Films with: Waters, John

Art 21 art in the twenty-first century /

A unique television series presenting 37 diverse artists working in the United States today, taking viewers behind the scenes--and beyond the museum or gallery experience--into artists' studios, homes, and communities to provide an intimate view of their lives, work, creative processes, and sources of inspiration. Themes provide a connective thread between profiles of three to five artists per program. The artists, including painters, photographers, sculptors, performance, and video artists, demonstrate the breadth of artistic practice across the United States and reveal the depth of intergenerational and multicultural talent"--Container.

DVD 2857

Blank city

In the late 1970s to the middle 1980s, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood. Documents the history of "No wave cinema" and "cinema of transgression" movements.

DVD 10202

Breaker Morant

Following the brutal death of a British captain in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901, Lt. Harry Morant leads his unit in pursuit of the Boers, attacks their camp, and has a captive executed. Other executions and deaths lead to the arrest and trial of Morant and two other lieutenants.

DVD 2069

Cecil B. Demented

A young lunatic director and his devoted cult of cinema terrorists kidnap a Hollywood movie goddess and force her to star in their radical underground movie.

DVD 1694

Cry baby

A spoof and homage to 1950's teen rock melodramas. Cry Baby is a rebel with a gang of rough friends. Allison is the straight-laced girl who falls for him.

DVD 4861

Hairspray

Tracy Turnblad, a teenager with huge hair, a big grin, and all the right moves, becomes the queen of Baltimore's number one dance revue.

DVD 1741

Jack Smith and the destruction of Atlantis

A collection of interviews and clips by and about the revolutionary American artist Jack Smith. Filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema, he is generally acclaimed as a founding father of American Performance Art, and has been critically recognized as a master photographer. The film also delves into Smith's tenuous relationship with Andy Warhol -- who adopted Smith's ideas in his own work. Pays homage to New York's ultimate anti-hero and the original King of the Underground.

DVD 10514

Of dolls and murder

"Before forensics, DNA, and CSI we had dollhouses, an unimaginable collection of miniature crime scenes, known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Created in the 1930s and 1940s by a crime-fighting grandmother, Frances Glessner Lee created the Nutshells to help homicide detectives hone their investigative skills. These surreal dollhouses reveal a dystopic and disturbing slice of domestic life with doll corpses representing actual murder victims, or perhaps something that just looks like murder. Despite all the advances in forensics, the Nutshells are still used today to train detectives. Documentary film, Of Dolls and Murder, explores the dioramas, the woman who created them, and their relationship to modern day forensics. From the iconic CSI television show to the Body Farm and criminally minded college students, legendary filmmaker and true crime aficionado, John Waters narrates the tiny world of big time murder."

DVD 12765

Pecker

Pecker tells the story of a goofy 18-year-old who works in a Baltimore sandwich shop and takes photos of his loving but peculiar family and friends on the side. Pecker, so named for his childhood habit of "pecking" at his food, stumbles into fame when his work is "discovered" by a savvy New York art dealer.

DVD 1246

Pink flamingos

This underground epic, which breaks every rule of good filmmaking and good taste, set a benchmark for the bizarre that has never been equaled. Babs Johnson, a trailer park bon vivant proudly claims the title of the filthiest person alive. The envy of every neighborhood degenerate, it isn't long before another couple set their sites on Divine's legacy, and in the proud American tradition, competition forces each contender to outdo the other.

DVD 5924

Plagues & pleasures on the Salton Sea

Fabulously offbeat and refreshingly upbeat, this lovable film gets friendly with the natives of the Salton Sea, an inland ocean of massive fish kills, rotting resorts, and 120 degree nights located just minutes from urban South California.

DVD 5243

Serial mom

Housewife Turner is nearly perfect, except when someone violates her sense of appropriate conduct.

DVD 1248

Something wild

A straitlaced businessman meets a quirky, free-spirited woman at a downtown New York greasy spoon. Her offer of a ride back to his office results in a lunchtime motel rendezvous, just the beginning of a capricious interstate road trip that brings the two face-to-face with their hidden selves.

DVD 9584

These amazing shadows

Tells the history and importance of the National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and the American experience itself.

DVD 9138

This film is not yet rated

Kirby Dick's provocative film investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America rates films. Kirby looks at some of the controversial rating decisions of the past four decades, hires a private eye to find out who these anonymous raters are and puts his own film through the rating process.

DVD 5000

Time zero the last year of Polaroid film /

An in-depth chronicle of the birth, death and resurrection of Polaroid instant film, Time Zero is an illuminating documentary that recalls the hey-day of Polaroid film and its impact on popular culture while shedding light on the changes currently transforming our media landscape. Features interviews with a few Polaroid artists and former employees of the corporation. These key employees (including the corporation's Director of Cultural Affairs, the designer of the well-recognized Polaroid brand image, and the top sales executive) provide a brief history of integral cameras and film and a unique glimpse of the company and its innovative leader, Dr. Edwin Land.

DVD 10308