When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.
Chul, Seop, and Deok-kyu are desperate for just one performance, but even being on a club stage is hard. Im-jae, the freewheeling leader of the band always disappears. Deok-kyu who makes a living with rap wants to play only the blues, but people no longer listen to it. Near the end of the year, they go for a live club audition yearning for a chance. While enjoying their different performances, we meet the diverse realities those musicians face.
Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, capacity 85, and wowed the small, packed crowd with a searing, acoustic set of songs from Back to Black. After leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy spoke about her music and influences - Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and the Shangri-Las to name a few. Arena joined forces with Other Voices and went to Dingle to catch up with some of the people that Amy met on that day, including taxi driver Paddy Kennedy, her bass player Dale Davis and Rev Mairt Hanley of the Other Voices church. This film showcases not only Amy herself, but the musical geniuses that inspired her to forge her own jazz pop style.
A documentary short catching up with John Halsey a.k.a. Barry Wom of The Rutles
It started with a writing camp and a banana... and became a phenomenon that captivated Eurovision fans across the world. But who could possibly be behind the masks? Worst Kept Secret tells the story of Subwoolfer - Norway's iconic Eurovision entry in 2022 and the first ever anonymous yellow wolves from space to grace the Eurovision Song Contest stage. Finally the identities of Jim and Keith have been revealed... but not everything was always as it seemed.
A film written and directed by Jeremy Deller which explores the social history of the UK between 1985 and 1993 through the lens of acid house and rave music. The film is based on a real-life lecture given to a class of students in London.
In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.
Violinist and songwriter Kishi Bashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.
'dust: the road to where?' is a documentary uncovering the recent success of the band dust, based in Newcastle, NSW. Viewing the ups and downs of the band and their outlook on the newly announced European tour.
The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.
Set in the frozen steppes of Mongolia, a young nomad is confronted with his destiny after animals fall victim to a plague which threatens to eradicate nomadism.
An investigation of government censorship in Iran.
Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.
A documentary on the precarious lives of the koolbari, who carry goods on foot across the mountainous borders from Iran's northwestern Kurdish region.
The inspiring true story of a pastor and his family building a new church and an afflicted carpenter who becomes their unlikely source of hope, proving that faith in God is the true path to redemption, even in the most tragic circumstances.
The story of the first cloned human being - told in her own words: At the age of thirty the world-famous composer Iris Sellin learns that she has an incurable illness. She - a person who wanted to live for ever - does however not give in. In order to preserve her art and also herself, beyond death, for all posterity, she has herself cloned. Her daughter Siri, whom, in this way, she turns into her virtual twin, learns as a child that she is the world's first cloned human being. In fact a blueprint: a blueprint of her mother. From that moment on nothing is as it was before...
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
Two-part documentary about the life of Elvis Presley featuring interviews with his ex-wife Priscilla Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, childhood friend Red West and musicians Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson.
A satirical take on the mundane absurdities of life in modern-day Iran, these nine vignettes illuminate the lighter side of enduring under authoritarian rule. Whether choosing a name for a newborn, graduating from grade school, getting a driver’s license, applying for a job, or seeking approval for a film script, if you live in Iran, you best come fluent in Orwellian discourse. Progressing along a rough timeline from birth to death, each story is shot in a static camera angle as a single petitioner negotiates with an authority figure hovering just outside of frame, who is practiced in the language of doublespeak.