Movies: Bbc Arena

Based on the true story of Valerie Solanas who was a 1960s radical preaching hatred toward men in her "Scum" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he continued to ignore her. So she shot him. This is...

A documentary about and an interview with Hollywood actress Bette Davis about her life and career from the late 1920s to the 1980s on stage and mostly before the camera....

A group of gay friends try to live with dignity and self-respect while events build to the opening battle in the major gay rights movement....

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's ...

Inspired by the book of the same name, film-maker James Marsh relays a tale of tragedy, murder and mayhem that erupted behind the respectable facade of Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the 19th century....

Two-part Arena special celebrating the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's best-loved public figures. Lord Attenborough's film CV as actor stretches from Brighton Rock to Jurassic Park, while as director he has been responsible for Oh! ...

This British documentary is more than an analysis of John Lennon's song "Imagine" and its ramifications for the world we live in, it's a tentative documentary on John (and Yoko)'s art and songs' influence on a lot of people in all parts of the world ...

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 mater...

Documentary on Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog from the BBC Arena series....

Phil Spector is a pioneer of American music, a legendary producer to John Lennon and Tina Turner, and, as of April 13th 2009, a convicted murderer. Yet the Spector who appears in Vikram Jayanti's documentary is not the severe, outlandishly coiffed de...

Bernhard, an actress-comedienne whose brassy humor attracts a cult-like following, here offers a semiconfessional view of her life's landscape. Childhood memories of her father, a doctor, and her mother, an artist, are warmly rendered in scenes of th...

A profile of British painter, Francis Bacon....

Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, c...

For the first time since his release from 27 years of imprisonment Nelson Mandela opens up about his life and the turbulent times he's faced in this momentous, in-depth and revealing interview with Arthur Miller. From the intimate setting at his home...

Made a year after Luis Buñuel's death in 1983 this is an illuminating portrait of the surreal and visionary director, featuring clips, archival interviews, and commentary from scholars and contemporaries including Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, and...

In May 2024, Alan Bennett turned 90. This film celebrates the life and long career of one of Britain's best-loved playwrights. Part frank reflection on the ageing process, part remembrance of the joys of youth, Alan is aided by the films he has writt...

Rob Lemkin’s harrowing yet urgent documentary shines a lens on the trauma and legacy of colonialism in one of Africa’s poorest nations, Niger....

Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays....

Documentary on the fascination of jukeboxes and their owners. Made by Arena....

Told in his own words, and including many well-known personalities from Stanley Kubrick, Sophia Loren and Robert Wagner to members of the Royal Family, in particular Princess Margaret and Prince Charles, this revealing film builds a fascinating and d...