Documentary
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American Movie (1999) Douban NeoDB WikiData IMDb TMDB
American Movie
director: Chris Smith actor: Mark Borchardt / Mike Schank …
other title: 아메리칸 무비 / 导演狂想曲 …
American Movie documents the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, American Movie is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.
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Not Quite Hollywood (2008) IMDb WikiData
Not Quite Hollywood
director: Mark Hartley actor: Phillip Adams / Glory Annen …
other title: Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.
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Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1998) NeoDB Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
男生女相：華語電影之性別
director: Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang actor: Tony Rayns / Chang Cheh …
other title: Yang ± Yin: Gender im chinesischen Kino / 男生女相：華語電影之性別 …
An exploration of Chinese cinema and its relationships with gender and sexuality, which the film argues has been more frankly and provocatively explored than in any other national cinema. Utilizing both film excerpts and interviews with many leading directors and academics, the film examines topics such as male bonding in kung fu movies, depictions of same-sex bonding and physical intimacy, the emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas, and the career of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.
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Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003) NeoDB WikiData TMDB IMDb Douban
铁西区
9.7 (6 ratings) director: Wang Bing
other title: Tie Xi Qu. Il distretto di Tiexi / À l'ouest des rails …
A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.
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Scratch (2001) IMDb WikiData
Scratch
director: Doug Pray actor: Jazzy Jay / DJ Krush …
A feature-length documentary film about hip-hop DJing, otherwise known as turntablism. From the South Bronx in the 1970s to San Francisco now, the world's best scratchers, beat-diggers, party-rockers, and producers wax poetic on beats, breaks, battles, and the infinite possibilities of vinyl.
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The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) IMDb NeoDB TMDB WikiData Douban
The Decline of Western Civilization
director: Penelope Spheeris actor: Eugene Tatu / Alice Bag …
The Los Angeles punk music scene circa 1980 is the focus of this film. With Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, and X.
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FantastiCozzi (2016) TMDB IMDb WikiData
FantastiCozzi
director: Felipe M. Guerra actor: Luigi Cozzi / Caroline Munro …
A feature-length documentary about the life and career of Italian director Luigi Cozzi and his obsession with Science Fiction and Fantasy.
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The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead (2015) WikiData IMDb
The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead
director: Wes Orshoski actor: Dave Vanian / Captain Sensible …
other title: The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead
From Lemmy filmmaker Wes Orshoski comes the story of the long-ignored pioneers of punk: The Damned, the first U.K. punks on wax and the first to cross the Atlantic. This authorized film includes appearances from Chrissie Hynde, Mick Jones (The Clash), Lemmy and members of Pink Floyd, Black Flag, GNR, the Sex Pistols, Blondie, Buzzcocks, and more. Shot around the globe over three years, the film charts the band's complex history and infighting, as it celebrated its 35th anniversary and found its estranged former members striking out on their own anniversary tour, while still others battle cancer.
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Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) IMDb WikiData NeoDB Douban TMDB
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
director: Questlove actor: Stevie Wonder / Lin-Manuel Miranda …
other title: Summer of Soul (...Ou, Quando a Revolução Não Pôde ser Televisionada) / Summer of Soul (…ou quand la révolution n'a pas pu être télévisée) …
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
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¡Qué Viva México! (1979) IMDb TMDB IMDb WikiData TMDB
Да здравствует Мексика!
director: Sergei Eisenstein actor: Sergey Bondarchuk / Grigori Aleksandrov
other title: ¡Que Viva Mexico! / Да здравствует Мексика! …
Lauded Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein spent an extended period of time in Mexico working on an ambitious project that was never realized until much later, when this film was assembled from the largely abandoned footage. Moving from ancient Mayan times to the 1930s, the episodic movie features various dramatic segments, including scenes of a marriage ceremony and of bullfighting, as well as a Day of the Dead celebration and depictions of the Mexican Revolution.
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Scala!!! (2024) IMDb
Scala!!!
director: Jane Giles / Ali Catterall actor: John Waters / Adam Buxton …
This feature-length big screen documentary tells the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll repertory cinema which inspired a generation during Britain's turbulent Thatcher years.
Dec. 28, 2025 to watch 1984-1989 the Scala was my local cinema!

Trigger: watching The Ladykillers (1955) & recognizing the Scala as someone leaves King's Cross Station
London Documentary 2020s Cinema UK
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Cinema of Vengeance (1994) IMDb TMDB
Cinema of Vengeance
director: Toby Russell actor: Cynthia Rothrock / Yuen Biao …
other title: Le furie del cinema
A documentary study of martial arts films and their leading protagonists. Included are profiles of such artists as Bruce Lee, Cynthia Rothrock, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme and John Woo favorite Chow Yun-Fat.
Nov. 23, 2025 watched
Fascinating (for us fans) documentary on the history & development of Hong Kong martial arts & action films, featuring interviews with the people who make the magic happen. And lots of great clips from movies! (Which I have put into a collection here:
https://eggplant.place/collection/69ChUBekkGbNHa0VeIGmSz

I'm sure watched this on VHS in the 90s. Rewatched in #KungFuSat #WatchParty on Mastodon.
HongKong UK Action 1990s MartialArts
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Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014) IMDb WikiData
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
director: Mark Hartley actor: Molly Ringwald / Dolph Lundgren …
other title: The Electric Boogaloo / Electric Boogaloo …
A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.
Nov. 16, 2025 to watch Produced by the same folks who made the excellent 'Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks' (2019) seen in #KungFuSat

Maybe future viewing for #MondayActionMovie ? ;)
2010s Documentary CannonFilms
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Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks (2019) NeoDB Douban IMDb WikiData
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
director: Serge Ou actor: Alan Hofmanis / Alien Ness …
other title: Pugni d'acciaio e calci kung fu
The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.