A verité portrait of Jonas Mekas making his daily rounds, JONAS shows us the underground impresario attending a peace rally, filming in Central Park, typing up notes at the Village Voice and projecting his latest rushes at the Film-Makers' Cooperative. A true New Yorker, Mekas seems to be everywhere at once, always with a Bolex camera slung over his shoulder. In detailing these routines, director Gideon Bachmann comes away with a striking time capsule of a city bent on art.
A verité portrait of Jonas Mekas making his daily rounds, JONAS shows us the underground impresario attending a peace rally, filming in Central Park, typing up notes at the Village Voice and projecting his latest rushes at the Film-Makers' Cooperative. A true New Yorker, Mekas seems to be everywhere at once, always with a Bolex camera slung over his shoulder. In detailing these routines, director Gideon Bachmann comes away with a striking time capsule of a city bent on art.
1968-01-01
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On October 17, 1996, veteran and contemporary jazz greats gathered for a select soiree on the stage of New York's Carnegie Hall, saluting a guy more noted for making popular films than for making sweet music. But as any fan of Clint Eastwood, especially after he started directing 30 years ago, will attest, the award-winning star is also an inveterate jazz lover who has uniquely integrated that musical form into the scores of his films. Join Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Flip Phillips, Charles McPherson, James Rivers, Slide Hampton, Hank Jones, Thelonious Monk Jr., the Kyle Eastwood Quartet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and more for this scintillating celebration of film and music.
A crumbling pier, its walls covered with graffiti and erotic frescoes reminiscent of pagan Pompeii, the locus of the seduction rituals of men longing for men, is the focus of this meditation on gay cruising at the height of sexual freedom before AIDS. Shot in 1982, this is the first segment of a film capturing the life, death, and rebirth of the legendary “sex piers” over the last three decades.
In the early nineties, before the massive gentrification of many of New York's then slums, several young people from very disparate backgrounds left their broken homes and ventured onto the brutal streets of the city. United by their love of skateboarding, they formed a family and built a unique lifestyle that eventually inspired Kids, a groundbreaking and outrageous film directed by photographer Larry Clark and released in 1995.
The two very different families of "Paris Is Burning" star Venus Xtravaganza unite to honor her and reopen her unsolved murder case.
The iconic Carlyle hotel has been an international destination for a particular jet set as well as a favorite haunt of the most discernible New Yorkers.
"Goodbye to Glocamorra" (1968) is a documentary film originally made for broadcast on Irish television. It examines the forces of change in the late 1960's in Inwood, then one of the last Irish immigrant communities in New York City.
An investigation of Edward Brezinski, an ambitious, charismatic Lower East Side painter hell-bent on sucess, who thwarted his own career with antics that roiled NYC’s art elite. Brezinski’s quest for fame gives an intimate portrait of the art world’s attitude towards success and failure, fame and fortune, notoriety and erasure.
An in-depth look at the legendary point guards of New York City who honed their craft and developed their legendary showmanship in the 1980s and ’90s. The documentary spotlights the ascent of Rafer Alston, Kenny Anderson, Mark Jackson, Stephon Marbury, God Shammgod, Kenny Smith, Rod Strickland and Dwayne “Pearl” Washington in the midst of a cultural renaissance.
A reckless joyride into the darkest corners of popular music that delves deep into the mind of Mick Rock, the genius photographer who immortalized the seventies and the rise to rock stardom of many legendary musicians.
Set in New York City, the epicenter of a phenomenon cropping up in communities across the United States, "Nursery University" reveals the oddly competitive process of nursery school admissions. The film tells the story of five families attempting to place their toddlers in preschool classrooms that have limited space and high price tags.
Leon Gast's musical documentary reveals New York City's Latin culture and features live performances of salsa greats The Fania All Stars and The Spanish Speaking People of New York. A document of urban American Hispanic culture, Gast's film captures the rhythms of New York's Spanish Harlem, from illegal cockfights and Santeria rituals to the rooftops and backstreets of El Barrio and the legendary musicians performing at the Cheetah club.
The remarkable true story of Darius McCollum, a man with Asperger's syndrome whose overwhelming love of transit has landed him in jail 32 times for the criminal impersonation of NYC subway drivers, conductors, token booth clerks, and track repairmen.
Take a tour of New York City like never before.
A shocking serial murder case terrorized New York 40 years ago. Surviving victims, families of the deceased, and the detectives who worked on the case recount their stories.
A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.
Eleven-year-old New York City public school kids journey into the world of ballroom dancing and reveal pieces of themselves and their world along the way. Told from their candid, sometimes humorous perspectives, these kids are transformed, from reluctant participants to determined competitors, from typical urban kids to "ladies and gentlemen," on their way to try to compete in the final citywide competition.
A look at NYC’s gentrification and growing inequality in a microcosm, Class Divide explores two distinct worlds that share the same Chelsea intersection – 10th Avenue and 26th Street. On one side of the avenue, the Chelsea-Elliot Houses have provided low-income public housing to residents for decades. Their neighbor across the avenue since 2012 is Avenues: The World School, a costly private school. What happens when kids from both of these worlds attempt to cross the divide?
The story of the New York accent, as told by New Yorkers.
Stockholm Syndrome chronicles the meteoric rise of contemporary trendsetter A$AP Rocky, capturing the exuberance of youth and urgency of hip-hop in equal parts, before taking a detour into darkness. With amazing access, the film reveals Rocky’s experience with the inequities of the Swedish judicial system and the dangers of stardom and scapegoating through a series of twists and turns, ultimately paralleling the need for prison reform in our own backyard. Directed by The Architects, the film blends archival footage with contemporary interviews, animation, and electrifying live concert footage to tell the astonishing story of how one of rap’s biggest superstars became embroiled in an international incident, leading to an unexpected political awakening.