Best movies like Empty Suitcases

A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.

A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patron of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.

A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd and Tom McCarthy.

Looping, chugging and barreling by, the trains in Benning's latest monumental film map a stunning topography and a history of American development. RR comes three decades after Benning and Bette Gordon made The United States of America (1975), a cinematic journey along the country’s interstates that is keenly aware “of superhighways and railroad tracks as American public symbols.” A political essay responding to the economic histories of trains as instruments in a culture of hyper-consumption, RR articulates its concern most explicitly when Eisenhower's military-industrial complex speech is heard as a mile long coal train passes through eastern Wyoming. Benning spent two and a half years collecting two hundred and sixteen shots of trains, forty-three of which appear in RR. The locomotives' varying colors, speeds, vectors, and reverberations are charged with visual thrills, romance and a nostalgia heightened by Benning's declaration that this will be his last work in 16mm film.

Raising Bertie is a longitudinal documentary feature following three young African American boys over the course of six years as they grow into adulthood in Bertie County, a rural African American-led community in Eastern North Carolina. Through the intimate portrayal of these boys, this powerful vérité film offers a rare in-depth look at the issues facing America's rural youth and the complex relationships between generational poverty, educational equity, and race. The evocative result is an experience that encourages us to recognize the value and complexity in lives all too often ignored.

A blending of documentary and experimental narrative strategies, combining stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voice-over to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as “suicide landmark,” and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.

An eight-hour contemplative epic, entirely starring sheep.

The cream of the New York new wave/punk crop, filmed live at CBGB when the scene was just beginning. Includes performances by Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Heartbreakers, the Shirts, Wayne County, the Marbles, the Dolls, Miamis, Harry Toledo, and the Tuff Darts (w/Robert Gordon).

Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's mammoth film follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City. The film was intended to be screened via dual projector set-up.

One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."

Divine Madness is a 1980 concert film directed by Michael Ritchie, and featuring Bette Midler during her 1979 concert at Pasadena's Civic Auditorium. The 94-minute film features Midler's stand-up comedy routines as well as 16 songs, including "Big Noise From Winnetka," "Paradise," "Shiver Me Timbers," "Fire Down Below," "Stay With Me," "My Mother’s Eyes," "Chapel of Love/Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Do You Want to Dance," "You Can’t Always Get What You Want/I Shall Be Released", "The E-Street Shuffle/Summer (The First Time)/"Leader of the Pack" and "The Rose".

A psychiatrist faces his past, present and future when he finds himself involved in the treatment of a young man recently released from prison for a murder committed when the boy was just 11 years old.

Experimental film consisting of a single static shot of the Empire State Building from early evening until nearly 3 am the next day.

Documentary on advertising. Investigates the way work has disappeared from advertising images, and traces the phenomenon through archive advertising films from 1897 to 1960. Places advertising in the context of historical events and everyday life, archive material being juxtaposed with contemporary images.

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

Separation concerns the inner life of a woman during a period of breakdown – marital, and possibly mental. Her past and (possible?) future are revealed through a fragmented but brilliantly achieved and often humorous narrative, in which dreams and desires are as real as the ‘swinging’ London (complete with Procul Harum music and Mark Boyle light show) of the film’s setting.

An evening at the local movie theater, including a sing-along led by Maestro Stickoutski at the Mighty Fertilizer organ, a Goofy-Tone newsreel, and the feature, Petrified Florist, featuring caricatures of Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.

In Manhattan's Central Park, a film crew directed by William Greaves is shooting a screen test with various pairs of actors. It's a confrontation between a couple: he demands to know what's wrong, she challenges his sexual orientation. Cameras shoot the exchange, and another camera records Greaves and his crew. Sometimes we watch the crew discussing this scene, its language, and the process of making a movie. Is there such a thing as natural language? Are all things related to sex? The camera records distractions - a woman rides horseback past them; a garrulous homeless vet who sleeps in the park chats them up. What's the nature of making a movie?

Poverty stricken lovers Eden and Matilda have enough trouble just getting through the days, but when Eden buys a pet spider the real troubles start.

Buddhist monks open up about the joys and challenges of living out the precepts of the Buddha as a full-time vocation. Controversies swirling within modern monastic Buddhism are examined, from celibacy and the role of women to racism and concerns about the environment.

A meticulous essay on the presence and representation of children in the history of cinema, in which cinematographies from all over the world are analyzed.

A mom and her 10-year-old son motor around the country as she makes ends meet by turning tricks until her car breaks down. She then temporarily takes up with a hardware store owner until she gets her own place. Then the kid's father shows up to try to take the two over.

An ex-Navy man carrying out the last wish of a dying shipmate renews contact with old friends to break the code of silence around a mysterious, long-buried crime.

This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy – which initially defined homosexuality – as well as the demonization of the homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.

Cults are real...this 'mockumentary' isn't. Godfather of Gore movies Herschell Gordon Lewis plays a detective who tells the story of the Ecomm Cult, operated by the polygamist Doctor Smoke.

Eric Mitchell's debut film, shot in Super 8, stars Mitchell, Anya Phillips, Patti Astor, and Duncan Smith among a crowd of hip "poseurs," talking sex, manners, and politics.

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" is a feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Both a social justice story and a personally driven narrative, the film chronicles this capital case from 1984 through 2004. With exclusive footage from two decades, the film frames the judicial and emotional response to a chilling crime - and the implications that reverberate from Hunt's conviction - against a backdrop of class and racial bias in the South and in the American criminal justice system.

A journey through the dark side of 1950s Los Angeles. "The Savage Eye" is largely composed of documentary street footage, which, when coupled with its dramatized material, takes the form of a hybrid narrative about a divorcee who escapes to L.A. to eviscerate her past -- and all notions of love and faith -- with a boozy, cynical abandon.

Ann Fenwick is a witness to a bank robbery in the U.S. and the bandits, led by Trigger and Leon capture her and when she disappears, a warrant is issued for her arrest as a material witness. The bank robbers flee across the border into Canada where they steal a trailer in which they lock Ann and the loot. The hitch breaks and the trailer plunges into a lake. Sergeant Renfrew and Constable Kelly, of the Canadian Mounties, rescue Ann and she tells them she is a hitch-hiking tourist and gives a false name. Renfrew sends Kelly for aid, Ann escapes and Kelly returns with the news that she is wanted. The leader of the gang, Cardigan, sends the gang back for Ann and the loot, which Ann has hidden in a trappers cabin, just before Trigger recaptures her. Renfrew goes to her rescue, but is also captured. But reliable Constable Kelly is somewhere in the woods.

THE CITY DARK is a feature documentary about the loss of night. After moving to NYC from rural Maine, filmmaker Ian Cheney asks a simple question - do we need the stars? - taking him from Brooklyn to Mauna Kea, Paris, and beyond. Exploring the threat of killer asteroids in Hawaii, tracking hatching turtles along the Florida coast, and rescuing injured birds on Chicago streets, Cheney unravels the myriad implications of a globe glittering with lights - including increased breast cancer rates from exposure to light at night, and a generation of kids without a glimpse of the universe above. Featuring stunning astrophotography and a cast of eclectic scientists, THE CITY DARK is the definitive story of light pollution and the disappearing stars. Written by Wicked Delicate Films

This unique narrative incorporating documentary elements follows Rey, a 40-year-old non-binary teacher and typhoon survivor, on a roadtrip to fame. With surreal comedy and social portrait realism, filmmaker Seán‌ Devlin explores climate change, LGBTQ+ issues, and the impact of colonialism on contemporary Philippines.

The rise, fall and rise of a teen death-rock idol.

Go inside the chaos and courage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York in "9/11", updated fifteen years later by the original filmmakers. As the only documentary footage from inside the Twin Towers, the film is a gripping minute-by-minute account of that harrowing day through the lens of French filmmakers and brothers, Gédéon and Jules Naudet, and firefighter James Hanlon. The 2016 edition features a new intro from Denis Leary, who is closely aligned with advocacy for first responders. The updated material focuses on the ongoing health issues that 9/11 firefighters have battled, and the inspiring stories of “legacy kids” — women and men who lost loved ones in the attack and have since become firefighters.

This TV program tries to show how the illustration from the 17th to 20th century of the famous novel written by Cervantès has in the same time improved and impoverished our knowledges of this novel. Improved, because the illustration help us to discover that the physical aspect of the caracters influences the comical features and the symbolism of this masterpiece. Impoverished, because it neglected, especially since the 19th century, the representation of the age and the context, thus favoring abusive adaptations and condensations.

A full journey from the beginning of "Swordplay" movies in Shanghai, growth in Hong Kong cinemas in the 60's and 70's and Ang Lee's epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000. The series also features interviews with such luminaries including John Woo, Chu Yuen, Lau Ka Leung, Gordon Lau Ka Fai, Sammo Hung, David Chiang and Cheng Pei Pei.

The shadows of screams climb beyond the hills. It has happened before. But this will be the last time. The last few sense it, withdrawing deep into the forest. They cry out into the black, as the shadows pass away, into the ground.

The film is about looking. I bet that slight variations of few recurrent elements would encourage the viewer to free associate and to fantasize a kind of narrative. - BM

This thriller from directors Dale Fabrigar and André Gordon concerns two couples who decide to marry on the same day - readily anticipating the most joyous event of their young lives. All hell breaks loose, however, when three men - including a minister, a drug addict and a jealous brother - unleash violence on the ceremonies.

Shot on location in Goa, Southern India, it concerns a young man's search for his missing father, across beaches, through deserts, down rivers and through jungle he searches, finding love on the way. But what are these mysterious flashbacks of a trance party he keeps having? This cult film uses the then nascent psychedelic trance music scene to drive a hallucinogenic narrative in the spirit of The Wizard of Oz, The Matrix and Jacob's Ladder.

65 shots making up a cryptically alluded-to narrative: a lesbian couple's Midwest travels, a hitchhiking young man's journeys, the story of a man who may be having an affair.

A genre-bending 'operatic cinema' featuring 18 classical music pieces, this psychological horror feature tells the story of a young couple that has issues when confronted with an unexpected pregnancy. A film that explores love, romance, and changing gender roles, and most of all, themes of power and control.

The Tenant continuously fails to escape his deadly apartment under five minute time limit as his blood-thirsty neighbor threatens to break in and exterminate him.

So much more than simply the story of the Thanksgiving meal, the epic saga of the Pilgrims is one of the fundamental narratives of our nation. This ambitious documentary presents the definitive history of the Pilgrims and their journey to and colonization of the New World. A marriage of feature-film quality historical reenactments with the latest scholarship and analysis of original source material, this definitive look at the Pilgrims' progress will shed light on the reality of their experience.

Is this a film about Scrooge? About a composer’s life? An opera within an opera? The Passion of Scrooge blurs these lines between performance, documentary, and fiction, into a cinematic concert experience that’s seasoned with magical reality. Composer Jon Deak has adapted Charles Dickens’ timeless tale into a contemporary opera that melts the heart, but doesn’t avoid the darkness in Scrooge that’s still resonant with the material concerns of our time. Using neither period costumes, nor set pieces to reconstruct old England, the film invites you to experience A Christmas Carol with the imaginative possibilities of a radio play. And then, to meet those visions in your head, filmmaker H. Paul Moon‘s floating camera intimately captures musicians performing the score as characters themselves, in this ageless haunted redemption story about “us, every one.”

It's been quite a year for Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim. Having entertained billions worldwide at the Olympics closing ceremony, Fatboy Slim took the party global once more with the screening of "Fatboy Slim Live: At The Beach Beach Bootique" at over 800 cinemas worldwide. After performing to over 40,000 fans at the Big Beach Bootique 5, fans will be able to continue the party at home with the "Fatboy Slim: Big Beach Bootique 5" DVD/CD. Filmed at a favourite venue of Norman's, (the Amex football stadium in Brighton), his most ambitious show yet features the largest ever built, 600 square metre LED video wall (lengthways alongside the pitch), spectacular laser and light effects, thrilling pyrotechnics and dazzling visuals. The set includes Fatboy Slim's latest material and of course his biggest hits, along with huge tracks from Calvin Harris, Armand van Helden and Knife Party all recorded in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

Complete strangers meet in a room to act out their sexual desires.

Annie is a cashier in a Munich Cinema Center. Her everyday life is the complete opposite of the exciting screen adventures she sells at the box office, so she fantasizes about the movies during the day. At night, she also begins to stage her own adventure in real life.

A primetime special with performances from the superstar including Adele’s first new material in six years plus her chart-topping hits. The special will also feature an exclusive interview with Adele by Oprah Winfrey from her rose garden, in Adele’s first televised wide-ranging conversation.

A man makes a career change into the fashion industry.

Featuring a cast that includes Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Mike Watt of the legendary hardcore band Minutemen, and Pettibon himself, this deadpan narrative pays dubious homage to the 1960's radical underground. In this crudely rendered home video of a commune of stoned revolutionaries, the cameras are hand-held, the edits in-camera, and the dialogue is wryly on-target. Pettibon's band of outsiders reenacts a countercultural moment defined by rock music, drugs, and ideological paradox — and in so doing, captures their own late-80's West Coast grunge milieu as well.