The story behind the “American Pie” album featuring all new interviews with Don McLean, the producer Ed Freeman and musicians involved in making the record.
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
Lana Del Rey represents the next generation of diverse performers. Her impeccable voice, great music, and youthful beauty has sold over 5 million albums worldwide. However Rey's success is no coincidence. This is the story of how a young girl from New York City turned her dream into reality.
Boogie Man is a comprehensive look at political strategist, racist, and former Republican National Convention Committee chairman, Lee Atwater, who reinvigorated the Republican Party’s Southern Strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. He mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush and played a key role in the elections of Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Blind blues musician Paul Pena is perhaps best known for his song "Jet Airliner". In 1993, Pena heard Tuvan throat singing over his shortwave radio and subsequently taught himself how to reproduce these extraordinary sounds. This documentary follows him to Tuva, where he takes part in a throat singing competition. Languages featured in the film include English, Russian and Tuvan.
Following folk musician Joan Baez on her extensive 2008-2009 tour, this film commemorates her career, which has spanned five decades. It includes concert and archival footage as well as interviews with such disparate colleagues, friends and admirers as Bob Dylan, Jesse Jackson and David Crosby. In addition to the music, it also touchs upon Baez's long history of global social activism.
The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.
On July 7, 2019, they celebrated their sixth consecutive year of sold-out concerts at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, the world’s only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater, located just outside of Denver. Over 9,000 fans danced, sang and cheered — it was the perfect way to spend a warm summer evening. This special features performances of “Live and Die,” “Down with the Shine,” “Head Full of Doubt,” “High Steppin,'” “Ain’t No Man,” “Laundry Room” and more.
In the late 1960s, a group of North London musicians shook traditional English folk music to its roots by fusing it with rock - simultaneously outraging the purists and delighting a new and devoted audience. Through new interviews with the band including Richard Thompson, the film examines how the group survived tragedy when their drummer was killed in a car crash early in their career, followed by the tragic death of lead vocalist Sandy Denny; and how they overcame numerous line-up changes to continually reinvent themselves by discovering and recruiting some of the finest virtuosos in the country.
Cerebral Palsy Blues
Fifty years later, and he's still rattlin' the Devil's cage. Charlie Louvin can walk through a crowded mall and not attract attention. But it shouldn't be that way; the humble 83-year-old musician in the cowboy hat and jeans is a true American hero. To start, 50 years ago he and his brother recorded "Satan is Real," an album that shook up the music business. And the life he lived thereafter was pretty radical, too, from his military service to his country to his 61-year marriage to his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry. On Friday, December 3, 2010 at the fooBAR in Nashville, we caught Charlie Louvin on stage, making music for his fans, celebrating the anniversary of that famous album. And we filmed the night for history's sake. This is the tribute he so richly deserves.
Our crime documentary delves into the case of the Suffolk Strangler, who terrorized Ipswich, Suffolk by targeting sex workers and brutally murdering five women between October and December 2006. We take an extensive look into how police finally captured the killer by exploring the details of the case from start to finish. We believe this documentary will provide new insight into this notorious criminal case.
The story of James Cotton, harmonica powerhouse, whose music shaped blues and rock. Orphaned at 9, Cotton’s life tracks America’s history—from the post-depression cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to being mentored by the original Delta bluesmen, to Chicagoland’s artistic reinvention to the live music scene in Austin, Texas.
Jóh do Forró - De Lá Pra Cá
‘Get Better – A Film About Frank Turner’ was directed by friend Ben Morse, and follows Frank Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls for a year on the road, but the band swiftly came off the road – and Frank came off the rails before recovery.
"Philip Priestley's acclaimed film charts the history of Stax Records, the influential soul and blues record company founded in the 1960s by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Featuring music by an impressive roster of stars, including Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Carla Thomas, The Soul of Stax chronicles the performers' rise through the industry and popular culture, the role played by many of them in the Civil Rights movement, and the label's eventual decline." - bfi.org.uk
The life and times of the most original American singer/ songwriter of the last 50 years.
A portrait of Randy Newman, the American singer-songwriter, arranger and composer known for his Southern-affected singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and various film scores. He has been a professional songwriter since he was 17. He cites Ray Charles as his greatest influence growing up, stating, "I loved Charles' music to excess.
A thorough look at the 90's Turkish rock scene, one legendary stage band and its two members: Kerim Capli and Yavuz Cetin... An inquiry of their existential battles with the society, the industry and their own minds.
This Bruce Hornsby documentary charts Bruce's life and career - his early years in Virginia and L.A. through The Way It Is, the Range, the Grateful Dead to the Noisemakers and the present day.