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Revenge of the Mekons
Directed by Joe Angio • Documentary • With Fred Armisen, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Harron • 2014 • 96 minutes
Revenge of the Mekons charts the unlikely career of the genre-defying collective notorious for being—as rock critic Greil Marcus notes—“the band that took punk ideology most seriously.” Bor...
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Becoming Traviata
Directed by Philippe Béziat • Documentary • With Jean-François Sivadier, Natalie Dessay • 2012 • 112 minutes
An exhilarating account of the creative process and a rousing, uniquely accessible rendition of Verdi's glorious opera. Director Beziat, known for his innovative documentaries on classica...
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The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry
Directed by Adam Bhala Lough, Ethan Higbee • Documentary • With Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Paul McCartney, The Clash, Bunny Wailer, Marcus Garvey, Carl Bradshaw, Eve, Benicio Del Toro • 2008 • 95 minutes
THE UPSETTER tells the wild, weed-fueled story of Lee “Scratch” Perry — a ...
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A Lion's Trail
Directed by François Verster • Documentary • 2002 • 54 minutes
It will take anyone in the world no more than a few bars to recognize this song: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, also sung as "Wimoweh”.
The melody has been covered at least two hundred times by artists as diverse as James Last, Henri Sa...
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Gospel According To Al Green
Directed by Robert Mugge • Documentary • With Al Green, Willie Mitchell, Ken Tucker • 1984 • 66 minutes
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN looks at Green's transition from hugely successful soul singer to gospel artist and fundamentalist preacher. Filmed in concert in Washington, D.C., in rehearsal in...
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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...
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Libende Boyz
Directed by Wendy Bashi • Documentary • 2021 • 46 minutes
Since October 2014 in Beni (North Kivu) people live in fear in this area of Democratic Republic of Congo. In this hectic and chaotic context, a group of young rappers and musicians dream about glory and success. They call themselves “Libe...
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Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio
Directed by Ryan Douglass and Sara Leavitt • Documentary • 2015 • 75 minutes
For over 30 years, Martin Bisi has recorded music from his studio in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood. After a chance New York encounter, the studio was founded with money from Brian Eno, who subsequently worked on the a...
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We Intend to Cause Havoc
Directed by Gio Arlotta • Documentary • With Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda, Jacco Gardner, Viktor Kasoma • 2019 • 88 minutes
The film follows the 21st Century formation of We Intend To Cause Havoc (W.I.T.C.H.), Zambia’s most popular rock band of the 1970s, and documents the life of its lead singer, J...
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Quest
Directed by Jonathan Olshefski • Documentary • 2017 • 105 minutes
Filmed with vérité intimacy for nearly a decade, Quest is the moving portrait of the Rainey family living in North Philadelphia.
Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, Christopher “Quest” Rainey and his wife Christine’a ...
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Jazz on Film (collection)
12 items
A selection of films that incorporate jazz into their story. Ranging from Shirley Clarke's The Connection, a play within a play within a jazz concert, to portraits of jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman and Marcus Miller, these films celebrate and appreciate the music art form.
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And Still I Sing
Directed by Fazila Amiri • Documentary • 2023 • 90 minutes
Amidst the United States and Taliban peace negotiations, Afghanistan’s controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors hopeful contestants on the hit singing TV series Afghan Star, including the only two female singers, Zahra E...
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Other Music
Directed by Puloma Basu, Rob Hatch-Miller • Documentary • With Tunde Adebimpe (TV On the Radio), William Basinski (composer), Panda Bear, Avey Tare & Geologist (Animal Collective),
Matt Berninger (The National), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), James Chance (The Contortions), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Y... -
I am Secretly an Important Man
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 ...
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East Punk Memories
Directed by Lucile Chaufour • Documentary • 2012 • 79 minutes
"You're just a street kid, you'll never be a Party Secretary!"
"Maybe you don't even exist, you don't want this life anymore!"
"Communist drug, no seduction needed!"
When the Hungarian punk band QSS launched into their anthemic son...
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We Were Famous, You Don't Remember: The Embarrassment
Directed by Daniel Fetherston and Danny Szlauderbach • Documentary • With Bill Goffrier, Brent Giessmann, John Nichols, Ron Klaus, Evan Dando, Freedy Johnston, Grant Hart, Thomas Frank • 2022 • 108 minutes
Ignited by punk’s invasion of the Great Plains, America’s gawkiest and greatest lost rock ...
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Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film
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...
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Glenn Gould: On the Record
Directed by Roman Kroiter, Wolf Koening • Documentary • 1959 • 29 minutes
Glenn Gould, renowned Canadian concert pianist, in New York--kidding the cab driver, bantering with sound engineers at Columbia Records; and then, alone with the piano, fastidiously recording Bach's Italian Concerto.
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Olancho
Directed by Chris Valdés and Ted Griswold • Documentary • 2018 • 70 minutes
Olancho is the most lawless province of Honduras, the most murderous country on the planet. Here, the drug trade has taken its toll in human lives and economic damage. But to some musicians, the cartels provide an opport...
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An Apollo Legend
Directed by Brian Storm • Documentary • 2008 • 18 minutes
Decades before American Idol and America's Got Talent captured the attention of millons on TV, the world renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem started hosting its popular Amateur Night, which launched the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, James Bro...
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Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr Leonard Cohen
Directed by Donald Brittain, Don Owen • Documentary • 1965 • 44 minutes
Produced in 1965, this is an informal portrait of the Montreal poet, novelist and songwriter, Leonard Cohen. He is seen reading his poetry to a rapt audience and also alone, or relaxing with family and friends.
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Dream Girls
Directed by Kim Longinotto & Jano Williams • Documentary • 1995 • 50 minutes
This fascinating documentary, produced for the BBC, opens a door into the spectacular world of the Takarazuka Revue, a highly successful musical theater company in Japan. Each year, thousands of girls apply to enter the...
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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 ...
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Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Directed by Caroline Leaf • Documentary • 1981 • 27 minutes
Quebec-born singing sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle enjoy international acclaim--for their inimitable style, their talent as songwriters and especially for their unassuming, informal selves! With sister Jane as business manager, Kate a...