Escapes blazes a path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. Fancher recounts episodes from his life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.
The Compleat Al is a mockumentary about the life of "Weird Al" Yankovic, the Grammy® award-winning master of musical parody and rock-and-roll comedy, from his birth to 1985. Although a mockumentary, it is roughly based on Yankovic's real life, beginning with his childhood years, his high school and college days, and up through his early-career rise to stardom. This semi-concocted chronicle also contains classic moments from AL-TV, footage from his trip to Japan, and a somewhat embellished version of how he received permission from Michael Jackson for "Eat It". And to top it off, The Compleat Al contains eight "Weird Al" music video classics: "Ricky", "I Love Rocky Road", the award-winning "Eat It", "I Lost on Jeopardy", "This Is the Life", "Like a Surgeon", "One More Minute", and "Dare to Be Stupid"!
Some celebrate him as a sex symbol and the most interesting actor of our time. Envious people talk about his smooth face, his washboard stomach, and thus explain his fame. It is undisputed that Ryan Gosling is one of the most successful actors of our decade.
This Technicolor short features the songs of the great American popular composer Stephen Collins Foster. Based on Foster's memoirs.
Talented and enduring Academy Award-winning star, Gregory Peck, tells how it was when studios ruled and a shy boy from a broken family could rise to become a famous leading man. Unfashionably modest, Peck describes his fascinating journey from early theater roles, through his first films, to Hollywood’s elder statesman.
The daughter of jazz pianist Joe Albany witnesses her beloved father's struggle -- and failure -- to kick his heroin habit.
Comedian Harmonists tells the story of a famous, German male sextet, five vocals and piano, the "Comedian Harmonists", from the day they meet first in 1927 to the day in 1934, when they become banned by the upcoming Nazis, because three of them are Jewish.
Before Avicii, there was Tim. Through his own words, witness how a prodigious musical talent became one of the defining artists of his generation.
Merely Marvelous is a celebration of the art and life of Broadway's greatest dancing star, Gwen Verdon. She overcame many obstacles, including rickets, the Hollywood system, a loveless first marriage and a difficult second marriage to choreographer/director Bob Fosse, to become a multi-Tony Award-winning performer. Gwen's life is told through interviews with family members and theatre associates as well as a mine of rare footage from her Broadway and Hollywood careers. Merely Marvelous is the story of a brave woman who rose to the very top of her profession.
Lenka Dusilová is an extraordinary figure in the Czech music scene: an original composer, multi-instrumentalist, and unmistakable voice with over two decades of a distinguished solo career. Emerging as a wild rocker in early ’90s bands (Sluníčko, Lucie, Pusa), she gained widespread acclaim with her debut solo album “Lenka Dusilová” (2000), earning the first of many Singer of the Year awards. Brave and unpaved, she then charted her own path as an interpreter of her own songs, releasing solo albums such as “Spatřit světlo světa” (2002) and “Mezi světy” (2005). Over the years, Dusilová delved ever deeper into a unique personal expression, blending influences from diverse styles and life experiences on albums like “Eternal Seekers” (2008), “Baromantika” (2011), and “V hodině smrti” (2014).
Interviews and archival footage weave together to tell the story of the Master of Suspense, one of the most influential and studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.
Released from prison, former oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky expounds on his newfound freedom and complex relationship with Vladimir Putin.
Based on photographer William Yang's one man stage show, "Sadness" chronicles two diverging narratives through the use of slide photography, oral history and stylised recreation. One story follows Yang's pilgrimage into the heart of the North Queensland sugar cane fields as he investigates the murder of his uncle Fang Yuen. The other is a series of moving portraits of the many friends and lovers Yang has lost to AIDS. Director Tony Ayres skillfully weaves these two separate stories together creating a powerful testament to family, friends, love and loss. Cinematography by Tristan Milani. Narrated by William Yang.
The story of a family marked by tragedy gives rise to a reflection on memory, emotional ties, family secrets and the difficulty for new generations of knowing and accepting life events.
Dance and prostitution play the same role for Cristhian’s body. Virtuosity, desire, technique, and sex intertwine, granting coherence to a way of life that offers many answers to few questions. A leitmotiv that reconciles opposites and contradictions. Answers that are sometimes painful, like all truths.
The decisive years of Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimović, told through rare archive footage in which a young Zlatan speaks openly about his life and challenges. The film closely follows him, from his debut with the Malmö FF team in 1999 through his conflict-ridden years with Ajax Amsterdam, and up to his final breakthrough with Juventus in 2005.
This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.
From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.
It Doesn't Work
Curator Robert Storr takes us through the 2002 MoMA Gerhard Richter retrospective.