Prater

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Neirud

Aunt Neirud was always present at family gatherings. Neirud was big, strong, and worked in the circus. Who was this woman so close to the family and about whom we know so little?

Circus Kid

The Pickle Family Circus was founded by Lorenzo Pisoni's parents in 1974. The film documents the spirit, the lunacy, the daring, the danger and the dynamics of growing up in a circus family.

L'art fait du bien 2

An Apology to Elephants

Elephants are among the most majestic and intelligent creatures on Earth--but for hundreds of years, they have suffered at the hands of humans. Narrated by Lily Tomlin, this documentary short traces our long history with elephants and explores the many problems that arise when they are brought to live in captivity in zoos and circuses.

Târgul Moșilor

The Moșilor Fair is an exercise by a student director who used his film before he had managed to finalize the originally planned movie. The result is a fascinating experimental montage, without music or sound of any kind, showing details of a legendary fair in the capital.

Under The Big Top

Amidst the approaching colorful circus performance, we looked underneath the big top to meet circus performers about their lives. The performers interviewed all worked for the established Cirque Italia's Water and Paranormal shows. Our main stars: Roxanne Midi, Margarita Denysova, and Alexander Acero took the audience away with their amazing stories about working in an athletic/entertainment career.

Back To Africa

Fakir

The feature-length documentary Fakir portrays the success of fakirism in Brazil, Latin America and France. This circus art origin show is presented and analyzed through archives that reveals the success of these presentations with their pain resistance championships and the great public presence, including politicians and government officials. Fakir spans current footage from contemporary artists who keep this art alive in performances and shows.

Circus Movements

An examination of bodies, movement and the stillness of landscape brought to you by the entrancing Circus Debre Berhan.

Cirque du Soleil: The Mystery of Mystère

Cirque du Soleil presents The Mystery of Mystère, a captivating documentary that explores how arts and science merge together using Mystère, the critically acclaimed Las Vegas show at Treasure Island, as the outlet for this message.

Tout va bien : 1er commandement du clown

Two years in a clown school. Against all odds and trends, learning how to make people laugh out at the human condition.

Marcelino, el mejor payaso del mundo

An account of the life and work of the Spanish clown, mime, acrobat and actor Marcelino Orbés (1873-1927), known as Marceline, who, between 1900 and 1914, was unanimously acclaimed as the best in the world.

Hatching by Cirque du Soleil

A Documentary on the Creation of OVO, by Cirque du Soleil

The Circus

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.

Ma xi xue xiao

Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way. (Storyville)

Ich hätte am Kronleuchter hängen bleiben müssen

Cirque Pinder Jean Richard

Carnaval

Once a year, people from different marginalized communities meet together in the woods to delve into the art of circus and have this discipline become a common way to express themselves, away from the city.