The Great Universal Mystery

The Surprise Fight

1925

Episode #5 in the Flying Fists series featuring real-life boxer Benny Leonard.

Hitting Hard

1925

The second of six episodes in the "Flying Fists" boxing series sometimes listed as "Hit Hard" starring pugilist Benny Leonard.

Rescue - Resuscitation

1897

A line is shot to the man clinging to the overturned boat. He fastens it to his body using all his fast failing strength. The crew pull him through the surf to the shore, where he is rolled and patted and worked over until resuscitated.

Alciede Capitane

1898

A showcase of trapeze artist Alciede Capitaine, billed as “The Perfect Woman,” whose daring feats on the flying bar combined grace with breathtaking athleticism. Produced by Edison in 1898, this title should not be confused with Dickson’s earlier 1894 short Mlle. Capitaine, which also featured the performer.

Kliou the Tiger

1935

Bhat, a member of the Moi tribe in Indo-China, loves Dhi, but her father Khan does not believe Bhat is worthy of his daughter, as he lacks hunting and warrior prowess. The tiger, Kliou, has been attacking Moi villages, taking people and livestock. During a hunt, Khan is severely mauled by the claws of Kliou. Witch doctors claim that Khan can only be saved by Kliou experiencing a similar bloodletting.

Heartbreakers Beach Party

2024

Documentary that captures Tom Petty and the band in 1982-1983 as they finish, promote, and tour around the “Long After Dark” album (their final with legendary producer Jimmy Iovine). It aired only once on MTV in 1983. After the long lost 16mm reels were finally found, a restored version with 19 minutes of extra footage was released in 2024.

Show Me a Strong Town and I'll Show You a Strong Bank

1966

Commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, the film follows an inspector conducting surprise inspections. Note: As of now, the film is considered lost and no known copies are publicly available.

India Speaks

1933

A documentary of explorer Richard Halliburton's travels on the Indian sub-continent, featuring a mix of real and staged footage.

Time in the Sun

1940

Second attempt to create a feature film out of the 200,000-plus feet of film which Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein shot during 1931-32 in Mexico for American socialist author Upton Sinclair, his wife and a small company of investors. The projected film, to be called "Que Viva Mexico", was never completed due to exhaustion of funds and Stalin's demand that Eisenstein return to the USSR (he had been absent since 1929). The first attempt at editing the footage, in the USA, resulted in "Thunder Over Mexico", released in 1934. In 1940, Marie Seton, from the UK, acquired some of the footage from the Sinclairs in an attempt to make a better cutting according to Eisenstein's skeletal outline for the proposed film. This film has apparently been lost.

Sex Stars

1976

Sex star gives an explosive behind the scenes view of the people who make sexual fantasies come true on the silver screen. Sex Stars is the first feature documentary made by Lech Kowalski.

Jirón

2014

Jirón is the story of “Jirón de niebla” (Shred of Fog), the last film made by Mexico’s duque of horror, Carlos Enrique Taboada, which, for several reasons, was never shown or premiered. The mistery behind the disappearance of this film will be revealed in a series of interviews with the people who worked on it.

Wise Guys: The Lost Show

2022

During the COVID-19 pandemic, two college students set out to make a revolutionary television show. The pilot episode was uncovered and presented alongside exclusive interviews with the cast and crew.

God Is a Woman

2024

In 1975 French Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Pierre Dominique Gaisseau traveled to Panama to make a film on the indigenous island-dwelling Kuna people. Accompanied by his wife and their daughter, Gaisseau lived with the Kuna for a year, gaining their trust and filming their most intimate ceremonies. He promised to share the resulting film with the community, but that never happened. Fifty years later, the Kunas are still waiting to discover “their” film, now a legend passed down from the elders to the new generation. One day, a hidden copy is found in Paris…While uncovering this fascinating story with humility and warmth, Swiss-Panamanian filmmaker Andrés Peyrot succeeds in capturing a true sense of culture and place. The result is simultaneously a cautionary tale raising questions around how and why documentaries are made and for whom, and a testament to the power of what it means to see yourself on the big screen.

Soft Muscles

1925

Third installment of the "Flying Fists" silent series with boxer Benny Leonard in the lead.

Erotographie

2002