Zeitgeist Films - 20 years of enchantment
Zeitgeist Films sent me a postcard telling me that I could download their latest catalog on-line. As I was doing so, I noticed that they were celebrating their 20th anniversary (as I have celebrated my 30th in WV.) The 2008 WV Intl. Film Festival just presented their great new Chinese film, “Up the Yangtze” which I reviewed a while ago in this column. In January 2008 the WV Jewish Film Festival presented another one of their great films, even before it was shown in NYC, “Jellyfish.” ( The WVJFF previously showed their Oscar-winning “Nowhere in Africa” and the Oscar-nominated film “Sophie Scholl.”) This film company is truly one of the very best distributors of films in the US and world. I have tried to see everyone one of their films, and for a decade, I purchased most of them for WVLC. Congrats to everyone at Zeitgeist Films for 20 years of real service to the best side of the human race.
I chose several of their films as “the best of the year” during the last two decades including “The Corporation “and “Lumumba.” All of their films are incredibly interesting and worth seeing.
They distribute the works of three of my very favorite filmmakers, The Brothers Quay (16 films, both feature and short) , Guy Maddin ( 9 films, both feature and shorts) and Jan Svankmajer (4 films) . They are three of the leading surrealistic filmmakers in the world today and are essential to understanding the contemporary film world.
“Derrida” is one of the best films ever made about a living philosopher and caused me to explore the other films on philosophy which have made our age “the golden age of films on philosophy” (the title of an article I wrote that was published in Spring 2005 Counterpoise magazine.) They also have a film on the reigning king of philosophy, Zizek, and will shortly be releasing “Examined Life,” a contemporary tour that interviews philosophers on the streets, not in the ivory towers.
As I go through their list of titles, I have profound memories of almost every film, Their films on China, both past and present, are among the best available - “Manufactured Landscapes,”(recently shown on the Sundance Channel),“The World,”(shown at The South Charleston Museum) and “China- A Century of Revolution.”Their films directed by Derek Jarman are unique in cinema especially his film on philosopher “Wittgenstein.”
They also distribute two films by a local filmmaker, Tony Buba of Pittsburgh. Buba and his brother worked on George Romero’s classic “Night of the Living Dead” and other films by Romero. Tony is also a great Les Blankesque style documentary filmmaker, directing two of the best films about small town Appalachia, “”Lightning Over Braddock” and “The Braddock Chronicles.”
I look forward to seeing their 30th anniversary catalog. I know I will be retired by 2018, but hopefully I will have another decade of watching Zeitgeit’s great films by then.
Here is a nice webpage about who they are and what they believe in….
