"Luckily my a-bomb is a bass, right?"
In 1960s France, a jazz musician becomes the subject of an impromptu documentary.
Social & External
The people behind it
Namir Smallwood
Marion Bailey
Pierre Lucas
Pierre Beloit
An original story told by Uncle Igor, a son of Russian aristocrats, and his nine year old grandson Tonda. A powerful story of complicated times around 1968, a story full of contrasts: Whether it is the relation between what Grandpa's plentiful life entails and Tonda's imminent children's presence, or between poetry and fine humor and dramatic situations of military occupation. Or generally between everyday worries of a person and the pressure of great history. On grandpa's life story, mapping a big part of the 20th century traumas, one can see how much an individual's fate depends on the movement and changes of history. And how much one can defy it and maintain inner firmness and integrity. Or perhaps just dear life.
Émile Durand, an insecticide manufacturer, is appalled to learn that his son Gérard has fallen in love with Suzy, the daughter of a travelling theatre company. Realising his father will never favour the union, Gérard joins the company on their next tour. In an attempt to heal the rift, Durand’s wife goes after Gérard and ends up performing in their next play…
Tirza Hightower is a jet setting executive ready to shake things up and lay low for awhile. Kam Mercer, a corporate brand strategist by day, is an artist who might have just found his way out of the corporate sector. Both at a crossroads, they meet at what seems like an inopportune time. Things could go left or right, when is the right time to take a chance on connection?
The year is 1968. Five teenage boys dream of running a movie theater in which they will not show pro-war films. One summer afternoon Giò, Delfo, Max, Ricky and Paolo learn to become trusted friends, indispensable to one another.
Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.
Maria is a young orphan who lives with her wealthy aunt. Maria sings in a cocktail bar with his friends, who form a rock band, and enjoy the night with them. One of his friends, Ernesto, is in love with her, though she does not seem to feel the same about him. In fact, multiple existential doubts and feel a strange emptiness in his life suddenly drive to enter a convent as a novice, breaking Ernestos' heart. However, with her cheerlul character, open and rebellious, not appear to conform to life in the cloister, and especially have problems with the novices director , who often punished for trying to take the right path. In the convent, which also functions as children's hospital, she meets a doctor with which it takes quite right for the contrast between his two characters, but his way with love and mutual respect.
Pink Martini's Discover the World: Live in Concert was released June 2, 2009 worldwide. The feature presentation on the DVD is a performance, previously broadcast on public television and released on DVD, of a December 31, 2005 concert at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. In this second release, a set of Polaroid photos taken by Thomas Lauderdale and a short documentary on the band's history are included.
Musician Merrilee Rush reminisces on her life in search of meaning and legacy in Adin Bayer's directorial feature length debut.
An almost irresistible attraction between the rich daughter of a factory owner and a successful popular singer will lead to marriage against her father's will. Is he the good and honest man everybody says? Will money corrupt him, too?
Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Videos is the VHS version of Faith No More greatest hits album Who Cares a Lot?. It contains almost all of the band's music videos (only "Ricochet" and "Another Body Murdered" are not included), a new live video ("This Guy's In Love With You"), and behind-the-scenes interviews and footage, most of which was taken from a previous video release, Video Croissant. It is the most complete Faith No More video release to date.
Documentary on Bayard Rustin, best-remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
Explore the vision behind the iconic American jazz record label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been encouraged to push creative boundaries in search of uncompromising expressions. Through current recording sessions, rare archive and conversations with iconic Blue Note artists, the film reveals an intimate perspective of a legacy that continues to be vital in today’s political climate.
«I often have dreams. Careless dreams. When the sun was shining. It was calm and quiet. And a peaceful sky overhead.» An experimental musical film on the theme of love. Memories of the past excite the imagination and make you evaluate what is happening in the present in a new way.
Stitched is a surreal, genre-bending short film that explores love, grief, and denial through the lens of classic television. Set within the artificial perfection of a black-and-white 1950s-style sitcom, the film follows Donna Baker—a warm, witty housewife—whose world begins to fray at the seams, both metaphorically and physically. Humans and Jim-Henson-inspired puppets coexist in this glossy, laugh-tracked reality, but beneath the surface lies a far darker story stitched together by obsession and loss.
This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.
Filmed with an intimate three camera shoot by Antonio Ferrera, a close friend of John Zorn and a long time cameraman for the documentary masters the Maysles Brothers, this concert film captures the band performing a set of Zorn's Masada compositions at their home base in the Lower East Side, Tonic, in the summer of 1999.
A drama that tells the story of the physician and politician MUDr. František Kriegel, the hero of the Prague Spring of 1968, who was arrested and kidnapped to Moscow on the night of August 21st together with five leaders of the party and the state (Dubček, Černík, Smrkovský, Špaček and Šimon). He was the only Czechoslovak politician who managed to stand up to Brezhnev in Moscow captivity, even under the threat of liquidation, and not to sign the Moscow Protovol which meant agreeing to the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.
The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
The true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize the greatest solo concert in music history: Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert.
An exploration of the life and music of Miles Davis.
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
A ferocious, bullying music teacher teaches a dedicated student.
New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music.
New York, 2010. Jeff Harris, a music journalist, sets out to uncover the truth about Francisco Tenório Júnior, a young Brazilian samba-jazz pianist who disappeared in Buenos Aires on March 18, 1976.
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.
In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.
A famous pianist at the twilight of his career meets a free-spirited music critic who soon becomes his rock as his mental state deteriorates.
A talented young singer and aspiring songwriter’s Christian faith and family ties are tested when she defies her worship-pastor father and pursues pop-music stardom in GRACE UNPLUGGED, a moving and inspiring new film that explores the true meaning of success.
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. Against insurmountable odds, Tupac rose to become a cultural icon whose career and persona both continue to grow long after his passing.
The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Joseph Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court.
Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.
Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.
Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.
Their love of dance, and their friendship, is challenged for two high school girls when one is diagnosed with cancer.
