Directed by Andrea E. Leland • Documentary • With James Brewster • 2006 • 71 minutes

Scratch band music, or Quelbe, is the grass-roots folk music from the U.S. Virgin Islands. The lyrics are a form of oral history relaying the day-to-day trials and tribulations of living on a small Caribbean isl...

Directed by Peter Sillen • Documentary • With Jesse Bernstein • 2012 • 89 minutes

'I Am Secretly an Important Man' is a portrait of writer and poet Steven J. Bernstein (aka Jesse Bernstein), one of Seattle's most celebrated and troubled voices. His angry, surprisingly fresh and lyrical writings ...

Directed by Roman Kroiter, Wolf Koening • Documentary • 1959 • 29 minutes

Canadian concert pianist Glenn Gould enjoys a respite at his lakeside cottage. It is an aspect of Gould previously known only to the collie pacing beside him through the woods, the fishermen resting their oars to hear his ...

Directed by Hanley Banks • Documentary • With Bill Callahan • 2014 • 65 minutes

This strikingly shot concert documentary follows enigmatic Drag City singer-songwriter Bill Callahan on a two-week tour from California to New York. For the past 25 years, under both the Smog moniker and under his ow...

Directed by Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed • Documentary • With Jakob Bro, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell • 2022 • 92 minutes

An informed and intimate portrayal of the jazz scene that offers revelatory glimpses for fans of the genre, Music For Black Pigeons strikes a universal chord in its p...

Directed by Wolf Koening, Roman Kroiter • Documentary • 1962 • 26 minutes

The story of popular singer Paul Anka. He rose from obscurity to become the idol of millions of adolescent fans around the world. This film takes a candid look at both sides of the footlights as well as the promotion indus...

Directed by Javier Tolentino • Documentary • 2020 • 80 minutes

The city’s musicians and poets take us on a musical tour of Iran’s capital in a charming film about a music culture rarely heard of in the West.

Erfan is a poet and musician, and he lives with his parents and their lively parrot. Fr...

Directed by Sigrid Faltin • Documentary • 2008 • 52 minutes

"La Paloma" was born in the 1860s as a Cuban Habanera, composed by the Basque Sebastian Iradier. His simple love song took off on a flight around the world and became an immediate hit in Mexico. "La Paloma" brought tears to the eyes of ...

Directed by Julie Simone • Documentary • With Presley Barker, Wayne C. Henderson, Kitty Amaral • 2019 • 88 minutes

Sister filmmakers Julie Simone and Vicki Vlasic return to their Appalachian roots to film at the world's oldest Fiddler's Convention. With multiple generations jamming together, Fid...

Directed by Kyoko Miyake • Documentary • 2017 • 88 minutes

"IDOLS" has fast become a phenomenon in Japan as girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. TOKYO IDOLS—an eye-opening film gets at the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet ...

Directed by Celeste Bell, Paul Sng • Documentary • With Ruth Negga, Thurston Moore, Kathleen Hanna • 2021 • 96 minutes

Poly Styrene was the first woman of color in the UK to front a successful rock band. She introduced the world to a new sound of rebellion, using her unconventional voice to sin...

Directed by Antonino D'Ambrosio • Documentary • 2022 • 87 minutes

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Antonino D'Ambrosio, this is the long overdue documentary about the legendary Roberta Flack. Of course she is well known the world over for “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and "Killing Me Soft...

Directed by Farhad Zamani • Documentary • 2000 • 158 minutes

Googoosh was Iran's most famous and beloved pop diva, until she was silenced following the 1979 Islamic revolution when female singers were labeled “temptresses” and forbidden to release records or perform publicly in the presence of m...

Directed by Robert Clem • Documentary • With J.W. Alexander, Ira Tucker • 2018 • 87 minutes

How They Got Over tells the story of how Black gospel quartet music became a primary source for what we would call rock and roll, and in the process helped to break down racial walls in 1950s America.

Be...

Directed by Daniel Schmid • Documentary • 1984 • 87 minutes

Meet the inhabitants of the "Casa di Riposa" in Milan, the world's first nursing home for retired opera singers, founded by composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896.

In his documentary film Tosca's Kiss, which has developed an underground cult...

Directed by Patrick Savey • Documentary • With Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Miles Davis • 2014 • 97 minutes

Patrick Savey plunges us into Marcus’s world, capturing the New York roots of the legendary bass player, following his path like the pebbles of Tom Thumb, as he meets mast...

Directed by John Scheinfeld • Documentary • With Micky Dolenz, Terry Gilliam • 2010 • 116 minutes

In this definitive documentary on the Grammy® award winning music legend Harry Nilsson, friends, family and colleagues delve into the acclaimed singer-songwriter's music, creative process and person...

Directed by Chris Hunt • Documentary • With Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad • 2019 • 51 minutes

It's been 50 years since Abba's founders met, 40 since their last concert, and 20 since Mama Mia! became a worldwide phenomena. This multi-Gold Award-winning doc t...

Directed by Thomas Robsahm • Documentary • With Morten Harket, Pål Waaktaar, Magne Furuholmen • 2021 • 108 minutes

Follows the band a-ha on tour, telling the full story of how three young men followed their impossible dream of becoming Norwegian pop stars. When Take On Me reached number 1 on Bil...

Directed by Robert Mugge • Documentary • With Gil Scott-Heron • 1983 • 79 minutes

BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge. It centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man Melody Maker called "the most dang...

Directed by Roberto de Oliveira, Jom Tob Azulay • Documentary • With Tom Jobim, Elis Regina • 2023 • 101 minutes

Los Angeles, 1974. Tom Jobim, the incarnation of Bossa Nova, and Elis Regina, then Brazil's most popular singer, met to record what would become one of the most iconic albums in the h...

Directed by Peter Miller • Documentary • 2000 • 30 minutes

THE INTERNATIONALE draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change, and to evaluate the uncertain fate of on...

Directed by Arne Johnson and Shane King • Documentary • With Carrie Brownstein, Beth Ditto • 2007 • 90 minutes

At Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it’s OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter aband...

Directed by Lutz Gregor • Documentary • With Fatoumata Diawara, Ahmed Ag Kaedi, Bassékou Kouyaté • 2016 • 93 minutes

The West African country of Mali is widely recognized as the birthplace of the blues, later carried by the transatlantic slave trade to America's cotton fields. Yet despite cent...