Ismail Merchant

The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

Award-winning filmmaker James Ivory recounts his life as traveler, outsider, and artist during a trip to Afghanistan in 1960.

No plot available for this movie.

Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece the Apu Trilogy is widely considered one of the most important works in cinema history. In 1992, Ray was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Oscar. But when film-preservationist David Sheppard volunteered to go to Bengal, he found the original negatives in a terrible state. “It’s hard to think of another world-class filmmaker”, says Sheppard, “whose oeuvre hangs by such a thin thread!” The Song of the Little Road tells the story of how a master’s body of work came so close to disintegration, and why Ray’s films move audiences so deeply across time and cultural boundaries. Three icons – director Martin Scorsese, producer Ismail Merchant, and music composer Ravi Shankar – illustrate stirringly what makes a masterpiece.

The filmmakers and lead actors of The Remains of the Day (1993) discuss how they came to make the film, and the subtle power of its execution.

Historical context for The Remains of the Day.

A documentary about making The Remains of the Day.

His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult to adjust to life in a country where the aristocracy subjugates an increasingly restless peasantry. In Paris, he becomes smitten with cultured artist Maria Cosway, but, when his daughter visits from Virginia accompanied by her attractive slave, Sally Hemings, Jefferson's attentions are diverted.

Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion while hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rent, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.

Documentary about Merchant Ivory Productions, including interviews with the principals of the film production company and actors which have appeared in their films.