Illuminating the challenges often unseen beyond the toys, trees and tinsel, people in a small Irish village reflect on their difficult relationships with Christmas. "So This Is Christmas" is a heartwarming and charming portrait from award-winning director Ken Wardrop, which perfectly exemplies his innate ability to tell the stories of ordinary people, depicting their thoughts, feelings and experiences in an empathetic way. Beautifully rendered in 35mm, the film is authentic and compassionate, and a valuable addition to the Irish documentary canon.
The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself "an opera for beggars," and it was in fact an attempt both to satirize traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theater based on the theories of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bert Brecht. The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny's source, The Beggar's Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel's operas written by John Gay in 1728. In a brief prologue following the overture, a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womanizer Macheath, "Mack the Knife." The setting is a fair in Soho (London), just before Queen Victoria's coronation. In this production, Weill champion HK Gruber led the Ensemble Modern in a performance of Weill's complete original score, the first time it had been heard in Germany in many years. This production was broadcast on German television (3sat).
Providencia March of the Crabs
Udo Jürgens Forever
Through four nights of musical magic at Ullevi, Gothenburg, Håkan Hellström cemented himself as one of Sweden's greats last year. Edited together, this is a concert film of epic proportions and a musical euphoria.
Aus dem Takt
Merci Udo Jürgens
Urvertrauen - das Band zwischen Mensch und Hund
The K.I.Z concert at Splash! 2014.
The Listener
Ottobiography
The first omnibus film starring "BiSH", also known as “The punk band that doesn’t play any instruments”. A collaboration with six different directors to create a unique experience that reveals new aspects of "BiSH", from drama to arthouse.
For years now, the Kremlin has been systematically trying to use well-trained hackers for its own benefit. In exchange for freedom and protection, they do the dirty work of the state, interfering in other countries’ elections and penetrating government networks. Just how dangerous is Russia’s cyber army?
Don Letts's hilarious and colourful profile of the godfather of funk, whose 50-year career has defined the genre. From his 1950s days running a doo-wop group out of the back of his barber store, through the madness of the monster Parliament/Funkadelic machine of the 70s to his late 90s hip-hop collaborations with Dre and Snoop, George Clinton has inspired generations of imitators. Contributors include Outkast's Andre 3000 and Macy Gray.
After Jackie celebrates the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s integration into Major League Baseball. Robinson opened the door for other African Americans to join the league and this documentary taps into key people and events in the aftermath.
The film takes us into the nearly impassable Darkwoods in Canada, with its ecosystems of old growth valleys and alpine meadows. It's a wonderful part of British Columbia with unique flora and fauna. These remote mountain ranges are home to rare mountain caribou, endangered bats, grizzly bears, wolves, and unique birds.
A young filmmaker navigates her transition while living in an abusive household. Personal videos document several years of isolation as she says goodbye to old friends and welcomes new ones she meets online.
In the little Filipino village of Oslob, people suffer from the scourge of typhoons and overfishing. Things seem bleak for fisherman Zosimo and his family until the world's biggest shark, the whale shark, comes along and changes everything. One day, a tourist asks to join Zosimo on the boat to take photos of the sharks. Once the pictures appear on the Internet, the lives of Zosimo, his children, and all of those living in the region get turned upside down.
In "Mission Åsa-Nisse" filmmaker Anders Nordqvist explores the 60th anniversary film classic series Åsa-Nisse. Through old film clips, meetings with actors and artists and visits to filming locations - which are mostly located in a Stockholm suburb - we get a new perspective on Swedish film's quantitatively largest character.
For the first time ever, scientists have plunged into the mystical waters of Lake Titicaca in Peru. This team of fifteen international scientists and underwater archaeologists believes it will uncover remarkable traces of life from pre-Columbian times.