Albert Brooks introduces himself to the audience through showing them his home movies from childhood & attempts and fails at doing candid-camera style pranks. Saturday Night Live, Season 1 Episode 2
Made in an environment and at a time when frequent and gratuitous images of nude women permeated the work of her male counterparts, director Penelope Spheeris produced this intimate and sensual observation of a woman bathing. The appearance of Spheeris’ credit at the beginning of the film seems...
A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfiction film – an unusual, partly staged work...
An unfinished archival short, in which the titular substance plays a key role in determining an outmoded man’s role in a changing society. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.
Lifers Group – World Tour: Rahway Prison, That's It
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A short documentary accompanying the first EP released by Lifers Group, a rap crew that grew out of the Lifers Group Juvenile Awareness Program — a youth crime prevention program founded in East Jersey State Prison in 1976 and made famous by the documentary Scared Straight! Released in 1991 and...
Picking up the story first presented in I Don’t Know (1970), Hats Off to Hollywood (1972) brazenly and brilliantly mixes documentary reality with fully staged recreations/reimaginings of episodes in the lives of Jennifer and Dana, a loving, bickering couple who challenge the notion of...
One-time carny, bartender, and married 10 times, director Penelope Spheeris’ mother was an uncommon woman. In this sweet, funny, and moving video portrait, Spheeris gives us a vivid glimpse into the richness of her mother’s life and character. 35mm, color, 11 min. Director: Penelope...
Synthesis is director Penelope Spheeris' first film, made in 8mm Kodachrome while she was a student at UCLA. In a seemingly near-future control room devoid of people, various readouts and calculations suggest that humankind is not altogether compatible with the grand scheme of the universe. 1968....
UCLA Student Film, Preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A man and his wife suffer under the monotony of everyday life with work at an insurance company and unhappy marriage.
An early short film by Penelope Spheeris about a boy enjoying the age-old pleasures of making a wish on a dandelion. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
A video portrait of 2 Live Crew as they fought to release their album "Banned in the USA" during the censorship crisis of the late 80s and early 90s that ultimately resulted in the "PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT CONTENT" sticker. This 49-minute documentary was directed by Penelope Spheeris.
