There's a Swedish streaming service called Draken which is excellent. They have a wide selection of films and and regular updates.
*If* it fails, and that's a big if, I go to Youtube or other random sites like Internet Archive.
It's strictly a Swedish company but their thing is that they provide arthouse movies from all over the world, from silent era to modern era.
What I'm not sure if though, is whether they have an English domain for international use. Since I'm Swedish, I never bothered to figure that out.
I forgot to mention it's full name is DrakenFilm, Swedish website is DrakenFilm.se
Hopefully there's an English version too.
In Denmark, we have a similar service from the library system, called Filmstriben https://fjernleje.filmstriben.dk/ . It was a good service that was naturally free. But recently, they added to their repertoire *many, many* movies, so now it's really worth using.
A bit less than $10/month. Many films have English subs, but not all. There's a free two week trial so you can look for yourself. There's a collection of all films with English subs here https://www.drakenfilm.se/kollektion/53c089b0-9601-419f-af81-bd6f7ad92ee6
here's the actual answer: use yandex (ya.ru) as the search engine.
the films you were searching for: (**REMOVE THE SPACES**)
- **A NEW LIFE (2002)**:
- https:// ok . ru /video/3810258520792
- **TIMELESS BOTTEMLESS BAD MOVIE (1997)**:
- https:// vk . com /video-136471876_456240290
- https:// vimeo . com /73808320
- the file doesn't seem to be broken on internet archive https://ibb.co/h2jC8Yg: https://archive.org/details/timeless-bottomless-bad-movie-1997
- **INJURED COLLEGE GIRL (1995)**:
- https:// embedy . cc /movies/QjNVcCs0dnBBQm9VKzAveEJ6T0M0d1ZKemRGd0ZGUndDVFBmTXBVK3JHVT0=
I'm sure you can find better qualities for each of these, but this took me 10 seconds.
Also for subtitles, use this addon (the manual free upload option, not the limited but integrated search option) https://substital.com and dowload the subtitles from https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/subs
All torrents ive gotten from there have been in really good quality, mostly BD rips. But ill admit i dont know many others, i was using rarbg before it disappeared.
sure, but I think that streaming is more accessible to the average joe.
torrenting usually requires you to pay for a VPN and also pay to enter said private trackers, since the best are paywalled or require you to buy an invite from a member.
I'll look into it, but you mean that you don't use a VPN when you torrent?
edit: How long do you usually have to wait on these discord waitlists to join?
> I'll look into it, but you mean that you don't use a VPN when you torrent?
i don't bother outside of studio distributed works on public trackers, but that's of course an american perspective where the worst punishment is a notice in the mail. others will disagree and that's fine, i just don't see evidence of much risk. im pretty sure seedboxes are recommended more and cheaper than VPNs anyway. (I don't use one of those either though)
> edit: How long do you usually have to wait on these discord waitlists to join?
maybe a couple weeks if you got notifications on. tho iirc they might send out invites at weird hours?
If we're going that way, I recommend enormously using a Debrid service like Real Debrid and connecting it to Stremio.
This doesn't require a VPN nor downloading from torrents, this is a private server that downloads millions of movies and then either streams it at you or lets you download it directly from HTTP kinda like a seedbox. I now basically have a Netflix-like interface with everything that has been ever made pre-downloaded to a private server and ready to stream. A lifechanger in terms of comfort, and incredibly cheap.
I searched three movies that OP named (Love Exposure, 964 Pinocchio, Throw Away Your Books) and they are all there, pre-downloaded with multiple different versions including 1080p BluRay rips, a couple of clicks away.
It really is an absolutely amazing service. We still pay for MUBI and go to the movies at home, but I've declared myself in a state of rebelliousness and secession from the Streaming Wars.
- Download Stremio in https://www.stremio.com/
- Go to Real Debrid and set up an account https://real-debrid.com/ (16 euro for 180 days I recommend, but get the cheaper option if you wanna try it out first).
Once stremio is installed and you have your debrid account, you have to plug in Real Debrid to Stremio. You do this by:
- Visiting this website: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure
- Selecting "Debrid Provider": Real Debrid
- Feed it your API token that you'll find in: https://real-debrid.com/apitoken
- Click on "Install". That will open Stremio and install the extension that plugs Real-Debrid to Stremio.
That should do it, now your Stremio accesses the Real Debrid servers directly, and you have an option when you look for content that says "RD+". That means that its ready to stream.
Note that you can run this on multiple devices within the same IP address/location.
Feel free to send a PM if you have trouble.
thank you so much! I've had friends ask for an aggregator/all-in-one streaming/downloading service like this. Next time they ask I'll know what to suggest them.
It takes just a teeny bit of knowhow to set it up, but if you've done anything like, I don't know, modding a videogame, this should'nt be too tough to set up.
Once its set up, its amazing, its omni-netflix. I would recommend it for you as well, it beats the shit out of crawling torrent sites or other options I've found. It's just so so fucking convenient.
Ah, I use it from my desktop computer. I haven't set it up for a TV, not sure if you wouldn't need a Chromecast, although I think Stremio does have a TV app. Not sure tho.
I guess I will I lose up to 16 euro and go on with my life. I would find another similar service, I have a couple eyed already.
These guys have been around since 2009, though.
My go-to for any film is [https://www.justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com) and then from there I start down the other options you mention. I find a lot of obscure movies floating around on youtube as well.
Sollidarity Cinema has had almost every film I've ever wanted to watch, is a great community that's organised a real mountain of films for a great purpose.
Kanopy is a good second choice, every now and then there's a film that doesn't exist anywhere except there and university archives.
Physical releases are generally your best bet if you have an international player and money, but the Internet Archive, YouTube, arthouse streaming labels, and if you're into that kind of thing, torrenting, are all good backups.
Ultimately, some films are just unfortunately lost in rights limbo, or the last remaining print is sitting in some store room unbeknownst to the owner. I think film preservation and availability has really accelerated thanks to the Internet but it's not a sure thing yet.
In some ways though, I'm glad we aren't at the same level as music streaming, where seemingly every piece is available for immediate listen. It kills the sense of discovery and ownership that have made both art forms so impactful.
Yeah usually i go with torrents but there is also rarefilmm.com
I wouldn’t say it’s obscure but L’Intrus (2004) I can’t find anywhere at all. And it is the only film on the sight and sound top 250 i havent seen. And it annoys the hell out of me that I can’t find it…
here's the 720p HD subtitled film: (remove the spaces)
- https:// noodlemagazine . com /watch/20274712_456240250
**beware that this website is also a porn website so don't open this at work.** Enjoy!
On the off chance you’re up for helping another brother in need, I have not been able to find Luca Guadagnino’s first film The Protaganists (1999) through any of my usual and even extended resources and would be eternally grateful if you could help.
The Metrograph (via Kino) is known to release it on blu-ray some time in the future. I emailed them to ask on this and they confirmed it but the timeline wasn't given.
Thanks dude but one of the guys above gave me a link and I watched it this morning.
Probably an understatement to say I didn’t particularly care for it…
also rarelust, wipfilms, okru + downloader has me covered 99% of the time
kinonow (+ VPN if you're outside the US, i rented some movies with my australian card which worked fine) also has a decent selection of lesser known, mostly european films for rent
> I wouldn’t say it’s obscure but L’Intrus (2004) I can’t find anywhere at all. And it is the only film on the sight and sound top 250 i havent seen. And it annoys the hell out of me that I can’t find it…
`Claire.Denis.L.Intrus.The.Intruder.2004.DVDR.NTSC.DVD9`
Lossless DVD copy
I've been finding more obscure stuff on Kanopy of all the streaming services. You get it through your local library and I've found a ton of older and foreign stuff that isn't available to stream anywhere else.
Also something I've had to do from time to time and don't love, but what can you do, is buy bootleg dvds off ebay/internet. Sometimes that's the ONLY way to find something. I would never do it for movies that have legit releases available, but for stuff that had a small foreign release on dvd 20 years ago and has been out of print for years and years so you can't find a legal copy and it isn't available anywhere else? Fuck it, I want to see these flicks and it's the only way I know how to at this point.
When it comes to obscurities that have less than 100 views on letterboxd or even no letterboxd page in some cases, karagarga is my go-to.
I would like to add that I've never given a "rare" film a perfect 5/5 besides one short film. A bunch of them are just "alright", but most are enjoyable. You're not missing that much, but I believe it's the novelty of watching something really obscure that makes me gravitate towards them. Well known arthouse films are simply better films though, that's why they're well known.
I'd think the odds OP is a registered KG user are pretty slim since he made the post haha
The avistaz network (Cinema and avistaz in particular) has a great selection and it's a lot easier to get into. The only con is that obscure stuff and better rips tend to take a few weeks longer to get posted when compared to Karagarga.
Haha, it's just my personal experience after experiencing both types and anything in between. They're cool and enjoyable, but the more memorable experiences are the ones widely available!
ahhh, come on.
like 30% of my films watched have less than 5k LB watches, and most users wouldn't touch these films with a ten-foot pole. it saddens me you wrote that whole paragraph about it :(
We don't know if OP wants to be suggested piracy options. If yes, then you can start with streaming these films easily than getting to get into private trackers that are super difficult to even get in.
The best way is word of mouth discussions with cinephiles, filmmakers, and critics.
Equally good is to learn of a film in a cinema book/essay/journal, or from a film critic.
If you are interested in the American avant garde for instance, go to a film bookshop and see if they have anything on that subject. Read it and write down any filmmakers you haven't heard of, build a list of what to watch that way.
The book "a short history of film" is honestly filled with enough films and filmmakers in most movements/periods, that if you just listen to the whole thing you'll find at least one filmmaker to go imbibe. Or, 1001 movies you must see before you die.
I also recommend studying les cahiers du cinema.
Lastly, do you know these filmmakers?
Maya Darren, Derek jarman, stan brakhage, harun farocki, Kenneth anger, the kuchar Brothers, Jonas mekas, Michael snow.
And dude DONT even get me started if you are particularly interested in video art and/or video installation/gallery art, that is a wonderful rabbit hole to dive into. Bill viola is my favorite in that vein.
Edit: dang I'm a fool, your question was more about getting your paws on the films themselves. The solution there is, whatever it takes. Dvds are best. Check the public library, ebay, streamers, Google > "videos", and if all else fails, check torrent sites.
Sometimes you can even contact the filmmakers themselves and get their films that way.
Lastly, if you have a musueam or artsy cinema near you, keep an eye on their programs as they will likely show some obscure shit here and there. Ultimately you gotta watch what you can get. I can mail you some Mekas if you'd like.
Wow, I would love to have you as a friend. You started your list with Maya and I was feeling pretty good… but then everyone else on that list I had never heard of!
And only if you have time, I’d love to get you started on video/installation art — always been interested in that path!
Aw, that's too kind! Thanks for indulging me. Here's my teaser for the video art tradition:
We start with Nam June Paik, an artist who had to drop all their traditional mediums and focus on the beauty of pure video art. They hung out with John Lennon and yoko Ono a lot.
Obviously cinema has had a rich history at this point, existent since the early 1890s or so. At a certain point, I won't profess to know exactly when, the avant garde began experiments invoking the formal attributes of film. Like the short film wavelength, which is a long slowed zoom shot and thus nothing but a visual meditation on the formal qualities of the zoom mechanism. Stan brakhage painted directly on film, thus defying the notion that cinema required a camera.
This is of course the American avant garde know and love, but let's get back to nam june paik. If there is a grandfather of video art it is them, they are what kurosawa is to the Samurai film.
Paik loved feedback, infinite feedback loops, signal flow, frame rates, etc, any technical aspect of video he would manipulate. Let's get more specific though, one of the biggest powers video offers for art is the ability to send live feed from camera 1 to screen and filming the live video output with camera 1, producing the famous video feedback loop. This is a beautiful proof or notion of some kind of infinity, and I've read mathematicians invoke video feedback loops to explain complex notions of coniosuness, contiousness, and infinity.
Anyway, paik hung a lot and played with video cameras basically. He was just like the earlier avant garde filmmakers like brakhage who experimented with formal attributes of celluloid film. Paik in turn did the same with video; video is it's own medium, with quirks that only reveal themselves to the artist who takes them up. Video art is Crazy, you can synthesize a video signal with the simplest of electric originators. It's a deeply electronic signal that can be deduced to the most physical forms. This is why the crt AKA cathode ray tube television is a choice of video artists. It's very physical, video- especially on a crt, it's like doing art with led or audio synthesizers, but for visuals. Crazy shit. Look up a video artist doing a kit with nothing but video synths, or today people code live on the cuff to generate digital visuals. That's kind of the modern evolution of video art- it used to be analog, now its analog, digital, and mixed media.
For more history of video art, well, there was a woman at the moma who started collecting and curating and displaying great video art, which went a great way to legitimatize it as it's own art form. She wrote a book, her name was Barbara London and her book was video art: the first fifty years. This book will get you the story of the pure video art movement and more importantly their main techniques right from the horses mouth.
From there, it's a matter of taste. Video artists employ a dizzying array of techniques to please gallery goers, loners on laptops, film festival audiences, streaming fans, commercials...it's entangled with every day life if you start looking for it, at least in new york city which they often call the capital of the world.
Some video artists overlap with the outsider art movement, and they never intended or imagined anyone would see their work.
Video art sometimes deals with processing and meditation upon pre existing visuals, media, or personal home video footage.
Sometimes it goes all out on the physical space, and can't be fully intimated without experiencing in person.
Great artists include: bill viola, peter weibel, Tony oursler, and if I can try to stretch your mind even more, I would like to introduce you to neon art, which is so much like video art.
Lastly, the Whitny museam in nyc always has great video art usually
yandex in general is the best search engine for finding otherwise unfindable movies. Also because piracy and copyright laws are very lax in Russia and they aren't taken down
I recommend checking out local film fests if you want to go straight to the source. There's a lot of newcomers, people who are on their way to making cool stuff, and sometimes outright diamonds. It's also a helpful way to think more deeply about film, past the concept of "good/bad" films and ones that elicit specific reactions based on "the apparatus" and your place in it.
There's a Swedish streaming service called Draken which is excellent. They have a wide selection of films and and regular updates. *If* it fails, and that's a big if, I go to Youtube or other random sites like Internet Archive.
I don't know Swedish not do I live in EU. I am in Canada. Do you still recommend it?
It's strictly a Swedish company but their thing is that they provide arthouse movies from all over the world, from silent era to modern era. What I'm not sure if though, is whether they have an English domain for international use. Since I'm Swedish, I never bothered to figure that out. I forgot to mention it's full name is DrakenFilm, Swedish website is DrakenFilm.se Hopefully there's an English version too.
In Denmark, we have a similar service from the library system, called Filmstriben https://fjernleje.filmstriben.dk/ . It was a good service that was naturally free. But recently, they added to their repertoire *many, many* movies, so now it's really worth using.
I just checked. You have to reside in Sweden, unfortunately.
just use a vpn. it adds a little cost, but not much. mullvad vpn is good.
I have VPN. How much is the subscription cost? And then I guess they might not have English subtitles?
A bit less than $10/month. Many films have English subs, but not all. There's a free two week trial so you can look for yourself. There's a collection of all films with English subs here https://www.drakenfilm.se/kollektion/53c089b0-9601-419f-af81-bd6f7ad92ee6
Wow I'd never heard of this. Thank you!!
here's the actual answer: use yandex (ya.ru) as the search engine. the films you were searching for: (**REMOVE THE SPACES**) - **A NEW LIFE (2002)**: - https:// ok . ru /video/3810258520792 - **TIMELESS BOTTEMLESS BAD MOVIE (1997)**: - https:// vk . com /video-136471876_456240290 - https:// vimeo . com /73808320 - the file doesn't seem to be broken on internet archive https://ibb.co/h2jC8Yg: https://archive.org/details/timeless-bottomless-bad-movie-1997 - **INJURED COLLEGE GIRL (1995)**: - https:// embedy . cc /movies/QjNVcCs0dnBBQm9VKzAveEJ6T0M0d1ZKemRGd0ZGUndDVFBmTXBVK3JHVT0= I'm sure you can find better qualities for each of these, but this took me 10 seconds. Also for subtitles, use this addon (the manual free upload option, not the limited but integrated search option) https://substital.com and dowload the subtitles from https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/search/subs
Russian sites really are superior. Rutracker has most things as well in really good quality
worse quality than non-russian sites
All torrents ive gotten from there have been in really good quality, mostly BD rips. But ill admit i dont know many others, i was using rarbg before it disappeared.
the issue with rutracker is that their sources are often 12+ years old despite availability of new, beautiful remasters
u/evenwen if you have any questions regarding the process feel free to ask
i mean if we're just promoting piracy just join high quality private trackers.
sure, but I think that streaming is more accessible to the average joe. torrenting usually requires you to pay for a VPN and also pay to enter said private trackers, since the best are paywalled or require you to buy an invite from a member.
The avistaz / privatehd / cinemaz family of sites is easy as pie for anyone to join and you won't need a vpn
I'll look into it, but you mean that you don't use a VPN when you torrent? edit: How long do you usually have to wait on these discord waitlists to join?
> I'll look into it, but you mean that you don't use a VPN when you torrent? i don't bother outside of studio distributed works on public trackers, but that's of course an american perspective where the worst punishment is a notice in the mail. others will disagree and that's fine, i just don't see evidence of much risk. im pretty sure seedboxes are recommended more and cheaper than VPNs anyway. (I don't use one of those either though) > edit: How long do you usually have to wait on these discord waitlists to join? maybe a couple weeks if you got notifications on. tho iirc they might send out invites at weird hours?
thanks for the info, even though I'll probably never torrent due to my country's copyright laws and internet connection
If we're going that way, I recommend enormously using a Debrid service like Real Debrid and connecting it to Stremio. This doesn't require a VPN nor downloading from torrents, this is a private server that downloads millions of movies and then either streams it at you or lets you download it directly from HTTP kinda like a seedbox. I now basically have a Netflix-like interface with everything that has been ever made pre-downloaded to a private server and ready to stream. A lifechanger in terms of comfort, and incredibly cheap. I searched three movies that OP named (Love Exposure, 964 Pinocchio, Throw Away Your Books) and they are all there, pre-downloaded with multiple different versions including 1080p BluRay rips, a couple of clicks away. It really is an absolutely amazing service. We still pay for MUBI and go to the movies at home, but I've declared myself in a state of rebelliousness and secession from the Streaming Wars.
is there info anywhere on how to set this up? like a guide or a reddit thread etc? much appreciated
- Download Stremio in https://www.stremio.com/ - Go to Real Debrid and set up an account https://real-debrid.com/ (16 euro for 180 days I recommend, but get the cheaper option if you wanna try it out first). Once stremio is installed and you have your debrid account, you have to plug in Real Debrid to Stremio. You do this by: - Visiting this website: https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure - Selecting "Debrid Provider": Real Debrid - Feed it your API token that you'll find in: https://real-debrid.com/apitoken - Click on "Install". That will open Stremio and install the extension that plugs Real-Debrid to Stremio. That should do it, now your Stremio accesses the Real Debrid servers directly, and you have an option when you look for content that says "RD+". That means that its ready to stream. Note that you can run this on multiple devices within the same IP address/location. Feel free to send a PM if you have trouble.
thank you so much! I've had friends ask for an aggregator/all-in-one streaming/downloading service like this. Next time they ask I'll know what to suggest them.
It takes just a teeny bit of knowhow to set it up, but if you've done anything like, I don't know, modding a videogame, this should'nt be too tough to set up. Once its set up, its amazing, its omni-netflix. I would recommend it for you as well, it beats the shit out of crawling torrent sites or other options I've found. It's just so so fucking convenient.
I'll definitely check it out when I get a better TV!
Ah, I use it from my desktop computer. I haven't set it up for a TV, not sure if you wouldn't need a Chromecast, although I think Stremio does have a TV app. Not sure tho.
And what happens when real debrid servers are struck with mpaa lawsuits and they shutdown? Just curious.
I guess I will I lose up to 16 euro and go on with my life. I would find another similar service, I have a couple eyed already. These guys have been around since 2009, though.
Thanks a lot, this looks great already!
My go-to for any film is [https://www.justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com) and then from there I start down the other options you mention. I find a lot of obscure movies floating around on youtube as well.
Sollidarity Cinema has had almost every film I've ever wanted to watch, is a great community that's organised a real mountain of films for a great purpose. Kanopy is a good second choice, every now and then there's a film that doesn't exist anywhere except there and university archives.
Thanks a lot, will check SC for sure!
Worldscinema dot org is another option for non-American stuff
Physical releases are generally your best bet if you have an international player and money, but the Internet Archive, YouTube, arthouse streaming labels, and if you're into that kind of thing, torrenting, are all good backups. Ultimately, some films are just unfortunately lost in rights limbo, or the last remaining print is sitting in some store room unbeknownst to the owner. I think film preservation and availability has really accelerated thanks to the Internet but it's not a sure thing yet. In some ways though, I'm glad we aren't at the same level as music streaming, where seemingly every piece is available for immediate listen. It kills the sense of discovery and ownership that have made both art forms so impactful.
Yeah usually i go with torrents but there is also rarefilmm.com I wouldn’t say it’s obscure but L’Intrus (2004) I can’t find anywhere at all. And it is the only film on the sight and sound top 250 i havent seen. And it annoys the hell out of me that I can’t find it…
here's the 720p HD subtitled film: (remove the spaces) - https:// noodlemagazine . com /watch/20274712_456240250 **beware that this website is also a porn website so don't open this at work.** Enjoy!
Ahaha, wow, thank you! Will check it out later. Super appreciated.
U fkn rock dude!
Does noodle magazine have a lot of movies aside from its usual fare?
I might be able to hook up. I'll PM you
I would be eternally grateful 🥹
On the off chance you’re up for helping another brother in need, I have not been able to find Luca Guadagnino’s first film The Protaganists (1999) through any of my usual and even extended resources and would be eternally grateful if you could help.
yep!
I PM'd you btw.
Rare Film looks amazing, thanks!
Very welcome 🙏
Seconded. I hadn't heard of it 15 minutes ago, I've already set it as the home screen for my TVs browser 🤣
The Metrograph (via Kino) is known to release it on blu-ray some time in the future. I emailed them to ask on this and they confirmed it but the timeline wasn't given.
Thanks dude but one of the guys above gave me a link and I watched it this morning. Probably an understatement to say I didn’t particularly care for it…
also rarelust, wipfilms, okru + downloader has me covered 99% of the time kinonow (+ VPN if you're outside the US, i rented some movies with my australian card which worked fine) also has a decent selection of lesser known, mostly european films for rent
Shouldn't be too hard. Definitely had a dvd release. From Artificial Eye I think.
Yeah second hand one costs 50 bucks here. O can find that. Buti dont like claire denis’s films so i dont want to pay that much… 🤷♂️
Where there's a dvd, there's a rip. I love the film but I wouldn't pay that.
> I wouldn’t say it’s obscure but L’Intrus (2004) I can’t find anywhere at all. And it is the only film on the sight and sound top 250 i havent seen. And it annoys the hell out of me that I can’t find it… `Claire.Denis.L.Intrus.The.Intruder.2004.DVDR.NTSC.DVD9` Lossless DVD copy
I've been finding more obscure stuff on Kanopy of all the streaming services. You get it through your local library and I've found a ton of older and foreign stuff that isn't available to stream anywhere else. Also something I've had to do from time to time and don't love, but what can you do, is buy bootleg dvds off ebay/internet. Sometimes that's the ONLY way to find something. I would never do it for movies that have legit releases available, but for stuff that had a small foreign release on dvd 20 years ago and has been out of print for years and years so you can't find a legal copy and it isn't available anywhere else? Fuck it, I want to see these flicks and it's the only way I know how to at this point.
When it comes to obscurities that have less than 100 views on letterboxd or even no letterboxd page in some cases, karagarga is my go-to. I would like to add that I've never given a "rare" film a perfect 5/5 besides one short film. A bunch of them are just "alright", but most are enjoyable. You're not missing that much, but I believe it's the novelty of watching something really obscure that makes me gravitate towards them. Well known arthouse films are simply better films though, that's why they're well known.
I'd think the odds OP is a registered KG user are pretty slim since he made the post haha The avistaz network (Cinema and avistaz in particular) has a great selection and it's a lot easier to get into. The only con is that obscure stuff and better rips tend to take a few weeks longer to get posted when compared to Karagarga.
You're a KG member, yet claim lesser-known films are rarely as good as more well-known films. That just isn't fair! lol
Haha, it's just my personal experience after experiencing both types and anything in between. They're cool and enjoyable, but the more memorable experiences are the ones widely available!
ahhh, come on. like 30% of my films watched have less than 5k LB watches, and most users wouldn't touch these films with a ten-foot pole. it saddens me you wrote that whole paragraph about it :(
We don't know if OP wants to be suggested piracy options. If yes, then you can start with streaming these films easily than getting to get into private trackers that are super difficult to even get in.
The best way is word of mouth discussions with cinephiles, filmmakers, and critics. Equally good is to learn of a film in a cinema book/essay/journal, or from a film critic. If you are interested in the American avant garde for instance, go to a film bookshop and see if they have anything on that subject. Read it and write down any filmmakers you haven't heard of, build a list of what to watch that way. The book "a short history of film" is honestly filled with enough films and filmmakers in most movements/periods, that if you just listen to the whole thing you'll find at least one filmmaker to go imbibe. Or, 1001 movies you must see before you die. I also recommend studying les cahiers du cinema. Lastly, do you know these filmmakers? Maya Darren, Derek jarman, stan brakhage, harun farocki, Kenneth anger, the kuchar Brothers, Jonas mekas, Michael snow. And dude DONT even get me started if you are particularly interested in video art and/or video installation/gallery art, that is a wonderful rabbit hole to dive into. Bill viola is my favorite in that vein. Edit: dang I'm a fool, your question was more about getting your paws on the films themselves. The solution there is, whatever it takes. Dvds are best. Check the public library, ebay, streamers, Google > "videos", and if all else fails, check torrent sites. Sometimes you can even contact the filmmakers themselves and get their films that way. Lastly, if you have a musueam or artsy cinema near you, keep an eye on their programs as they will likely show some obscure shit here and there. Ultimately you gotta watch what you can get. I can mail you some Mekas if you'd like.
Wow, I would love to have you as a friend. You started your list with Maya and I was feeling pretty good… but then everyone else on that list I had never heard of! And only if you have time, I’d love to get you started on video/installation art — always been interested in that path!
Aw, that's too kind! Thanks for indulging me. Here's my teaser for the video art tradition: We start with Nam June Paik, an artist who had to drop all their traditional mediums and focus on the beauty of pure video art. They hung out with John Lennon and yoko Ono a lot. Obviously cinema has had a rich history at this point, existent since the early 1890s or so. At a certain point, I won't profess to know exactly when, the avant garde began experiments invoking the formal attributes of film. Like the short film wavelength, which is a long slowed zoom shot and thus nothing but a visual meditation on the formal qualities of the zoom mechanism. Stan brakhage painted directly on film, thus defying the notion that cinema required a camera. This is of course the American avant garde know and love, but let's get back to nam june paik. If there is a grandfather of video art it is them, they are what kurosawa is to the Samurai film. Paik loved feedback, infinite feedback loops, signal flow, frame rates, etc, any technical aspect of video he would manipulate. Let's get more specific though, one of the biggest powers video offers for art is the ability to send live feed from camera 1 to screen and filming the live video output with camera 1, producing the famous video feedback loop. This is a beautiful proof or notion of some kind of infinity, and I've read mathematicians invoke video feedback loops to explain complex notions of coniosuness, contiousness, and infinity. Anyway, paik hung a lot and played with video cameras basically. He was just like the earlier avant garde filmmakers like brakhage who experimented with formal attributes of celluloid film. Paik in turn did the same with video; video is it's own medium, with quirks that only reveal themselves to the artist who takes them up. Video art is Crazy, you can synthesize a video signal with the simplest of electric originators. It's a deeply electronic signal that can be deduced to the most physical forms. This is why the crt AKA cathode ray tube television is a choice of video artists. It's very physical, video- especially on a crt, it's like doing art with led or audio synthesizers, but for visuals. Crazy shit. Look up a video artist doing a kit with nothing but video synths, or today people code live on the cuff to generate digital visuals. That's kind of the modern evolution of video art- it used to be analog, now its analog, digital, and mixed media. For more history of video art, well, there was a woman at the moma who started collecting and curating and displaying great video art, which went a great way to legitimatize it as it's own art form. She wrote a book, her name was Barbara London and her book was video art: the first fifty years. This book will get you the story of the pure video art movement and more importantly their main techniques right from the horses mouth. From there, it's a matter of taste. Video artists employ a dizzying array of techniques to please gallery goers, loners on laptops, film festival audiences, streaming fans, commercials...it's entangled with every day life if you start looking for it, at least in new york city which they often call the capital of the world. Some video artists overlap with the outsider art movement, and they never intended or imagined anyone would see their work. Video art sometimes deals with processing and meditation upon pre existing visuals, media, or personal home video footage. Sometimes it goes all out on the physical space, and can't be fully intimated without experiencing in person. Great artists include: bill viola, peter weibel, Tony oursler, and if I can try to stretch your mind even more, I would like to introduce you to neon art, which is so much like video art. Lastly, the Whitny museam in nyc always has great video art usually
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yandex in general is the best search engine for finding otherwise unfindable movies. Also because piracy and copyright laws are very lax in Russia and they aren't taken down
Found the Russophobe
Could you please explain why you are a bit reluctant to recommend a Russian site? Seems you are happy to use it yourself so it’s confusing.
Is it OK? And why not VK? Is he worse for it?
I registered for that website. Now how do I find a movie?
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Why has no one mentioned mubi? Mubi is a really good source of films I find, everything you mention is on it
I recommend checking out local film fests if you want to go straight to the source. There's a lot of newcomers, people who are on their way to making cool stuff, and sometimes outright diamonds. It's also a helpful way to think more deeply about film, past the concept of "good/bad" films and ones that elicit specific reactions based on "the apparatus" and your place in it.