Streaming: Recent Releases & Restorations 2020
April 17–December 31, 2020
Enjoy newly released films and restored classics selected by our curators, now available in your own home.
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Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
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Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
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Nationtime
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Collective
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Zappa
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Flowers of Shanghai
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Edo Avant Garde
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Available Films
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Streaming: A Thousand Cuts
Ramona S. Diaz
United States, Philippines, 2020August 7–September 17, 2020
This riveting documentary follows fearless journalist Maria Ressa and her colleagues at the embattled news site Rappler as they challenge Rodrigo Duterte’s authority and expose misinformation, criminality, and human rights abuses in the Philippines.
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Streaming: Band of Outsiders
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1964April 29–July 19, 2020
Anna Karina gets involved with a pair of would-be burglars in one of Godard’s most accessible and entrancing films, with exquisitely gritty black-and-white cinematography by Raoul Coutard and music by Michel Legrand. “Like a reverie of a gangster movie” (Pauline Kael).
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Streaming: Beanpole
Kantemir Balagov
Russia, 2019May 15–July 26, 2020
For two women ex-soldiers in Leningrad in 1945, one trauma leads to another. “A brilliantly told, deeply moving story about love—in all its manifestations, perversity and obstinacy” (New York Times).
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Streaming: Buoyancy
Rodd Rathjen
Australia, 2019September 28–November 29, 2020
Visceral performances by a nonprofessional cast ground this gripping dramatization of immigrant exploitation on the high seas, as a Cambodian boy falls into modern slavery aboard a Thai fishing boat. “Taut and urgent” (Variety).
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Streaming: Carmine Street Guitars
Ron Mann
Canada, 2018July 1–October 11, 2020
In the heart of Greenwich Village, once the center of New York’s bohemia, one artisanal shop remains resilient amid encroaching gentrification: Carmine Street Guitars. “A gentle, warm, immensely satisfying portrait” (Rolling Stone).
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Streaming: Chez Jolie Coiffure
Rosine Mbakam
Cameroon, Belgium, 2018July 1–August 2, 2020
A Brussels hair salon catering to West African immigrant women is at the center of this warmhearted documentary. “A must-see! An atypical and timely portrait of the intersection between the immigrant experience and female identity” (Indiewire).
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Streaming: Chulas fronteras & Del mero corazón
July 22–November 1, 2020
Swing along with Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jiménez, and other greats of Mexican American music in Les Blank’s bouncy 1970s tributes to Chicano culture and pride, now digitally remastered in 4K.
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Streaming: City Hall
Frederick Wiseman
United States, 2020November 13, 2020–January 10, 2021
Eminent documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s study of process, policy, and public service in Boston’s city government is a “typically sprawling, inquisitive and inclusive anatomy of the city’s inner workings . . . both sober and inspiring” (Variety).
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Streaming: Classe tous risques
Claude Sautet
France, Italy, 1960Digital Restoration
July 8–November 15, 2020Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo star in “a tough and touching exploration of honor and friendship among thieves” (New York Times). “One of the best French gangster films, tense and warm, elliptical and human” (Bertrand Tavernier).
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Streaming: Collective
Alexander Nanau
Romania, Luxembourg, 2019November 20, 2020–April 11, 2021
A shattering exposé of systemic corruption, this documentary about the aftermath of a Bucharest nightclub fire “doesn’t just open your eyes but tears you apart by exposing a moral rift with resonance far beyond the film’s home country” (Variety).
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Streaming: Coup 53
Taghi Amirani
United Kingdom, 2019December 18, 2020–July 18, 2021
Cowritten and edited by Oscar winner Walter Murch, this documentary is a fascinating investigation into the 1953 Anglo-American coup d’état in Iran that displaced democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and installed the despotic Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as shah. “Passionate and fearless” (Hollywood Reporter).
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Streaming: Down and Out in America
Lee Grant
United States, 1986July 22–October 18, 2020
This long-unavailable, recently preserved documentary takes an unflinching look at a cross-section of Americans whose financial security evaporated as a result of the Reagan administration’s “trickle-down economics.” “A powerful, bracing, mournful film” (New Yorker).
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Streaming: Edo Avant Garde
Linda Hoaglund
Japan, United States, 2019August 28, 2020–August 31, 2021
This beautiful examination of the tradition of Japanese folding screen and scroll painting explores the sensuous style and innovative methods of Edo period painting and reveals its influence on Western art.
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Streaming: Flowers of Shanghai
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Taiwan, 1998Digital Restoration
November 27, 2020–March 31, 2021Tony Leung stars in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s quietly sumptuous tale of brothel life in nineteenth-century Shanghai. “‘Surrender’ is the key to this visually ravishing masterpiece” (Phillip Lopate).
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Streaming: From the East
Chantal Akerman
France, Belgium, Portugal, 1993New Digital Restoration
November 20, 2020–February 28, 2021Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chantal Akerman journeyed across Eastern Europe recording the still palpable presence of the Soviet Union ahead of its inevitable dissolution. “A travelogue through history . . . a purely cinematic monument in time and space” (Village Voice).
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Streaming: Ikarie XB-1
Jindrich Polák
Czechoslovakia, 1963Digital Restoration of the Full-Length Version
December 11, 2020–March 31, 2021Based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, this austere, sublime space odyssey “profoundly influenced the genre and showed that science-fiction movies weren’t only about special effects; they were also high art” (The Guardian).
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Streaming: Intervista
Federico Fellini
Italy, 1987Digital Restoration
December 4, 2020–February 28, 2021Fellini turns the camera on himself in this pseudo-documentary, which uses a Japanese TV crew’s visit to the Cinecittà studio as the pretext for a series of glimpses into the filmmaker’s methods and thoughts.
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Streaming: Irmi
Veronica Selver, Susan Fanshel
United States, 2020August 27, 2020–May 31, 2021
This beautiful documentary portrait of German Jewish émigrée Irmi Selver (1906–2004), based on her memoirs (read by Hanna Schygulla), takes us on a unique journey through a life marked by love, unimaginable loss, and strength of spirit.
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Streaming: Jazz on a Summer's Day
Bert Stern
United States, 19594K Digital Restoration
August 12–October 25, 2020Shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz on a Summer’s Day is an indispensable record of some of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. “Outstanding. . . . It’s Americana and a document of its time” (Variety).
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Streaming: Joan of Arc
Bruno Dumont
France, 2019July 8–September 20, 2020
French cinema provocateur Bruno Dumont (Hadewijch, L’humanité) conjures up a mystical, austere, brilliantly eccentric vision of Joan of Arc, “equal parts Brecht, Bresson, and Busby Berkeley” (Screen).
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Streaming: La strada
Federico Fellini
Italy, 1954Digital Restoration
November 6, 2020–February 28, 2021Fellini’s muse, Giulietta Masina, modeled her timeless character Gelsomina after Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. She stars with a brutish Anthony Quinn in this classic that Martin Scorsese called “the cornerstone of Fellini’s work.” This presentation includes an insightful introduction by Russell Merritt.
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Streaming: Mayor
David Osit
United States, United Kingdom, 2020December 11, 2020–April 11, 2021
This at times absurdist, always eye-opening documentary about the mayor of Ramallah, a Palestinian city surrounded by Israeli settlements, is “the best new film about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict” (Indiewire). “Gripping and surprisingly witty” (Variety).
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Streaming: Mr. SOUL!
Melissa Haizlip
United States, 2018August 28–October 29, 2020
A chronicle of the revolutionary television program SOUL! and its visionary producer, Ellis Haizlip, Mr. SOUL! is generously illustrated with excerpts from the show featuring a stunning array of Black performers, writers, and activists.
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Streaming: Nationtime
William Greaves
United States, 1972New 4K Restoration
October 30, 2020–January 31, 2021William Greaves’s documentary captures the energy and urgency of the 1972 National Black Political Convention, where some ten thousand Black politicians, artists, activists, and journalists—including Jesse Jackson, Bobby Seale, Betty Shabazz, Dick Gregory, and others—assembled to create a unified Black political agenda.
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Streaming: Paris Calligrammes
Ulrike Ottinger
Germany, France, 2020November 30, 2020–August 31, 2021
Ottinger’s latest film describes her experiences as a young artist living in Paris in the 1960s, evoking a place and time of intellectual, artistic, and political ferment.
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Streaming: RBG
Julie Cohen, Betsy West
United States, 2018September 25–December 20, 2020
We remember Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with this affectionate portrait from 2018, which “emphasize[s] not just Ginsburg’s work on the court but how extraordinarily influential she was before she even got there” (L.A. Times).
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Streaming: Rififi
Jules Dassin
France, 1955April 29–July 19, 2020
Four burglars pull off an ingenious robbery of a Parisian jewelry store, only to have their professionalism undone by their desires and personal ties, in this definitive heist movie. “The best film noir I’ve ever seen” (François Truffaut).
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Streaming: Sátántangó
Béla Tarr
Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, 1994May 6–June 30, 2020
New Digital RestorationOne of cinema’s “genuine masterpieces” (Cahiers du cinéma), Béla Tarr’s seven-and-a-half-hour opus of melancholia is “devastating, enthralling for every minute” (Susan Sontag). We present a digital restoration from the original negative.
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Streaming: Song Without a Name
Melina León
Peru, Spain, United States, 2019October 5–December 20, 2020
An indigenous Andean woman searches for her stolen newborn amidst the institutional corruption of 1980s Peru in this surreal blend of Latin American political history and Kafkaesque alienation, “shot, scored, and styled like the most beautiful of bad dreams” (Variety).
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Streaming: Sorry We Missed You
Ken Loach
United Kingdom, 2019May 14–June 30, 2020
The latest working-class chronicle from Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) is a portrait of a Northern English family on the losing end of the gig economy. “A drama of . . . searing human empathy and quotidian heartbreak” (Hollywood Reporter).
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Streaming: Spaceship Earth
Matt Wolf
United States, 2020May 8–July 16, 2020
Environmental activism, scientific study, and artistic creativity battle against business demands and media disdain in this absorbing look at the backstory and counterculture roots of 1991’s Biosphere 2 experiment.
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Streaming: Suspension
Simón Uribe
Colombia, 2019August 27–December 20, 2020
Deep in the jungle of Colombia, between treacherous mountain slopes, stands an unfinished bridge, an absurd symbol of human folly. This debut documentary feature is “compelling and impressive” (Hot Docs).
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Streaming: The Audition
Ina Weisse
Germany, France, 2019June 26–September 20, 2020
An uncompromising high school violin teacher (Nina Hoss) becomes obsessed with a talented new student in this slow-burning psychological drama. “A symphonic study of human behavior. . . . Hoss is absolutely magnificent” (Cinema Scope).
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Streaming: The End of the Ottoman Empire
Mathilde Damoisel, Sylvie Jézéquel
France, Switzerland, 2016July 8, 2020–January 31, 2021
This fascinating documentary offers an overview of the Ottoman Empire and its decline, the essential backstory of our world today.
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Streaming: The Grey Fox
Phillip Borsos
Canada, 1982Digital Restoration
May 29–August 31, 2020After decades in prison, stagecoach robber Richard Farnsworth emerges in 1901 a free man without a place in twentieth-century society—until he sees The Great Train Robbery and is inspired to do once again what he does best.
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Streaming: The Hottest August
Brett Story
United States, 2019July 15–October 18, 2020
In the summer of 2017 Brett Story took the temperature of New York City, observing and speaking with inhabitants about their hopes for the future, economic precarity, and climate change. “Story’s an original, and the film is a revelation” (Variety).
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Streaming: The Whistlers
Corneliu Porumboiu
Romania, France, Germany, Sweden, 2019April 24–June 30, 2020
This crime thriller laden with double-crosses, showdowns, and seductions is a new genre twist for BAMPFA favorite Corneliu Porumboiu. “If the Coen Brothers were Romanian, they might have made The Whistlers” (New York Times).
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Streaming: We Have Boots
Evans Chan
United States, Hong Kong, 2020Cosponsored by the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law
October 24, 2020–January 10, 2021This essential documentary on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong puts us in the center of the action with harrowing street footage and affecting portraits of protesters. With Chan’s 2016 film Raise the Umbrellas, on the Umbrella Movement.
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Streaming: White Riot
Rubika Shah
United Kingdom, 2019October 16–January 10, 2020
This exuberant account of the 1970s grassroots antifascists behind Rock Against Racism is “a welcome tribute to RAR’s first, most vibrant chapter—an extraordinary fusion of culture and politics that changed society for the better” (Glass Magazine).
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Streaming: Zappa
Alex Winter
United States, 2020November 27, 2020–February 15, 2021
With newly preserved archival recordings, home movies, and extensive interviews, Alex Winter’s intimate and comprehensive documentary is a definitive portrait of the great twentieth-century composer, rock star, entrepreneur, social critic, and political activist Frank Zappa.
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Streaming—Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly
Cheryl Haines, Gina Leibrecht
United States, 2019July 8–September 27, 2020
Sparked by artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s 2014 project on Alcatraz Island, this “very absorbing and valuable documentary . . . movingly puts Ai’s work into personal context” (The Guardian).
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Streaming—Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
Halina Dyrschka
Germany, 2019April 17–August 15, 2020
This documentary illuminates the story of visionary Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, the unsung modernist of the early twentieth century. “Bristles with the excitement of discovery and also with the impatience that recognition has taken so long. It refreshes the eyes and the mind” (New York Times).
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Streaming—CineSpin: Brussels Loops
Shirley Clarke, D. A. Pennebaker
United States, 1957Free Streaming Presentation
Available for One Week Only, November 13–20, 2020An energetic depiction of American life for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, this compilation of short films explores the natural, industrial, and social landscapes of the nation. With new musical accompaniment by Cal student Ryan Shah.
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Streaming—Film & Video Makers at Cal: Works from the Eisner Competition 2020
Free Streaming Program
December 1–January 10, 2020A selection of outstanding student films from the competition for the 2020 Eisner Prize, UC Berkeley’s highest award for creativity.
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Streaming—Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful
Gero von Boehm
Germany, 2020July 24–October 4, 2020
A fascinating portrait of the influential fashion photographer, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful explores Newton’s life and work through the eyes of the brilliant women who were his subjects and collaborators.
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Streaming—John Lewis: Good Trouble
Dawn Porter
United States, 2020July 3–October 25, 2020
This essential documentary combines rare archival footage with interviews and scenes of John Lewis at work to chronicle the life and career of the civil rights activist and politician, from Alabama cotton fields to Congress.
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Streaming—Martin Margiela: In His Own Words
Reiner Holzemer
Germany, Belgium, 2019August 14–October 25, 2020
In this thoroughly engaging chronicle of Martin Margiela’s two influential decades in fashion, the notoriously elusive designer reflects on his formative influences and the concepts behind his groundbreaking collections. “Best fashion documentary of the decade” (Hollywood Reporter).
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Streaming—Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
Ric Burns
United States, 2019September 13, 2020–January 31, 2021
“At once tender and thrilling” (Variety), this moving and insightful portrait of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks centers on intimate interviews from his final months, as he faced death and looked back on his extraordinary life.
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Streaming—Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own
Daniel Traub
United States, 2020June 5–October 11, 2020
This new documentary takes viewers behind the scenes as artist Ursula von Rydingsvard works on her monumental sculptures, revealing the loving labor behind their mysterious, expressive forms.
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Streaming—What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
Rob Garver
United States, 2018April 29–July 19, 2020
From her early years in Berkeley to her long career at the New Yorker, What She Said chronicles the life and work of the brilliant, hilarious, contentious Pauline Kael. “An exquisitely crafted documentary about the woman who was arguably the greatest movie critic who ever lived” (Variety).
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