Inside/Outside

Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.

The Living Theatre is an experimental company founded in New York in 1947 by Julian Beck (New York 1925-1985), painter and poet, and the actress and stage director Judith Malina (Kiel 1926), a student of Erwin Piscator. From the very beginning the group’s activities bore the stamp of social and political commitment, imbued with a strong libertarian matrix. A video montage of films and videos from The Living Theatre Archives.

Part journalistic investigation and part performance documentary, "Who Killed The Federal Theater?" tells the story of the Federal Theatre Project within the context of a volatile period in the political, social and cultural history of the United States. The film features interview segments with playwrights, including Arthur Miller, and with actors, directors, designers, and historians. It also incorporates rare archival materials and dramatic sequences, including professionally re-created scenes from Federal Theatre productions that transport viewers back in time to a bygone era in American history and entertainment.

According to family legend, the name Hrušínský was born after Rudolf and Jan Hrušínský's grandfather Rudolf Böhm was caught stealing pears on a theater stage. The German name Böhm suddenly became Hruškovský and shortly after that Hrušínský. Grandfather Rudolf, later known as Rudolf Hrušínský the eldest, adopted the surname as his own and began using it in 1935. However, the history of the Hrušínský acting family goes back much further. It is therefore not surprising that the brothers Rudolf and Jan also took the same path. The documentary charts their acting beginnings alongside their father Rudolf Hrušínský Sr., from their first roles, through theater engagements at the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem and the Drama Club in Prague, to unforgettable film and television roles, when three generations of Hrušínskýs often met in front of the camera.

"Chapal Bhaduri, a leading lady of Bengal’s traditional folk traveling theatre-in-the-round, the Jatra, spent his life playing women. This film is an intimate biography that brings you face to face with this unique individual, sharing what it means to him to become a woman night after night, talking of the woman inside his body, of troubled sexuality, of a long partnership with his older lover, of the loneliness of living on the edges of conventional society–and showing how he metamorphoses into the goddess to perform her story." - The Bangalore International Centre

A look back at "La Cage aux Folles", which ran non-stop for five years, from February 1973, on the stage of the Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris. At a time when homosexuality was considered a crime by the law, Poiret and Serrault achieved great success in boulevard theater. Their success continued on the silver screen, with three Oscar nominations and a Broadway musical. Combining never-before-seen archives from the play, extracts from the film, confessions by Poiret and Serrault, and interviews with witnesses, this is the story of a wild epic.

Signals Through the Flames is at once a history and a celebration of the Living Theatre. Founded in the late 1940s by husband-and-wife performers Julian Beck and Judith Malina, the Living Theatre was for many years the predominent American outlet for the avant-garde movement. There were occasional self-imposed exiles to Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, but the group returned full-force during the Aquarius Age to entertain a new generation of theatregoers.

Eight-grader Petya Kopeikin, despite his short stature and nondescript appearance, is constantly in the spotlight. Petya is noble, witty, well versed in literature, he writes wonderful poems. Kopeikin has long been secretly in love with his classmate Masha Goroshkina, and she is passionate about the new student from 9 "A" Kolya Kristallov. Masha tells Petya about her feelings and asks him to hand over a note to Kolya. Deeply worried from unrequited love, Petya not only doesn't stand in the way of a happier rival, but even helps him win Masha's heart. He wants to prove that courage and honor were not only inherent in the times of “musketeer” novels, but exist in our time. Petya chooses to follow the example of the hero of the famous play Edmond Rostan and in his actions copies Cyrano de Bergerac.

In early 20th-century Naples, a theatrical parody lands beloved thespian and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta in court, facing a malicious lawsuit that could compromise his freedom of expression and the economic security of his extended family—including his son's, young Eduardo De Filippo.

England, 1890s. The brutal and embittered Marquis of Queensberry, who believes that his youngest son, Bosie, has an inappropriate relationship with the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, maintains an ongoing feud with the latter in order to ruin his reputation and cause his fall from grace.