Best movies like Waste Land

The year was 1941, and the world was on the brink of war. In an effort to improve relations between the Americas, the Roosevelt administration called upon one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers to embark on a special goodwill tour. Written and directed by Theodore Thomas (“Frank and Ollie”) and produced by Kuniko Okubo, the documentary WALT & EL GRUPO chronicles the amazing ten-week trip that Walt Disney and his hand-picked group of artists and filmmaking talent (later known as “El Grupo”) took to South America at the behest of the U.S. Government as part of the Good Neighbor Policy.

After being released from prison, Dr. Nise da Silveira is back at work in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro where she refuses to employ the new and violent electroshock in the treatment of schizophrenics. Ridiculed by doctors, she is forced to take on the abandoned Sector for Occupational Therapy, where she would start a revolution through paintings, animals and love.

Captured by smugglers when he was just a hatchling, a macaw named Blu never learned to fly and lives a happily domesticated life in Minnesota with his human friend, Linda. Blu is thought to be the last of his kind, but when word comes that Jewel, a lone female, lives in Rio de Janeiro, Blu and Linda go to meet her. Animal smugglers kidnap Blu and Jewel, but the pair soon escape and begin a perilous adventure back to freedom -- and Linda.

On a scorching summer day in Rio de Janeiro, five impoverished black boys venture out of their favela to peddle peanuts throughout the bustling city. As they navigate the various districts of Rio, they bear witness to a series of unfortunate events and encounters, unfolding a vivid tapestry of urban life in Rio de Janeiro during that period. These true misadventures shed light on the gritty reality of the city, unveiling its vibrant urban tapestry.

“Rio 2096 – A Story of Love and Fury” is an animated film that portrays the love between an immortal hero and Janaína, the woman he has been in love with for 600 years. As a backdrop to the romance, the feature highlights four phases of Brazilian history: colonization, slavery, the Military Regime and the future, in 2096, when there will be a war for water.

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

A fictionalised biopic about the end of David Hockney's relationship with Peter Schlesinger which was named after Hockney's pop-art painting 'A Bigger Splash'.

An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Discovering your wife is sleeping with your boss can make a man do strange things. For a Samba-obsessed London clerk, robbing a bank and boarding the first flight to Rio are just the beginning.

City of God – 10 Years Later investigates what happened to the actors who took part in the award-winning film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. This documentary shows what City of God’s worldwide success meant to their lives. Were the actors prepared for the film’s success? Did the social background of some of them prove stronger than the opportunity that came their way?

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Two teenagers decide to attend attend São Paulo's annual Gay Pride Parade, encouraged by one of their uncles, a successful - although closeted - business executive. After witnessing an incident of shocking violence at the parade, the group makes a pact - they all have one year to come out of the closet.

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer manage to paint so photo-realistically 150 years before the invention of photography? Spanning a decade, Jenison's adventure takes him to Holland, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artista David Hockney, and eventually even to Buckingham Palace. The epic research project Jenison embarques on is as extraordinary as what he discovers.

The story of Fabio and his partner as they embark on a journey towards a little known national beauty pageant which mobilizes the lives of hundreds of guys around the country - all pursuing the dream of being crowned Brazil's most beautiful girl.

Set in Brazil, three kids who make a discovery in a garbage dump soon find themselves running from the cops and trying to right a terrible wrong.

A young female intern at a small magazine company becomes involved with a drug-addicted lesbian photographer, both of whom seek to exploit each other for their respective careers, while slowly falling in love with each other.

Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he has a habit of falling out with directors and he's still in love with his ex-girlfriend. However, Victor is about to embark on an unexpected emotional journey which will make him confront his future and his past mistakes.

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.

Nude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth century. Openly gay, Mapplethorpe took images of male sex, nudity, and fetish to extremes that resulted in his work still being labelled by some as pornography masquerading as art. But less talked about are the more serene, yet striking portraits of flowers, sculptures, and perfectly framed human forms that are equally pioneering and powerful.

Romão, illiterate and unemployed, feels destiny drawing him on an odyssey to Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of a job and a decent life. A family of seven journeys 2,000 miles across the hinterlands of Brazil on bicycles. Along the way, the story explores the inner dynamics of a family facing a great challenge with the courage to pursue dreams.

Steve, revue producer in Rio de Janeiro, is still in love with his ex-wife Vicki, his star Linda is in love with Steve and Tito is in love with Linda. Because of this they all get small problems.

Paulo works as a high school literature teacher, his wife Teresa is a local shopkeeper, and their daughter Bel is still in school. They live in a rented flat in Saens Peña Square, in the heart of Tijuca, a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. An unexpected and alluring job offer may have a profound effect on the routine of this family and even jeopardize a 20-year marriage.

In Rio de Janiero to arrest a nightclub singer on suspicion of a murder in Hawaii, Charlie Chan becomes involved with the Rio police in solving the singer's own murder.

This is the story of Vicente, a successful, married, economist with a nine-year-old son. It also tells the story of Antônio, the same man, living as a hugadores—one of the homeless, trash scavengers who live and work in Brazil’s enormous garbage dumps. Vicente seems to have it all, but as we watch his life begins to crumble little by little. Meanwhile, Antônio, already at rock bottom, struggles to rebuild his life.

In the bohemian 1960s Rio de Janeiro, the 16 year-old rebel and reckless teenager Marcelo, a terrible student that plays hooky from school, dreams on leaving his home and move to São Paulo to work hard, make money and travel abroad to visit the world.

A l'automne 1964, la construction des 52 derniers milles du chemin de fer du Grand lac des Esclaves est en voie d'achèvement. Une bande hétéroclite de travailleurs instables, ivrognes et voleurs, est recrutée dans les tavernes par Fisk, contremaître aux poings d'acier. Martin Bishop, dix-huit ans, arrive comme nouveau pointeur au sein de cette équipe, le précédent pointeur ayant « disparu ». Bishop découvre rapidement des faits anormaux dans ce camp isolé; celui qui ne suit pas les règles de Fisk risque d'être expulsé du camp dans la nature sauvage et hostile. Fait surprenant, tous les hommes qui ont été expulsés demeurent sur la liste de paie... Le refus de Bishop de jouer le jeu de Fisk lui vaut d'être expulsé dans la forêt, dont l'immensité devient sa nouvelle prison. Incapable de s'échapper, Bishop découvre des aptitudes à la survie qu'il ne croyait pas posséder.

Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.

The life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

At home at her Virginia farm, photographer Sally Mann reflects on the controversy surrounding her earlier collections while forging ahead with new work in this intimate portrait of an artist. Also offering insights into the photographer's career are Mann's husband and her now-grown offspring.

Baby Annie is HIV positive and has been left in the clinic by her drug addicted mother. To prevent that she's deported to a home where they'd just wait for her to die, nurse Susan takes charge of Annie at her home. Two years later she plans too adopt her -- but suddenly Annie's mother reappears and demands her back. And under the law, Susan, as foster-mother, has no claim to the child.

A teacher takes a student to his house in the slum, but on arrival discovered that drug traffickers killed his parents and now are at your demand.

The great media prankster, Joey Skaggs, wants to fool the world media AGAIN, and, with the most complex hoax of his career in the pipeline, he now must use every trick in his prankster's arsenal to make it work. Art of the Prank is an emotional journey following the evolution of artist Joey Skaggs-a fierce proponent of independent thinking and the man who has turned the media hoax into an art form. With unprecedented access to the man and his archives, the 95-minute documentary interweaves a current unfolding hoax with a look behind-the-scenes at some classic performance pieces (all reported as fact by a wide range of prestigious journalists) plus commentary from co-conspirators and others. -IMDB

A year after becoming the toast of New York City's art scene, photographer Max Martin has lost his ability to take a decent picture. On the night before his make-or-break gallery opening, surrounded by the trappings of success but devoid of inspiration, Max embarks on a bizarre trek through the city in search of ten mysterious photographs that could save his career. Shot in brilliant color and dramatic black and white, first-time director Jeremy Stein's industrial New York City is a wonderland, roamed by witches and magical creatures, where survival hinges on the completion of a simple quest. Accompanied by an unlikely crew of strangers he meets along the way, Max trips through a modern-day Oz and rediscovers the easily forgotten value of seeing magic reflected in everyday life.

Homeless children in the slums of Rio are driven out of their temporary shelters by ruthless gangsters in this somber drama. The kids survive by shining shoes, stealing, and cutting the strings of the kites to sell them later to others. Tired of life on the streets, one boy turns himself over to the police in hopes he will be sent to reform school in a last desperate attempt to survive. This feature from acclaimed Swedish director Arne Sucksdorff appeared at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.

This is the first 3D animated Brazilian film. It tells the story of Stress & Relax: a businessman who thinks only of money and a film director who lives for insisting that this invest in their projects. This time, the "project" is to look for the oldest tree in Brazil. Stress is excited about the possibility of making money with this rarity. The problem is that they do not know exactly where it is. Stress and Relax out in search of the "Big Jequitibá Rose" with no map, no compass and clueless.

This documentary for PBS by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, tells the story of the Buddha’s life, a journey especially relevant to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. It features the work of some of the world’s greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia, have depicted the Buddha’s life in art rich in beauty and complexity. Hear insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Join the conversation and learn more about meditation, the history of Buddhism, and how to incorporate the Buddha’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness into daily life.

Sam Roddick explores the enduring appeal of Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus, one of the most celebrated paintings in western art. A joyous celebration of female sexuality, its journey to worldwide fame was far from straightforward and it lay in obscurity for centuries. Artist and entrepreneur Sam explains why Botticelli's nude was so revolutionary, and explores its impact on contemporary culture with artists such as Terry Gilliam, who memorably reinvented Venus for his Monty Python's Flying Circus animations.

Larissa competed for the Rio Military Police in search of the ideal of “protecting the citizen”.

Womanizer suddenly finds a woman who makes him change the way he looks at women. He falls in love, and believes she is in fact all women in one. Because of that, he has to face an important decision: to go on with his old life or embrace this special relationship and become a monogamous man.

Free adaptation of Romeo and Juliet translated to the harsh life in Favela da Maré, one of largest and most violent slums in Rio de Janeiro. Living in a slum divided between two rival gangs of drug traffickers, Analídia is the daughter of one of the gangs' leaders and Jonathan is a childhood friend of the other gang leader. Both study in a dance group situated exactly in the middle of the two territories, looking for solace in art.

Rio de Janeiro. Confronted with the violence that exists in the favela where he lives, Tiago sees the only way out to become a soccer player and, in this way, help his family to have a better life. Although he is the best player in his neighborhood and the chances of being discovered by a scout are good, he faces a number of problems. One of them is Tubarão, the leader of the most powerful gang in the favela, who wants Tiago to work for him as a drug dealer. To complicate matters even more, Tiago falls in love with Juliana, Tubarão's sister.

Marquinhos (Lúcio Andrey) lives in the Rocinha favela, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He gets involved with Débora (Priscila Assum), a young woman from the upper middle class with whom she starts to face adult life and several difficulties that try to separate them.

Film from Andrew Morgan. The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.

Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.