Stephen Dwoskin brings together members of the Ballet Negres dance company, founded in London in 1946.
Rebels on Pointe (2017)
Cinéma vérité celebrating Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a drag ballet company founded in the wake of the Stonewall Riots.
Aria - Gil Roman (2009)
With Aria, Gil Roman perpetuates Maurice Béjart’s ambition: to create new pieces with the company and other choreographers.
Black Ballerina (2016)
BLACK BALLERINA tells the story of several black women from different generations who fell in love with ballet. Six decades ago, while pursuing their dreams, Joan Myers Brown, Delores Browne and Raven Wilkinson confronted racism, exclusion and unequal opportunity. Today, young dancers of color continue to face formidable challenges breaking into the overwhelmingly white world of ballet. Moving back and forth in time, this lyrical, character driven film shows how far we still have to go and stimulates a fresh discussion about race, inclusion and opportunity across all sectors of American society.
Tights Worship: Inside the Practices of The Rita (2019)
The film traces Sam McKinlay’s early days as a punk skateboarder through his academic development as a conceptual artist into a highly esteemed noise practitioner whose work bridges the gap between the gallery world and the sleaze of exploitation film imagery. It documents the physical processes of his work and the distillation of visuals into sound, most notably addressing the appeal of abstraction—from the cheap effects of old monster movie makeup to the ‘masks’ created by the heavy cosmetic makeup of 1920s flapper culture and actresses like Pamela Stanford in Jess Franco’s Lorna the Exorcist (The Rita has albums or EPs named after several eurotrash actresses, including The Nylons of Laura Antonelli (2009) and Monica Swinn/Pamela Stanford (2016)).
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008)
Boogie Man is a comprehensive look at political strategist, racist, and former Republican National Convention Committee chairman, Lee Atwater, who reinvigorated the Republican Party’s Southern Strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. He mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush and played a key role in the elections of Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
For Art's Sake: The Story of Ballets Russes (2009)
In the centenary year since the founding of the Ballets Russe, this documentary looks back at Sergei Diaghilev and the company he created, what they did and the influence they had, even a 100 years later.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005)
The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.
Wattstax (1973)
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.
LIFT (2023)
Lift shines a spotlight on the invisible story of homelessness in America through the eyes of a group of young homeless and home-insecure ballet dancers in New York City and the mentor that inspires them.
Rhythm is it! (2004)
RHYTHM IS IT! records the first big educational project of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. The orchestra ventured out of the ivory tower of high culture into boroughs of low life for the sake of 250 youngsters. They had been strangers to classical music, but after arduous but thrilling preparation they danced to Stravinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps' ('The Rite of Spring'). Recorded with a breathtaking fidelity of sound, this film from Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch documents the stages of the Sacre project and offers deep insights into the rehearsals of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Nureyev Unzipped (1998)
Narrated by Terence Stamp, this TV program documents the life and career of famed ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, through interviews with friends and colleagues and archive footage.
Springtime in an English Village (1944)
An extraordinary and unexpected snapshot of rural life in wartime in which a young black girl is crowned Queen of the May.
A Belated Premiere (2004)
A prominent Russian ballet dancer and teacher Alexander Shiryaev had another talent hidden for almost a century. Archive materials that date back to 1906 reveal his bold experiments at stop-motion and paper animation.
We Are Moving: Memories of Miss Moriarty (2017)
Joan Denise Moriarty doggedly followed her dream of bringing ballet to every corner of Ireland. A pioneer of early 20th century Irish dance, she dared to create a uniquely Irish form of ballet inspired by her love of nature and Irish folklore. Her life's work has been largely overlooked since her death.
Paulette (2021)
A short documentary following Paulette Harwood, a 90-year-old former Radio City Music Hall Corps de Ballet soloist, as she teaches the final classes in a school she's run for sixty years.
The Triadic Ballet (1970)
A film in three parts after Oskar Schlemmer's Triadische Ballett (Triadic Ballet).
Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening (2018)
How did a poor little black girl from Missouri become the Queen of Paris, before joining the French Resistance and finally creating her dream family “The Rainbow Tribe”, adopting twelve children from four corners of the world? This is the fabulous story of the first black superstar, Josephine Baker.
Getting to the Nutcracker (2014)
The Los Angeles-based Marat Daukayev School of Ballet gathers the resources, volunteers, and cast to put on The Nutcracker.
The Cuban Method (2021)
A documentary on the legacy of ballet in Cuba that aired on PBS in Rochester, NY. Filmed on location in Havana, Cuba July – August, 2016. Featuring Laura Alonso, the history of the National Ballet of Cuba, and interviews with staff and dancers attending CUBALLET at or studying at The Center Prodanza of Cuba.