Frank Zappa: New York and Elsewhere

Mr. Holland's Opus(en)

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

A Bold Voyage(en)

A tragic story of a musician taking a bold voyage in the pursuit of creation, ambition, and need. Letting life choose for him, as part of the art itself and coming to terms with his decisions.

How to Get Out of the Cage (A year with John Cage)(en)

2012 documentary on John Cage celebrating his 100th birthday in the form of a re-edit of partially unused film material shot for the film 'Time is Music’ in 1987. Includes interviews and recordings of performances with the influential zen composer.

When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album(en)

Rick Wakeman tells the story of the concept album from Woody Guthrie to the present day - a musical format usually based around a structured narrative that developed to become the equivalent of rock 'n' roll theatre.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Polka Graph(en)

Short film by Mary Ellen Bute

Six by Sondheim(en)

This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.

Expiration(sh)

Short experimental film.

Frank Zappa: The Freak Out List(en)

On the liner notes to Freak Out!, the 1967 debut album by Zappa's original band the Mothers of Invention, Zappa listed some seventy-two names on the liner notes and cited them as influences. The Freak Out List intends to explore who these artists are and what influence they had on Zappa's music. This listing encompasses all sorts of music, from classical composer Edgar Varese to R&B star Johnny "Guitar" Watson to jazzman Eric Dolphy to flamenco guitarist Sabicas. You can hear for instance, how the esoteric classical influence of Varese shaped Zappa's long-form epics like "Lumpy Gravy" or how Dolphy's instrumental prowess led Zappa to incorporate jazz-fusion on albums like Weasels Ripped My Flesh! (1970), which even included a song titled "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue." Interviews with various Zappa biographers and music historians as well as musicians George Duke, Ian Underwood, and Don Preston, all of whom played in the Mothers at one time or another, help add additional context.

Once(en)

A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.

Beth Hart - Crossroads 2011(en)

Live performance of Beth Hart at the Crossroads Festival. Recorded in Bonn, Germany on March 24th, 2011.

Night Flight: Born Again(en)

Documentary tribute to what VH1 called “the single greatest rock omnibus program ever aired” and Brooklyn Vegan named “the most consistently weird and awesome thing on cable television in the ’80s.” This ‘Best Of’ episode features some of the most memorable moments of Night Flight's near-decade long run including restored interviews and segments from Kate Bush, New Wave Theatre, David Lynch, Prince, Wendy O Williams, Divine, Billy Idol, Johnny Rotten, and much more Night Flight treasures from the archive.

August Rush(en)

Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is forced to give up her newborn but unknown to her, he grows up to become a musical genius.

Cassis(en)

"I was visiting Jerome Hill. Jerome loved France, especially Provence. He spent all his summers in Cassis. My window overlooked the sea. I sat in my little room, reading or writing, and looked at the sea. I decided to place my Bolex exactly at the angle of light as what Signac saw from his studio which was just behind where I was staying, and film the view from morning till after sunset, frame by frame. One day of the Cassis port filmed in one shot." -JM

Steve Hackett: The Total Experience Live in Liverpool(en)

Steve Hackett - The Total Experience Live in Liverpool (2016) - Acolyte to Wolflight with Genesis Classics Setlist: 01.Corycian Fire intro 02. Spectral Mornings 03. Out of the Body 04. Wolflight 05. Every Day 06. Love Song to a Vampire 07. The Wheel's Turning 08. Loving Sea 09.Jacuzzi 10. Icarus Ascending 11. Star of Sirius 12. Ace of Wands 13. A Tower Struck Down 14. Shadow of the Hierophant 15. Get'em Out by Friday 16. Can-Utility and the Coastliners 17. After the Ordeal 18. The Cinema Show 19. Aisle of Plenty 20. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 21. The Musical Box 22. Clocks 23. Firth of Fifth Recorded at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 2015-10-23

House of Ricordi(it)

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock (Part 2)(en)

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock (Part 2) is the 2nd film of the Krautrock Trilogy, and explores eminent Krautrock bands from the South of Germany. Part 2 focuses on bands from Munich, Wiesbaden, Ulm, and Heidelberg, and highlights a more recent band from Aachen.

Kosmische Brocken - Frank Zappa und die Deutschen(de)

Women Composers(de)

When Leipzig pianist Kyra Steckeweh realized that her repertoire almost exclusively consisted of music composed by men, she began searching for pieces written by female composers. Her research in archives, libraries, and publishing houses quickly brought to light a variety of remarkable piano pieces that have been buried in history and rarely performed.

Studies in Transfalumination(en)

Modified flashlights and stripped down video projectors explore the visual complexities of the ordinary world: a tunnel, a clump of grass, a discarded table, the underside of a bridge, fog, a piece of rock and a tree. All the images were shot in real time, there is no animation, but through the power of a peculiar form of illumination they become mysterious and evocative.