Song for Hope(2022)

Sunflower(en)

In 2014, the University of Florida women's softball team was the best it's ever been - and it's all thanks to one young woman, Heather Braswell. Though not an official member of the team, Braswell, a cancer patient and huge Gator fan, was their heart and soul. Find out why the ladies still wear sunflowers on game day in their hair to this day.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: The First 50 Years(en)

Go behind the scenes with one of London's most important musical institutions.

Coeur Glacé Battant(fr)

Freefalling: A Love Story(en)

I meet Herbert in the same week I get diagnosed with cancer. We fall madly in love and plan to stay together for the rest of our lives. Three months later, he is dead. Herbert was a BASE Jumper. Leaping off a cliff with nothing but a parachute, he loses his balance, slams into the rock face and falls to his death. His loss in the midst of my chemotherapy completely throws me. Why does he gamble his life away, while I fight for mine? Desperate for answers, I return to Lauterbrunnen, the scene of the accident where Andreas, his best friend and coach, introduces me to the world of BASE. The jumpers teach me not only about the sport, but about facing fears, harnessing and controlling them. To make the most of the life we get. In the Swiss Death Valley I slowly find my way back to life.

Leonard Bernstein: A Genius Divided(de)

One of the first US born conductors to receive worldwide fame, Leonard Bernstein is an exceptional composer and certainly not only due to The West Side Story. Instead of concentrating exclusively on his most famous work, Thomas von Steinaecker sets out to paint a complete picture of Bernstein. Thus, the documentary focusses on the American’s less known later works and on three compositions in particular: his Mass, the musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the great final opera A Quiet Place. The film paints a vivid picture of the multitalented Bernstein, struggling with his role as composer and conductor, tackling the tension between successes and flops, between the politics of his time and his own liberal humanitarian claim. It looks back on Bernstein’s major achievements, such as his acclaimed conducting of Mahler and his involvement in the Young People’s Concerts, and it shows Bernstein’s work with young aspiring musicians as well as his political commitment.

High Fidelity: The Adventures of the Guarneri String Quartet(en)

Relationships, rehearsals, performances, hobbies, and family life of the members of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Locks of Love: The Kindest Cut(en)

This heartwarming film focuses on Kandice, Alexa and Amanda, three young girls who are all experiencing hair loss due to illness. Their embarrassment and insecurity have been curtailed, however, because of Locks of Love--a non-profit organization where employees painstakingly create custom-molded wigs that allow the girls to feel like themselves once again.

In Search of Beethoven(en)

In Search of Beethoven offers a comprehensive documentary about the life and works of the great composer. Over 65 performances by the world's finest musicians were recorded and 100 interviews conducted in the making of this beautifully crafted film. Eleven interviews are included in the Extras and Six complete movements.

I Will Keep My Soul(en)

I Will Keep My Soul is a gathering of encounters and observations, figured in text and image, of Helen Cammock’s experiences in New Orleans. Cammock convenes both contemporary and historical voices—from archivists, artists, writers, and musicians to the protagonists of the civil rights movement—and adds her own through poetry, ceramics, and the sound of her trumpet.

The Cheese & The Worms(ja)

A documentary that records the daily life of a mother with a limited life expectancy and a grandmother, directed by the daughter, Haruyo Kato.

Ian Dury: On My Life!(en)

Autobiographical documentary in which Ian Dury, fighting a battle with cancer to which he would later succumb, recalls his life and career. With contributions from painter Peter Blake and members of Dury's band, the Blockheads.

Conductivity(fi)

Conductivity is a film about creative leadership told through the story of three young conductors at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; I-Han Fu (Taiwan), Emilia Hoving (Finland) and James Kahane (France). When stepping on the podium, they are put under a magnifying glass. Conductor training, in essence, is leadership training. The film gives a unique viewpoint to follow the students, as this is the first film about conductor training at the Sibelius Academy.

Great Russian Composers(en)

These biographical drama documentaries explore the lives and careers of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov and Chaliapin.

Breaking Rachmaninoff(en)

A humorous documentary about the search for a great composer who managed to overcome his depression by spelling his own name wrong.

Séances(fr)

Can cancer be fought in a climate of relative serenity? Filmmaker Danic Champoux believes so, and he attempts to demonstrate it in this feature-length documentary, which shows the activities of an oncology center and the patients who regularly attend chemotherapy treatments.

A Healthy Baby Girl(en)

Filmmaker Judith Helfand turns the camera on herself to document her battle with cancer caused by DES, a drug prescribed to her mother during pregnancy. Refusing to confine the tears, rage, laughter and hope to dinner table conversations, Helfand invites us to witness her personal journey from radical hysterectomy patient to vocal opponent of toxic exposure. From her suburban home to the halls of Congress, the intensely private becomes widely public, and an American family is transformed and strengthened.

Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed(en)

Bob Ross brought joy to millions as the world's most famous art instructor. But a battle for his business empire cast a shadow over his happy trees.

Steph Jane - A Portrait Story(en)

Through an intimate conversation, Steph Jane, age 28, shares the struggles and lessons her second diagnosis of stage-4 cancer has taught her. From being genuinely present and savouring simple moments to thoughts of the future and what really matters, Steph reveals beauty and wisdom which transcend appearance and years.

Boulez at 80(en)

Pierre Boulez conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a special concert from the Barbican, as part of the composer's 80th birthday celebrations. The programme contains two compositions by Debussy; Jeux and Trois ballades de Villon, as well as Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel, featuring soprano Elizabeth Atherton as soloist.Presenter Charles Hazlewood interviews Boulez and discusses the concert with guest Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

My Dead Body(en)

The extraordinary moving story of Toni Crews, a young mum with a rare terminal cancer who charted her illness online before donating her body for medical research and public dissection.