Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer
The director of the documentary “I Dream of Wires” on modular synthesisers in 2014, portrays one of the great electronic innovators who emerged from the avant-garde scene of San Francisco in the 1960s, alongside luminaries like Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Ramon Sender. Marking the 50th anniversary of the iconic album “Silver Apples of The […]
Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party
The brief and macabre tale of The Birthday Party, the Australian post-punk group propelled by the incendiary relationship between singer Nick Cave and guitarist Rowland S. Howard. From the vibrant Melbourne scene to their years of malnutrition and heroin addiction in London, and the ultimate escape to Berlin, the backdrop of both creative zenith and […]
Louder Than You Think
Louder Than You Think was the name of the home studio in the desolate Californian town of Stockton owned by the recently departed Gary Young, the original drummer of Pavement. Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg were teenagers when they recorded their first songs in the early 90s with this hyperactive and “charismatic 40-year-old hippie”, who […]
Let the Canary Sing
A vibrant and upbeat documentary about 1980s pop sensation Cyndi Lauper. It traces her journey from humble beginnings in a Catholic Sicilian family in the Queens neighbourhood and her first blues-rock group, Blue Angel, to the creation of her own stage persona – eccentric, outspoken, and deliberately naive – that rocketed her to stardom in […]
Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection
The beauty of Karen Carpenter’s melancholic, silky, and inimitable voice, coupled with the harmonies alongside her brother Richard, made The Carpenters one of the most successful pop groups of the 1970s. However, this success sharply contrasts with the suffering of the singer, who tragically passed away at the age of 30 due to anorexia nervosa. […]
In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon
Renowned documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney presents this sweeping portrait of Paul Simon. From the cabin/studio where he’s crafting his dreamlike and spiritual final album, Seven Psalms while grappling with hearing issues, we journey through six decades of his career: his early days in a Queens bedroom, where he and Art Garfunkel dreamt of emulating The […]
Immediate Family
The heart-warming tale of camaraderie and abundant talent among four friends who evolved into the go-to studio band for the biggest stars in American pop rock of the 1970s and beyond. Everyone wanted to record with them in L.A.: they had a magical touch that enhanced songs. For the most part, Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, […]
Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd
The most extensive and intimate exploration of the figure and enigma of Syd Barrett: singer, guitarist, songwriter, and leader of the early Pink Floyd, until his already fragile mental health deteriorated thanks to hallucinogenic drug use, leading to decades of seclusion. A diverse range of voices, including childhood friends, romantic partners, fellow art school students, […]
Free Party: A Folk History
A comprehensive chronicle of the Free Party movement, which organised free open-air raves across England from the late 80s to the mid-90s. The “tribal union” of travellers, punks, hippies, and anarchists challenged both the police and land ownership laws to the extent that the government introduced specific legislation against this nomadic lifestyle. The former ravers […]
Fatboy Slim: Right Here, Right Now
Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) captains this chronicle of the day when 250,000 people descended upon Brighton Beach to attend his famous free rave Big Beach Boutique II. A fine excuse to explore his hometown’s music scene, revisit his career as the bassist of The Housemartins to superstar DJ and big beat gold standard and above […]
Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros
A thoughtful and profound portrait of the iconic American composer, teacher, technological innovator, electronic pioneer, mystical thinker and accordionist Pauline Oliveros. With like-minded artists, it maps a revealing sonic journey through the San Francisco Tape Music Center and her encounters with David Tudor, John Cage and Merce Cunningham. With unwavering commitment, she practices and promotes […]
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The moving five-year-long journey of Bobi Wine, a musical superstar in Uganda, as he leverages his status as ‘Ghetto President’ to enter politics and challenge the autocratic 37-year regime of Yoweri Museveni at the 2021 presidential elections. The backlash against him, his wife (writer and activist ‘Barbie’ Itungo), his supporters and the film crew is […]
Blues Under the Skin
A restored version of a music documentary treasure from the 1970s. In this French production, Greek director Roviros Manthoulis weaves a compelling narrative of love and struggle in Harlem, brought to life by amateur actors, while simultaneously capturing the electrifying and soul-stirring performances of a dozen blues musicians. From a forced labour camp in Texas […]
Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex
The making of a tribute album to Marc Bolan, featuring an impressive all-star lineup, offers a unique chance to delve deep into the legacy and multifaceted persona of an artist who seamlessly connected the worlds of hippy culture and glam-rock. Bolan was the original rock dandy, the androgynous and seductive teenage icon of British pop, […]
Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary
Sixty years after their formation, the most refined, baroque, extravagant composers of the Merseybeat era retrace their fleeting, agitated and indelible career. Timeless hits such as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season”, and one of the most influential albums of all time, Odessey & Oracle, crown a story of friendship that survived the […]
Personality Crisis: One Night Only
The various lives of singer David Johansen, the only survivor of the transvestite rock band that lit the punk fuse in the early 70’s: New York Dolls. An intimate performance with his cabaret and comic alter ego Buster Poindexter serves to reconstruct the career of an iconoclastic and chameleonic performer who knows what it means […]
Elis & Tom, só tinha que ser com você
In February 1974, stellar singer Elis Regina and bossa nova legend Tom Jobim met in Los Angeles to record an album that would become a true classic of Brazilian popular music. Through previously unreleased 16mm recordings, we witness the creative process behind that miracle: the personality clash and the growing complicity between two outstanding talents. […]
Dusty & Stones
The exciting pilgrimage of two country music worshippers from Swaziland (today’s Kingdom of Eswatini, east of South Africa) to the genre’s ancestral heart, Texas. An unexpected invitation to an international country artist contest gives cousins Dusty and Stones the opportunity to live out their dream. A road trip that they will push to the limit […]
Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story
Passionate praise of the band started by ‘freak brothers’ Jeff and Steve McDonald –one of the most unique and influential American rock bands of the past four decades. A colorful and chirpy clusterf*ck of garage punk, glam, power pop, metal, candor, bullheadedness and wild adventures. A genre unto itself, and unto which, members of Sonic […]
Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall
A unique opportunity to enjoy on the big screen one of the two concerts that Creedence gave in April 1970 at London’s most iconic venue and in peak form. The live recording, the first by the original line-up to be released in its entirety, is accompanied by a bonanza of previously unreleased archival footage of […]
This Is National Wake
Thought The Clash were rebels? Discover the beautiful and tragic story of the punk-rock band that defied the fascist apartheid regime in South Africa. National Wake was a multi-racial band that risked everything at a time when blacks and whites were forbidden by law to play, let alone live together. The documentary includes Super 8 […]
The Computer Accent
Can artificial intelligence touch our souls? Electronic art-pop trio Yacht embarks on the adventure of making an album using software that, from the analysis of lyrics and music of their songs (and those of their favorite bands), generates songs… that are a tad weird. The experiment, as fascinating as it is disconcerting, raises all kinds […]
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes
The discovery of a treasure trove of unreleased tapes from the golden age of reggae is the starting point for this story of the Chins, the Chinese-born family who in the late 1950s set up Studio 17, a shop/label/social club in downtown Kingston that would be crucial to the country’s post-independence music revolution. The music […]
Sirens
Lilas and Shery, co-founding guitarists of the first all-female metal band in the Middle East, Slave to Sirens, star in this tender, moving and electrifying story of friendship, love and resilience. The longing for a better future and for sexual freedom is brought to life with thrash metal riffs in the tumultuous social reality of […]
Omara
To mark the 25th anniversary of the legendary album “Buena Vista Social Club”, this close tribute to the bolero and son singer Omara Portuondo was filmed. Unprecedented access to the “bride of feeling” in which the 90-year-old diva celebrates, with unmistakable grace and elegance, seven decades as a promoter of Afro-Cuban music. Omara Portuondo will […]
Music Pictures: New Orleans
Four beautiful and endearing portraits of artists who embody the musical history treasured by the city of New Orleans. Already in their eighties, Irma Thomas (“Queen of New Orleans soul”), bluesman Little Freddie King, Benny Jones Sr. and his Tremé Brass Band, and pianist Ellis Marsalis (patriarch of the Marsalis jazz saga) with his son […]
La danza de los mirlos
A trip to the psychedelic heart of Latin America by Jorge Rodríguez, leader of one of the most hailed bands of Amazonian cumbia: Los Mirlos. Together with other Peruvian bands such as Los Destellos, Juaneco y su Combo and Manzanita y su Conjunto, they gave shape to the tropical “chichadelia”, an irresistible combination of cumbia, […]
In The Court of The Crimson King: King Crimson at 50
What was meant to be a simple feature on prog rock band King Crimson’s 50th anniversary tour turns into a fascinating digression in which frontman Robert Fripp and his acolytes philosophize, ironize and lash out at life, death, friendship, self-imposed demands and the ultimate sacrifices in the pursuit of an artistic vision.
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
There are songs that seem to refocus a whole life. The thousand and one interpretations (religious, secular, sexual) of “Hallelujah” articulate this review of Leonard Cohen’s biography. They speak to us of sweat, failure, love, desire, ecstasy, suffering, insecurities, spiritual quest, Jewish identity… and how a song scorned in the offices ended up becoming nothing […]
CAN and Me
An intimate and poetic portrait of Irmin Schmidt, founder of CAN, one of the crucial and most influential groups of the Krautrock movement that emerged in Germany in the late 1960s. A kaleidoscope of concerts and dozens of films and operas for which he has made music envelope an interview exploring how he reinvented himself […]