Legendary western swing band leader Bob Wills rose up in the Great Depression to fame in Oklahoma and Texas that soon swept the entire nation. The documentary FIDDLIN MAN offers a full biography of Wills, using a vast array of on camera interviews with his friends, family, and fellow musicians. The film also draws on a wealth of rare archival footage.
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Legendary western swing band leader Bob Wills rose up in the Great Depression to fame in Oklahoma and Texas that soon swept the entire nation. The documentary FIDDLIN MAN offers a full biography of Wills, using a vast array of on camera interviews with his friends, family, and fellow musicians. The film also draws on a wealth of rare archival footage.
1993-09-11
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German-made documentary about Claude Dornier, the aeronautical engineer and founder of Dornier GmbH which built warplanes for Germany in both world wars. Dornier's descendants are interviewed.
The life and career of Marcia Nasatir, the first female president of United Artists.
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.
Californian artist David Best is pioneering a new kind of art where creative and emotive interaction is integral to his work. He is a unique visionary who has profoundly affected thousands of people. The Temple Builder explores the character and motivations of Best, within the context of his work and devoted crew and family. Focusing mainly on his temples - stunningly beautiful and intricately designed buildings, which are burned in order to salute the dead, The Temple Builder asks the question - is this life or art?
Well-educated, New Hampshire mother, Linda Bishop, was determined to stay free of the mental health system after her early release from a 3 year commitment to New Hampshire State Hospital. Instead, she became a prisoner of her own mind, a fate which she documents in one of the most evocative and chilling accounts of mental illness and of our systemic failure to protect those suffering from it.
Loïe Fuller, stage name of Marie Louise Fuller: the American actress and dancer trained in burlesque, circuses and variety shows who, in the 1890s, signed by the Folies Bergère of Paris, became a star. She was portrayed by Toulouse-Lautrec, loved by the symbolists, the inspiration for Art Nouveau, in her shows she combined dance, spirals of fabric and light, reflected from behind or from below through the glass floor that she had created. She transformed into the "Fairy of Light", was taken up (especially in her Serpentine Dance) by Georges Méliès and Alice Guy and influenced René Clair's early films.
Debate Team is a documentary exploring the weird subculture of competitive college debate. Competitors battle at 360 words per minute, hauling around mountains of evidence called "cards" and nearly every debate ends in global nuclear annihilation. In 2005, some 200 teams converged on San Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams, from Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title. What emerges is not simply the chronicle of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but a more disturbing examination into the nature of competition itself and the American fetish with championships and champions.
The forgotten story of Martin and Osa Johnson, rebel filmmakers and Kansas natives who made some of the first films in Africa in times when filming itself was more dangerous than lions or malaria.
How could this privileged man of overwhelming accomplishment and talent be suicidal? Journey through the 84 years of the 20th century that are Waite's World with his friends, coworkers, and family for a unprecedented inside look at an extraordinary talent. Heartfelt memories of Waite Hoyt who was a Major League pitcher, memeber of the '27 Yankees, teammate and friend to Babe Ruth, a Cincinnati Reds' broadcasting legend and a storytelling racconteur.
When Marvin Hamlisch passed away in August 2012 the worlds of music, theatre and cinema lost a talent the likes of which we may never see again. Seemingly destined for greatness, Hamlisch was accepted into New York’s Juilliard School as a 6-year-old musical prodigy and rapidly developed into a phenomenon. With instantly classic hits ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and scores for Hollywood films such as The Swimmer, The Sting and Sophie’s Choice and the Broadway juggernaut A Chorus Line; Hamlisch became the go-to composer for film and Broadway producers and a prominent presence on the international Concert Hall circuit. His streak was staggering, vast, unprecedented and glorious, by the age of 31 Hamlisch had won 4 Grammys, an Emmy, 3 Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer prize: success that burned so bright, it proved impossible to match.
In part of the HBO's America Undercover series, this documentary provides an insider's view of mental illness, and the use of psychotropic drugs to alleviate some of its symptoms. Tracks the odyssey of four psychiatric patients, beginning with their arrival at Massachusetts General Hospital and the affiliated Lindemann Center, revealing their personal struggles and inner strength as they enter the world of psychiatric treatment to seek relief from insanity.
The Gangbé Brass Band, a musical group from Benin, sets out to conquer Lagos, capital of Nigeria.
Sensitive lookback on Françoise Hardy's career and life.
After an absence of five years, six times Mr Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a comeback and attempts to take the World Body Building Championship for the 7th time.
Fred Deux and Cécile Reims are major twentieth century artists. Over a period of several months, Matthieu Chatellier filmed them in the privacy of their peinting and engraving work. The film focuses on a precise time in their lives: the time of ageing, dispossession and questions about the hereafter.
A journey through the life, work and many artistic miracles of the brilliant Spanish filmmaker Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010).
Benjamin and Awad run Sudan's national film archive. The two men, who have worked together for more than 40 years, are devoted to protecting their country's visual memories. Home to some 13,000 films, the archive preserves pivotal moments of Sudan's turbulent history and is one of the largest in Africa. But the archive is in a fragile state. Following years of neglect and poor storage, many film reels are turning to dust in Sudan's unforgiving tropical climate. The two friends are determined to turn it around and embark on a mission to save the old films. Will they succeed in preserving Sudan's visual history for future generations before it's too late?