A documentary about the legendary Jazz player Charlie (Bird) Parker.
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Charlie Parker
Crazy is the story of a legendary guitar player who emerged from Nashville in the 1950s. Blessed with incomparable, natural talent, Hank Garland quickly established his reputation as the finest sessions player in Nashville.
Elijah Jamal Balbed grew up in Washington DC in the midst of one of its most difficult eras, as its identity was being tested. As the city changed around him, his budding career as a musician exposed him to the people and music providing a voice and an outlet to the people of DC. Now tasked with preserving and sharing that tradition, Balbed reflects on balancing that responsibility with creating a musical identity of his own.
Stop for Bud is Jørgen Leth's first film and the first in his long collaboration with Ole John. […] they wanted to "blow up cinematic conventions and invent cinematic language from scratch". The jazz pianist Bud Powell moves around Copenhagen -- through King's Garden, along the quay at Kalkbrænderihavnen, across a waste dump. […] Bud is alone, accompanied only by his music. […] Image and sound are two different things -- that's Leth's and John's principle. Dexter Gordon, the narrator, tells stories about Powell's famous left hand. In an obituary for Powell, dated 3 August 1966, Leth wrote: "He quite willingly, or better still, unresistingly, mechanically, let himself be directed. The film attempts to depict his strange duality about his surroundings. His touch on the keys was like he was burning his fingers -- that's what it looked like, and that's how it sounded. But outside his playing, and often right in the middle of it, too, he was simply gone, not there."
A Film About Kids and Music is a project arising from a music class. Conducted by Joan Chamorro, the big band brings together children between 6 and 18 years old, around a classic jazz repertoire with lots of swing, which gained the public’s attention and sold-out some of the most important music auditoriums in Spain.
A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.
One of the true legends of the jazz scene, Miles Davis was not only a virtuoso on the trumpet, but also one of the founders of cool Jazz, Groove, Hard Bop, and Fusion. Available for the first time completely digitally re-recorded is Davis' live performance in Montreal with rare concert footage. This is a must-have for all jazz lovers.
BBC archivists recently unearthed a veritable treasure trove of Ella Fitzgerald shows recorded by the BBC. Featuring two shows from 1965, and a performance live at Ronnie Scott’s from 1974; this is the timeless Ella Fitzgerald.
Jack DeJohnette - Drums, Herbie Hancock - Keyboards, Dave Holland - Bass, Pat Metheney - Guitars. For the first time, these four masterful musicians come together to form a jazz group most people would never expect to see happen. Taking their collaborations around the world, they toured Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United States, performing concerts and festivals to sold out audiences and rave reviews. On June 23, 1990, this extraordinary group performed two concerts at the Mellon Jazz Festival at the Philadelphia Academy of music. Both shows were filmed and have been carefully edited to create a technically flawless video of a truly "once in a lifetime" event. All of the songs were selected with great care, as might be expected from a band of this caliber.
A documentary featuring archive footage to celebrate the 100th birth of jazz legend Louis Armstrong.
The Very Best of Diana Krall is the first greatest hits album by Canadian singer Diana Krall.
An unprecedented collection by Afrobeat legend Femi Kuti, Live At The Shrine includes both a concert film/DVD documentary and a live concert CD, singularly conveying the beauty and joy of Afrobeat music – a combustible cocktail fusing jazz, funk, and traditional African music – while also communicating it’s fascinating roots and politics which began with Femi’s father Fela Kuti, the creator and godfather of Afrobeat. Live At The Shrine takes place in the Kuti family’s hometown of Lagos at the Africa Shrine, where every Sunday Femi plays to a packed house of revelers. With music as his weapon of choice and the Africa Shrine a temple of protest song, Femi continues his father’s fight, railing against the corrupt Nigerian government and staunchly defending PanAfricanism. Capturing this experience through interviews, street scenes, and the music itself, Live At The Shrine captures the spirit, passion, and hope, of a man and a people who are fighting.
Clark Terry has been described as 'possessor of the happiest sound in jazz'. A veteran of Duke Ellington's orchestra, he began to perform as a soloist in the sixties and established a reputation as one of the great teachers of jazz music, which continues to the present day. In this performance from 1977, he is joined by an all star band including Oscar Peterson, Ronnie Scott, Niels Pedersen, Joe Pass, Bobby Durnham and Milt Jackson.
Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.
In the 1930s, jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute woman.
In the late 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber barely managed to convince legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-97) to let himself be filmed simply hanging out with friends, telling anecdotes from his life and recording jazz standards.
Danny 'Sweet Touch' Caputo is a young sax player on the verge of crowning his life's dream, to play in the festival that will send him to the top amongst the jazz greats. With just 50 minutes standing between him and his consecration, as he runs over his last simple question more to pass time than anything else. Danny tries to answer, but instead finds himself projected into another world, one populated by the sensual and very real ghosts of his past...
A chronological look at the life and career of jazz musician, composer, and performer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012 ), presented through contemporary interviews, archival footage of interviews and performances, and commentary by family, fellow musicians, and aficionados. Emphases include his mother's influence, his wife's invention of college tours, his skill as an accompanist, the great quartet (with Desmond, Morello, and Wright), his ability to find musical ideas everywhere, his orchestral compositions, his religious conversion, and his unflagging sweet nature.
Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday integrates film and video performances, recordings, words from her controversial autobiography (read by actress Ruby Dee) and interviews with artists who played with her (pianist Mal Waldron, trumpeter Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison), Milt Gabler (owner of Commodore and a producer at Decca), author Albert Murray and vocalists Carmen McRae and Annie Ross.
Mux spent many years in a coma in a clinic with a constant stream of television. But at least he survived a serious car accident! Now he has woken up, and he has a plan: during his time in hospital, he came up with the idea of a fairer society. From now on, Mux sees it as his task to save the world from neoliberalism and goes to France, the motherland of revolutions, with his long-term nurse Karsten and a self-written manifesto.
This haunting, beautifully crafted animation is set in a not-so-distant dystopia where lonely, suspicious pack dogs set the boundaries of their world amidst the remains of human presence. Within the confines of this border, the best and worst of animal behavior begin to manifest.
In a war-torn Asian land, peace lies in the hands of the Bagwun, a revered religious leader. When he is wounded in an assassination attempt, his sworn protector, Deva, sets out on a dangerous journey to find the one man who can provide the rare blood type needed to save her master's life. The potential donor is John Tremayne (Biehn), an embittered form US Special Forces operative. Together, this unlikely pair must run the gauntlet laid down by rebel leader Lompoc (Yam) and his aide Guang Di (Pei).
A deadly pathogen is unleashed and unknowingly carried to Dana Overbeck's 30th birthday party, where her estranged father, Rufus, is coming to make amends.
Monica is a rich swiss girl who is kidnapped with a university teacher. Together they discuss their future and their ideas about life.
The Jungle Fight is an action-packed love story about courage, trust, and the triumph of good over evil. David, a handsome football player, and Victoria, a talented singer, are a couple living in the United Kingdom. One day, they decide to go for a long walk in a serene jungle to enjoy nature. David drives them there and brings a black bag filled with essentials like water, fruits, and snacks. Unbeknownst to them, a gang led by Captain and his friends Billy, Rosy, and Spike is lurking in the jungle, searching for monkeys to trade for weapons. Billy mistakenly believes David's black bag contains money and informs Captain. The gang decides to follow David and Victoria. When they finally confront the couple, Captain demands the bag, but David refuses to hand it over. A fierce fight ensues, with David taking on the gang members one by one.
A casual day in Balochistan Hotel is turned upside down after a robbery and a chaotic musical night.
Interviews and overview of the making of the original 1967 James Bond film.
When a brutal daylight massacre leaves them bound and gagged in a remote, abandoned warehouse, eight young West Texans soon realize their minutes are numbered.
At the end of September 1941, Soviet artillery troops in besieged Leningrad realize that pretty soon they will fire their last shot, and after that the defense of the city will be doomed. The film is based on a true event: a small group of fearless soldiers transported a large supply of gunpowder through enemy lines to Leningrad.
In 1940, the German artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-43) undertook an extraordinary artistic adventure, during which she combined painting, text and music: in only eighteen months, she painted more than a thousand paintings. In 1943, she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp.
Testimonies of ordinary Kashmiris recount a brutal militancy and its terrible response. Dodging agents of Indian armed-forces, the filmmakers were able to obtain rare testimonials in the highest militarized zone in the world. The film tells how freedom is conceded and replaced by fear, governance by institutionalized oppression and a paradise made desolate on the watch of India : a secular, democratic republic. - Written by Anonymous
A Carioca woman is confused with a businesswoman on the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean.
A young woman, after her fiancée’s death, cannot understand her feelings about the socially-motivated engagement’s end. Parents apathetic, cousin overwhelmingly sympathetic, only a reemerging suitor’s advances allow her to understand— what she feels is grief.
Children of the Arctic is a portrait of five Native Alaskan teenagers growing up in Barrow - the northernmost community in the United States. As their climate and culture undergo profound changes, they strive to balance being modern American kids and the inheritors of an endangered way of life.
