Les Blank’s 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams observes the gruelling, near-failed production of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian jungle. Shot on location over several months, it captures exhaustion, ambition, and the jungle’s indifference — without narration, music, or editorial judgement. It remains a landmark of observational documentary craft.
A violent East London gang enforcer, on the run after killing a rival, hides in the Notting Hill home of a reclusive rock star. What follows is less a thriller than a psychological and formal investigation into performance, identity, and the porous line between role and self. Directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, and starring James Fox and Mick Jagger, the 1970 British film uses fractured editing, dissonant sound, and deliberate ambiguity to unsettle narrative expectation and challenge assumptions about masculinity, class, and authenticity.