A fictional documentary that portrays the city of Dakar, Senegal, as we hear the conversation between a Senegalese man (the director, Djibril Diop Mambéty) and a French woman, Inge Hirschnitz. As we travel through the city in a picturesque horse drawn wagon, we chaotically rush into this and that popular neighborhood of the capital, discovering contrast after contrast: A small African community waiting at the Church's door, Muslims praying on the sidewalk, the Rococo architecture of the Government buildings, the modest stores of the craftsmen near the main market.
Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.
Moving Together is a celebratory love letter to music and dance that brims with kinetic life and energy. This documentary explores the intricate collaboration between dancers and musicians, moving seamlessly between Flamenco, Modern, and New Orleans Second Line.
It is about a music school in Philadelphia, The Paul Green School of Rock Music, run by Paul Green that teaches kids ages 9 to 17 how to play rock music and be rock stars. Paul Green teaches his students how to play music such as Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa better than anyone expects them to by using a unique style of teaching that includes getting very angry and acting childish.
In the late 1990s, some officers at Vancouver Police Department made a documentary film (THROUGH A BLUE LENS) about the everyday lives of six drug addicts in Vancouver's skid row, the Downtown Eastside. TEARS FOR APRIL reintroduces us to these six people; with footage shot over a period of nearly ten years, it continues their biography.
A recording of Horowitz's historic 1986 recital in Moscow, the program also includes highlights of his return to his native Soviet Union--his first visit in 61 years.
This is Poe and Král's first effort, shot on small-gauge stock, before their more well-known endeavor The Blank Generation (1976) came to be. A "DIY" portrait of the New York music scene, the film is a patchwork of footage of numerous rock acts performing live, at venues like Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the dive bars of Greenwich Village and, of course, CBGB.
This short film is made for the "Chopin-Pletnev" disc which marked Mikhail Pletnev's debut as a pianist on Deutsche Grammophon. In the film, we witness Mr. Pletnev's journey, starting from him on his way to studio, through his performance of Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 7 in C sharp minor "The Cello" and the process afterwards. One is struck repeatedly by Pletnev's crystalline arpeggiations, the velocity of his passage work, his singing tone, his rhythmic suppleness, and, above all, the grandeur of his sound.
A deep exploration into the historical, cultural, political and musical elements that created the genre, featuring present-day conversations with music legends.
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
Documentary on the life and accomplishments of the members of this uniquely talented musical family. The film focuses on the Figueroa family’s history within the context of its creative universe, dating back to the 19th century. Through the use of photographs, historic film footage, recordings, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and posters, the musical trajectory of the family is brought to life and their role in transforming the musical history of Puerto Rico and the world is portrayed.
"Ars longa, vita brevis" – art is long, life is short. This is one of Japanese music icon Ryuichi Sakamoto's favorite quotes, and the message that he leaves for viewers at the end of his final concert film, shot before he succumbed to cancer in March 2023. Consisting of only Sakamoto and his piano, Opus features the final live performances of 20 songs that Sakamoto meticulously curated to encapsulate his distinguished 40-year career.
Go with Armin and the blue garbage can through Munich and discover what happens to the garbage: Let us show you how 365 cans fit into just 16 water bottles. See how new paper is made from an old newspaper. Watch how waste from the organic waste garbage can is turned back into potting soil.
An intimate documentary portrait of world-class improvisational and traditional pianist Mike Garson as he tours, performs, and teaches.
4AD and Jagjaguwar have collaborated on a live session that captures a truly unique Bon Iver performance, featuring Justin Vernon and Sean Carey. On recent tours fans will have become accustomed to seeing Vernon flanked by an eleven-piece band, with the swell in numbers lending a grandiose element to even his most delicate songs. Sidestepping expectations, the idea Vernon presented for this session was to provide a wildly different experience.
A film about our garbage that is found in the most remote areas and about the people who try to dispose of it. Not only in the sea and on coasts, also in the Arctic, the jungle, high up on the mountains and deep inside the desert, garbage is found almost everywhere in various forms and dimensions, sometimes as whole car wrecks, old TV sets or simply construction rubble, but mostly in the form of disintegrated plastic particles a few millimetres in size. Humanity has handed out its visiting cards thoroughly.
A man, his business partner, and his wife are enlisted to transport an unknown object from a Russian military base, only to discover that the object is a giant, genetically-altered python.
People is a film shot behind closed doors in a workshop/house on the outskirts of Paris and features a dozen characters. It is based on an interweaving of scenes of moaning and sex. The house is the characters' common space, but the question of ownership is distended, they don't all inhabit it in the same way. As the sequences progress, we don't find the same characters but the same interdependent relationships. Through the alternation between lament and sexuality, physical and verbal communication are put on the same level. The film then deconstructs, through its repetitive structure, our relational myths.
During the Great Depression, a young boy leaves his family's Oklahoma farm to travel with his country musician uncle who is trying out for the Grand Ole Opry.
Two aging crooks are given two weeks to repay a debt to a woman named The American. They recruit their recently deceased partner's son to help them break into a laboratory and steal the vaccine against STBO, a sexually transmitted disease that is sweeping the country. It's spread by having sex without emotional involvement, and most of its victims are teenagers who make love out of curiosity rather than commitment.
Charlie Anderson, a farmer in Shenandoah, Virginia, finds himself and his family in the middle of the Civil War he wants nothing to do with. When his youngest boy is taken prisoner by the North, the Civil War is forced upon him.
Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza in order to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain.
A mentally-afflicted young man is accused of murdering his longtime benefactor. The real truth of what happened lies in his mad obsession with his supposed victim's old typewriter, on which he types relentlessly, day and night.
A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship in Milan.
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
A killer for the Russian Mafia in Vienna wants to retire and write a book about his passion - cooking. The mafia godfather suspects treason.
Simon, a well-known French filmmaker, starts shooting his next film. A story about workers fighting to protect their factory from being relocated. But nothing goes as planned... His producer Viviane wants to rewrite the ending and is threatening to cut the budget; his own crew goes on strike; his personal life is in shambles; and to make things worse, his lead actor Alain is an egocentric jerk. Joseph, an extra who wants to get into the film industry, agrees to direct the making of and shoot the behind-the-scenes. He takes his role very seriously and starts following around the crew, capturing all this mess... What follows is proof that the making of can sometimes be far better than the film itself!
Colonel Stok, a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.
An engine fire leaves 4,000 passengers stranded at sea without power and plumbing in this wild documentary about the infamous "poop cruise" of 2013.
A young French journalist repeatedly meets iconic surrealist artist Salvador Dalí for a documentary project that never came to be.
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on revenge.
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the early frontier.