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A humorous but incisive look at the saxophonist Kenny G, the best-selling instrumental artist of all time, and quite possibly one of the most famous living musicians.
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed.
Spike Lee pays tribute to Michael Jackson’s Bad on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the epochal album, offering behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson recording the album and interviews with confidants, musicians, choreographers, and such music-world superstars as Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, Cee Lo Green and Mariah Carey.
Love, Gilda is a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own voice and through her own words. It weaves together audiotapes, rare home movies, diary entries, and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her.
Rachel Dolezal became infamous when she was unmasked as a white woman passing for black so thoroughly that she had become the head of her local N.A.A.C.P. chapter. This portrait cuts through the very public controversy to reveal Dolezal’s motivations.
The Great Postal Heist follows director Jay Galione’s father, a 30-year US Post Office clerk, who was harassed, threatened, and fired for standing up for his colleagues. A moving indictment of the toxic culture and push to downsize, the documentary chronicles the journey of postal workers, experts, and advocates who experienced firsthand the abuses in the oldest federal agency in America and stood up against the USPS’s notoriously violent work environment, featuring interviews with Ralph Nader and Richard Wolff. The atmosphere was a result of systematic dismantling and privatization of the trillion-dollar mail industry by lobbyists and politicians who seek to make profits at the expense of the mental health, living wages, and working conditions of their employees.
The documentary featured Guy take on the task of ensuring the iconic military aircraft was fit to fly on its 1000 mile fareware tour of Britain. Given exclusive access like no one else before him, Guy became one of the few civilians to ever take control of a military aircraft when he was handed the Vulcan as he tried to taxi the 70 tonne aircraft along a runway.
No Place To Call Home chronicles the lives of several people born and raised in Jesus People USA Evangelical Covenant Church, a religious sect on Chicago’s north side. The film is essentially a story within the story as the director details how he began exploring his past of growing up in the sect, and his discovery of dozens upon dozens of cases of child sexual abuse, of which many were allegedly unreported by the sects leadership. – Jaime M Prater
Character actor Tom Lenk (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing) has long dreamed of performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest theater arts festival. Nerdgasm follows Tom’s journey through all things nerdy as he prepares to fulfill his aspirations and struggles with his inner demons along the way.
Nicholas Vreeland walked away from a worldly life of privilege to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Grandson of legendary Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland, and trained by Irving Penn to become a photographer, Nicholas’ life changed drastically upon meeting a Tibetan master, one of the teachers of the Dalai Lama. Soon thereafter, he gave up his glamorous life to live in a monastery in India, where he studied Buddhism for fourteen years. In an ironic twist of fate, Nicholas went back to photography to help his fellow monks rebuild their monastery. Recently, the Dalai Lama appointed Nicholas as Abbot of the monastery, making him the first Westerner in Tibetan Buddhist history, to attain such a highly regarded position.
American: The Bill Hicks Story is a biographical documentary film on the life of comedian Bill Hicks. The film was produced by Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, and features archival footage and interviews with family and friends, including Kevin Booth. The filmmakers used a cut-and-paste animation technique to add movement to a large collection of still pictures used to document events in Hicks’ life. The film made its North American premiere at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival. The film was nominated for a 2010 Grierson British Documentary Award for the “Most Entertaining Documentary” category. It was also nominated for Best Graphics and Animation category in the 2011 Cinema Eye Awards. Awards won include The Dallas Film Festivals Texas Filmmaker Award, at Little Rock The Oxford American’s Best Southern Film Award, and Best Documentary at the Downtown LA Film Festival. On Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of the first 47 reviews counted were rated positive.
NOTFILM is a feature-length experimental essay on FILM — its author Samuel Beckett, its star Buster Keaton, its production and its philosophical implications — utilizing additional outtakes, never before heard audio recordings of the production meetings, and other rare archival elements.
