The Record Dealer

A symbol of nostalgia for some, authentic object of art for others, the 33 rpm record is gaining in popularity. Even if it was pushed aside in 1990 by the compact disc, it’s now attracting a new generation of music lovers.

IT CAME FROM AQUARIUS RECORDS tells the story about the San Francisco based independent record store, Aquarius Records. Having closed in 2016 after 47 years, this small apartment-sized store championed local, underground, independent, and challenging music to the masses - most memorably with their infamous bi-weekly, college essay-length, new-release lists. Six years in the making, interviewing collectors, musicians, and store owners, the film has a very personal angle, with lots of behind-the-scenes footage (and drama) that shows both the joy and excruciating stress that comes with running — and closing — a store like this, helped in no part by the changing city around them.

Chris Wilcha helped adapt This American Life to television. His new documentary embodies the spirit of that show as he tries to save a New Jersey record store, in this comic yet deeply moving reflection on opportunities lost and gained.

The vinyl record renaissance over the past decade has brought new fans to a classic format and transformed our idea of a record collector: younger, both male and female, multicultural. This same revival has made buying music more expensive, benefited established bands over independent artists and muddled the question of whether vinyl actually sounds better than other formats. Vinyl Nation digs into the crates of the record resurgence in search of truths set in deep wax: Has the return of vinyl made music fandom more inclusive or divided? What does vinyl say about our past here in the present? How has the second life of vinyl changed how we hear music and how we listen to each other?

Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller unleashes I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE, "an elegy for a vanishing subculture...a lively, bittersweet film that examines - with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection - why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade," (Johnathan Perry, Boston Globe). A tour-de-force tale of greed, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, downloading, and technological shifts in the music industry told through candid interviews, crestfallen record store owners, startling statistics, and eye-popping animation. Fat cats or our favorite record stores? You decide. Featuring- IAN MACKAYE, NOAM CHOMSKY, MIKE WATT, THURSTON MOORE, LENNY KAYE (Patti Smith), CHRIS FRANTZ (Talking Heads), GLENN BRANCA, PATTERSON HOOD (Drive By Truckers), PAT CARNEY (Black Keys) , LEGS MCNEIL, BOB GRUEN, BP HELIUM, and many indie record stores across the U.S.

The film is about the vinyl record culture and presents a panel of stories, searches, collecting, in various locations in Rio de Janeiro.

Cold War Leningrad: In a culture where the recording industry was ruthlessly controlled by the state, music lovers discovered an extraordinary alternative means of reproduction: they repurposed used x-ray film as the base for records of forbidden songs. Giving blood every week to earn enough money to buy a recording lathe, one bootlegger Rudy Fuchs cuts banned music onto such discarded x-rays to be sold on street corners by shady dealers. It was ultimate act of punk resistance, a two-fingered salute to the repressive regime that gave a generation of young Soviets access to forbidden Western and Russian music, an act for which Rudy and his fellow bootleggers would pay a heavy price.

A portrait of the last surviving vinyl record shop in Teesside, North East England, at a time when independent record shops were closing in the UK at a rate of one every three days. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, the North and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives. High Fidelity with a Northern Accent.

RPM music is a small shop in the centre of Newcastle selling vinyl records. Founded by former students, the shop has become a place for people with love of music to come, browse, chat and share their stories. These are some of them.

Vinyl

For the past year or so, brothers Jim and Steve Peters, both ordained ministers, have been traveling around the nation on a mission from God. Convinced that rock and roll is "one of the largest satanic forces in the country," they have been exhorting American kids to build bonfires of albums in public places.

Finding the Funk is a road trip in search of the past, present and future of Funk music. Starting with Funk's roots in Jazz and the James Brown bands of the '60s we travel to the Bay Area to celebrate Sly & the Family Stone, then to Dayton the birthplace of so many of Funk's originators, then onto Detroit where from the ashes of Motown, P-Funk's Mothership arose, and then to LA where a new crop of musicians are creating their own Funk history. On our journey into Funk, we talk to legends Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, and Steve Arrington and their descendants Mike D, D'Angelo, Sheila E, Shock G and Sade's Stuart Matthewman. Narrated by Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson of the Roots.

An exploration into the benefits of music in uk youth culture. Understanding the comfort it can provide.

A documentary that follows a middle-aged Azorean record obsessive who has lost the vinyl collection of his youth, and so seeks to reconnect with it through talking with the fellow island collectors he grew up with about the music scene of their wilder years.

Brick and Mortar and Love follows the story of ear X-tacy Records, the legendary record store in Louisville, Kentucky, as it struggles to survive in the changing music retail industry. In-depth interviews include owner John Timmons, staff at ear X-tacy, leaders in the record store industry and scores of independent record store owners from all over the US. These interviews look into the state of the independent record store, what services they provide and what is at stake if they disappear. Independent record stores are not just the place to buy a CD, they are cultural centers where music is learned, art is cultivated and they are vitally important to the communities that they serve.

Documentary glimpses from Alt & Neu (Teuchtler) record store, where love for cinema and music unite vinyl collectors and tourists in the 6th district of Vienna. 30 years after the release of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, the family-owned business remains one of the movie's most visited locations. The Teuchtler family shares how they feel about it — and reflects on the legacy of that one Trilogy scene.

In the conservative city of Munich, a local punk starts a record store. Inspiringly, the shop becomes a cultural hub for the worldwide punk community. BLACK WAVE is an intimate look at a resilient music scene set against the backdrop of today’s explosive politics.

A documentary film in which a rock fan shows off his obsession and his memorabilia.

Ron opens a vinyl record shop in his hometown, attracting a community of music lovers and collectors. As the shop grows, he plans to expand and compete with bigger businesses, he discovers there's more to selling records than just retail.

Ahto, armed with encyclopaedic knowledge and unbound love for obscure music, embarks on a journey to find the rarest vinyl records of the Soviet era.