Movies Similar to Edward Said: The Idea of Empire

Like It Is(1968)

This documentary on the "youth movement" of the late 1960s focuses on the hippie pot smoking/free love culture in the San Francisco Bay area.

France is an Empire(1938)

A documentary showing the pride France took in its position as an Empire, during the period after the Munich accords when it felt threatened by bullying from Italy and the possibility of war still with Germany.

Once upon a time... "I, Daniel Blake"(2021)

The documentary, filmed in England in autumn 2020, sheds light on the genesis and background of the social drama.

Baraka(1992)

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

The 50 Year Argument(2014)

Follows the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review of Books, America’s leading journal of ideas for over 50 years. Provocative, idiosyncratic and incendiary, the film weaves rarely seen archival material, contributor interviews, excerpts from writings by such icons as James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, and Joan Didion along with original verité footage filmed in the Review’s West Village offices.

Oaxacalifornia: The Return(2021)

The Mejia family emigrated from Oaxaca to Fresno, California 40 years ago. Filmmaker Trisha ZIff filmed the family in 1996, and returns now to see the changes that have settled over them, and follows the family on their return to Mexico.

Barber Shop City(2014)

A documentary revealing an observation on three barbershops throughout the course of one summer's day in the city of London - Hackney, Herne Hill, and Catford.

Susanne Bartsch: On Top(2017)

Dubbed New York's "Queen of the Night," proto–club kid Susanne Bartsch has been throwing unforgettable parties for over 30 years and is still going strong.

The Water Map(2024)

The Water Map is an essayistic journey through the ethnography and landscapes of the Region of Murcia. These places are in the process of disappearing due to the increasing and abundant agricultural exploitation. Water has marked the territory and the culture of the area, and with its disappearance, the memories of four characters fade away.

Qipisa(2017)

The director goes back to her roots in Pangnirtung, amongst her family and community. It leads her to another journey: to Qipisa, the outpost camp from where they were uprooted.

Bruno & Bettina(2018)

Masao Adachi, the author and director of experimental works and pinku-eiga in the 1960s, was a member of the Japanese New Left that shifted from being a filmmaker to a guerrilla fighter. In 1974, he joined the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon, which worked closely with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck met Adachi in Tokyo in 2018 and talked with him about a wide range of topics, including art, revolution, the influence of western avant-garde art and American underground; the Japanese Red Army; collaboration with secret services; the role of the Left after 1968; and the reasons for failures of leftist ideas and strategies.

Kekaiulu Hula Studio(2022)

Kekaiulu Hula Studio follows the Proclaimed Hula Halau of the same name, showcasing their twist on what the real reason for hula is and what life as a dancer in the halau is really like. Something previously unseen in the public eye.

Homes Apart: Korea(1991)

They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90s, as the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Koreans remain separated between North and South, fearing the threat of mutual destruction. Beginning with one man's journey to reunite with his sister in North Korea, filmmakers Takagi and Choy reveal the personal, social and political dimensions of one of the last divided nations on earth. The film was also the first US project to get permission to film in both South & North Korea.

The Painter and the Thief(2020)

When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.

POSERS - The New Romantics(1981)

Shot in a single day, POSERS captures a thriving subculture in Kings Road, London: the style, music, and expression of the New Romantics.

The Ornament of the World(2019)

Filmed in Cordoba, Granada, Seville, and Toledo, this documentary retraces the 800-year period in medieval Spain when Muslims, Christians, and Jews forged a common cultural identity that frequently transcended their religious differences, revealing what made this rare and fruitful collaboration possible, and what ultimately tore it apart.

Wild Honey

Les vendredis d'Apostrophes(2015)

Hours and historical meetings, Pierre Assouline has composed an anthology of the best extracts presented in the form of a primer, which he had commented on by a surprised Bernard Pivot.

Slow Southern Steel(2011)

Slow Southern Steel is a film about heavy music in the modern American South, as told by the very people who have created this music during the last two decades. Shot in back alleys, parking lots, and the seedy green rooms of the dirtiest clubs that the Bible Belt failed to snuff out, these diehard musicians discuss their love of music and the south, as well as the difficulties, contradictions, and insanity that haunt every southern artist. There are no illusions here, no apologies, no distractions - only the straight truth as told by those who would know the difference. Narrated by the notorious Dixie Dave Collins (Weedeater, Buzzov-en, Bongzilla), Slow Southern Steel is an authentic and honest and thorough look at one of the most remarkable music communities ever spawned on the continent.

Les secrets de François Truffaut(2020)