Winged Migration (2001), Into Great Silence (2005), Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Grass (1999), Manifesto (2015), Powaqqatsi (1988), L'Age d'Or (1930), Arirang (2011) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Non-narrative movies.
Storyline: This documentary presents an epic portrait of winter bird migration. Filmed on all seven continents over four years, the footage is brought together into one portrait of a journey that's uniformly arduous for all kinds of different birds. Rather than concentrating on statistics and facts, the film near-wordlessly portrays the sheer physical effort demanded of the birds on their disparate routes. Along the way, we see the many dangers they face, from man-made waste to a group of hungry crabs.
Plot Keywords: documentary, nature, birds, migration, wildlife, cinematography, flight ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmaker Philip Gröning travels to the French Alps to document the daily lives and rituals of the Carthusian Order of monks.
Plot Keywords: documentary, silence, christianity, france, meditation, prayer, solitude ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This experimental film looks at the world and more specifically the effect man has had on the landscape and the environment. Without narration, the film shows the world in a pristine condition and untouched: blue skies, beautiful landscapes and endless vistas. The man-made world is much less appealing. Essentially a montage using a variety of film techniques to provide a visually stunning montage of images.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: experimental, documentary, avant-garde, visual poetry, nature, modernity, technology ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Filmmaker Ron Mann looks at the history of marijuana, from early government propaganda newsreels to Ronald Reagan's war on drugs. Narrated by Woody Harrelson.
Plot Keywords: documentary, experimental, short film, avant-garde, surreal, minimalist, visual poetry ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: From an anchorwoman to a homeless man, actress Cate Blanchett portrays 13 distinct characters in vignettes that incorporate timeless manifestos.
Plot Keywords: art, experimental, monologue, postmodern, philosophy, political, cultural ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Plot Keywords: documentary, experimental film, visual poetry, globalization, social change, modernity, urban life ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Bunuel's first feature has more of a plot than Un Chien Andalou (1929), but it's still a pure Surrealist film, so this is only a vague outline. A man and a woman are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
Plot Keywords: surrealism, french cinema, black comedy, social criticism, taboo, absurdism, avant-garde ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Documentary on director Kim Ki-Duk looking back at his film career.
Plot Keywords: documentary, korean cinema, independent film, autobiographical, experimental film, psychological exploration, loneliness ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: From red light districts to lush rain-forests, 'Black Mother' is a loving and lyrical ode to Jamaica and its people, a visual poem that is at once deeply felt love letter and ecstatic street-corner prayer.
Plot Keywords: documentary, experimental film, culture, religion, motherhood, identity, history ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games held in Munich. The segments include Claude Lelouch's take on Olympic losers and their struggle to remain dignified even in the face of bitter disappointment and defeat; Mai Zetterling's dramatic exploration of the world of weightlifting; and Michael Pfleghar's piece on young Russian gymnast Ludmilla Tourischev's majestic performance on the uneven bars.
Plot Keywords: documentary, olympics, sports, anthology, sportsmanship, competition, historical record ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Claudia and Chris share a passion for interpreting the meaning of symbols. After she learns that she has cancer of the larynx, Claudia decides to spend her last days in Venice. Her obsession with Bosch leads the two to make a garden's visions real through sensual close-ups.
Plot Keywords: fantasy, surreal, experimental film, art film, symbolism, dreamlike, visual poetry ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Running in from seemingly nowhere, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith & Peter Tork - better known collectively as The Monkees - disrupt a bridge opening ceremony. From where and why did they come to disrupt the proceedings? They were filming a series of vignettes in several different genres, including a wild west sequence, a desert war sequence, a Confederate war sequence, and a science fiction sequence. They disagree with much of what is happening around them, and try to figure out how to escape the oppression they feel - symbolized by a big black box in which they are seemingly imprisoned - by the forces around. That oppression is often shown in the form of "The Big Victor Mature".—Huggo
Plot Keywords: psychedelic, experimental, musical, comedy, surreal, counterculture, metafilm ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In this cinematic concert, mesmerizing images are plucked from everyday reality, then visually altered with state-of-the-art digital techniques. The result is a chronicle of the shift from a world organized by the principles of nature to one dominated by technology, the synthetic and the virtual. Extremes of intimacy and spectacle, tragedy and hope fuse in a tidal wave of visuals and music, giving rise to a unique, artistic experience that reflects the vision of a brave new globalized world.—Sujit R. Varma
Plot Keywords: experimental film, documentary, globalization, technology, soundtrack, passage of time, social commentary ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto.
Plot Keywords: experimental film, art film, japanese culture, ritual, symbolism, surrealism, ocean ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) was possibly the most important filmmaker of the avant-garde and one of the greatest artists of our time. From 1952, at the age of nineteen, until his death, Brakhage created more than 400 films, ranging in length from several seconds to several hours, constantly and consistently redefining cinematic art. The film BRAKHAGE explores the depth and breadth of the filmmaker's genius, the exquisite splendor of his films, his magic personal charm, his aesthetic fellow travelers and the influence his work has had on generations of other creators. While touching on significant moments in Brakhage's biography, the film celebrates Brakhage's visionary genius and explores the extraordinary artistic possibilities of cinema, a medium mostly known only for its commercial applications in the form of narratives, cartoons, documentaries and advertising. BRAKHAGE combines excerpts from Brakhage's films and films of other avant-garde filmmakers (George Kuchar, Jonas Mekas, Willie Varela, Bruce Elder and others); interviews with Brakhage, his friends, family, colleagues and critics; archival footage of Brakhage spanning the past thirty-five years; and location shooting in Colorado and New York. BRAKHAGE was directed by Jim Shedden, produced by Alexa-Frances Shaw and executive produced by Ron Mann. An original score was composed for the film by long-time Brakhage associate and noted avant-garde composer James Tenney.
Plot Keywords: experimental film, visual art, no dialogue, dream logic, non-narrative ...
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