Mento was the first national music of Jamaica and it begat Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae and the Dancehall music of today. No film has been made wholly about the subject and it is a little known genre around the world.
Weed. Marijuana. Grass. Pot. Whatever you prefer to call it, America’s relationship with cannabis is a complicated one. In his directorial debut, hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy presents an unparalleled look at the racially biased history of the war on marijuana. A range of celebrities and experts discuss the plant’s influence on music and popular culture, and the devastating impact its criminalization has had on Black and Latino communities. As more and more states join the push to legalize marijuana, this documentary dives deep into the glaring racial disparities in the growing cannabis market.
Based on footage shot in the early seventies and lost for more than thirty years, we see and hear the young Bob Marley before he was famous. The film shows us the Wailers' first rehearsal, when the idea of a Jamaican supergroup was still just a dream. Sit in as the albums of Bob Marley and the Wailers brought reggae music and Rasta consciousness to the world, starting a revolution that would change rock music and contemporary culture.
A recollection of almost 40 years of career. A giant image-jukebox, from early 70s autoportrait to films for Alain Bashung / Elli Medeiros, private karaokes to “video sculptures” applied to John Travolta or Maria Callas, and much much more…
Director Mat de Koning captures the rollercoaster journey of a young Perth band, the Screwtop Detonators, their manager Dave Kavanagh (an ex-mentor to The Libertines) and their one-time roadie, Will Stoker, as they grapple with the music industry's long road to the top. Initially ambitious and eager for fame and fortune, their aspirations change over time as they individually discover what truly matters in life.
Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.
Closure is the 12th official Nine Inch Nails release. It consists of music videos interspersed with snippets from educational films, as well as exclusive footage shot by Peter Christopherson including antics by Nine Inch Nails and their tour guests: Marilyn Manson, Jim Rose Circus and David Bowie. Originally scheduled to be released on DVD in 2004, the disc appeared on internet torrent sites in 2006, including behind-the-scenes footage of the "Closer" video with commentary by Mark Romanek. Fans speculate that Reznor may have been the source of this leak.
In GLOBAL METAL, directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West's most maligned musical genre - heavy metal - has impacted the world's cultures beyond Europe and North America. The film follows metal fan and anthropologist Sam Dunn on a whirlwind journey through Asia, South America and the Middle East as he explores the underbelly of the world's emerging extreme music scenes; from Indonesian death metal to Chinese black metal to Iranian thrash metal. GLOBAL METAL reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren't just absorbing metal from the West - they're transforming it - creating a new form of cultural expression in societies dominated by conflict, corruption and mass-consumerism.
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.
Sales of organic products have increased tenfold in 20 years. In 2020, the market will have exceeded 13 billion euros in sales. The heavyweights of the food industry are surfing on this consumer craze for healthy food by offering more and more "green" products. But organic does not necessarily mean nutritionally balanced.
A concert movie on an unprecedented scale, Rattle And Hum captures U2 - on and off the stage - during their triumphant Joshua Tree tour. From the giant technicolour stadium celebrations to the black-and-white intensity of the indoor shows, this is U2 at their best. Follow the group across America, exploring new influences, playing with the legendary B.B. King from Dublin to Graceland.
A documentary that explores the challenges that a life in music can bring.
Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.
In the spring of 2017, film-makers Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon were invited to make a contemporaneous portrait of The Sai Anantam Ashram, the multi-ethnic and multi-generational spiritual community founded in 1983 by Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, which included speaking with some of the community's elders, as well as Alice's sister, singer Marilyn McLeod.
Lebanon today. The traces of the civil war are all too tangible as government corruption becomes unbearable. In a country where conflict and peace are caught in an endless cycle, musicians from different backgrounds pool their talents to create an underground music scene. Each evokes his or her representation of Lebanon: its shifting geographical, political, historical and social borders, its painful passage through conflict and instability. A touching portrait of a young generation trying to build an oasis in a hostile environment where the forces of destruction continue to wreak havoc.
Wanda Horowitz reminisces about her husband, the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz, with clips from his television appearances.
Created from backstage material filmed during Queen’s 1977 USA News of the World tour, this documentary was included in a special box set of Queen's landmark 1977 album News of the World, marking the 40th anniversary of the original release.
"Beyoncé: Year of 4" documents the year-long personal and artistic journey that inspired Beyoncé's fourth solo album, 4.
Billy Yeager is a musician, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, activist, humanitarian and an all around living breathing performance artist. He has written and recorded over 2600 songs, produced 6 films and been discovered many times by several well known artists, yet most of his works are extremely hard to find and are considered to be very valuable by serious collectors, but if it can't change the world, the artist wants no part of it. Turning his back on the music and film industries, Yeager retreats into the desert to make his films and create his music.
The educational documentary film Music of Yarsan: A Living Tradition is an investigation into the variety of muscial practices in the life of the Kurdish Ahl-e Haqq people of the Guran region, in the Kermanshah province of Iran.
Kawaii sensation Babymetal played their first live show of 2016 on February 18 at the NHK Broadcasting Center in Tokyo. This was a secret show for THE ONE Members Project only. 300 fans selected by lottery attended. The NHK Special includes an interview and discusses the history of the group. It was broadcast on April 4 in Japan.