Come in under the Big Top for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Cirque du Soleil's ninth creation, which critics have described as "the most dramatic, the most esthetic and perhaps the most melancholy show in the history of this marvelous circus" (La Presse, Montreal). Full Circle shows you the making of Quidam, from its very beginnings to its triumphant finish.
A vivid, behind-the-scenes look at the Big Top, the Greatest Show on Earth as presented by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Seen from the performers’ point of view, Circus World is a wonderfully human look at the tensions and harmony of families living in a circus environment, complete with The Flying Gaonas, exhilarating highwire acts, clowns, and the amazing feats of Gunther Gebel-Williams, the famous wild-animal trainer. "Circus World" was shown exclusively at the 600-seat IMAX theater at the Circus World theme park in Central Florida.
An examination of bodies, movement and the stillness of landscape brought to you by the entrancing Circus Debre Berhan.
Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four men, each driven to create eccentric worlds from their unique obsessions, all of which involve animals. There’s a lion tamer who shares his theories on the mental processes of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man fascinated with hairless mole rats; and an MIT scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs.
Footage from the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film 'The Circus'.
In 2020, the World was closed. Life got cancelled. People were struggling. Here’s an emotional and entertaining true story shot live, during the pandemic, about courageous people who came together, despite the risk, to share their love with one another. The film opens in Times Square on NYE 2020. Everything seemed right with the World. Fast-forward six months into the pandemic, hundreds of artists from all different performance art genres are invited to come together over the course of several consecutive days, culminating in a group costume parade event on 10/10/2020 to witness the only live performances happening ANYWHERE. The goal was to lift each other's spirits during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. There were over a dozen genres represented including acrobatics, live music, magic, dance, and even a wedding. Dozens of unscripted live interviews were recorded and the event proved a huge success. The film captures the rawness of what it was like living during this unprecedented time.
The unusual talents of Johnny Price, a minor league baseball pitcher and trick artist, are showcased in this Pete Smith Specialty. Among other talents, Mr. Price can throw two (and, in certain situations three) baseballs simultaneously to different people. The catchers can be side by side, with one high and one low, or standing on the pitcher's mound and second base while Price throws the ball from the catcher's position. He can even perform these feats while suspended upside-down.
A scientist explains how the savagery and efficiency of the insect world could result in their taking over the world.
One man, one camera, one goal...to capture the essence of adventure. An experimental, often abstract new type of filmmaking process creating color rich visuals combined with a lush soundtrack that grounds the project. A unique cinematic experience.
Madrid, Spain, 1949. The Circo Americano arrives in the city. While the big top is pitched in a vacant lot, the troupe parades through the grand avenues: the band, a witty impersonator, the Balodys, acrobats, jugglers, acrobatic skaters, clowns and… Buffallo Bill.
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
Once a year, people from different marginalized communities meet together in the woods to delve into the art of circus and have this discipline become a common way to express themselves, away from the city.
Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, this four-hour mini-series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country.
An Austrian director followed five successful African music and dance artists with his camera and followed their lives for a year. The artists, from villages in Ghana, Gambia and Congo, were the subjects of Africa! Africa! touring across Europe, but they have unbreakable roots to their homeland and their families. Schmiderer lovingly portrays his heroes, who tell their stories about themselves, their art and what it means to them to be African with captivating honesty. The interviews are interwoven with dance scenes and colourful vignettes set to authentic music.
Ulrike and Olli meet in 1985 while on tour with Circus Roncalli. He is living his childhood dream as part of the successful clown duo 'Illi & Olli'. She has recently left her life as a nurse in Berlin behind. When the season is over, she moves with him to Switzerland. What began as a circus fairy tale eventually becomes reality, amid creative crises, raising children, and ultimately growing older.
This documentary highlights the evolution of Brazil's Circo Voador venue from homespun artists' performance space to national cultural institution.
A young girl has already seen everything there is to see and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her world and she finds herself in the universe of QUIDAM, where she is joined by a playful companion, as well as another mysterious character who attempts to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling and the terrifying.
Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth - it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.
From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.
Corteo, which means "cortege" in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.