A collection of innovative nonfiction filmmaking
While our Insights selections change the way we see the world, Spectrum’s nonfiction fare sends us crashing through the looking glass. This is an opportunity to witness Shakespeare staged in the seedy recesses of a notorious video game, visit the secret and sometimes surprisingly mundane sanctums of Satanists, and consider colonialism from the perspective of one of Pablo Escobar’s pet hippos. And while there is much lyricism and visual eloquence to be found here, Leos Carax’s latest isn’t so much a cinematic essay as an outright eruption.
The Universe in a Grain of Sand
Mark Levinson explores the synergy of art and science, mapping out revolutions in technology through a dazzling array of artwork and experimental films, celebrating the transcendent power of the imagination on a breathtaking journey through the universe.
*smiles and kisses you*
A lonely man builds himself a girlfriend by pairing a life-size love doll with an AI chatbot. Bryan Carberry’s documentary is a haunting, romantic sci-fi parable that asks if AI can replace real human connection.
Pepe
In 2009, a hippopotamus named Pepe, formerly a part of Pablo Escobar’s private zoo, became the first—and so far only—such animal to be killed in the Americas. In this unclassifiable, formally audacious feature, Pepe tells us his side of the story.
Realm of Satan
This experiential documentary contrasts macabre rituals with the mundane domestic lives of high-ranking members of The Church of Satan. A series of wordless vignettes that paint a non-judgmental portrait of the modern Satanist.
Grand Theft Hamlet
A machinima documentary about two out-of-work actors who mount a full production of Hamlet within the world of Grand Theft Auto V online. Something is rotten in the city of Los Santos; the perfect backdrop for Shakespeare’s bloodsoaked tragedy.
Listen to the Voices
A powerful docudrama following a teenage boy spending the summer at his grandmother’s house in French Guiana, where he learns about his roots and connects with a community of people still reeling from the tragic loss of his uncle several years earlier.
The In Between
After the death of her brother, filmmaker Robie Flores is drawn back to USA/Mexico border town of Eagle Pass, and, while processing her grief, finds echoes and reverberations of her own memories in the hopes, dreams, and daily lives of the youth there.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Upon finding a rare Antarctic mineral in a kidney stone, a former nature documentary narrator guides us on a meditative trip– from volcanic Fogo Island to the granite quarries of Palestine, and beyond– to explore the often overlooked world of stones.
It’s Not Me
“Where are you at, Leos Carax?” To this question, the French filmmaker assembles an unpredictable essay-film made in the spirit of the late Jean-Luc Godard—an endlessly inventive self-portrait of an artist reflecting on his place in cinema history.