It Was All a Dream
A precious, raw, unfiltered time capsule from 1993-1995, when hip hop stormed the mainstream. Notorious B.I.G. records ‘Ready to Die’, the East Coast’s answer to Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’, which in turn fathered Snoop Dogg’s ‘Doggystyle’; Cypress Hill listens to ‘Enter the Wu-Tang’ the same week as A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Midnight Marauders’ is released; […]
Dory Previn: On My Way To Where
A mind-bending journey into the depths of 70s cult singer-songwriter Dory Previn’s mind. Interweaving her personal diary, insightful interviews, scenes from her glittering career as a lyricist for Hollywood productions and stars like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Barbra Streisand, as well as animated sequences featuring the “characters” that populated her mind, the film reveals […]
ZEF – The Story of Die Antwoord
The raw and hallucinatory account of the adventures of South African rap-rave band Die Antwoord and the unlikely global success of Yolandi Visser and Ninja’s life project. The film stands as another piece of their striking and provocative visual universe, crafted by photographer Roger Ballen, who shapes their aesthetic connection with the “zef” subculture and […]
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
This hilarious and heartwarming portrait of cult musician Swamp Dogg is a joyful celebration of limitless creative freedom at any age. The eccentric artist, with a 70-year career marked by his psychedelic blend of R&B, funk, country, and disco, shares his life with equally unique musicians like Guitar Shorty and MoogStar in a house in […]
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
A monumental and innovative history lesson set to the rhythm of jazz, exploring the social upheavals of the 1960s, the Cold War, the decolonization of Africa, and how the CIA and the Belgian monarchy orchestrated the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo, using legendary jazz musicians as a distraction. The political […]
S/He Is Still Her/e – The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary
A brilliant and magnetic synthesis of the life, work, and worldview of Genesis P-Orridge. From the radical performance art of the COUM Transmissions collective and the industrial music of Throbbing Gristle, to the esoteric-sexual cult of Psychic TV, and connections with countercultural figures like William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, and Brion Gysin, culminating in the Pandroginia […]
Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird
“If this ever gets weird, promise me we can just stop, as nothing is more important than loving you.” The personal and creative relationship between Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler Zavala—core members of prominent post-hardcore and alternative rock bands like At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta—is so intense, it’s almost obsessive. With a spectacular […]
Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis
In his debut feature-length documentary, Anton Corbijn serves up the captivating tale of friends Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell, a dynamic duo who birthed the innovative studio Hipgnosis. Together, they reigned supreme and pushed the boundaries of album cover artistry for legendary acts like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, UFO, 10cc, Paul McCartney, […]
Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story
A tumultuous life and passionate personality take centre stage in this film about Eugene Hütz, frontman of the ‘gypsy punk’ band Gogol Bordello. Delving into both political and musical aspects, we witness how the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Soviet authoritarianism compelled him to emigrate to New York and rapidly establish a Balkan music group. The […]
Peter Doherty: Stranger In My Own Skin
Over a decade’s worth of footage shot at home and on tour by his filmmaker partner Katia deVidas compose the starkly intimate portrait of the frontman of The Libertines and Babyshambles. Peter Doherty was the most iconic voice of British indie-rock in the 2000s. Revealed by an artist who “only knew how to live inside […]
Pianoforte
A tender and elegantly intense backstage portrait of the Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition, that has been held in Warsaw since 1927. Before, during and after the event, the camera follows a handful of young pianists competing in the “Piano Olympics”, entering a world of extreme discipline, passion, anguish, ritual and mental strength. Their lives […]
North Circular. A Music Trip Through Dublin’s North Inner City.
Dive deep into the heart of the district that has long been the dividing line between central Dublin and the working-class neighborhoods to the north. Authentic voices from the past paint a vivid picture of weavers, sailors, dockworkers, soldiers, marginalization, and internment, all set against the backdrop of a modern-day transformation marked by unrelenting gentrification […]
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
The epic and tumultuous musical and personal journey of towering 20th-century artist – Afro-American drummer and activist Max Roach. His role in the jazz revolutions of the 1940s and 1950s alongside luminaries like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Clifford Brown, his forays into the avant-garde and hip-hop experiments, his battles with personal demons, […]
Even Hell Has Its Heroes. The Music of Earth
The story of Earth – the all-consuming musical project of ‘enlightened redneck’ Dylan Carlson, and how it went from being “the slowest metal band on the planet” at the height of the grunge boom to a cornerstone of minimalist, otherworldly Americana. Radically faithful to the spirit of the band, the film leads us on a […]
8 Bar: The Evolution of Grime
Frantically narrated by its main stars, this film tells the story of the 20+ intense years of an electronic music style interwoven with genuine elements of London hip-hop. It delves into the vibrant sound system scene, pirate radio, self-publishing, MC battles documented on DVD, clandestine gatherings, government harassment, and the turbulent yet unstoppable influence it […]
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Rock and roll architect, queer icon, apocalyptic preacher, bible salesman, dishwasher, wild pianist, and visceral, lascivious singer whose influence rumbles throughout the rock music that survived him. All of this and more was Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard. Friends, relatives, lovers, inspired celebrities and explosive archive footage of concerts and interviews deliver a […]
Music For Black Pigeons
A close, reflective and impressionistic look at living by and for music. Over the course of 14 years, the camera absorbs Danish guitarist and composer Jakob Bro’s encounters with an exceptional line-up of jazz musicians. Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, Midori Takada, Paul Motian, Jon Christensen, Thomas Morgan and Joe Lovano, among others, keep our curiosity […]
u.Q.
One of the hidden gems of this year’s festival is this hypnotic docudrama about Marju and Uku Kuut, Estonian mother and son, and their delirious journey from her stint as a national jazz-pop star in the Soviet era to their lives in Sweden and California making torrid synthetic funk songs together. The KGB, eccentricity a […]
Miúcha, the Voice of Bossa Nova
The most hushed history of bossa nova. Miúcha’s letters, paintings and private recordings reconstruct the life of the only singer who worked, often in the shadows, with giants such as Vinicius de Moraes, Tom Jobim, and her ex-husband Joao Gilberto. The reasons for her longing for freedom, her progressive feminist consciousness and the “sad joy” […]
Love, Deutschmarks and Death
The vivid story of the ethnic Turkish community in Germany and how music has reflected their lives and shaped their identity since they arrived in the country in the early 1960s as cheap labor: from the protest songs circulating on cassette tapes to the outlawed ‘Anatolian rock’ of Cem Karaca, and from Derdiyoklar’s psychedelic “disko […]
Licht: Stockhausen’s Legacy
Megalomania, mysticism and genius ahead of its time. The first full performance of the colossal operatic cycle “Licht” (29 hours spread over 7 days) by German composer and electronic pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen reveals, through brutally honest testimony of members of his extended family, the obsessive worldview and complex personal life of “Papa Techno”. Monumental and […]
Look At Me: XXXTENTACION
Brutally honest portrait of Jahseh Onfroy, the Florida teenager who became the “SoundCloud rap” megastar XXXTentacion and whose murder marked his generation. Unreleased footage and candid close-up testimony in a chronicle of marginality, violence, bipolarity, opioids and raw, unstoppable talent.
I Get Knocked Down
The former singer of Chumbawamba is in his sixties, feeling like a retired radical, invisible, filled with rage and frustration. It will take courage and surreal humour to pull himself together, make peace with his past as an anarcho-punk infiltrator in mainstream pop and face a stalker with a baby mask.
DIO: Dreamers Never Die
Thrilling account of more than half a century of Ronnie James Dio’s career, the great little dreamer who introduced the “horned hand” and possessed one of the most powerful, mourned voices in metal. From trumpet player to 50’s R’n’R, from ELF and Rainbow hard rock to Black Sabbath and DIO heavy metal. More epic than […]
Anonymous Club
How do I handle success if I want to be alone? Why do I sing? To impress someone? For revenge? What is my place as an artist? The existential dilemmas of Australian indie-rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, captured over three years in her audio diary and in this raw, sincere, beautiful portrait.