A Sonorous Melody

Originally performed in the unprecedented circumstances of 2020, Live At A Drive-In shows a band at the height of their potent creative vision and technical prowess. Under the summer stars, in a field surrounded by parked cars tuned into the broadcast dial, July Talk brought people together (but not too close!) at a time when impactful live music experiences were nearly impossible.

This short documentary serves as a portrait of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, one of Canada's most important painters. We meet him at the Bisley Rifle Range in Surrey, England, where he's literally shooting the Indian Act in a performance piece called "An Indian Shooting the Indian Act." It's in protest of the ongoing effects of the Act's legislation on Indigenous people. We then follow him back to Canada, for interviews with the artist and a closer look at his work.

Comme un rayon de soleil sur la peau

Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait explores the recurring themes in Bacon’s work, his influences and his life. The documentary is accompanied by a haunting score specially composed by Edwin Astley for the production.

An exploration of the creative process - its angst, its thrills, its purpose, and its methods.

SAMBANCESTRAL

Combining rare original archive footage, home movies and authored by 40 intimate interviews with friends and celebrity fans this feature length film charts Nat "King" Cole's battle with racist 50’s America to become a superstar. An intimate portrait, it’s filled with music and accompanied the release of the album of the same name.

Newfoundland painter Gerald Squires has referred to his portraits as "confrontations," though not intending the hostility that word can convey. This film shows a meeting between the artist and Edythe Goodridge, art curator and critic. Through a combination of Squires's reflections on his life and work and the good-natured banter of these two friends, an intimate portrait evolves of the artist and his subject.

Savannah-based artist Jerome Meadows reflects on his creative process and deep connection to his community through work confronting racial inequality and celebrating cultural resilience.

Follow the charming Aotearoa New Zealand singer-songwriter on a life-changing journey of self-exploration as he embraces his roots and creates his first album in te reo Māori.

Shaun Brown's journey in the band Failure 2 Conform.

Filmmaker Peter Sasowsky examines the life and work of artist Joe Davis

On December 10, 1998, Kamel Messaoudi died in a traffic accident at the age of 37, at the height of his fame. In the early 1990s, when Algiers chaâbi was struggling to renew itself and attract young people, Kamel, born on January 30, 1961 in Algiers, into a modest family, achieved great success with his first album, notably featuring Echema’a (the candle) and other tracks where he did not hesitate to shake up the old repertoire, adding his own words, closer to the reality of an Algeria then bereaved by the violence of the dark decade of the 90s, and composing melodies supported by instruments such as the acoustic guitar or the piano.

“Pat Pasloff is a strong artist within a strong tradition…She has transcended some of the angst of Abstract Expressionism, without descending into something that is bland or formulaic or potentially conceptual” – David Cohen Pat Pasloff (1928 – 2011) was an ambitious abstract expressionist painter who produced large scale, fresh, and vital bodies of work. Studying under pioneering artist William de Kooning, she was able to find her own path and grow from his influence. Her patterns and grids come alive with the materiality and physicality of her paintings. Watch as Pasloff describes her experiences painting, gaining an education in art, and as her visual language of emotion comes alive.

The Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky claimed, or has been credited with, the 'creation' of abstract art. At the core of this film is a dramatic recreation of Kandinsky's account of returning to his studio one dark evening, and being astonished by an unknown masterpiece of abstract art leaning against the easel - a picture which turned out to be one of his own landscapes fallen on its side. 'Now I knew for certain that the object spoiled my pictures.' While this film's narration does indeed emphasize the notion of an inspired breakthrough to Abstraction, the picture it conveys in more purely filmic ways is a rich and complex one.

Emil Nolde was a Nazi – and so what, asks contemporary German artist Daniel Richter. “It’s a moralistic debate. A debate, that mirrors the moralism and bigottery of a generation that seems to think, that the world is a moral playground.” Emil Nolde’s relationship to the Nazi-regime in the Third Reich has given rise to immense discussions within the last months. For decades the broader public had a picture of Nolde being one of the “entartete” artists as well as being prohibited painting by the Nazi-regime. Though this on the surface is true, it was the result of a great disappointment to Nolde. For years, he had strived to become “the” artist of the Thrid Reich, praising his own art as true, German, anti-French and anti-Jewish. Possible competitors within the German art world like Max Pechstein he actively denounced to the Nazi authorities.

Swingtij (Blue Notes & Higher Grounds)

Dusking is a project by the artist Lucy Wright—a newly invented tradition, conceived as the counterpart to the morris dancing that takes place on 1 May marking the arrival of summer. Taking place instead on 31 October, it invites participants—who join in remotely around the world—to ‘dance the sun down’ and honour the gifts of rest, reflection and replenishment associated with the darker months of the year. 'Mirie it is' is Lucy’s own contribution to this continuing tradition, a 3-part performance embodying each of the three stages of scientific twilight—civil, when the sun dips between 0 and 6 degrees below the horizon; nautical (when it’s below 12 degrees – and most stars can be seen with the naked eye) and astronomical, when just a little light is still left in the sky.

Scrappy documentary about a band that flew too close to the sun to make it really big. Albany, NY's Blotto rose from the ashes of the Star-Spangled Washboard Band and scored an unlikely hit with I Wanna Be A Lifeguard in the early 80's thanks in part to getting airplay on MTV when the network launched August 1, 1981. The film follows their struggles to land a major label deal despite huge success with touring and releasing their own EPs and Albums. First-time director Rob Lichter (aka Bert Blotto) puts together a funny, heart-felt portrait of the musical pranksters that is sometimes heartbreaking despite all the laughs.

Merging the artistry of a visual album with the depth of a documentary, Twa Double Doubles follows Scottish musicians Norman & Corrie as they return to Norman’s ancestral home—a remote island in the North Sea. Exploring themes of folklore, fatherhood, and the challenges of forging a career remotely, this 30-minute film offers a rich, intimate portrait of Shetlandic culture, capturing its beauty, history, and enduring mysteries.