If Not For You

Indigo Girls: It's Only Life After All(en)

An intimate look into the lives of one of the most iconic folk-rock bands in America - the Indigo Girls. With never-before-seen archival and intimate vérité the film dives into the songwriting and storytelling of the music that transformed a generation.

Wirklich alles?!(en)

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound(en)

Following folk musician Joan Baez on her extensive 2008-2009 tour, this film commemorates her career, which has spanned five decades. It includes concert and archival footage as well as interviews with such disparate colleagues, friends and admirers as Bob Dylan, Jesse Jackson and David Crosby. In addition to the music, it also touchs upon Baez's long history of global social activism.

Neil Young: Don't Be Denied(en)

This television special is a first for the reclusive singer with the BBC documentary gaining new interviews with Young, nine months apart in New York and California. The documentary also looks back over the singer's archives, with some never-seen-before material.

The Songpoet(en)

Eric Andersen is widely regarded as one of the most poetic songwriters that sprang from the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s. His artful mélange of love, despair, hope and stirred memory has earned him a passionate international following and the respect and admiration of artists ranging from Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen to Lou Reed and Wyclef Jean. The Songpoet offers a look into the mind, soul and creative process of this multifaceted, complex and singularly driven artist whose career saw great expectations waylaid by misfortune.

Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids(en)

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.

Portrait of a City(en)

A documentary portrait of Calcutta

Neil Young: Heart of Gold(en)

In March 2005, Neil Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Four days before he was scheduled for a lifesaving operation, he headed to Nashville, where he wrote and recorded the country folk album Prairie Wind with old friends and family members. After the successful operation and recovery period, he returned to Nashville that August to play at the famed Ryman Auditorium, once again gathering together friends and family for this special performance.

Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home(en)

Every American who has listened to the radio knows Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." The music of the folk singer/songwriter has been recorded by everyone from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to U2. Originally blowing out of the Dust Bowl in Depression-era America, he blended vernacular, rural music and populism to give voice to millions of downtrodden citizens. Guthrie's music was politically leftist, uniquely patriotic and always inspirational.

The Albion Band(en)

A rare 1979 BBC Arena documentary on the Albion Band, Ashley Hutchings and the development of English folk rock up to that time.

Leave the Saints Alone(it)

A journey through Italy across a century of popular religious devotion. Ancient and more recent saints, white and black Madonnas, devotional processions... are the expression of a need for the sacred that seems very distant from our way of being, but perhaps is not that distant at all. Today, especially in the South, but with some “isolated” locations in the North, popular faith is still a very real thing, which finds its finest expression in song and in music.

The World of the Seekers(en)

While flying to the first stop on their latest tour, the four members of the Australian music group The Seekers recall in flashback the origins of the group and their rise to success.

Here We Come A-Wassailing(en)

A documentary on the surviving syncretic pagan midwinter customs of the British Isles, focusing on nine ritual celebrations ranging from the Moray Firth in the north, the Somerset Levels in the south, Humberside in the east, and County Kerry in the west. Featuring music by the Albion Band and narration by John Tams.

Raja Rammohan Roy(en)

A documentary short about the life and work of social reformer and the Father of the Bengali Renaissance, Raja Ram Mohun Roy

Safe Journey(fr)

Latcho Drom is a vista of the music, culture, and journey of the Romani people—from their homeland of India, to Europe and Southwest Asia.

But Still We Sing(en)

This BBC Bristol documentary, Narrated by Bert Lloyd looks at the Gaelic music of the Outer Hebrides. It won the Silver Harp award. Directed by Barrie Gavin.

Bengal Shadows(en)

Documentary about Winston Churchill and the Bengal famine of 1943.

John Denver: Country Boy(en)

This BBC documentary chronicles the life of folk/soft-rock singer John Denver through his rise with The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, his subsequent stardom, his popularity decline, and his tragic death at age 53.

Blues Run the Game: The Strange Tale of Jackson C. Frank(en)

The untold story of Jackson C Frank, an American folk legend. His tragic life produced some of the most timeless folk music of our time.

I Want to Destroy America(en)

A documentary film by Peter I. Chang which traces the life of the Japanese musician Hisao Shinagawa through his early years as a folk singer in Tokyo to his current occupation as a street performer in Los Angeles.