Presented by the late literary critic Edward Said, this 1992 documentary reflects on director Gillo Pontecorvo’s youth and politics in an attempt to understand his approach to filmmaking.

In this 2004 documentary, Gillo Pontecorvo biographer Irene Bignardi, Pontecorvo, producer and actor Saadi Yacef, cinematographer Marcello Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, actor Jean Martin, editor Mario Morra, and film critic Tullio Kezich recall the development, production, and controversial re...

Observations on Film Art No. 36

Ennio Morricone is perhaps the preeminent film composer of the last half century, an enormously influential artist whose iconic melodies and imaginative orchestrations grace some of the greatest films ever made. In this edition of Observations on Film Art, Profess...

In this short introduction, the great Ennio Morricone, who scored over five-hundred films during his extraordinary career, discusses the role of the composer, how he came to work with Gillo Pontecorvo on THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, and the creation of the signature sounds for Pier Paolo Pasolini’s TRI...

In this collection of interviews conducted in 2004, directors Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone discuss the influence, style, and importance of Gillo Pontecorvo’s film THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS.

Made just three years after the end of the French-Algerian War (1954–1962), Gillo Pontecorvo’s THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS instantly ignited discussions of this complex historical period. Using the film as a point of reference, this 2004 documentary attempts to reconstruct the Algerian experience of th...

This is an excerpt from “États d’armes,” the third part of Patrick Rotman’s 2002 documentary L’ENNEMI INTIME, which focuses on the tragedies of the French-Algerian War. Here, Rotman combines new interviews with members of the French military involved in the conflict and archival footage to explor...

In 2004, ABC News’ Christopher Isham discusses the contemporary political relevance of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS with Richard A. Clarke, former national coordinator for security and counterterrorism and the author of “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” and Michael A. Sheehan, forme...

Twenty-seven years after THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS’ release, director Gillo Pontecorvo returned to the city to speak to Algeria’s president, Mohamed Boudiaf, and its citizens. This 1992 television program combines footage from that visit with an interview conducted with Pontecorvo following his retur...