On a January night in 1985, music's biggest stars gathered to record "We Are the World." This documentary goes behind the scenes of the historic event.
Thanks to new excavations in Mauritius and Madagascar, as well as archival and museum research in France, Spain, England and Canada, a group of international scholars paint a new portrait of the world of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
A former corporate executive fleeing a bad marriage becomes a cannabis farmer, forms a company called Sisters of the Valley and takes on the persona of a nun, Sister Kate.
The inspirational story of how a group of working-class kids growing up in post-industrial Glasgow dared to dream. Those kids became Simple Minds, the most iconic and influential Scottish band in history.
Marion Stokes secretly recorded television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. For Marion taping was a form of activism to seek the truth, and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would be invaluable for future generations. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her 70,000 VHS tapes are being digitized and they'll be searchable online.
Meet the Raisins! spoofs musical documentaries with its use of anthropomorphic food characters. Through its historical perspective, the special also provided an opportunity to elaborate on the personalities and introduce names of the simple yet popular characters. It follows the California Raisins' humble beginnings, rise to musical success, fall from stardom, and eventual comeback. This includes "home movie" clips, scenes of the group's early days as the Vine-Yls, concert footage, and interviews with the people behind the success of the California Raisins including manager Rudy Begaman. The group is also shown performing various hit songs
Filmmaker Theo Anthony offers a far-ranging look at the biases in how people see things, focusing on the recorded image.
A short documentary about the intricate nativity scenes of Michele Pascuzzi.
If there is one person Matthew Lancit can’t get out of his mind, it is his uncle Harvey. Dark rings around his eyes, pale, blind, his legs amputated. Like Harvey, the filmmaker also suffers from diabetes. He has the disease under control, but one question is always nagging at him: How much longer? His long-term (self-)observation reliably revolves around fears of infirmity and mutilation. He translates the feared body horror into film, stages himself as a zombie, vampire, a desolate figure. Lancit playfully anticipates his potential decline, serving up a whole arsenal of effects which – as video recordings prove – go back to his youth. It is not for nothing that the “dead” in the title is also reminiscent of “dad.” Because “Play Dead!” also negotiates his own role as a father.
Camilo, 35 years old, son of Colombian guerrillas, returns to his home country after 25 years of exile in Italy. In an attempt to understand his parents' radical choices, he dives into the family archive. Extraordinary amateur films and private writings reveal never-ending conflicts and painful memories. Those of a father, a revolutionary commander, who sacrificed everything in the name of political struggle, but who saw his dream of justice vanish. Those of a son, who grew up in the shadow of a charismatic but cumbersome man, unable to accept the needs of a child. Those of a mother. A ghost that has haunted Camilo's dreams since he was five years old. A unique opportunity to give life to an impossible dialogue, long desired but never really happened.
No Jewish divorce is complete without the man literally giving the woman her freedom back. With Israel having neither civil marriage nor divorce, women can get trapped. The film follows several such "chained" women together with Batya, a religious lawyer, who embarks on a struggle against the rabbinical courts.
A documentary on women musicians of the 1990s from the indie rock music genre, grunge and riot grrrl including Hole, Babes in Toyland, L7 and more.
Loitz is one of those former GDR towns that is a loser today. For a year "Infinite Place" looks through the eyes of old and new inhabitants behind the gray facade of a perishing small town and questions concepts of home and identity. What makes a life in the dying worthwhile?
A feature-length documentary going behind-the-scenes on the making of the 2015 film Tangerine.