"Nothing is Impossible"
Featuring interviews with Sir John Hegarty, Lord Tim Bell and Robert E. Jacoby, The Real Saatchis: Masters of Illusion chronicles the rise and fall of Britain's largest advertising agency,
Social & External
The people behind it
John Hegarty
Tim Bell
Denis Tuohy
Narrator
Every year, thousands of commercials are made that never reach our TV screens, deemed too shocking to see. In order to make it onto the screen, they must clear all manner of obstacles, from fussy clients to obsessive regulators and restrictive rights issues. X-Rated takes a look at these outlawed pieces of advertising, revealing the most explicit, controversial and shocking ads never seen. These are ads that break all manner of taboos, from sex, violence, blasphemy, homosexuality, animal cruelty, rapping pensioners, swearing children, suicidal toys and naked athletes to Kylie in her undies on a bucking bronco. Amongst the contributors are advertising executives, producers and censors. The programme also takes a look at the embarrassing world of western celebrities in Japanese ads.
Film commissioned by the Chicago-based publisher of Negro Digest, Ebony, Tan, and Jet to encourage advertisers to reach out to African American consumers. The Secret of Selling the Negro depicts the lives, activities, and consumer behavior of African American professionals, students, and housewives. A Business Screen reviewer noted that the film focused on the “bright positive” aspects of the “new Negro family.” The sponsor issued a companion booklet offering the “do’s and don’ts of selling to the Negro.”
The art of the "pitch" and its role in society, as told by many of the pitch industry's greatest salesmen, including Arnold Morris, Sandy Mason, Lester Morris, Wally Nash and Ed McMahon as well as a look at the Popeil family.
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
The personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of all time and the stories behind their campaigns.
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
A documentary about the legendary Japanese filmmaker.
From 1996 to 1998, a low-budget TV commercial for Saskatoon’s Great Buffet of China aired relentlessly. Featuring a Caucasian pitchman introducing the phrase “How Chee” and a group of amateur young actors repeating it, the ad became infamous. Some laughed. Others cringed. Many called it the worst commercial ever made. Thirty years later, it still resurfaces—at one point even going viral in China. How Chee! explores the unlikely origins of the ad, the friendship between an immigrant restaurant owner and the professor who tried to help save his business, and the now-adult actors who became locally famous long before going viral was a thing.
Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, Sut Jhally asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim -- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests? And, can we think long-term as well as short-term?
Advertising: Colorful and projected on a large scale. The new era begins at the beginning of the 20th century in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. Lucian Bernhard, Ludwig Hohlwein and Julius Klinger put the products of industrialization in a new light: cars and cigarettes, fashion and cosmetics. The story of the three exceptional graphic artists and how their poster art revolutionized advertising.
Once upon a time... consumer goods were built to last. Then, in the 1920’s, a group of businessmen realized that the longer their product lasted, the less money they made, thus Planned Obsolescence was born, and manufacturers have been engineering products to fail ever since. Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.
Programming the Nation? takes an encompassing look at the history of subliminal messaging in America. According to many authorities, since the late 1950s subliminal content has been tested and delivered through all forms of mass-media including Hollywood filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and William Friedkin. Even our modern military has been accused of these practices in the "war on terror" against soldiers and civilians both abroad and at home. With eye-opening footage, revealing interviews, humorous anecdotes, and an array of visual effects, the film categorically explores the alleged usage of subliminals in advertising, music, film, television, anti-theft devices, political propaganda, military psychological operations, and advanced weapons development. Director Jeff Warrick makes it his personal mission to determine if these manipulative tactics have succeeded in "programming the nation?" Or, if subliminal messaging belongs in the category of what many consider urban legend.
Early 1960s documentary into the spending habit of 'screenagers' (young cinema-goers aged between 16-24). Based on Mark Abrams' 1959 report, 'The Teenage Consumer'.
A documentary on the marketing of pop culture to Teenagers.
A documentary about branding, advertising and product placement that is financed and made possible by brands, advertising and product placement.
Advertising shits in your head. London artists are taking to the streets to reclaim public spaces and challenge passerby's to think differently about everything from capitalism to gender.
Part of a triptych of fashion films edited from Erwin Blumenfeld's original footage by filmmaker Adam Mufti and sound designer Olivier Alary. This film examines the concept of 'Adertising & Layout' in Blumenfeld's motion image work.
Part of a triptych of fashion films edited from Erwin Blumenfeld's original footage by filmmaker Adam Mufti and sound designer Olivier Alary. This film examines the concept of 'Process & Surrealism' in Blumenfeld's motion image work.
Part of a triptych of fashion films edited from Erwin Blumenfeld's original footage by filmmaker Adam Mufti and sound designer Olivier Alary. This film examines the concept of 'Abstraction & Distortion' in Blumenfeld's motion image work.
A detailing of the rise to prominence and global sporting superstardom of six supremely talented young Manchester United football players (David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville). The film covers the period 1992-1999, culminating in Manchester United's European Cup triumph.
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
An inside look at one of the most anticipated movie sequels ever with James Cameron and cast.
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
A comedic, brutally honest documentary following self-destructive TV writer Dan Harmon as he takes his live podcast on a national tour.
A 1993 documentary film about Bruce Lee. The film includes interviews from some of his fellow students and opponents who worked alongside him in his movies.
Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own world, both tortured and inspired, which celebrates a radical and mesmerizing genius of profound influence.
Film adaptation of French economist Thomas Piketty's ground-breaking global bestseller of the same name: an eye-opening journey through wealth and power.
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
The background and career of Tony Parker, whose determination led him to become arguably the greatest French basketball player.
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.