While writing a book on the circus, author John Shawcross reflects upon the great acts he has seen over the years and the mystique of circus people. He recalls the solo trapeze act of La Mara; Tarzan, Sahib, and their elephant; Marco's sword-balancing act; an archery act in which Grey Arrow shoots an apple off the head of Zuni, his wife; the Mascott Sisters' head-to-head balancing act on a high ladder; the juggling of Rudy Cardenas; high bar specialists, the Tongas; Gunther Gebel Williams with his tiger; the flying bar act of the Laribles; Carl Sembach-Krone's trained horses; lion tamer Pablo Noel; the Gaonas and the Four Titos on the trampoline; the Flying Armors on the flying trapeze; Frieda Krone and her elephants; Fredy Knie, Sr., and his Lippizaner; the Francesco Clowns; Lilly Yokoi on her bicycle; Mendez and Seitz on the tightrope; and Pauline Schumann on the trick horse.

One man, one camera, one goal...to capture the essence of adventure. An experimental, often abstract...

This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' perf...

Madrid, Spain, 1949. The Circo Americano arrives in the city. While the big top is pitched in a vaca...

On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rig...

Footage from the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film 'The Circus'.

From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explo...

Icarus is the main character of Varekai, who falls to the ground, breaking his legs as he does. He i...

A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her ang...

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish...

From the slow waitings for opening of the big top to the loneliness in the dressing room backstage, ...

The comedian Timoteo is the leader of a cross-dresser circus that has toured through Chile for forty...
How do you deal with life's curveballs? FIGURE 3 tells trapeze artist Korri Singh Aulakh's story of ...

Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to crea...

An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and fo...

Impressionistic glimpses of London life from early morning to rush hour.

For more than a century the great colonial powers put human beings, taken by force from their native...

French filmmaker Laurent Chevallier always wanted to make a documentary on an African circus, but th...

This documentary is about the Italian small family circus, based on the old street theatre of the Co...

Aunt Neirud was always present at family gatherings. Neirud was big, strong, and worked in the circu...

In the magical world of La Nouba, dreams become reality and talent turns the ordinary into the extra...