Music
A winning portrait of Italian-born Auckland concert pianist Flavio Villani as he returns like the prodigal son to Italy for his concert debut, scaling one of the summits of the Romantic repertoire.
Arakawa Ao lives happily on his own and hardly ever leaves Shimokitazawa, where he works at a vintage clothing shop, goes to occasional concerts and hangs out at his favorite bar. Then, he gets an unusual request to appear in an independent film.
Dear Rodeo: The Cody Johnson Story, a brand-new cinematic feature-length documentary, is the much bigger picture, recounting Johnson’s real-life journey from the dusty rodeo arenas of rural Texas to some of the biggest musical stages in America. Every emotion Johnson felt over the past 20 years – whether he was standing in the back of the chute at the rodeo or singing about it in front of 75,000 fans – is captured vividly in this big screen experience, with all the highs and lows that come from the dreams you cling to and the dreams you ultimately let go of. Featuring interviews with Reba McEntire, Taya Kyle (the widow of “American Sniper” Chris Kyle), and more, this evocative and celebratory film is a love letter to everyone who has had to abandon a dream in order to find true purpose.
The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro’s temple where Pamina is held captive. The internationally renowned Mozart interpreter Sir Colin Davis conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House and a glittering cast in David McVicar’s 2003 production of the opera Mozart wrote in the final year of his life, recorded live at Covent Garden.
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro is a comedy whose dark undertones explore the blurred boundaries between dying feudalism and emerging Enlightenment. Herman Prey’s Figaro is admirably sung in a firm baritone and aptly characterized. So too, is his antagonist, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the Count perpetually frustrated by the scheming wiles of Figaro and Susanna, here the perky Mirella Freni, who sings and acts like a dream. The Countess is creamy-voiced Kiri Te Kanawa, and the Cherubino, Maria Ewing, looks just like the horny, teenaged page she’s supposed to be. The all-star leads are complemented by worthy supporting singers, the Vienna Philharmonic at the top of its form, and the experienced Mozartian, Karl Böhm conducting a stylishly fleet performance.
Julian Henriques’ urban musical showcases the style, vernacular and vibrancy of British Caribbean Dancehall culture. Filled with undeniable style, the vibrations of local sound systems and rhythmic Jamaican patois, Julian Henriques’ urban odyssey is an energetic declaration of British Caribbean Dancehall culture, shot on location on the North Peckham Estate. The cast of local artists glide between realism and whimsy using improvised dialogue and musical performance, with the titular Ragamuffins using musical innovation to sidestep the negative aspects of urban life.
A musician struggling to cope with his split from his lover and muse begins to suspect his past is being erased in this unnerving film starring members of Chicago band, Paper Thick Walls. As songs Liam and Lauren recorded together disappear from tapes and mutual friends deny they know him, Liam hits the road on a desperate journey to prove to himself and everyone else that he’s not insane.
The story of English rock guitarist Jeff Beck from his earliest days learning to strum on homemade guitars in Wallington, Surrey, to his teenage friendship with Jimmy Page and mastering his craft with guitar legends that influenced his incredible career.
After years of fame and misfortune in Mexico, the members of the Leningrad Cowboys decide to return to their native village. Their former manager Vladimir, who now calls himself Moses lead them on their way home.
The story of how the Western world was first introduced to the musical history of Ethiopia, through the `Ethiopiques’ CDs and the mastermind behind them, French music journalist, Francis Falceto.
Bubbles and his band, The Shitrockers, embark on a European rock tour and earn a spot opening for Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters. However, after traveling from Nova Scotia to Prague, they’re kicked off the tour and must resort to busking to survive and find a way back home. Ricky and Julian must figure out how to make their dreams come true again — if that’s still possible.
After 15 years of bringing music to the Warped Community from coast to coast, in the US and Canada, this film captures the high-energy one night only Anniversary Celebration, featuring a who’s who of Warped Tour veterans. Rise Against, Bad Religion, Ice-T, Underoath, and blink-182, among others, play and are interviewed about their Warped Tour recollections. Kevin Lyman, Warped Tour founder, also shares the roots of Warped.
Nine o’clock on Monday morning, August 18, 1969: while the work force was starting the day, Jimi Hendrix was taking the stage at Woodstock. While hundreds of thousands had already left, 25,000 people remained to see this incredible performance. Hendrix, along with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox, offered masterly renditions of the songs of the recently disbanded Experience (“Hey Joe,” “Foxey Lady”), and gave a preview of the blues-based Band of Gypsys (“Izabella,” “Hear My Train A Comin'”), as well as Jimi’s era-defining rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Though the weekend had witnessed some landmark performances by other great artists, this performance from Hendrix is regarded by many as the defining moment in a festival ripe with defining moments.
Follow the moment Barrett was kicked out of Pink Floyd, from the narrative of him going from groundbreaking musician to iconic rocker and manic, unstable star.
A look into the life of Laurent Garnier, one of the godfathers of house music, from his emergence on the music scene in the 80’s to now. The story of the last music revolution through the eyes of a pioneer.
Against the backdrop of New York and New Orleans, Elliott, Leanne and Jermaine question their ability to dream amidst a crumbling economic climate. Opening in the streets of downtown Manhattan, Elliott (23), living at home after college, is surrounded by incomplete projects, frustrated and in search of purpose. Simultaneously, in New Orleans, Leanne (26), an aspiring model/actress and single mother of four, struggles to pick up the pieces, presenting at times a clash between family and her ambitious career. Plagued by an unforgiving criminal record, Jermaine (22), a New Orleans native, shifts through his home town for what seems like a hopeless attempt at legal employment. After a series of rejections, he resolves to reinvent himself in hopes of successfully starting anew.
Pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne plays the hits that earned her legions of screaming fans (and launched a thousand ringtones) on The Best Damn Tour, a full-length presentation of her 2008 concert in Toronto. Opening with monster hit “Girlfriend,” Lavigne rocks through every one of her major singles, including “Complicated,” “My Happy Ending,” and the ubiquitous “Sk8er Boi.”
A compilation of proto-music videos featuring leading British rock bands of the 60s, including The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, and Herman’s Hermits.
WHEN WE ARE BORN is a unique live performance film that tells a touching and thoroughly human story based in part on Ólafur’s life. Filmed on location in Iceland in summer 2020, it features the contributions of an unparalleled creative collective including ground-breaking choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir, the Iceland Dance Company and cinematographer Thor Eliasson. The music in the film builds upon Ólafur’s critically praised new album ‘some kind of peace’ and was performed and recorded live on set, representing a constant cinematic conversation between picture and music. Vincent Moon’s intimate cinematic vision brings this layered metaphorical world to life as we see Ólafur’s music manifested and symbolised all around him through set design, lighting and dance. Through themes of rituals, relationships and exploration of our inner landscapes, this is a film focused on how we all move forward.
Wisconsin farm girl Elizabeth Carlson leaves family and her English teacher lover behind and escapes to New York. There she soon makes a career for herself as a fashion model. During a vernissage she’s approached by a mysterious man whose motives are unclear…
A documentary about women in the punk rock scene in Europe.
A ballet dancer struggles with his homosexuality and the increasing allure of a young ballerina who seeks to draw him away from his domineering lover.
Tren (20), his girlfriend Drama (18) and their friends Trucas (19), Mico (16) and Weed (17), are youths who live on the outskirts of Mexico City. Through graffiti art, dancing, music and song, they have a good time imitating their idols in music, dance and television, dreaming of someday being great figures in show business. They gather at the F.B.I., which holds dance and graffiti contests, and which is also frequented by el Loco (28) and his gang of small time drug dealers in the barrio. At the same time, Tren’s brother Nuk (43) returns home after 23 years. Nuk finds the environment changed, with all the evils of society, only now they are stronger than when he left.
In the feature documentary, Summer 82 – When Zappa Came to Sicily, filmmaker and Zappa fan Salvo Cuccia tells the behind-the-scenes story of Frank Zappa’s star-crossed concert in Palermo, Sicily, the wrap-up to a European tour that ended in public disturbances and police intervention. Cuccia had a ticket to the concert but never made it. Thirty years later, collaborating with Zappa’s family, he re-creates the events through a combination of rare concert and backstage footage; photographs; anecdotes from family, band members, and concertgoers; and insights from Zappa biographer and friend Massimo Bassoli. The story is also a personal one, as Cuccia interweaves the story of Zappa’s trip to Sicily with his own memories from that summer.
This drama is set in World War II Australia, where an American Marine, Rebel is recuperating from wounds suffered in battle. He is weary of war and is intent on going AWOL and escaping from Australia. He becomes infatuated with a local singer, Kathy and pursues her. Kathy is married and initially is not interested in him, but later begins to love Rebel. Kathy receives a letter advising her that her husband was killed in battle. The local police and the U.S. Military are searching for Rebel as an AWOL soldier. Rebel arranges to escape Austalia by a cargo ship, but eventually allows himself to be arrested in order to keep the local police from arresting Kathy for harboring him
After taking over a failing Miami hotel with her workaholic fiancé, Elliot, Tracy thinks Liza has seduced her better half-to-be. She then tries to have an affair of her own, and arranges for hookers to become bellhops. Meanwhile, her rich daddy hires an inept arsonist to blow up the place.
Film biography of opera star Grace Moore, released in 1953.
“In the Gay Nineties New York had grown up into bustles and balloon Sleeves … but The Bowery had grown younger, louder and more rowdy until it was known as the ‘Livest Mile on the face of the globe’ … the cradle of men who were later to be famous.
Jerry, Connie, and Franky are small-town girls seeking wealthy husbands in New York City. But, while Connie and Franky are reckless with their affections — one bedding a married man and the other marrying a scoundrel — Jerry is determined to remain practical. As she mothers her wounded, heartbroken friends, she stalwartly but foolishly resists the advances of the good-hearted and affluent Tony Jardine.
Born in New York in 1949, Elliott Murphy becomes one of the new Dylans in the ’70s; most critics from the era praise his albums; still, he makes a bigger connection with European audiences, becoming a worshipped artist in countries overseas.
Documentary film on the #1 instrumental rock group in the world, The Ventures. The story of their rise to fame in the 1960s right up to now, as they celebrate their 60th anniversary of playing the best guitar-rock of all time.
The life story of Mary Travers, a musician and singer of French Canadian music.
Sophie, 28, just found out she landed that job at a famous Parisian publisher. Her dream? Not exactly: she would rather see her own graphic work printed… When she tells her boyfriend Jean she is pregnant, everything explodes. They break up and she must return to waiting tables like her friend Julia, an aspiring actress. How can one survive in the city under such conditions?
A brilliant teenage songwriter is stuck living in the shadow of her deceased Dad’s music legacy when the 20-year anniversary of his debut album forces her to face his abandonment.
Elvis Gratton, dead for three days, comes back to life.
A film that charts the artistic and personal relationship between two era-defining artists, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta), told almost entirely through hundreds of hours of self-shot footage filmed by Omar over the last 40 years.
“I’ve always played Gypsy Music, that’s what my father taught me. But I would like to know where this music is from”. Willing to discover the roots of Gypsy Music, famous Austrian guitarist Harri Stojka goes on a journey to Rajasthan, India, to meet local musicians and play with them. There, he encounters several artists using the most original instruments, and always eager to share the joy of playing. More important, he realizes that the Gypsy spirit is something that brings them together. After all, they speak the same language: the language of music.
Jonathan Pride is a mild-mannered dance instructor in 1820 Boston. En route to visit relatives, Jonathan is shanghaied by a band of zany pirates and forced to work as a galley boy. When the pirate vessel arrives at the port of Las Palomas, Jonathan, clad in buccaneer’s garb, makes his escape. Everyone in Las Palomas, including Governor Alcalde (Frank Morgan) and fetching senorita Serafina (Steffi Duna), assumes that Jonathan is the pirate chieftain, leading to a series of typical comic-opera complications.
Nada, a beautiful French journalist on assignment in New York, records the life and work of an up and coming punk rock star, Billy. Soon she enters into a volatile relationship with him and must decide whether to continue with it, or return to her lover, a fellow journalist trying to track down the elusive Andy Warhol.
Alanis Morissette is one of the most successful female artists and songwriters of all time and has sold in excess of 60 million albums worldwide. Her voice is instantly recognisable and she is a consummate live performer. On 2 July 2012 Alanis Morissette returned to Montreux as part of her Guardian Angel Tour in support of her new album Havoc And Bright Lights . It was her third appearance at the festival. The set showcased a number of tracks from the new album (at that point still to be released) alongside classic tracks from across her career. This is Alanis Morissette live at her very best. TRACKLIST 1) I Remain 2) Woman Down 3) All I Really Want 4) You Learn 5) Guardian 6) Flinch 7) Forgiven 8) Hands Clean 9) I Remain 10) Citizen Of The Planet 11) Ironic 12) Havoc 13) Head Over Feet 14) Versions Of Violence 15) I Remain 16) You Oughta Know 17) Numb 18) Hand In My Pocket 19) Uninvited 20) Thank U
