A portrait of artist Anne Truitt made primarily in and around her studio at the Yaddo artists' community.

In der Hoffnung, einen möglichst dunklen Himmel vorzufinden, fährt der österreichische Astronom Karl nach einer Konferenz in Athen auf eine kleine griechische Insel. Während er die Sterne betrachtet, denkt der Siebzigjährige über seinen Museumsjob, seine auseinanderdriftende Ehe, die Klimakrise sowie die Errungenschaften der Wissenschaft nach. Jem Cohens essayistischer Spielfilm bewegt sich zwischen kosmischer Landschaftsbetrachtung, wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Reflexion und Charakterstudie.

A portrait of an unnamed city in Italy. Sidestepping the tourist attractions that make the city famous, the film/video posits an almost-imaginary place that draws closer to the reality of its inhabitants. Using a voiceover narration that collages direct observation, literary texts, historical fact, local folklore, and a bit of sheer fabrication, the film/video melds documentary and narrative, past and present. Visuals range from verite street footage, to formal portraits of residents, to an unusual type of time lapse cinematography that allows filming in the low-intensity light of night landscapes and museum interiors. Made in collaboration with local residents and institutions, Amber City reflects on the "in-betweeness" of places whose historical and geographical location renders their reality strangely invisible.

A collection of films from an eclectic array of contributors commissioned to raise funds for the Bristol independent cinema The Cube.

Benjamin Smoke is the highly acclaimed documentary by directors Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen on legendary underground musician Benjamin Smoke. Benjamin Smoke follows the crooked path of this fringe-dweller, speed-freak, occasional drag-queen and all-around renegade living in the hidden Atlanta neighborhood called “Cabbagetown,” and playing with his band Smoke.

In Chain, actual malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into a monolithic superlandscape that shapes and circumscribes the lives of two women. One is a businesswoman researching the international theme park industry for her company. The other is a young drifter, illegally living and occasionally working in a shopping mall.

Jem Cohen’s newest film is a personal, essayistic documentary in 15 chapters. The director composes images, sound and music with remarkable intensity, combining them into a hypnotic foray through the metropolises of our world: New York, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Porto and a city intended to remain unknown. Time passes and stands still at the same time. The camera is like a magnet for attracting and capturing the ephemeral: Flickering lights in windows, bunting and plastic bags fluttering in the wind. Snapshots of places both popular and unknown and of people, striking observations of everyday life, a tender gauging of reality, snippets of voiceovers in passing. It is life itself that the director shows us. Jem Cohen is at once a flaneur and a street smart worker, with his film an archive of his steps – a storeroom replete with dreamlike memories, including ones of Chris Marker’s Chats perchés. Cats of all shapes and sizes appear in the frame again and again. Counting is like taking a Sunday walk through spatial and temporal interstices, as touching as it is magical. berlinale 2015

this short features Elliott Smith performing 3 beautiful songs acoustically and live, "between the bars", "thirteen", and "angeles". This short is basically a montage with some "stock footage" linking the scenes together.

A career retrospective collecting the music videos of R.E.M. during their Warner Bros. years between 1988 and 2003.

Excellent cinematography is displayed in the film-Cohen utilizes various types of film, from super 8 to 16mm. Fugazi, being the greatest medley of musicians to emerge from the DC area, is depicted on screen in an 115 minute documentary. The video includes really neat live footage, as well as some bonus material.

When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks the exploration of their lives, the city and the ways art reflects and shapes the world.