Non-Asian docs about Asia
Documentaries about Asia made by non-Asians (this is my watchlist).
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- DirectorJoris IvensMarceline Loridan IvensJean BigiaouiFrom 1972 until 1974, Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan, along with a Chinese film crew, documented the last days of the Cultural Revolution, marking the end of an era. The vast amount of footage they shot was edited into twelve films of varying lengths. Focusing on ordinary people spread over a wide geographic area-many of whom were living and working in collectives-the filmmakers recorded a unique moment in history, and also captured some of the more enduring aspects of Chinese culture.
- DirectorWerner HerzogAndré HellerStarsDeb Das BaulMarup GroupAndré HellerIn this surreal documentary legendary Werner Herzog shows us how on the suggestion of a saint, the king of Udaipur invites various artists, tribes from numerous cultures across india to celebrate life and ward off evil.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsArielle DombasleChris MarkerA "home movie" by Chris Marker of his visit to Tokyo with his girlfriend, actress Arielle Dombaste, beginning with a chat with a live mannequin in a store window, then through the subway and to the market.
- DirectorWang BingA dozen aging survivors are interviewed from Jiabiangou, a complex of three work camps in Northwest China where supposed rightists were sent for re-education in the 1950s and 1960s under Mao Zedong.
- DirectorLes BlankIn 1967 Les Blank and Skip Gerson were hired to work in Thailand on a documentary about the B52 Bomber and its use in bombing campaigns over Vietnam.
- DirectorFaris KermaniStarsBettany HughesDinar BoontharnMario CeeIn the documentary Bettany Hughes visits 7 sites important to Buddism: Bodh Gaya, India; Bodanath Stupa, Nepal; Temple of The Tooth, Sri Lanka; Wat Pho Temple, Thailand; Angkor Wat, Cambodia; Giant Buddha, Hong Kong; and Hsi Lai Temple, LA.
- DirectorWim WendersStarsChishû RyûWerner HerzogYûharu AtsutaMoved by the work of director Yasujirô Ozu, Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the Tokyo seen in Ozu's films.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGiuseppe RinaldiA documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220-minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Caesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.
- DirectorMichael McIntyreStarsYukio MishimaJohn HurtNobuko Lady AlberyAbout Yukio Mishima that highlights the many known major aspects of his life and personality. Mishima was a pen name he adopted en route to his chosen life as a writer.
- DirectorJoris IvensStarsJoris IvensHenxiang HanZhuang LiuAn elderly, asthmatic filmmaker travels to China, hoping to film the wind.
- DirectorVincent MonnikendamIn a span of ninety minutes the film aims to show how the Netherlands administered its colony as a colonial enterprise and what the relations were like at the time. The usual commentary has been omitted and in its place poems and songs in Bahasa Indonesia have been included in a digital sound composition. In Mother Dao the Turtlelike, the viewer sees how the colonial machinery in the 1920s was implanted in a world so different from Western Europe.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsValérie MairesseAli RafieThérèse LiotardA couple find their erotic love mirrored perfectly in the architecture and mosaics of Iran.
- DirectorShigenori Mizuno
- DirectorMichael BlackwoodStarsTadao AndôJapanese architect, Tadao Ando, roots himself in cultural visions of space, landscape, and juxtaposition. Inspired deeply by his home and heritage, Ando proposes an international architecture that he believes can only be conceived by someone Japanese. Believing in the importance of carpentry and craftsmanship, Ando pays tribute to his culture and the way in which architecture is approached through the body. Showcasing his individuality through urban complexes, residences and chapels, Ando presents the work of his formative years, before embarking on projects in Europe and the United States.
- DirectorMichael BlackwoodStarsTadao AndôKenneth FramptonItsuko HasegawaJapan's establishment as an economic superpower led to a Golden Age of Japanese architecture. Six innovators stand out particularly, fusing Japanese traditions with modern materials and technology.
- DirectorOtar IosselianiThe dreadful warfare in Chechnya, a neighbor of Georgia, provides a unique poignancy into Otar Iosseliani's intriguing, four-hour, made-for-television documentary on Georgia.
- DirectorAlbert LamorisseStarsManouchehr AnvarA tour of Iran filmed from a helicopter.
- DirectorJackie BastideJean-Jacques BeineixStarsAkitoshi AshidaHiroki HashimotoNoriko KatoA documentary that explores the life styles of various otakus in Japan. Various interviews are given to selected otakus who express how interesting it is to be an otaku as oppose to not being one at all. Along with various shots of various Japanese city landscapes and the inside of an average otaku home from rooms filled with videos, models, and the latest in technology.
- DirectorMarty GrossStarsStephen PrinceJoan MellenTadao SatôThis documentary made by the Criterion Collection examines the history of the Samurai in Japan. Also looks at what inspired Kurosawa to make his masterpiece 1954 film Seven Samurai in a post WW2 Japan.
- DirectorJulie BertuccelliStarsOtar IosselianiA fascinating look at Georgian expat filmmaker Otar Iosseliani through the lens of his former assistant Julie Bertuccelli, focused on his unique working methods and conception of cinema.
- 1989– 1h 31m7.4 (168)TV EpisodeDirectorOlivier AssayasStarsHsiao-Hsien HouKuo-Fu ChenT'ien-wen ChuThe Taiwanese auteur gives French director Assayas, his interviewer, a guided tour of the island country.
- DirectorPhilippe GrandrieuxStarsMasao AdachiNaruhiko OnozawaGrandrieux pays an homage to Masao Adachi, a Japanese filmmaker with a turbulent past and now a recluse in his homeland, creating a portrait of this man always faithful in its very own way.
- DirectorJean-Pierre LimosinStarsTakeshi KitanoShigehiko Hasumi
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsShôhei ImamuraDocumentary about the director Shohei Imamura. This intimate portrayal arrives to calm us. In good health and enjoying life, Imamura gets drunk methodically in a bar worthy of "An Autumn Afternoon". Then, in the hands of the professional of an hairdresser, he tells his short experience as a director of pornographic films. We salivate with extracts of unknown and invisible films. We find out he his preparing a new film. It sums up the global project of Imamura perfectly: write the counter-history of Japan, from the point of view of the whores and bandits.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsShigehiko HasumiChris MarkerAkira KurosawaA documentary that shows the production of Ran and discusses the film techniques of Kurosawa himself.
- DirectorAdam LowStarsAkira KurosawaSam ShepardPaul ScofieldAdam Low's Kurosawa is a 90-minute documentary that looks at Kurosawa's life and works. Originally broadcast on PBS in the US, the film follows a fairly conventional approach as it chronicles Kurosawa's career. The film includes many interviews, more of which are provided on the documentary's home video releases. The film is narrated by Sam Shepard, with sections of Kurosawa's autobiography read by Paul Scofeld. It is a tribute, a celebration and an hommage. A DVD, which comes with almost two hours of extra interviews, has been released as a region free disc by the Australian Madman Entertainment.
- DirectorSteven OkazakiStarsWataru AkashiKyôko KagawaTakeshi KatôA feature-length documentary about the life and films of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, weaving together film clips, archival stills, and interviews with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Narrated by Keanu Reeves.
- DirectorNasreen Munni KabirStarsAbrar AlviDev AnandKaifi Azmi
- 1989– 52m7.7 (53)TV EpisodeDirectorJean-Pierre LimosinStarsAbbas KiarostamiAhmed Ahmed PoorBabek Ahmed PoorIranian director Abbas Kiarostami is interviewed in Tehran and his work is profiled.
- DirectorNader T. HomayounStarsRakhshan BanietemadBahram BeyzaieFarokh GhafariToday Iranian cinema is one of the most highly regarded national cinemas in the world, regularly winning festival awards and critical acclaim for films which combine remarkable artistry and social relevance. IRAN: A CINEMATOGRAPHIC REVOLUTION traces the development of this film industry, which has always been closely intertwined with the country's tumultuous political history, from the decades-long reign of Reza Shah Pahlevi and his son, the rise of Khomeini and the birth of the Islamic Republic, the seizure by militants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the devastating war with Iraq.
- DirectorBarbara HammerStarsChiho FuseyaHiroo FuseyaYukimo FuseyaDevotion investigates the extremely complex and hierarchical relationships among a committed group of filmmakers who dedicated up to 30 years of their lives making films for one man - Ogawa Shinsuke.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsClaude LanzmannEhud BarakAvigdor FeldmanA documentary about the Israel Defense Forces.
- DirectorD.A. PennebakerStarsGeorge R. NelsonEdward SteichenA documentary of the 1959 American Exhibition in Moscow.
- DirectorHenri de la FalaiseStarsLieut. Allouard CarnyHenri de la FalaiseDhiThis lost film was the last silent film to be released by Hollywood, and the last to be released in two-color Technicolor. Little is known about this travelogue drama silent film about Asian life and customs.
- DirectorMichael OppitzStarsBal BahadurBeth BahadurMan BahadurThe life and healing practices of a tribe in the Himalayas in north-western Nepal.
- DirectorYung ChangStarsJerry Bo Yu ChenCampbell Ping HeCindy Shui YuAt the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
- StarsRoberto Rossellini
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJonny GreenwoodEhtisham Khan AjmeriNihal KhanMusician Jonny Greenwood travels to Rajasthan, where he performs with a multitude of Indian musicians.
- DirectorArne SucksdorffStarsChendruGinjoMartin HeldA documentary about the muria people of the Bastar jungle in central India.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsPier Paolo PasoliniDocumentary footage of the city of Sana'a in Yemen, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, with a voice-over calling for UNESCO to protect the city's architectural heritage before it is destroyed by development.
- DirectorClaude LanzmannStarsJacques BarkatSchmuel BirgerRan CohenA documentary examining life in Israel twenty-five years after the birth of the state.
- DirectorUlrike OttingerTaiga is an eight-hour documentary directed and photographed by Ulrike Ottinger. It focuses on the life and rituals of nomadic peoples in Northern Mongolia, specifically the Darkhad nomads and the Sojon Urinjanghai.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsJacques GripelPehlivan is a call to fight in an ancient wrestling competition that lasts for 3 days. The film follows the wrestling event.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsAndré ReybazThe Golden Horn in Istanbul with its Sultanate palaces lends itself for reflection upon the public and private aspects of Istanbul society.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsAndré ReybazShort film exploring a Turkish man's life via the poems of Nazim Hikmet.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsPierre AssoThe modern city of Byzance with its three cities united as one by the Bosphorus river and Galata bridge.
- DirectorMaurice PialatStarsAndré ReybazThe fall and pillaging of the once ancient Greek and later Roman city of Byzantium (also known as Constantinople and later Istanbul) by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsLouis MalleWith minimal narration by the director and very little context this is a kaleidoscope of stunning visuals from Calcutta, a city of 8,000,000 in the late 1960's: rich and poor, exotic and mundane, secular and religious, children and adults, animate and inanimate. Given only the images, the viewer can read any meaning she or he wants into the film.
- StarsLouis MalleThomas Frederick HowardRajani Desai"Phantom India" is regarded as the crowning achievement of Louis Malle's career.
- DirectorPietro MarcelloStarsArtavazd PeleshianEnrico GhezziAleksandra KhokhlovaAn Armenian artist of montage who argues that editing is not about connecting or joining frames but instead about showing their separation and the distances between them.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haPolitical and artistic reflections on present-day China.
- DirectorNic YoungStarsAlbert Yu-Min LinAlice RobertsDan SnowDan Snow, Professor Alice Roberts and Dr Albert Lin investigate a series of earth-shattering discoveries at a mighty tomb guarded by the Terracotta Warriors in China.
- DirectorRobert KramerStarsClothilde Piven
- DirectorUte AurandA personal journey through southern India, recorded live and in-studio with still pictures, video, live sound, VO, narration and written text.
- DirectorEdvins SnoreStarsJon StricklandVladimir BukovskyVladimir LeninThe Soviet Story offers an alternative history of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale.
- DirectorGeorge GittoesSnow Monkey is an epic portrait of daily life in Jalalabad, where art activist Gittoes recruited gangs of war-damaged children to shoot local, Pashto-style films: vibrant, colorful and infused with the violence they experience on a daily basis.
- DirectorDavid PerlovStarsDavid PerlovMira PerlovYael PerlovShot over a ten-year period, Diary is not only the political, professional, and personal diary of a man, but is a testimony on the turbulent reality of a war-torn country, Israel. In six chapters, Perlov travels to Tel Aviv, Paris, London, and finally to Brazil, where he was born. The film is also a family diary in which Perlov records the coming of age of his two daughters, Yael and Naomi.
- DirectorJohan van der KeukenAfter the famous Dutch documentary filmmaker Johan van der Keuken is told that he has prostate cancer and only a few years left to live he decides to take an extended vacation while filming his journeys so the afterworld can learn about his experiences. He travels to Kathmandu where he meets buddhist monks and a healer woman who soon is trying to medicate him, to Burkina Faso and Mali onto the edge of the Sahara desert and other places. Everywhere he is collecting experiences that help make the rest of his life bearable.
- DirectorJohan van der Keuken
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterDuring the year 2000 Geyrhalter and his teams travelled to a different destination each month, looking for places untouched by the millennium hysteria. Locations include Niger, Finland, Micronesia, Australia, China, Siberia or Greenland.
- DirectorEduardo CoutinhoStarsPaulo AndréTeuda BaraArildo de BarrosIn Moscou, Eduardo Coutinho accompanies Grupo Galpão, directed by Enrique Diaz, in the rehearsals of the play "The Three Sisters", from Chekhov. The film consists in fragments of workshops, improvisations and rehearsals of the play.
- DirectorJürgen BöttcherIn 1986 and 1987, Jürgen Böttcher and his crew travelled to Georgia to film this fascinating country and its people.
- DirectorAlain TannerStarsAlain TannerJohn BergerThe construction of a new city in India in 1951 by the French architect Le Corbusier.
- DirectorPatricia WheatleyStarsAscanio BrancaAndy SerkisThis is the first UK film biography of the world-renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose print 'The Great Wave' is as globally famous as Leonardo's 'Mona Lisa'. With Andy Serkis reading the voice of Hokusai, the film features artists David Hockney and Maggi Hambling and passionate scholars who study, admire and venerate this great Japanese master.
- DirectorRima YamazakiStarsNobuo AbeArata IsozakiToyo ItoBuilt in 1972 by Kisho Kurokawa, the Nakagin Capsule Tower is a rare, long standing example of Metabolist architecture. Known as the first Japanese architectural movement, Metabolism manifested in 1960 through critic Noboru Kawazoe and five architects, Kurokawa being the youngest among them. Together they envisioned a new direction for future Japanese architecture and urbanism, designing plans with large, flexible and expandable structures, the style of which is beautifully demonstrated by the Nakagin Capsule Tower. The building is composed of two concrete core towers which 140 capsules are plugged into, all of which were prefabricated and designed to be removable and replaceable. This portrait, filmed in 2010, gathers context surrounding the tower from its residents as well as Kurokawa's colleagues, friends and family as they debate the current issues with the structure and argue the merits of both preservation and demolition. Tracing the history of postwar Japanese architecture and reviewing the characteristics of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, this documentary examines the meaning of Metabolism and Kurokawa's meticulous methods within the movement.
- DirectorWang BingAn insight look to the coal industry in China, the conditions under the workers must their job and the risks that they are constantly exposed. In the coal route that goes from the mines of Shanxi to the great harbor in Jianjin, the drivers of the trucks goes up and down this road day and night.
- DirectorJoop HuiskenJoris IvensRobert MénégozStarsAlex McCrindleErnst BuschPaul RobesonA Communist supported essay film, centering on great rivers of the world such as the Amazon, accompanied by Shostakovich and Paul Robeson music, and also contrasting ways of life under American capitalism and Soviet style socialism.
- DirectorMichael BlackwoodStarsKenneth FramptonKisho KurokawaServing as a detailed portrait of the acclaimed Japanese architect, this film engages with Kisho Kurokawa, who employs Buddhist ideas in a symbiosis of traditional forms and western modernism to achieve an intercultural architecture. In a merging of philosophy, culture, space and narrative, Kurokawa has created a body of work that he defines as symbiotic, which he specifies as "the simultaneous expression of conflicting things in a symbiotic manner" (Kisho Kurokawa). Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis follows him to many of his major accomplishments in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Berlin, Paris, Chicago and New York.
- DirectorMichael BlackwoodStarsArata IsozakiAiko MiyawakiKenzo TangeRenowned architect, Arata Isozaki creates with a rare and specific hand, blending his Japanese culture and education with classic Western aesthetics. Inspired deeply by the architecture he saw in Europe, Isozaki's buildings appear both grand and delicate, entirely aware of the space they occupy. Of his particular style Isozaki tells us, "Even though my buildings look very Western and not Japanese, conceptually and fundamentally, I feel that I have been very influenced by Japanese traditions, both in architecture and in traditional concepts of time and space." (Arata Isozaki) Arata Isozaki: Early Work in Japan takes a detailed look at the architect's pieces, exploring applauded projects such as the EXPO '70 Osaka Festival Plaza, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and Kitakyushu Municipal Library. The extraordinary series of architectural breakthroughs made during this time contributed significantly to the evolution of contemporary architecture worldwide, and eventually gained him his first foreign commission: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
- DirectorBénie DeswarteYann Le MassonStarsChris Marker
- DirectorCharlotte ZwerinStarsTôru TakemitsuHiroshi TeshigaharaMasaki KobayashiA documentary of the Japanese film composer Toru Takemitsu, featuring interviews and clips from films he scored.
- DirectorLuis PancorboStarsNagisa ÔshimaLuis Pancorbo
- DirectorLuis PancorboStarsKhushwant SinghLuis Pancorbo
- DirectorLuis PancorboStarsLuis Pancorbo
- DirectorLuis PancorboStarsLuis Pancorbo
- DirectorLuis PancorboStarsLuis Pancorbo
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsK.A. AbbasRajinder Singh BediPier Paolo PasoliniA half hour documentary Pasolini made about his search for places, faces and ideas to be in a film about India that was never completed.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haTrinh T. Minh-ha combines archival footage, text, and interviews to paint portraits of Vietnamese women past and present. She explores the fiction of documentary and the truth of subjective experience and all their inherent contradictions.
- DirectorLeonard Retel HelmrichThree generations of one family weather the challenges of living in modern-day Indonesia, the largest Muslim community on the globe.
- DirectorJoris IvensMarceline Loridan IvensDuring some months, the Dutch movie director Ivens and some North Vietnamese colleagues filmed the life of North Vietnamese peasants under the menace of heavy American bombardments. The result is an indictment of all forms of war.
- DirectorBaron Victor von PlessenLove story between a girl and a boy of incompatible social classes.
- DirectorChristian BlackwoodStarsLino BrockaLorna TolentinoChristopher De LeonDocumentary portrait of the Philippine filmmaker Lino Brocka.
- DirectorJean Rouch
- DirectorWooyoung ChoiSteven DhoedtCan one day shape the rest of your life? A feature documentary on the South-Korean education system
- DirectorStephen FinniganStarsEric MeyersIn China's Valley of the Kings, there stands a tall, carved stone. It honors the resting place of a woman named Wu Zetian, who rose from concubine to become China's only female emperor. For more than a millennia, history claimed she killed her own children, held power through a ruthless rule of terror, and brought China to the edge of ruin. But are any of these claims true? Join the investigation as we revisit old evidence and reveal new truths, using artifacts and forensic tools to tell the true story of China's Emperor of Evil.
- DirectorDaniel SchmidStarsTamasaburô BandôHan TakeharaHaruko SugimuraThis is an attempt to offer insight into the Japanese Kabuki star Tamasaburo Bando, one of the last defenders of this ancient and disappearing performing tradition.
- DirectorUlrike OttingerStarsZifeng LingIn this four and a half hour documentary or filmic travelogue, Ulrike Ottinger tries to impart new ways of seeing a foreign culture.