Joseph McBride
Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?
A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Surrounded by fans and skeptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his innovative comeback film.
In the final 15 years of the life of legendary director Orson Welles he pins his Hollywood comeback hopes on the film "The Other Side of the Wind".
Martin Scorsese is among those paying tribute to Gene Tierney, the Academy Award-nominated American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and '50s.
Misunderstood genius, superstar, Hollywood’s fallen angel... Orson Welles left his indelible mark on the 20th century.
Giant of cinema, the embodiment of creation, Orson Welles is the man who reinvents the film language at 24-years old. Who is hidding behind this impressive figure? This movie is a journey towards the man behind the legend. It drags us into the labyrinth with multiple mirrors that Welles erases and recreates at the mercy of his imagination.
Welles scholar Joseph McBride discusses the 1952 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. (A 32-minute edit of this documentary was presented by the Criterion Collection in their edition of Othello.)
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-1985), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year is a once-over-lightly evocation of a slate of classic films unmatched before or since. In a year permitting 10 Best Picture nominees, the final cut included Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Love Affair. Shut out: The Roaring '20s, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo, Destry Rides Again, Idiot's Delight, Young Mr. Lincoln, Gunga Din. This hour-long film finds room to acknowledge a few of these non-starters, but its brevity means a lot gets left out. This includes the absence of anything that doesn't celebrate the studio system, including the practices of the shrewd tyrants who ran them, seen in brief archival footage.
Short documentary about the making of the John Ford/John Wayne film "Stagecoach".
To commemorate the first century of American filmmaking, the American Film Institute embarked on a celebration of America's greatest movies from the first 100 years of American cinema — 1896-1996.
A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard.
A group of rock-music-loving students, with the help of the Ramones, take over their school to combat its newly installed oppressive administration.
A young athelete becomes the unlikely star of an itinerant wrestling troupe, and a rival promoter will go to any length to steal him away.
Joe Dante and Allan Arkush direct this story of the glamour, the glitter, the magical allure of Hollywood... and not a speck of it rubs off on Miracle Pictures, where "If it's a good picture, it's a Miracle." This is a hilarious tribute to the unsung heroes who grind out the B movies massacred by critics, but nursed fondly in the hearts of film fans everywhere.
Coy "Cannonball" Buckman (David Carradine) and his blazing red Pontiac enter the Trans-America Grand Prix, an underground road race spanning the continent in which there are no rules, no speed limits and no heed for the law. En route, Buckman jockeys with an international ensemble of racers for a $100,000 purse. But there are none more important than Cade Redman (Bill McKinney), his direct competition for a guaranteed spot on the elite Modern Motors racing team.
