A commuter waits for a ride under the sweltering Manila heat. As his impatience grows, he sets off on his walk home, putting on a pair of earphones as he begins listening to some music...
Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande (2024)
In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.
Omoiyari (2022)
Violinist and songwriter Kishi Bashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.
Echoes Of The Heart (2024)
ECHOES OF THE HEART IS THE FIRST SHORT FILM OF ECHOES TRILOGY THAT FOLLOWS SOUHAIL'S MUSIC PASSION IN PLAYING OUD IN A SMALL CITY.
Fighting for Daybreak (2022)
Daybreak, a first-year EDM festival gets hit with inclement weather. As the fear of headliners canceling, attendees demanding refunds, the deeper purpose of the festival becomes clear - but is it enough to save Daybreak?
Leftover Feelings: A Studio B Revival (2021)
Two Nashville music icons, John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, combine their talents during the pandemic to record the album "Leftover Feelings" in Elvis's favorite studio, RCA's fabled Studio B. Walking in the footsteps of Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, and Waylon Jennings through the house that Chet Atkins built, John and Jerry attempt to revive and capture the magical sounds of this iconic room where so many early hit songs were made.
Free Noir Papillon (2022)
A short dance film about a mother’s relationship to her pregnancy, as she deals with fear and hope about bringing a black baby boy into the world in 2020.
John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen Trask: Nation of One (2021)
Far from Earth, tensions escalate between a feuding astronaut couple (Gnosis and ZanFagna). A video transmission from John Cameron Mitchell pushes them toward escaping the ship-- and each other. "Nation of One" is written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask (creators of Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and will be found on part two of the benefit album "New American Dream" by John Cameron Mitchell and Friends.
Syzygy (2024)
Eva, an indecisive dancer, is going to an audition for a famous dance school in a week. What Eva wants to dance is not the same as what her teacher, Dania, thinks is right. What does Eva do?
Woolf Works (2017)
The first revival of Wayne McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych to music by Max Richter, inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf.
Better Than the Original: The Joy of the Cover Version (2015)
Through ten carefully chosen cover versions that whisk us from the British Invasion to a noughties X Factor final, this film journeys over five decades to track how artists as varied as The Moody Blues, Soft Cell, Puff Daddy and Alexandra Burke have scored number 1s with their retake on someone else's song. Each of the ten classic cover versions has its own particular tale, tied not only into its musical and cultural context but also the personal testimony of the artists, producers and songwriters whose lives were changed in the process.
2024 ZEROBASEONE FANCON IN JAPAN (2024)
This is the first fancon by ZEROBASEONE in Japan. The event has been held in-person at K-Arena Yokohama and for online streaming from March 23, 2024 until March 24, 2024.
Leonard Bernstein: Reflections (1978)
Leonard Bernstein discusses his Boston childhood, his musical growth at Harvard and the Curtis Institute and the influence of great masters like Reiner, Mitropoulos and Koussevitzky. He shares his feelings on the primacy of tonal music and speculates on the nature of the creative process. From Carnegie Hall, scene of his début, to the living room of his home and his private studio overlooking New York's Central Park, Reflections explores the artist's varied and colourful career.
National Theatre Live: Fela! (2011)
A provocative and wholly unique hybrid of dance, theatre and music, FELA! explores the world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Winner of three 2010 Tony Awards including Best Choreography (Bill T. Jones). Featuring many of Fela Kuti’s most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones’ visionary staging, FELA! – an original new creation – comes via Broadway to London and the National Theatre. FELA! explores the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), FELA! reveals Kuti’s controversial life as an artist and political activist.
Beat Is Protest: Funk from a Female Perspective (2018)
Who are the chicks that make up the funk movement, and where are they? Funk has always been a form of protest, just as being a woman is. BEAT IS PROTEST: FUNK FROM A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE depicts the last decade underground scene of the funk women protesters in São Paulo. The testimonies come from transgender and cisgender women who navigate this universe in different roles, such as singers, DJs, beat-makers, producers, entrepreneurs, rappers, and dancers, and also from drag queens.
Classic Albums: The Doors - Morrison Hotel (2021)
Documentary about the making of The Doors’ album Morrison Hotel, considered by many to be one of the greatest resurrection albums of all time. Released in 1970, opening with its iconic guitar lick from the breakout hit Roadhouse Blues, the album sold a million copies in less than 3 days.
mm 49: Vivian Fine Marathon! (2014)
"mm"s are m(usic(ian's))m(eetings) mostly held at the Who Unit? in Pittsburgh as a 21st century salon of sorts where formal interests can be broached casually. Attendees delight in sharing their sometimes obscure & sometimes popular musical (& otherwise) loves. For mm 49 (in the 37th month of "mm"'s history) a marathon listening party celebrating the music of Vivian Fine was decided upon. Fine was a dedicated composer who produced a variety of work over a 70 year career. This movie, of course, is not an imitation of Ken Burns style documentary movie-making. Instead, I gleefully mix the casualness & lively uninhibited conversation of mms with the formal exactitude of Fine's music. I hope you enjoy it as an upstanding example of Punk Classical. "Bah to the Bourgeoisie"! Note that I'm starting to disappear in this movie - will you miss me when I'm gone? This is my 111th feature & my 404th movie.
The Way of Folk (2016)
In this brand new featurette, executive producer T Bone Burnett and the Coen brothers discuss the history of some of the songs that heard in Inside Llywin Davies and possible origin of the stories they tells, the folk movement during the 1960s and the social and cultural ideas that it represented, the authenticity and the identity of folk music and the balance between the two, the future of folk music, etc. Included with the featurette are illustrations by Drew Christie. The featurette was created exclusively for Criterion in 2015.