MUBI Blog

Watch films from DocsBarcelona for free!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:40:47 -0800

How would six Catalan artists depict Japan, and would these visions match reality? Those questions are explored in Japan: Imaginary Visions, just one of a good handful of short documentaries from DocsBarcelona you can watch right now — for free! — thanks to our partnership with the international film festival and pitching forum, an annual meeting of audiences and professionals in Spain’s bustling city.

Note that not every film is viewable in every country, but for most, four or five works should be available through Sunday.

Watch Films by Kate McCabe

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:40:01 -0800

We just opened a cinema featuring four short films by Kate McCabe, founder of the art collective Kidnap Yourself. Often combining live action photography and animation, with time manipulation techniques both in-camera and with optical printing, much of her work, distributed by Canyon Cinema, explores a realm between daydreams and reality.

She describes Tack (1995; image above) as “a collage of outtakes, forgotten still camera negatives, and super 8 film all chopped and rearranged on 35mm leader.” Portraits (2001) is comprised of 37 ten-second animated light paintings of artists and friends. The Chicago Underground Film Festival has called Das Neue Monster (2001) a “Frankenstein for identity politics.” And of her 17-minute film from 2004, she says: “Moving to Los Angeles seemed to me like traveling to a remote planet and we were astronauts hovering within its borders isolated in a strange sanctuary. Milk and Honey allows you to drift into that twilight world and dream of home.”

My French Film Festival 2012. Watch Now!

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:48:00 -0800

Through February 1, we’re partnering with the My French Film Festival to show you ten recently released French features (first and second films) and ten French shorts. Presented by Unifrance, the festival invites you to award points to the films you like at the main site — and these points count, as six prizes will be awarded (three for features, three for shorts): the Internet Users Prize, Social Networks Prize and International Press Prize.

Outside of both competitions, we’ve also got a few extra presentations. The online festival was a hit around the world last year and you won’t want to miss this second edition. Check out our notes on all the features and shorts here, then watch, enjoy and tell your fellow Francophiles!

More MUBI for Less Money

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:59:50 -0800

MUBI has just reduced its prices across the board, including much lower monthly subscriptions. We’ll even give you unlimited viewing for 14 days for free to indulge in the very best of cinema. Start your free trial here.

There’s never been a better time to watch a great film online.

Love,
MUBI Team

Watch Films by Thomas Imbach

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:32:39 -0800

Thomas Imbach’s Day Is Done, which screened in the Forum at this year’s Berlinale in February and won the Zurich Film Award 2011 earlier this month, opens in Berlin on Thursday. The site’s flaunting some pretty winning quotes, with Screen Daily noting that the documentary essay features “images of ravishing though unconventional urban beauty,” while Der Tagesspiegel writes that an “evocative maelstrom of great power emerges in the course of nearly two hours.”

But you won’t have to be in Berlin to watch work by this independent Swiss filmmaker. For a full year, we’ll be showing a selection of Films by Thomas Imbach.

Well Done (1994) is an absurdist comedy about the all but uncontrollable flow of data and money through Switzerland. Augusteb “loved it.” In Ghetto (1997), we follow a group of teens through an anarchic class room, a basement disco and into the night. “Allow the film 15 minutes to start sinking into you,” advises Giammiz, “and then you are going to love it.”

Happiness Is a Warm Gun (2001) offers “variations on a true story,” as the tagline goes, namely, that of Petra Kelly, a cofounder of the German Green Party who, in 1992, was shot dead while she slept by her partner, ex-general and Green politician Gert Bastian. Happiness screened in Berlin, Locarno and also won a Zurich Film Award.

Lenz (2006, image above) tells the story of a filmmaker researching Georg Büchner’s novel fragment Lenz. In August, Tsienni wrote: “Thanks to an empathetic show of sensitivity and personableness, this film manages to weave those little seemingly banal moments from one man’s quaint inner quest into a beautiful visual hymn of veritable life.”

If you read German, by the way, Michael Sennhauser writes about Imbach’s work in a recent issue of film-dienst. But of course, you won’t need to know German to watch Films of Thomas Imbach here on MUBI.

Festival Cine//B (site), dedicated to exhibiting the latest...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:23:05 -0800

Festival Cine//B (site), dedicated to exhibiting the latest work from young filmmakers, opened in Santiago on Friday and runs through November 13. We’ve teamed up with the festival to present over a dozen shorts and one feature, Victor Ruano’s El cadáver exquisito (site), which “combines documentary, fiction and experimental filmmaking as it traverses the social and oneiric landscape of a region struggling between modernity and tradition.”

Take a look at the full program and start watching — for free!

Watch Films from the Mar del Plata International Film Festival for Free

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:17:17 -0800

The 26th Mar del Plata International Film Festival (site), the only festival in Latin America with ‘A’ status, opened yesterday and runs through November 13. We’re partnering with the festival to present a selection of films from South America, ranging from Demián Rugna and Fabián Forte’s feature Cursed Bastards, “leading the charge for the next volley of extreme Argentine cinema” (Todd Brown at Twitch, where he’s got the trailer; that’s an image from the film above, by the way) to a slew of shorts including Matías Canony’s Alias, Alexander Katzowicz and David Katzowicz’s Versus and Tetsuo Lumière’s irresistibly titled Take My Hand! Sticky Bloody Love. Check out the program and enjoy — it’s free!

Lomography, the magazine, shop and community dedicated to...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:42:00 -0700

Lomography, the magazine, shop and community dedicated to analogue photography, has put together a selection of films on MUBI and invites you take inspiration from them to start making movies and photos of your own.

To that end, they’ve introduced Lomokino, a 35mm movie camera: shoot a movie of 144 frames on any 35mm film. What’s more, they’re teaming up with us to stage a fun competition, “Your Movie Scene.” The idea is simple: Recreate a favorite movie scene, snap an analogue photo, tag it and send it in. All the info you need is right here. Prizes? Of course: there are three in all, each packaged with a one-year subscription to MUBI. Again, all details are here. Just 16 days left!

AFI FEST 25th Anniversary Retrospective

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:13:07 -0700

With the AFI FEST opening today and running through November 10, we’re celebrating this 25th edition with a retrospective of some of the very best films that have screened at this beacon of cinephilia in Los Angeles over the past quarter of a century. Not every film we’ve selected — titles by the likes of Jia Zhangke, Aleksandr Sokurov, Arnaud Despleshin, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Azazel Jacobs and many more — will be available absolutely everywhere in the world, but take a look at the films you can start watching right now.

Now Playing in Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico: MAPFRE's 4+1 Film Festival

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:12:42 -0700

Until November 4, MUBI and MAPFRE’s 4+1 Film Festival bring some of the highlights from the world’s film festivals to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Mexico, where you can watch them online, instantly!

Held simultaneously in 5 cities, MAPFRE 4+1 is known as the “festival of festivals” bringing together some of the best festival gems on the circuit.

Among the 14 titles in the Official Selection are Takashi Kitano’s Outrage, which screened in Competition in Cannes, Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff, from the 2010 Venice Competition lineup, Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light, a stunning documentary featured in Cannes and Toronto, Otar Ioselliani’s Chantrapas, which screened at Cannes and won a Jury Prize at Mar de Plata; Morgen (Marian Crisan), winner of a Special Jury Prize at Locarno; Tilva Ros (Nikola Lezaic), winner of the FIPRESCI critics award in Transylvania; Nénette (Nicolás Philibert), featured in Berlin and in San Francisco; and Color Perro que Huye (Andrés Duque), which screened at Rotterdam and Punto de Vista.

Plus, films by Agnès Varda, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and more. Enjoy these and other award-winners from around the world, but don’t forget they’ll ony be available until Friday the 4th!

Watch Films from the Paris Korean Film Festival for Free

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:12:19 -0700

Since 2006, the Paris Korean Film Festival (Festival Franco-Coréen du Film, opening today and running through October 18) has screened a wide variety of Korean films in the Latin Quarter of the City of Light. This year, the Festival and MUBI are presenting a generous sampling of 17 films you can now watch for free.

Joe Seung-yeon’s Rough Education (image above) tells a story of young friendship in the 80s. Little white lies lead to some pretty serious fibbing in Nam Yeon-kyung’s Lies. A new teacher struggles to connect with school kids whose previous teacher has commit suicide in Koh Su-kyung’s Bad Education.

In 0.201, Ko Seok-heui reveals the ways history resonates in today’s Seoul. Sin I-soo shows us a Seoul few are likely to have known in Dear Lara.

Choi Sung-eun’s Dead Drunken Master is a martial arts comedy about an office worker trying to teach himself to drink alcohol. A beauty shop employee tries to explain away a revealing photo of herself in Hyun Jeong-jae’s Make-Up.

An astronaut aims for a new planet — and a new life — in Lee Han-bit’s Cosmic Man. Another space traveller is an animated dog in Kim Da-hye’s Space Radio.

Cho Sung-bin and Haam Kisoo’s animated short Dart pits a former dart champion against a spider.

A motley collection of characters inhabit a dilapidated building in Shin Hyun-tak’s Dogs and Flowers. An upstairs-downstairs conflict turns violent in Zhang Dong-kook’s The Death of a Good Neighbor.

Lee Hyung-suk tips a broad-brimmed hat to an American genre in Western Movie.

A couple’s celebration of their 1000th day together does not go as planned in Lee Se-hyung’s 999. In Oh Hyun-min’s Adios, a split couple reunite — very tentatively.

Yoon Sung-jun tells One Man’s Story in a photo album.

Kim Young-soo’s Pest depicts the aftermath of a virus outbreak in the near future.

Watch Films from the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for Free

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:10:00 -0700

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (formerly the Middle East International Film Fest), opening today and running through October 22, is committed to presenting works by Arab filmmakers in competition alongside the major talents of world cinema. The Festival and MUBI are presenting a feature film you can now watch for free.

“A historical fiction, [Hisham Lasri’s] The End opens in July 1999, on the eve of the death of Morocco’s longtime monarch Hassan II (1961-99), whose demise marked both the end of an era as well as the filmmaker’s childhood,” writes Sally Shafto in Senses of Cinema. “The film tells the story of a marginalized youth, M’key, in search of a father figure, who falls in love with Rita, a young woman whose virginity is ensured by her gang-member brothers by keeping her enchained. M’key is the protégé of Daoud, the police commissioner whose nickname is ‘the system’s pit-bull’ and who was responsible for torturing and killing, years before, Rita’s father. Daoud appears to be a stand-in for Hassan II, seen here as a kind of super cop. During his reign, known as the period of lead, Hassan II imprisoned many political dissidents. The End definitely merited its Special Award, because Lasri has attempted something ambitious with his first film. [Critic] Mohamed Dahan calls The End an example of ‘the new Moroccan cinema, light-years away from the “cinema du Papa” and the reasonable tone of Morocco’s first filmmakers.’”

Watch Films from the Mill Valley Film Festival for Free!

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:36:52 -0700

MUBI is partnering with the Mill Valley Film Festival, opening today and running through October 16, to present a selection of films you can watch for free.

You might begin with a taste of the finest from the Golden State, Deborah Koons Garcia’s Portrait of a Winemaker: John Williams of Frog’s Leap, which is also a tribute to one man’s economically viable answer to the growing problem of water scarcity.

The subject of another portrait by the filmmaker is Rob Hopkins. Her interview with founder of the Transition Movement, a response to climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy, takes place in the original Transition Town, Totnes, England. Hence, the title: Transition Town Totnes.

Robert Redford narrates Will Parrinello, John Antonelli and Tom Dusenbery’s The New Environmentalists (image above), a collection of portraits of activists from around the world who have won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. “What connects the six crusaders featured in the documentary,” wrote Julian Guthrie in the San Francisco Chronicle last year, “is a refusal to listen to the word ‘no’ and an unrelenting drive that pitted them against formidable — and at times dangerous — adversaries.”

Josh Biggs and Natalie Boulton’s Voices from the Shadows (viewable only in the US and Canada) approaches chronic fatigue syndrome from the points of view of patients, caretakers and medical experts.

Watch Shorts from the Chicago International Film Festival for Free!

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:36:00 -0700

“Life Is Short,” the title of the short films program at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival reminds us, and CIFF and MUBI aim to sweeten it with a sampling of a few of the films you can watch for free.

When Ghost, about a man hiding out in an empty house, premiered in Cannes, daazo interviewed director Ma Dahci.

Shot on 8mm and then edited digitally, Alaric Rocha’s Winter is about a prisoner on a chain gang who’s dreaming of escape when his chain breaks.

Jonas Rothlaender’s The Shirt (viewable everywhere but in France) is built on a moment of discomfort between a father (62) and a son (28).

CIFF describes Noam Ellis’s Narkis (viewable everywhere except Israel) as a “subtle tale of one girl’s sexual awakening in the sultry summer heat.”

New Ways to Watch

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:37:33 -0700

Watching films on MUBI just got easier.

We’ve redone our Watch page to make it much easier for you to find films playing on MUBI’s VOD platform. The page is considerably more interactive—you can even watch trailers there directly. We’ve also made our searching options far more robust, so you can always find what you’re looking for or discover something exciting to watch, whether you’re searching by genre, film name, cast and crew members, popularity, by country (long requested by the community) or by scads of other search and filter options. (Want to find the free films? Easy. Want to find the films we’re showing made between 1905 and 1925? Easy. Want to find the films we’re showing in the Inuktitut language?…You get the picture.)

An extra special bonus for our users in the US: we now show films available on Netflix Instant, so you can easily keep track of your favorites, rate and review and comment on things you’ve seen, see what’s showing now on Netflix, pop over there to watch stuff, and come back to MUBI to discuss.

We hope you like it.

Celebrate Peace Day. Watch "Budrus" for Free

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:19:00 -0700

Conversations this International Day of Peace will this year undoubtedly be focused on Palestinians’ bid for UN membership, the latest development in the decades-old Israel-Palestine conflict. Brazilian filmmaker Julia Bacha has spent years in the Middle East and, as she notes at the top of her recent TED Talk, one of the most common questions she’s asked is, “Where are the Palestinian Ghandis?”

Fact of the matter is, they exist, and they’re hard at work, trying to bring about nonviolent solutions, one confrontation at a time. In 2003, the Palestinian village of Budrus mounted a 10-month-long nonviolent protest to stop a barrier being built across their olive groves — successfully — and Bacha was there to document the saga in full as it unfolded in her film, Budrus.

Budrus is an inspiration, and for 24 hours, MUBI is teaming up with Just Vision, Typecast and Antidote Films to present the doc for free in the US, Australia and New Zealand. And, wherever you are in the world, join us on Twitter for a live Q&A with Julia Bacha at 7pm EST.

Queer Lisboa 2011. Watch Films for Free

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:24:29 -0700

Queer Lisboa is not only the oldest film festival in Lisbon — it’s also the only festival in Portugal dedicated exclusively to screening gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual themed films. The theme of this year’s edition is Transgression, and throughout its run through September 24, you can watch around a dozen films from the lineup for free.

Russell Shaeffer’s shot his short Alone on black and white 16mm. Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo’s Brussels is actually about a father and son meeting up in New York, while My New Song Is Coming Along Great focuses on a 16-year-old raised by two dads. Four intersexual people discuss their experiences in Melanie Jilg’s The Cat Would Rather Be a Bird…, and her About Everyday Things: In June for Example is a quiet portrait of a relationship in southern Germany. Juanma Carrillo’s Fuckbuddies is, naturally, a quickie. In Paul Agusta’s The Game Kiss, two 15-year-olds nervously take their friendship into unknown territory. Júnior Ratts’s Para mover o domingo… gives us a few minutes of a lazy Sunday. Sylvie Cachin’s gODDESSES (we believe we were born perfect) takes us to South Africa where women “are reviving the pacifist, non-hetero-normative, ‘matriarchal’ society of the pre-colonial era.” In Kim-Jho Gwang-soo’s Love, 100ºC, young Min-so has an encounter with consequences. And Kirsty MacDonald urges us to Assume Nothing about gender.

Start watching here.

Helsinki 2011. Watch 4 Films for Free

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 06:37:00 -0700

The 24th Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy is off and running through September 25 and for just as long, wherever you are in the world, you can watch four films for free: Tonislav Hristov’s Rules of Single Life, a comedy about Bulgarian men in the Finnish capital; Rax Rinnekangas’s Journey to Eden, in which two artists explore northern Spain; Markku Tuurna’s Salla? Selling the Silence, documenting the rise and fall of a family of entrepreneurs from Lapland; and Jouko Aaltonen’s Battle for the City, chronicling the struggle to save the architecture of Turku, Finland’s oldest city.

Oldenburg 2011. Watch 6 Films for Free

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:07:00 -0700

We’ve teamed up with the Oldenburg Film Festival, opening in Germany today, to present six films from the lineup of their 18th edition, an intriguing mix of great premieres, surprising discoveries and original independent productions. From now through Sunday, watch for free, anywhere in the world: Robbie Bryan’s Choose, in which a young pregnant woman faces an ethical dilemma; Joan Chemia’s Dr Nazi, an adaptation of a novel by Charles Bukowski; Babak Anvari’s allegorical Two & Two, in which it becomes a crime to argue that the sum of the title is anything but five; 1000 Grams, Tom Bewilogua’s rumination on the belly; Filip Tegstedt’s horror thriller Marianne (this one’s viewable everywhere but the US, the UK, Sweden„ Indonesia and The Netherlands); and Pedro Collantes’s 15 Summers Later, a comedy played out on a faraway beach.

Watch 7 Films from Alpha-ville 2011

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:31:02 -0700

Each year in London, Alpha-ville, the International Festival of Post-digital Culture, explores the intersection between art, technology and society. This year, we’re teaming up again to present seven works you can watch for free anywhere in the world through September 25.

Greg Tran explores augmented reality in Mediating Mediums: The Digital 3D. A mouse scampers through Teclópolis, from Argentinians Javier Mrad and Javier Salazar, while Kibwe Tavares lets loose the Robots of Brixton and classic video game icons wreck havoc on the real world in Patrick Jean’s Pixels. Markus Kayser examines the the potential of desert manufacturing in Solar Sinter, Noriko Okaku spins an Allegory of Mrs Triangle and Abstract Birds and Quayola reveal the beauty of Partitura, a custom-designed software generating realtime graphics aimed at visualizing sound.