Oscilloscope Laboratories (Firm)
Formats
Description
In the Kenyan bush, a small-time ivory dealer fights to stay on top while forces mobilize to destroy his trade. When he turns to his younger cousin, a conflicted wildlife ranger who hasn’t been paid in months, they both see a possible lifeline. The plummeting elephant population in Africa has captured the attention of the world, and as the government cracks down, both poachers and rangers face their own existential crises—what is the value of...
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An unvarnished perspective of the intensity and paradoxes of war shot by Marine Corps videographer Miles Lagoze. This ingeniously edited documentary is composed solely of footage the Corps did not intend for you to see. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the **Dallas International Film Festival.** *"...Lagoze detonates any lingering illusions of military heroism." - Lawrence Garcia, **AV Club*** *"An unfiltered tour-de-force...
3) The Proposal
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This documentary follows conceptual artist Jill Magid as she develops a radical project to explore artistic legacy. At its heart is the work of the Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán, which is aggressively “protected” and kept from the public by its copyright holders. By cultivating relationships with Barragán’s family, admirers, institutions, and the rights holders—including extensive correspondence with the director...
4) Pickle
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A couple recounts the various animals they have adopted as pets over the course of their marriage, including a paraplegic possum and a fish that couldn’t swim. PICKLE explores the human capacity to care for all creatures throughout their sometimes greatly protracted lives until their occasionally sudden and unfortunate deaths. Winner of the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at the **Boston International Film Festival**....
5) Dark Days
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This acclaimed documentary explores the surprisingly domestic subterranean world of a homeless community living in a train tunnel beneath NYC. Through stories heartbreaking and hilarious, tunnel dwellers reveal their reasons for taking refuge and their struggle to survive underground. With a hypnotic soundtrack by legendary DJ Shadow, DARK DAYS is still an enduring classic, more than fifteen years after its initial release. Winner of the Cinematography...
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With visually stunning landscapes and immersive sound, GODS OF MEXICO is a poetic survey of the vast landscapes and rich diversity of several communities of rural Mexico. Using richly saturated color and hypnotic black-and-white interludes, filmmaker Helmut Dosantos takes viewers through salt pans, deserts, highlands, jungle, and underground mines—paying tribute to those who fight to preserve their cultural identity amidst the shadows of modernization....
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This potent documentary uses a long-lost film reel to illustrate how the Nazis controlled images of Jewish life during World War II. Though the Nazis made a propaganda movie of contented Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, the missing spool exposes the truth. Nominated for Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form at the **News & Documentary Emmy Awards**. Winner of the Editing Award and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema - Documentary...
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Scattered across the vast reaches of America's Western desert, five eccentric exiles from modern civilization pursue their private obsessions in this offbeat and artfully filmed social documentary. Nominated for the Golden Frog in the Feature Documentary Films Competition at **Camerimage**. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the **Edinburgh International Film Festival**. Nominated for the Tiger Award at the **Rotterdam International Film...
9) Sirens
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On the outskirts of Beirut, Lilas and her thrash metal bandmates, Shery, Maya, Alma, and Tatyana (Slave to Sirens), have big dreams but few opportunities. When the band’s appearance at a UK music festival isn’t the life-changer they had hoped for, Lilas comes home to Lebanon on the brink of collapse. At the same time, the complicated relationship between Lilas and her fellow guitarist Shery starts to fracture. The future of her band, her country,...
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Filmmaker and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch documents the lives and talent of some of America's most gifted high school basketball players as they prep for the first annual Elite 24 all-star game in 2006 at Harlem's famed Rucker Park. Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabar were groomed on that same court, and young hopefuls such as Jerryd Bayless, Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans and Kevin Love hope to follow in their footsteps. "*A spunky, impassioned and...
11) The Road Movie
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A mosaic of asphalt adventures, landscape photography, and some of the craziest stuff you’ve ever seen, this is a stunning compilation of video footage shot exclusively via the deluge of dashboard cameras that populate Russian roads. Nominated for Best Documentary at the **Nashville Film Festival**. "*Suspenseful and funny, occasionally poignant and often nearly unbelievable, it captures a certain sociological flavor while remaining universally...
12) Night School
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Indianapolis has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country. Victims of circumstance and a broken system, Greg, Melissa, and Shynika are optimistic that they won't end up on the wrong side of statistics. Official Selection at the **Tribeca Film Festival**. Winner of the Grand Prize and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the **Heartland Film Festival**. Winner of the Jury Prize for Best Directing at the **BendFilm Festival**....
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When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee the country with his wife and two young daughters. Capturing the family’s uncertain journey firsthand, Fazili documents their harrowing trek across numerous borders revealing the danger and uncertainty facing refugees seeking asylum juxtaposed with the unbreakable love shared amongst the family on the run. Winner at the **Sundance Film Festival**, **Berlin...
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Growing up in a loving home, brothers Peter and Matthew are crazy about each other, but also constantly at each other’s throats. Displaying their individual idiosyncrasies—Peter is obsessed with the TV show Survivor, while younger brother Matthew struggles to overcome his intense fear of dogs—the brothers spend one formative summer in their suburban Maryland neighborhood. Ben Mullinkosson’s revealing and endearing film DON’T BE A DICK ABOUT...
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The National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico is a site of festivity unlike any other in the world. In celebration of San Juan de Dios, patron saint of firework makers, revelry engulfs the town for ten days. Artisans show off their technical virtuosity, up-and-comers create their own rowdy, lo-fi combustibles, and dozens of teams build larger-than- life papier-mâché bulls to parade into the town square, adorned with fireworks that blow...
16) Jay Myself
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JAY MYSELF documents the monumental move of renowned photographer and artist, Jay Maisel, who, in February 2015 after forty-eight years, begrudgingly sold his home—the 36,000 square-foot, 100-year-old landmark building in Manhattan known simply as “The Bank.” Through the intimate lens of filmmaker and Jay’s protégé, noted artist and photographer Stephen Wilkes, the viewer is taken on a remarkable journey through Jay’s life as an artist,...
17) October Country
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A beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. A collaboration between filmmaker Michael Palmieri and photographer and family member Donal Mosher, this vibrant and penetrating documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life. Nominated for Best Documentary at...
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This unique film revisits the rich bounty of 16-mm-shot footage of the left-handed tennis star John McEnroe, at the time the world’s top-ranked player, as he competes in the French Open in 1984. Close-ups and slow motion sequences of McEnroe competing, as well as instances of his notorious temper tantrums, highlight a ”man who played on the edge of his senses.” Far from a traditional documentary, Faraut probes the archival film to unpack both...
19) Wrestle
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*Hoop Dreams* goes to the mat in this intimate, coming-of-age documentary about four members of a high-school wrestling team at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School, a longstanding entry on Alabama’s list of failing schools. Coached by teacher Chris Scribner, teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face challenges far beyond a shot at the State Championship: splintered family lives, drug use, teenage pregnancy, mental health struggles,...
20) These Birds Walk
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In this beautifully filmed, inspirational documentary, a high-spirited runaway boy in Pakistan tries to find his way back home from the orphanage in which he lives, aided by a sympathetic ambulance driver who was once a street kid himself. Winner of the Filmmaker-to-Filmmaker Award from the **Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival**. Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Vigilance in Filmmaking at the **Nashville Film Festival**. Nominated...