth: The Giant Woman and the Lightning Man

A documentary on Australian Aboriginal art. The fist part is about a group of desert tribesmen who retell their legends by creating three large and elaborate ground paintings. In the second part the Aborigines of the northern coast depict the story of their ancestors in bark paintings.

American Playhouse

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

The Music of Chance

Two men face the consequences of gambling after playing with men beyond their league.

Angels and Insects

In Victorian England, wealthy patriarch Sir Harald Alabaster invites an impoverished biologist, William Adamson, into his home. There, William tries to continue his work, but is distracted by Alabaster's seductive daughter, Eugenia. William and Eugenia begin a torrid romance, but as the couple become closer, the young scientist begins to realize that dark, disturbing things are happening behind the closed doors of the Alabaster manor.

The Situation

The first U.S.-made film drama set during the Iraq war, THE SITUATION chronicles the tragic death of an Iraqi teenager at the hands of U.S. soldiers. The incident sets off an "investigation," a cover-up, and complications involving Iraqi mayor Sheikh Tahsin (Saïd Amadis), who has a complex relationship with the Americans.

Up at the Villa

Superficial people are revealed and drastically changed by circumstance or luck in this a tale of death, seduction, blackmail and theft among British and Americans in Florence in the turbulent days just before World War II.

The Blood Oranges

Cyril and Fiona, a free-wheeling married couple, travel to a tropical coastal town to follow their sexual fantasies. Cyril is a manipulator. There, they meet another couple, Catherine and Hugh, and their three children. Hugh is a one-armed photographer who specializes in nude photographs of peasant women. Soon, they decide to live together and an erotic atmosphere develops between them.

The World of Gilbert & George

Gilbert & George are renowned for presenting themselves as ‘living sculptures,’ fusing their art and identity with the external world. Their exploration of the bleak urban surrounds of 1980’s London, powerfully evoke the desires and tensions of its disillusioned youth alongside their own eccentricities. Poetic narration combines with vivid imagery that moves between the startlingly beautiful, the humorous, and the absurd. Church spires and city streets, youth and drunks, dancing and tea-drinking all take on an affecting symbolism when viewed from the unique perspective of Gilbert & George.

Seni's Children

Seni Camara lives with her husband and family in the village of Bigona, in the Casamance region in southern Senegal. Working outside the local tradition of making pots and “useful” objects out of clay, Seni claims that through a “gift of God” she has been able to create thousands of bizarre, magnificent creatures — clay sculptures of astonishing originality. Although the villagers don’t know quite what to make of Seni and her art, she continues to work to support her family and to satisfy her own creative urge. The film follows Seni and her husband as they prepare the materials of her art. Together they dig up the hard dirt of the land and slowly mix it with water and sand until the clay is ready to be molded (she tells by taste). While Seni does the intense work of shaping the wet clay into her truly original forms, her husband prepares the final dye bath by harvesting and soaking wild nuts in water. Finally they fire the sculptures and dye them.

Gilbert and George The Singing Sculpture

"Gilbert & George first presented the ‘Singing Sculpture’ in 1969, then repeated it over the next years in the UK, Europe and Australia, as well as New York for the opening of the Sonnabend Gallery in 1971. Standing on a table and with their faces and hands covered in metallic paint, Gilbert and George sing along to a recording of Flanagan and Allen’s old-time music-hall hit ‘Underneath the Arches’, all the while moving mechanically. An anthem to down-and-outs, the song became a mantra for the artists. Always happy to elaborate, they have said, ‘We think of ourselves as two funny tramps, rather than artists according to the popular idea.’

Strange Days

In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

It's been 10 years since John Connor saved Earth from Judgment Day, and he's now living under the radar, steering clear of using anything Skynet can trace. That is, until he encounters T-X, a robotic assassin ordered to finish what T-1000 started. Good thing Connor's former nemesis, the Terminator, is back to aid the now-adult Connor … just like he promised.

A Scanner Darkly

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Total Recall

Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Rekall, a virtual vacation company that manufactures memories. When something goes wrong during Quaid's memory implant procedure, his life turns upside down, leading him to question what is reality and what isn't.

The City of Lost Children

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

The Lawnmower Man

A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.

Demolition Man

In 1996, brash L.A. detective John Spartan and maniac killer Simon Phoenix are both sentenced to decades in a cryogenic prison as punishment for a rescue mission gone wrong. When Phoenix escapes 36 years later to wreak havoc on the future, Spartan is awakened to capture his nemesis the old-fashioned way.

Explorers

Middle schooler Ben spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, his affinity for all things fantastical yields a real result – when he has a vivid dream about technology, his prodigy best friend Wolfgang manages to create a working spacecraft. Joined by their buddy Darren, the boys take off into outer space and encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life.

The Forgotten

Telly Paretta is a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her 9-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist reveals that she has created nine years of memories about a son she never had. But when she remembers a man who had a similar experience, Telly embarks on a search to prove her son's existence, and her sanity.

Logan's Run

In the 23rd century, inhabitants of a domed city freely experience all of life's pleasures — but no one is allowed to live past 30. Citizens can try for a chance at being "renewed" in a civic ceremony on their 30th birthday. Escape is the only other option.

Paprika

Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.

The Astronaut Farmer

Texan Charles Farmer left the Air Force as a young man to save the family ranch when his dad died. Like most American ranchers, he owes his bank. Unlike most, he's an astrophysicist with a rocket in his barn - one he's built and wants to take into space. It's his dream. The FBI puts him under surveillance when he tries to buy rocket fuel, and the FAA stalls him when he files a flight plan – but Charles is undeterred.

Open Your Eyes

Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.

Vanilla Sky

David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.

The Matrix Reloaded

The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.