Chris Marker

Chris Marker's epic film-essay on the worldwide political wars of the 60's and 70's: Vietnam, Bolivia, May '68, Prague, Chile, and the fate of the New Left. (First Run / Icarus Films)

This 1993 documentary explores the life and work of the Russian director Alexander Medvedkin (1900-1989). (First Run Icarus Films)

A documentary made prior to the death of filmmaker Andrei Arsenevitch (Tarkovsky) and showing him working on his final film, this record was made at Arsenevitch's request to stand as a record of his working practices. Interspersed with clips of the director's films, this should prove especially interesting for fans of Arsenevitch's work (IMDB)

"He wrote me...." A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco (imdb)

Earth lies in ruin after a nuclear war. The few surviving humans begin researching time travel, hoping to send someone back to the pre-war world for food, supplies and maybe a solution to their dire position. One man is haunted by a vague childhood memory that will prove fateful. (imdb)

Paris 2002. Yellow cats appears on the walls. Chris Marker is looking for these mysterious cats and captures with his camera the political and international events of these last two years (war in Iraq...)

An homage to Akira Kurosawa, the maker of Ran.

Traveling thousands of miles across the Russian countryside, the train stopped to have its film-makers document Ukranian harvest practices, steel production facilities in southern Russia. (imdb/comments)

The fourth of French filmmaker Chris Marker's cinematic "personal essays". Using a letter from Siberia as its launching pad, the film goes off quixotically in several different directions. Thus, it's hard to categorize the film: a first documentary, it becomes a travelogue, then an animated cartoon, then a philosophical tract, and then? (All Movie Guide)

Through photos made by the French photographer Denise Bellon, a personal history of France. (imdb)

The 1964 Olympic games in Japan are seen through the eyes of the beautiful Muroaka Koumiko in this documentary from Chris Marker. She gives her opinions of life, love, men, and Japanese culture in her responses to an unseen interviewer. (All Movie Guide)

Film details a series of happenings, street and home interviews, plus a general panorama of Paris in May '62. It gives the oo-la-la capital a new look and brings it down out of the frou-frou to reality. (Variety)

Objects die when living eyes see them no more. (imdb)

Documentary about Bajram Rexhepi, mayor of Mitrovica.

The French computer programmer Laura inherits the task of making a computer game of the Battle of Okinawa in Japan during World War 2. She searches the Internet for information on the battle, and interviews Japanese experts and witnesses. The extraordinary circumstances of the Battle of Okinawa lead Laura to reflect deeply on her own life and humanity in general, particularly the influence of history and memories. (imdb)

Documentary about the actions of the Blue Berets in Bosnia.

Documentary about a group of Bosnian refugees who shows their wishes through a pirate TV station.

Documentary about the first election in the former east side of Berlin, soon after the fall of the wall.

In this short film, which is about ten minutes in length, Marker critiques, from a Socialist perspective, the role of the trade union movement in France at the dawn of the era of global web economies. (imdb)

In the beach of Emeryville in San Francisco, during the shooting of Sans Soleil, Marker shoots works of unknown artists who uses things from the sea to build strange sculptures.

An unexpected response to Pinochet's 1973 coup d'etat in Chile. A Super-8 film apparently found in an embassy -as it's written in the original title-, where political activists had taken refuge after a military coup d'état. But the events -and their setting- are not what they first appear to be. (imdb)

Documentary about the killing and disappearance of whales.

Short documentary about Artur London who lost his czech nationality due to his engagement in the film The Confession directed by Costa-Gavras.

François Maspero, ativist, editor of political books and owner of the bookshop La Joie de Lire in Paris, talks about his work.

Short documentary about Carlos Marighela who fought against dictatorship in Brazil.

Short documentary of prisoners of the Brazilian dictatorship who suffered tortures in prison.

1967, one year before may '68. The strike at the Rhodiaceta textile plant in Besançon sounds like the rehearsal of the rising to come. Indeed for the first time ever, the workers' claims are not only higher wages or better working conditions but also BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS. They first and foremost say no to the lifestyle capitalism wants to impose on them. (imdb)

Short documentary about the march against the Pentagon in 1967 because of the war in Vietnam.

In seven different parts, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamees army during the Vietnam-war. (imdb)

A travel through Israel, from the kibbutzes to the Arabian minorities, the orthodox Jews and the tourists.

Deals with a scientist's flight into outer space where, among other things, he spies on a young woman (Ligia Borowczyk) on his way up and later even saves a small spaceship from attack by a larger one.

A series of 41 documentary shorts, directed (without credit) by several famous French filmmakers and each running between two and four minutes. Each "tract" espouses a leftist political viewpoint through the filmed depiction of real-life events, including workers' strikes and the events of Paris in May '68. (imdb)

Marker's 1966 feature consists of still photographs taken in twenty-six countries over ten years, accompanied by voices represented by the photographer and two of his friends. (Criterion)

A television series based on Greek culture and its rich, often troublesome heritage. Topics include the unique nature of Athenian democracy, the grammar of myths, sexuality and pleasure, the invention of the self, music, Pythagoras, and the ever-dominant importance of language. (MUBI)

The Medvedkin Group's first film, Classe de lutte, closely resembles A bientot j'espere, tracing the development of a young union leader, this time a woman named Suzanne Zedet.

Director Chris Marker begins by recounting his childhood dream of visiting the city of Peking - a city he was once only able to admire in books. The viewer is taken on a journey through this city, as if experiencing it from the mind and through the eyes of Marker. His thoughts and observations about the traditions, history, and banalities of everyday life in Peking are woven together in elegant fashion. (rottentomatoes.com)

Guillaume-en-Egypte listens to Mompou.

LEILA ATTACKS is at once a parody of the faux gigantism of blockbuster PR and a morality tale (it's tempting to say allegory) of a surprising turnabout in power relations. It is not without self-parody either, as one of the Soviet-meets-grunge style opening titles declares Chris Marker "the best-known author of unknown movies." (chrismarker.org)

In 2012 the Vienna International Film Festival invited french filmmaker Chris Marker to direct the annual festival trailer. (imdb)

A visit to an aviary yields a rhythmically edited series of close-ups of the rapidly rotating or intently staring feathered heads of a colorful variety of owls, accompanied by an ambient electronic soundtrack. (icarusfilms.com)

A leisurely-paced montage of animals, many of them confined in cages or enclosures-including seals, kangaroos, leopards, gorillas, wolves, monkeys, ostriches, and a sleeping rhinoceros. (icarusfilms.com)

In 1974, Marker made La solitude du chanteur de fond, which follows Yves Montand as he prepares a benefit concert for Chilean refugees. That Montand had not performed live in many years made his participation in this concert all the more significant. The portrait of Montand is intercut with footage from films in which he starred, including Costa Gavras's Z (1969) and L'Aveu (1970), both filmed in Chile with the support of Allende. (rarefilmm.com)

An oddly rhythmic and balletic tape emerges from the juxtaposition of an elephant lumbering around his enclosure at the zoo and elegant music by Stravinsky. (letterboxd)

A cinematic haiku by Chris Marker.

A still, highly overexposed shot of a car bridge and the river below. This is one of 3 video Haikus made by Chris Marker. (imdb)

A cinematic haiku by Chris Marker. (letterboxd)

A "home movie" by Chris Marker of his visit to Tokyo with his girlfriend, actress Arielle Dombaste, beginning with a chat with a live mannequin in a store window, then through the subway and to the market.

Two owls on Noah's Ark explain the theory of sets. A short animation in Hyperstudio. (imdb)

In 1973, after the breakdown of wage negotiations with the management of the Lip watch factories, the workers went on strike. They sequester the leadership and appeal to the government. After a few days, they decide to take over the business and resume work in self-management.

A chronicle of the evolution of the Cuban Revolution, ending with the Bay of Pigs incident and including two interviews with Fidel Castro. (letterboxd.com)

Artist Roberto Matta shows his paintings and discusses his ideas on art.