"'This year revealed many things. I don't even know where to start.'"
A short film written by Hussain Manawer about 2020 and mental health.
Social & External
The people behind it
Hussain Manawer
Self
For Jimmy Smith, Jr., life is a daily fight just to keep hope alive. Feeding his dreams in Detroit's vibrant music scene, Jimmy wages an extraordinary personal struggle to find his own voice - and earn a place in a world where rhymes rule, legends are born and every moment… is another chance.
a visualization of a poem telling a story of making a piramid out of a mountain
Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.
Desperate for a breakthrough as she nears the big 4-0, struggling New York City playwright Radha finds inspiration by reinventing herself as a rapper.
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
Freewheeling, motorcycle-riding musician Johnny rolls into a small town with his band, and meets Kathy, an honor student who catches his eye. Meanwhile, Kathy's father, after being in the Witness Protection Program, is finally tracked down by two corrupt cops he escaped from years ago, who want the money he owes them.
Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.
Fred, a successful rockstar going through a difficult time, blows a tire on the road. In front of him, a poster reminds him of a turning point in his youth: the day he could have chosen a different path. Suddenly, he slips into an imagined life — one where he pursued dance, met Julie, discovered tango, and faced the tension it brought to his band. Between regrets, dreams, and confrontations, Fred realizes he never truly had to choose between rock and dance. J’aurais dû... is an introspective drama about missed choices, memory, and the courage to reinvent oneself.
A reluctant influencer’s first viral dance video overflows with comments from people claiming to lose their bodies after watching it.
In 2020, the World was closed. Life got cancelled. People were struggling. Here’s an emotional and entertaining true story shot live, during the pandemic, about courageous people who came together, despite the risk, to share their love with one another. The film opens in Times Square on NYE 2020. Everything seemed right with the World. Fast-forward six months into the pandemic, hundreds of artists from all different performance art genres are invited to come together over the course of several consecutive days, culminating in a group costume parade event on 10/10/2020 to witness the only live performances happening ANYWHERE. The goal was to lift each other's spirits during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. There were over a dozen genres represented including acrobatics, live music, magic, dance, and even a wedding. Dozens of unscripted live interviews were recorded and the event proved a huge success. The film captures the rawness of what it was like living during this unprecedented time.
Seven minutes in length, the film features two black male hikers — one ascending a mountain, another descending — who encounter each other as their paths cross. Their balletic movements are at once lithe and halting, athletic and awkward, challenging stereotypical notions of the forever rhythmic elegance of the black body in space.
Evan Evans, the director of a ballet troupe, is rehearsing his next show in Monaco, in preparation for a worldwide tour. When one member of his troupe leaves to get married, Evans imposes a regime of strict discipline on his remaining dancers. The latter get their revenge by presenting Evans’ nephew Philippe, the only male member of the group, with a baby and a note claiming he is the father…
Haunted by his recent death, a rapper’s younger brother struggles to finish his last verse.
Sixteen-year-old Brianna Jackson is a gifted rapper who plans to take the battle rap scene by storm to lift up her family and do right by the legacy of her father, a local hip-hop legend whose career was cut short by gang violence. However, when her first hit song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, she finds herself torn between the authenticity that got her this far and the false persona that the industry wants to impose on her.
An award-winning short film about a Filipino manong who left his homeland in search of a better life in America. As he grapples with his own unfulfilled dreams, he discovers a newfound purpose in teaching his grandson how to dance, leading to a transformative journey of love, loss, and self-discovery.
Frank Albertson's father wants his son to marry Lois January, but they really are only friends. Frank watches Lois doing a hooch dance at a secret tropical ritual, and he quickly changes his mind and falls for her fleshy charms.
Four days without sleep, jumping into Morpheus World is her only chance.
Exploring the obsessive, compulsive, and competitive side of the dance world, Seize deconstructs the festive, enchanting, and imperfect image of Quebec folklore. It is through the synchronicity of movement, concomitant rhythms, the appropriation of space, and tangible coincidences that the jiggers convey their passionate obsession with this art.
A man enters a passage and must choose to embrace either the persistence of time or the will of nature. Through improvised movement and choreography, this short film is a playful meditation on the body, space, and the present moment. The film was shot as part of Cinemovement Laboratory VI: Solo in Studio Plesungan, an art space run by Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo in the northern part of Solo, Indonesia.
At Mr. Rad's Warehouse, the best hip-hop crews in Los Angeles compete for money and respect. But when a suburban crew crashes the party, stealing their dancers — and their moves — two warring friends have to pull together to represent the street.
A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.
An agoraphobic hip-hop prodigy and a disgraced former music manager cross paths in Chicago’s South Side and help each other face demons of their pasts.
A teenage rapper must use his musical talent to help a friend and win the girl of his dreams while overcoming self-doubt and the expectations of his strict religious parents.
With help from his friends, a Memphis pimp in a mid-life crisis attempts to become a successful hip-hop emcee.
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.
An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
A former professional dancer volunteers to teach dance in the New York public school system and, while his background first clashes with his students' tastes, together they create a completely new style of dance. Based on the story of ballroom dancer, Pierre Dulane.
In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.
When rebellious street dancer Andie West lands at the elite Maryland School of the Arts, she finds herself fighting to fit in while also trying to hold onto her old life. When she joins forces with the school's hottest dancer, Chase Collins, to form a crew of fellow outcasts to compete in Baltimore's underground dance battle The Streets.
When Rick, a past-his-prime wedding singer, meets fading boy-band star Danny during a gig, the two bond over music and a late-night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves - even if it means risking everything he cares about.
Americans Jeff and Tommy, hunting in Scotland, stumble upon a village - Brigadoon. They soon learn that the town appears once every 100 years in order to preserve its peace and special beauty. The citizens go to bed at night and when they wake up, it's 100 years later. Tommy falls in love with a beautiful young woman, Fiona, and is torn between staying or going back to his hectic life in New York.
A tale of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion, rap music.
A brilliant but clumsy high school senior vows to get into her late father's alma mater by transforming herself and a misfit squad into dance champions.
XOXO follows six strangers whose lives collide in one frenetic, dream-chasing, hopelessly romantic night.
Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.
A progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.
Daft Punk Unchained is the first film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy Awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution revealing a duo of artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom.
Home movies, photographs, and recited poetry illustrate the life of Tupac Shakur, one of the most beloved, revolutionary, and volatile hip-hop MCs of all time.
