Originally released in 2001, director Bob Smeaton’s 80 minute Classic Albums: Transformer was universally praised for its well-constructed anatomy of a touchstone album. Now expanded to interweave the original broadcast version with the bonus features on the original disc, the story appropriately begins with Reed remembering his days with the Velvet Underground and the importance of Andy Warhol in making them a New York-based phenomenon. These discussions provide more than the historical context for Transformer. For one matter, that album had many nods to and inspirations from Warhol beyond the cast of characters in “Walk on the Wild Side.”
This intimate, in-depth look at Beyoncé's celebrated 2018 Coachella performance reveals the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement.
From their roots as a brutal, confrontational industrial band, through breakups and chaos, to their odds-defying current status as one of the most accomplished and ambitious bands in the world, one whose concerts are more like ecstatic rituals than nostalgic trips. SWANS has always been a collection of singular performers, but there's been one constant since its formation in 1982--singer, songwriter Michael Gira. 'Where Does a Body End?' is a SWANS documentary with unfettered access to hundreds of hours of Gira/SWANS archives of never-seen-before recordings, videos, and photographs. An unfiltered story of a life in the arts, frequent difficulty spanning decades without a safety net, creating work because Gira says "What else am I going to do?"
A stunningly-photographed, thought-provoking road trip into the heart of the poor white American South. Singer Jim White takes his 1970 Chevy Impala through a gritty terrain of churches, prisons, truckstops, biker bars and coalmines. Along the way are roadside encounters with present-day musical mavericks the Handsome Family, David Johansen, David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower and old-time banjo player Lee Sexton, and grisly stories from the cult Southern novelist Harry Crews.
Blind blues musician Paul Pena is perhaps best known for his song "Jet Airliner". In 1993, Pena heard Tuvan throat singing over his shortwave radio and subsequently taught himself how to reproduce these extraordinary sounds. This documentary follows him to Tuva, where he takes part in a throat singing competition. Languages featured in the film include English, Russian and Tuvan.
Sistiaga painted directly on 70mm film a circular (planetary?) form, around which dance shifting colours in a psychedelic acceleration matched by the soundtrack’s deep-space roar and howl. - Cinema Scope
Peter Grudzien is the lone musical force behind The Unicorn, an openly gay country music album. With the same rawness of a life full of ups and downs, The Unicorn, the movie, follows his personal and artistic journey, which includes mental problems and a peculiar and chaotic family.
Mostly dark, rejecting images which are repeated. A stone wall, the chamber of a revolver which is, at first not recognizable, a close-up of a cactus. The duration of the takes emphasises the photographic character of the pictures, simultaneously with a crackling, brutal sound. (Hans Scheugl)
A "best of" compilation of live clips of various ASSJACK shows taped live at Alley Katz in Richmond, VA from 2003 - 2006 and clips of 1 show from May 2005 at Bluecats in Knoxville, TN. Special cameos by Dancing Outlaw Jesco White, Randy Blythe from Lamb of God and Chris Arp from Psyopus.
After Noisey Atlanta, Noisey Jamaica and Noisey Chiraq, comes a documentary hosted and co-directed by Mike Skinner (The Streets) that takes the temperature of the rap scene in Israel and Palestine. During Noisey Israel Palestine we meet Tamer Nafar, also known as the godfather of Palestinian hip hop who founded the group DAM, Ohad Cohen who after being a regular in the Tel Aviv rap scene as a teenager then moved towards ultra orthodox Judaism, but still has ambitions to be a famous rapper, and Ben Blackwell, who is part of the fascinating Hebrew Israelite community of the desert town of Dimona. Plus many other MCs from all different backgrounds including Subliminal, Saz and Rebel Sun.
An intimate portrait of the history, culture and music scene of Lagos, Nigeria from 1940 to present day through the lives of a group of 68-85 year-old master musicians brought back from obscurity by Kunle Tejuoso, owner of Jazzhole Records. The documentary follows their lives and for some, their death. Filmmaker Remi Vaughan-Richards a 'student' of the era has been documenting Kunle and the Faaji Agba musicians since 2009 to keep their musical legacy alive and relevant.
Footage from summer of 2018 that explores the passing of time regarding the little things in life.
At the heart of the Central Train Station in Tel Aviv stands a grand piano. It watches over the traffic moving to and from the docks, seemingly hearing and seeing everything from its own point of view. For some, the piano is a regular stop on their commute. Others, occasional travelers, encounter it in this unexpected space, inviting them, subject to their will. There, in the most bustling place is a piano that makes people take off their earphones and take part in something magical that requires no words. The piano is unplugged, the people unplug. How many of those who sit and play manage to transcend the external noise, reflecting in a different and challenging way the reality we live in, allowing us to look into ourselves?
This previously unreleased, 35-minute documentary film that takes you deep into the bowels of Winnipeg's punk and hardcore underground circa the mid-2000s. "The Manitoba Connection" provides a rare, lightning-in-a-bottle snapshot of DIY subculture as it is on the Canadian Prairie, marked by geographical isolation, brutal winters, and a history of working-class politics.
Super 8 experimental film by Claudio Caldini.
Directed by Hugo Conim and Miguel Newton, "Enterrado na Loucura – Punk em Portugal 78-88 - A 2ª Vaga" (“Buried in Insanity – Punk in Portugal 78-88 – The second wave”), continues a history that started to be told in “A Um passo da Loucura - A 1ª Vaga" (“One Step from Insanity – The first wave”) a documentary first screened in 2015. The two documentaries are a faithful and realistic portrait of the first decade of Punk in Portugal. This second documentary starts in 1982 with the birth of a second wave – more combative and involved with the punk scene - of Portuguese punk bands like ‘Crise Total’, ‘Grito Final’, ‘Kú-de-Judas’, Mata-Ratos or Peste & Sida and ends around 1988. The history is told not only by the musicians but also by anonymous punk’s or even concerned parents. It’s an interesting narration that evolves around music but also around aesthetical, political, educational, legal and ethical dimensions of Punk.
Charlie Sloth has been on a road trip to find the hottest rappers up North and try to understand why rap music in the U.K is dominated by the London scene. He's travelled from Newcastle to Liverpool, Manchester to Sheffield, Huddersfield to Leeds; spent time in boxing gyms with aspiring MCs, and met feared battle-rappers working the night-shift in Morrisons. Featuring Shotty Horroh, Bang On, Tez Kidd, Hoodman, The Projekt and Sermstyle.
Talented teen musicians from around the USA spend a week working with Grammy nominated professionals