Music Docs

Music Docs

With these music documentaries, you'll find something to satisfy every curiosity - spanning classical, jazz, Bossa Nova, punk rock, rap, and beyond. While there are plenty of recognizable names, you're also bound to make new discoveries.

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Music Docs
  • Tehran Blues

    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...

  • La Paloma - The Melody of Longing

    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 ...

  • Abba Forever: The Winner Takes It All

    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...

  • Mali Blues

    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...

  • In Memory of Rock

    Directed by François Reichenbach • Documentary • With Johnny Hallyday, Les Chaussettes Noires • 1963 • 11 minutes

    IN MEMORY OF ROCK captures the power, promise, and fear generated by the early days of rock n’roll. It is also a fascinating study in the juxtaposition of image and music. Outside an...

  • The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff

    Directed by David L. Lewis • Documentary • With Nat Hentoff, Amiri Baraka, Karen Durbin • 2013 • 86 minutes

    Nat Hentoff was one of the enduring voices of the last 65 years, a writer who championed jazz as an art form and was present at the creation of ‘alternative’ journalism in America. This un...

  • The Internationale

    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...

  • Music for Black Pigeons

    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...

  • Lomax the Songhunter

    Directed by Rogier Kappers • Documentary • 2005 • 95 minutes

    Alan Lomax (1915-2002) devoted his life to recording the world's folk tunes before they would permanently disappear with the rise of the modern music industry. In LOMAX THE SONGHUNTER filmmaker Rogier Kappers follows the route that Lom...

  • Roberta

    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...

  • Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll

    Movie

    George Harrison famously claimed, "No Lead Belly, no Beatles." Revered by countless musicians - the 1st record Janis Joplin ever bought was Lead Belly. The definitive bio, with historic performances and extraordinary archive access. The folk/blues icon from childhood through prison to worldwide f...

  • 20 Farmers Hit Fame - No Business Like Show Business

    Directed by Bernard Weber and Martin Schilt • Documentary • 2012 • 90 minutes

    For over 20 years the citizens of Wiesenberg have cultivated the same rituals. The singing mountaineers meet once a week in the local church to rehearse together and they yodel for weddings and birthdays. Suddenly, the...

  • Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?

    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...

  • Glenn Gould: Off the Record

    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 ...

  • Ronnie's

    Directed by Oliver Murray • Documentary • With Ronnie Scott, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimi Hendrix, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Van Morrison, Chet Baker, Quincy Jones • 2020 • 102 minutes

    Ronnie’s chronicles the life of saxophonist Ronnie Scott, a poor, Jewish kid growing up in 1940s East End, London ...

  • Kapr Code

    Movie

    A Documentary Opera featuring the contradictory life of progressive composer and prominent communist Jan Kapr (1914-88), Stalin award laureate, later banned in socialist Czechoslovakia. While Kapr’s life escalates towards pivotal moments, we follow opera songs reflecting these crucial life junctu...

  • Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution

    Directed by Yony Leyser • Documentary • With Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch • 2017 • 80 minutes

    Queercore: How To P...

  • The Reverend

    Directed by Nick Canfield • Documentary • With Vince Anderson, Questlove, Jaleel Bunton, Kyp Malone • 2022 • 86 minutes

    The Reverend is a raucous concert film as well as an intimate portrait of Reverend Vince Anderson's spiritual and musical journey. After coming to New York in the 90's to enter...

  • Elis & Tom: só tinha de ser com você

    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...

  • The Underground Orchestra

    Directed by Heddy Honigmann • Documentary • 1999 • 108 minutes

    THE UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA is a glorious documentary profile of musicians who play on the sidewalks of Paris and in the Metro. Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (METAL AND MELANCHOLY and O AMOR NATURAL), illuminates the lives and music of a r...

  • The Return of Ruben Blades

    Directed by Robert Mugge • Documentary • With Rubén Blades, Linda Ronstadt, Nat Hentoff • 1985 • 82 minutes

    THE RETURN OF RUBEN BLADES follows the singer to Harvard, where he gets his master's degree in international law; to his old neighborhood in Panama; to California for a recording session w...

  • a-ha: The Movie

    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...

  • We Loved Each Other So Much

    Directed by Jack Janssen • Documentary • 2004 • 80 minutes

    For half a century, the Lebanese singer Fairuz has been a living legend in the Arab world. Her home is Beirut, once a thriving seaport known as "the Paris of the Middle East," and a haven for those fleeing religious or ethnic persecution...

  • Mellodrama

    Movie

    Mellodrama, a documentary by Dianna Dilworth, explores the rising and falling fortunes of the Mellotron – the first musical keyboard to "sample" the sounds of other instruments – from its birth in a California garage in the 1950s, through its dominance on concert stages in the 1970s, through its ...