Best movies like James Benning: Circling the Image

An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting The Night Watch.

A pushy, narcissistic filmmaker persuades a Phoenix family to let him and his crew film their everyday lives, in the manner of the ground-breaking PBS series "An American Family".

Shot in France, England, Switzerland and the United States, this documentary covers director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) and his 1974 Quixotic attempt to adapt the seminal sci-fi novel Dune into a feature film. After spending 2 years and millions of dollars, the massive undertaking eventually fell apart, but the artists Jodorowsky assembled for the legendary project continued to work together. This group of artists, or his “warriors” as Jodorowsky named them, went on to define modern sci-fi cinema with such films as Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars and Total Recall.

A documentary about a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona. At the height of his popularity, the Guru Kumaré must reveal his true identity to his disciples and unveil his greatest teaching of all.

A coming-of-(old)-age story about Peter Anton, an elderly "outsider" artist living in isolated and crippling conditions whose world changes when two filmmakers discover his work and storied past. Shot over eight years, ALMOST THERE documents Anton's first major exhibition and how the controversy it generates forces him to leave his childhood home. Each layer revealed reflects on the intersections of social norms, elder care, and artistic expression.

Banjo is a curious and rebellious kitten who is always getting into trouble. When he decides to jump off a roof of a chicken coup to see if he can land on his feet, he is ordered to "fetch a switch". Thinking his parents wouldn't care if he gets hurt, he hitches a ride on a feed truck, all the way to Salt Lake City. After he finds the excitement of the city, he soon finds it cold and lonely and wishes to be home. With the help of stray cat Crazy Legs and a trio of singing cat girls, he finds the truck and returns home.

After the murder of his beloved wife, a man in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy "The Finn", becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.

Three old high school friends meet in a Michigan motel room to dissect painful memories from their past.

When Jonathan Jordan gets divorced he's thrust back into the world of being a single Mormon - a world who's ultimate goal is eternal marriage. Struggling to fit in, Jonathan decides to stop going to church only to be pursued by the members of the local singles ward who want to reactivate him. Nothing works until Jonathan falls for Cammie Giles, the ward activities director. Suddenly, going to church becomes much more appealing, But is he going for the right reasons?

While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.

A group of six thieves selected from different areas are sent a letter that promises them a minimum of $50,000 and includes a plane ticket. The letter instructs them to grow a beard. After being given a blindfolded ride from the airport, they arrive at a ghost town and meet with the boss (Number #1, Jan Murray). All of the "Wolves" are assigned a number, wear identical overalls and instructed never to take off the gloves that they are given. They are only to address eachother by their numbers; in that way, if one is caught, he can't rat-out the others. Number #1 reveals to them that they will take over a town, and clean it out. Using the ghost town for training, they develop their tactics to fleece the town.

A documentarian strikes up an odd friendship with reclusive 80 year old outsider artist Al Carbee, whose strange Barbie-doll photography gains acclaim and interest over the course of the project's multi-year history. Far beyond a portrait of an eccentric, Magical Universe is about wonder, friendship, and the transcendent power of creativity

On a trip to Paris Sally meets Pablo, a tango dancer. He starts teaching her to dance then she returns to London to work on some "projects". She visits Buenos Aires and learns more from Pablo's friends. Sally and Pablo meet again but this time their relationship changes, she realises they want different things from each other. On a trip to Buenos Aires they cement their friendship.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

After making a disastrous 3-hour documentary on New York City's water supply, two young filmmakers focus on the goings-on of life in the LA offices of Boone and Murphy, private investigators. Cheating husbands and missing dogs fail to bring in the big bucks, however, and after sleeping with the wife of one of their clients Murphy leaves. To stop Boone from having to close down the business, the filmmakers must resort to a more hands-on approach in the investigations to ensure the completion of their movie.

On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956). The producer is nowhere to be found and director Munro attempts to find him in hopes of being able to finish the film.

This lively film is an unforgettable portrait of legendary vocalist Betty Carter, one of the greatest living exponents of jazz. Uncompromised by commercialism throughout her long career, she has forged alternative criteria for success — including founding her own recording company and raising her two sons as a single parent. Parkerson's special film captures Carter's musical genius, her paradoxical relationship with the public and her fierce dedication to personal and artistic independence.

Our story begins in 1979, with a chance meeting in a Salt Lake City parking lot where filmmaker Trent Harris is approached by an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Harris jumps at the chance when the young man invites him to come to the small town to film a talent show. At the show, the man dons a blond wig and performs in drag as Olivia Newton John. Harris captures it all on tape: A portrait of a true outsider. Harris shot a dramatic piece, "Beaver Kid 2" based on the documentary; This interpretation of the story, made in 1981 on a home video camera with a budget of $100, features a young Sean Penn as "the Beaver Kid". Still possessed, Harris then rewrote the script, cast up-and-comer Crispin Glover in the lead, and created the final segment, "The Orkly Kid", with funding from the American Film Institute. The trilogy unveils the inner world of a fantastic character in three incarnations.

The Quiet town of Forrest Lakes was paralyzed by devastating events that took place involving the myth of a bullied child, and his demonic revenge on the camp grounds where he had been murdered long ago. The events that have transpired nearly 2 decades ago on the very location this urban legend was rumored to occur, focus on the tragedy that plagued a young girl and the unexplained massacre she witnessed that till this day has still gone unsolved. Katie Becks has now sworn to serve and protect the place where she once lost everything. The infamous Jacob Phelps has yet again resurfaced and is hunting for the one survivor who escaped him. As a group of friends explore the empty camp grounds in search of ghost stories, they will soon find they have found more than they bargained for.

Actress Sharon Stone hosts this documentary about the life and career of 1930s sex symbol Jean Harlow. Included are clips from many of her films, photos and stories about her life before she became a movie star, and accounts of her troubled personal life, including a domineering mother, the failure of her three marriages and the suicide of her second husband.

Two U.S. Treasury ("T-men") agents go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.

A lady gas station attendant gets mixed up with escaped murderers.

Documentary about Merchant Ivory Productions, including interviews with the principals of the film production company and actors which have appeared in their films.

Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels. - l_rawjalaurence

In this film, Dammbeck explores his own decision to relocate to Hamburg, West Germany, and tries to sort out his past as an artist. In the process, he interviews artists Cornelia Schleime, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, and Hans Scheib, who had been core members of the alternative art scene in East Germany. They had all worked together in the 8mm scene and organized or planned multimedia and crossover exhibitions, including Tangents I in 1976-77 and the First Leipzig Autumn Salon in 1984. Each left for West Germany in the mid-1980s. What has become of their former artistic strategies and positions? How do they deal with their past? What is the force behind their art now? And how do they cope with the western art market?

As one of Germany’s beauties, the river was the gem of German landscape. But with industrialization it became the country’s hardest working river and like everything that has been overworked, it lost it magnificence and charm. Due to tender love and care, the river is now a reigning example of one of the most successful and outstanding renaturation projects in the country.

Lily and Alison face a life-changing event after they leave their Salton Sea home and follow the boys they meet back to Los Angeles.

A feature-length multimedia performance in which filmmaker Zia Anger interacts with media on screen and the audience using real-time text, spontaneous Google searches, audience directives and AirDrops. Through the performance, Anger probes and dissects her “abandoned” works to re-imagine the relationship between the audience, the filmmaker, the movie theater and cinema and erases the line between a filmmaker’s corporeal body and their body of work. A vital, singular, innovative work that explores what it means to be a woman and an artist, the project showcases Anger’s sensibilities and pushes the boundaries of cinematic experience.

Hoping to convince his wife that a promotion across the country could change their lives, Brian takes her on a trip to a faded resort town where they once honeymooned. Here, Brian is forced to examine his own marriage, fears, and integrity.

After crossing into the U.S. with no family to speak of, young Cecilia finds herself in the charge of Francisco, a lonely Cuban immigrant long separated from his own family. Francisco operates a way station for border crossers on the outskirts of Lake Los Angeles, a surreal, desiccated lakebed in the California desert. While he copes with the alienation of living alone in a foreign land and the impossibility of realizing the American dream, Cecilia aimlessly wanders the dusty landscape, accompanied only by her fantastical imagination and distant memories of motherly love.

Three first-time filmmakers, Justin, Dana and John set out to make a documentary about the hardships of inner-city life. Justin follows two NYPD officers while Dana and John focus on Thomas (a black youth poised to move up from his hardships). Stories merge, relationships corrode and the filmmakers become participants in the underground world they set out to document.

Fourth Week Films and the New Orleans Jesuit Province present Xavier, a new PBS-style documentary film on the life of the famed 16th-century Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier. Narrated by Liam Neeson, Xavier tells the missionary's compelling story through dramatizations, interviews, contemporary location shots, paintings and engravings, maps, and most importantly, the extant letters of Xavier. The film features interviews with distinguished scholars of Jesuit and Renaissance history including Ingrid Rowland (Notre Dame University), Andrew Ross (University of Edinburgh), Lourdes del Costa (University of Goa, India), Anthony Ucerler, SJ (Jesuit Historical Institute in Rome), Gauvin Bailey (Clark University) and John O'Malley, SJ, (Weston Jesuit School of Theology).

Mr. Rudolpho is an Italian fashion designer: Rich, famous, and depressed. Surrounded by luxury, monitored 24/7 by a security team, hated by the CEO of Rudolpho Inc., he’s a prisoner of success. Rudolpho’s been sketching something in his moleskin book for months, but nobody knows what it is. Turns out he’s making plans for suicide. Good timing, because the CEO is planning to bump him off. Rudolpho heads to Berlin for Fashion Week to end it all, with the killers not far behind. But, this being a Bright Blue Gorilla film, things don’t always go as planned... He’s thrown in with some off-the-grid artists - the Boheems - who have no idea who he is. Thinking he’s destitute, they invite him to stay. Meanwhile, cops, killers, reporters, and Interpol all search for him. Rudolpho, happy in his hide-out, is hanging with the Boheems - and maybe falling for one of them... MRJ is a surreal comedy romance, told by two “Musical Angels”, aka Bright Blue Gorilla as the Greek Chorus.

For his final project for film class in college, Kevin Morris, with the help of his girlfriend Julie and his roommate Jay, is making a documentary in which ex-couple share their breakup stories individually. When he comes across a disturbing secret involving one of his subjects (Ashley), he goes against his better judgment and shares it with Ashley's ex-boyfriend, James. But when the results are anything but satisfying, things start to get dangerous as James acts more ominous and it seems the lives of Kevin, Julie, Jay, and Ashley are soon in question.